Summer Road Trip

This year we were able to drive to Utah since we live so much closer, so we decided to see some cool things along the way.  Our first stop was the Grand Canyon.  Although we didn't spend a lot of time there, it was still a spectacular site and well worth the time to go a little out of our way.  That night we drove to St. George and went to the Tuacahn theater for the first time to see a play.  The red rock and special effects were amazing!

 For the fourth of July we forced the kids to start the day with a hike.  We realized that sometimes we give our kids too many choices about what they want to do and really they don't always know what is best so we have to help guide them.  It was quite a battle to get them out the door, but we were determined not to lose the battle and by the end of the hike everyone was pretty happy we had gone, with the exception of maybe one child who shall be nameless. Later that day we went to the Sandy City parade, had a barbeque at the Park's house and then watched fireworks. This was our last chance to be with Natalie and Sean's family since they were moving to Colorado the next day.  It was great spending time with them. Sydney and Taylor had a 3 day marathon without much sleep.

 

 

 

The kids didn't spend as much time with the Ogden's this time around.  But we were able to go to dinner as adults, visited the Ashby's one afternoon, arm wrestled with Grandma and Grandpa, Mike and Hugh golfed with Dad and Deno, and I got to go to Hanna for the Fabrizio reunion.  We will be back in August for Lexi's wedding and hopefully get to see more of them then.

 The real reason we decided to drive to Utah was to visit Bear Lake.  This may be the last year the family will have the condo since it is now for sale.  We really enjoyed our time there and the weather held up for our boating day until about 4:00 when the rain decided to come.  We think they had overbooked the rental boats because somehow we ended up with the owner's boat and it was so nice!  

 

 

 

 Our last stop along the journey was San Diego.  Our main reason for going there was so the older girls could go to the One Direction concert.  They got their tickets for Christmas and had been waiting for the day for a long time.  McKell especially is a little obsessed with the group.  Somehow they didn't take any pics of themselves at the concert though, but we have plenty of Harry Styles. We met up with the Barretts for dinner beforehand in Coronado and then the girls went with Kristen and her daughters and we took Jackson and Sydney to the Mormon Battalion museum.  I guess I should say we forced Jackson and Sydney to the museum.  But yet again they enjoyed it once we were there.  We loved the beach and the huge waves, but we still think Destin's beaches are more beautiful.  Plus our rental house wasn't right on the beach and was less nice than what we've rented in the past. We also went to see the USS Midway ship which was really cool.  We gave the kids the choice on this one and Sydney was the only one who wanted to come.  After we told them how awesome it was they all regretted not coming.  I guess they will learn one day to trust their parents once in awhile.