Instagram v.29

1:: Handsome Linky
2:: Papa's circus act
3:: "Where to boys?" After many hours in her carseat Gracie took over the wheel at a gas station,
4:: Multnomah Falls
5:: Grace loves Tillamook ice cream, and cheese, and fudge.
6:: The Baby Loaf
7:: We learned all about cheese-it starts with the cows.
8:: Sometimes when you want cookies you have to take matters into your own hands.
9:: Craft fail.

Bentley Warbucks

Lincoln must get the winter blues too, because he's been begging to go on a vacation. Any vacation will do--he just wants out! "I wanna go on a vacation..." (I laugh when he says this because the kid's whole life has been a vacation. Arizona, Oregon Coast, Disneyland, the Mid-West, Lake Tahoe and he's only 3...)

But he would especially like to go to Disneyland and that has been on his mind recently. He saw a Disneyland commercial a few days ago that said something like "where your kids can meet their heroes". Then he turned to me with puppy dog eyes and the most innocent voice and said "I want to meet my heroes Mom."

Way to go Disney.

But luckily for all of us, Bentley's already volunteered to pay for the next family trip to D-land. He asked when we could go to Disneyland again and I told him as soon as we save a lot of money.

His reply, "Well that's perfect! I already have a lot of money! We can go now!"

Unfortunately, the $15 in his wallet may seem like a lot to him, but it's not going to get any of us much closer to Disneyland!

Family Vacation

Because it was a work trip, it was also somewhat of a family vacation--Whit and Brian, Ty and Tameka and us!

We took a paddle boat tour of the lake.

It was a booze cruise and here Whitney and I are enjoying the shade of the bar and Lincoln is sleeping. It was a snooze cruise for him.

We saw the castle in Emerald Bay.

The island of Emerald Bay with the Tea House on top. No castle is complete without a tea house.

Link like the paddle wheel.

Chod thinks this is the best family picture we've taken all year.

#6 on our list of Summer Fun was to go miniature golfing, so when we saw this course while wandering after dinner we took advantage.

Chod tried to teach them proper form.

And Lincoln was okay with the first stroke, and after that would pick up the ball and put it into the hole.

We had to wait on every hole for the family in front of us, so we tried get Bentley to play around them, but he refused to skip a hole.

That's Boodles two-thumbs-up face.

Lake Tahoe

 And for our final trip of the summer....

 we tagged along to more meetings with Chod to...

Do you blame us? While he was in meetings, the boys and I went to the beach. Chod felt left out and snuck over for a few minutes.

 I call this photo "biggest stiff on the beach." Loosen up man.

Lake Tahoe is very proud of their clean water and work hard to keep it that way. And it the pay off is amazingly clear water.

 A beach bum.

 Warming up and eating lunch.

A beach belly.

Indiana or Bust, Part 4

We left Nauvoo and took the longer way home, although it definitely wasn't the longest way possible and we were able to see different country side. On the way out we drove through Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, and finally Indiana. We returned through Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, and back to Utah.

While in Missouri we stopped at Adam-Ondi-Ahman, but passed by Liberty, Independence and Far West so we could make it to Denver for the night.

On our last day we figured, what's a little detour that would only had a few more hours in the car? We left Denver and headed home through Vail. And since I'd never been to Arches, we got lunch in Moab then went search of red rock.  Chod asked Bentley if he could find a red rock, B's reply "No. They're all camouflaged!"

Here, Chod is teaching the boys about erosion.

Lincoln could not wait to climb these rocks.

Every time he found a rock of interested he would scream, "I want to climb THAT rock." It was basically torture for him, except for this little climbing excursion. He would have spent all day climbing.

On our way to the Delicate Arch lookout it started raining. People running out told us to turn around.

We obeyed, put not before we were caught in the torrential downpour.

The boys did fantastic in the car. Aside from the frequent potty stops! It was so much better than I had planned. Even Lincoln, who gets car sick and hates his car seat did amazing. We returned home without ever turning on a movie. And although we packed iPads they didn't see much use-maybe an hour from each boy. They did really well without any screen time, but I was sure thankful for a 3G connection most of the trip (Wyoming and Kansas your 3G could use some improvement). We streamed Pandora most of the way and I was able to Google and report the history of towns as we passed them. It was a fantastic trip that was chock full of memory makers, we saw a lot of country, and got to see Deid, Chris and that cute baby too!

Indiana or Bust, Part 3

Thursday we loaded up the van, said goodbye to Lafayette and headed to Nauvoo.  Five hours later we met up with Chod in Carthage.

Lincoln had had it by the time we made it to the upstairs room, where the martyrdom happened. So we hung out in the hallway, where it was much cooler.

Then it was on to Nauvoo. After a little picnic by the cars we mosied over to the Frontier Country Fair.

The fair took us back to our days on the Pioneer Site at AWHC. Just without our pioneer clothes.

After the fair we settled into our seats for the Nauvoo Pageant.

We returned to Nauvoo on Friday and saw more of the town. We switched off babysitting with the Hartwells so both couples were able to go to the temple.

The Nauvoo brick yard. The brick was Bentley's favorite souvenir. While Lincoln collected rocks and sticks to bring home.

Indiana or Bust, Part 2

We enjoyed a slow day on Tuesday. It was filled with loads and loads of laundry, a trip to Target, visiting Chris on campus, dinner at Steak & Shake, and catching fireflies.

Wednesday was the coolest of all our days in the Midwest and we took advantage of it by going to the zoo. Lincoln loved these elephants and was soaking wet by the time we left.

The zoo isn't very big, but it has a lot of interactive things and is put together really well. Lincoln was almost able to pet this wallaby, but that boy ran up and scared it away.

River otters.

And some lemurs even the Kratt Brothers would be proud of.

Indiana or Bust, Part 1

Chod had meetings in Springfield, IL which is only 4 hours from Deidra and Chris--so we all went. Chod thinks that is like saying Boise is only 4 hours from Idaho Falls and really, we wouldn't tag along with him to Idaho Falls to go to Boise---but it is comparatively close. It ended up being a 3,600 mile road trip that took us through 9 states in 8 days! That's a lot of time in the car.

Lincoln "likes" being strapped in. The first day we made it to Cheyenne, WY in time to grab some dinner and hit the hotel's swimming pool.

Day #2 was our longest in the car--16 hours of actual driving time, and that doesn't count road construction or potty breaks. We made a quick stop at Winter's Quarters and then we were on to Indiana.

I'm not sure which one is more comfortable here.

The next morning the Hartwells met up with us and shared one of their favorite places in Indiana--the Albanese Candy factory. We had listened to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on the road, so this stop seemed perfectly fitting.

After getting our fill of candy we were off to the Indiana Dunes on the shore of Lake Michigan. The boys were in heaven. As soon as we rounded the corner and Bentley saw the water he dropped everything he was carrying and made a beeline to the water. That boy loves the beach.

They were excited to finally be out of the car (we all were) and to see Aunt Deid, Chris and that cute baby.

Bentley could not get his fill of sand or the water. The waves coming in were surprisingly strong and he had no fear--I was most definitely a helicopter mom and hovered.

After the beach we headed to Lafayette and from there Chod left for Springfield.