Vacation - Day 5 SLC

Outside Temple Square in SLC

On our fifth day, we headed from ID down to UT. Our first stop was to Temple Square in downtown. We toured the conference center, saw the organist practice and walked around the visitor center.

Inside the Conference Center

After that we headed over to Heritage Park by Emmigration Canyon. What a fun place. I wish we had known how fun it was, because we would have got there a couple of hours sooner to do everything!! The park has a lot of original homestead and replications of how Salt Lake Valley was when the pioneers lived there. The girls had fun participating in various pioneer activities and chores. We also were blessed to have the Evans family (previously lived in PA) join us for the fun.

Julia and Eliza tanning some leather

Eliza hanging her hand washed clothes

The Evans in front of the "This is the Place" monument

Posing in the Print Shop

After our venture in Heritage Park, we headed down to Alpine to enjoy dinner and playtime with the Nitz family (also formerly of PA). The girls had a blast running around the yard with their four children. Eliza and Aislyn were so cute playing Polly Pockets in the bedroom closet. The adults were definitely not allowed to enter their space. It was so much fun to catch up on old times. Thank you Nitz for everything.

Vacation - Day 4 YELLOWSTONE

Is this why they call it Yellowstone??

Monday, we headed over to Yellowstone and enjoyed so much beauty. The pictures will speak for themselves. I just wish we had another day there to see it all.

Eliza in front of Old Faithful

View from Upper Falls

Bison in the fields

Hot chicks at the hot pots

Our family tree

Vacation - Day 3

After church we headed out to Craters of the Moon National Park in central Idaho. The park is what was left from a lava flow that happened thousands of years before. Despite the lack of shade, the day was beautiful and we were able to appreciate a very unique landscape.

At the end of the day, the Crooks had to head back to Oregon. We are so glad they could make the trip over!


On our way back to ID Falls, we stopped at the falls and enjoyed the view.

Vacation Day 2 - July 4th

Ezra and his dad at the parade

We spent the morning at the town parade with the girls and little Ezra. After an hour we headed out to Ririe Resevoir to go tubing and jet skiing. The girls always love the thrill of tubing and are much better than I am at holding on. Eliza got a little war wound on her arm when the ropes crossed, but didn't let that slow her down. After a few hours we headed back to the house for a barbeque, games and firework viewing from the deck.

Vacation out West - Day 1

Bev's house in ID

Cerena, Julia, Mybree and her boyfriend, Michelle

We flew out at 7 am to have a mini family reunion in ID Falls for the 4th of July. The girls and I flew direct to SLC and then drove the 3 hours. Austin flew standby to save us $450, but when he got stuck in Phoenix for 12 hours maybe wasn't as excited for the savings. Friday night we played games and caught up on old times. There were 26 people total who came: our family, sister Michelle's family, sister Bev's family (Sean's family, Jared's family, Kevin, Jacob, Araby) as well as niece Mybree, her boyfriend and nephew Adam from BYU. Bev's house has a lot of room, so we were all able to fit and are so thankful for her fabulous hosting!!

Bev's grandkids: Channing, Ezra, Taryn, and Mylee

Where did June go?

Looking back at my blog, I realized there were so many things that happened in June that I didn't even comment on.

Julia ended her school year with a bang! She seemed to have endless field trips--she went to Hershey Park twice with band and her gifted class. She also went to Sandy Hill recreation area and Gettysburg with her 8th grade class . Lucky duck. (I wasn't so lucky, because I had to foot the bill :( ) Julia also received many awards at the Award Ceremony for band, choir, honor roll, perfect attendance, and the Presidential Award for Educational Excellence. She also came in second in the school poetry slam and won a gift card to Barnes and Noble--woo hoo! I'm so proud of all her hard work this year with ALL the things she was involved in.

Anna was mostly busy with friend parties and appointments. The highlights of her month though were definitely going to our church's temple for the first time and also going to a week long overnight church camp with her sister. They LOVED both experiences. Anna did perfectly fine at camp and has lots of fun memories. I can't believe I have another young woman in my home.

The "quarters" at Girls Camp

Eliza spent her month of June going to friends homes, having lots of school parties and getting a lot of one-on-one mom time while her sisters were at camp. She also got to spend a day with her cousin Christie who moved here the end of June to Philadelphia.

Mom and Dad just spent the month, chauffering them to all their events. But we did have our own fun in the midst of it all. Besides our getaway trip, we also were able to go with some friends to enjoy the comedian Brian Regan. He was very clean and hilarious. A rare combination nowadays. Google him online if you want a good laugh. His most famous act is the "Epitome of Hyperbole". We also were able to participate in the eternal marriage and sealing of the Cruz family. It was so sweet and we enjoyed celebrating this day with them. It was quite the chaotic day though. My niece was moving in to her apartment that day, the girls were returning from Girl's Camp, and we hosted a six hour fiesta in the midst of it all. A very long day, but a very good one.

Alex, Cristina, Eulogio, and Cristian Cruz at the temple

Our backyard fiesta

15th Anniversary

Our official anniversary was May 26th, but it wasn't until this weekend that we were able to get away to celebrate. This year, Austin was actually able to surprise me. I knew we were going away, but didn't know where. We ended up in New Hope PA at a bed & breakfast, "The Lexington House".


The first night, it was raining pretty hard, so we just hung out and watched a movie. The next morning we headed out early to see the Mercer Museum and Fonthill. These were two places built by Henry Mercer that are absolutely incredible. I had no idea these places existed. Fonthill was his home that was built to replicate the German style castles, but contained tile work from all over the world. Both buildings were made of solid concrete, because of his fear of anything being destroyed by fire. The museum reminded me a lot of my dad's house. Paintings everywhere and thousands of things hanging from the ceiling.


After the museums, we headed over to the Delaware River and went tubing for a couple of hours. The water was cold, but the weather was perfect. This morning, though, I woke up with very stiff shoulders from hand paddling.

After we cleaned up from tubing, it was off to dinner and a walk around New Hope. Dinner was good, but the town of New Hope wasn't my favorite. Very crowded with tourists and not that much to see if you don't drink. We decided to head back to the Doylestown side where things are much calmer and beautiful. I really enjoyed seeing this part of PA. There were so many gorgeous mansions and homes from the country's first settlers. The inn we stayed in dated back to the 1700's. Also, many thanks to my husband who did all the planning this time.