Family Vacation

We took a trip to Grand Junction and Utah at the end of June/beginning of July. We visited our friends Brooke, Brian, Madison & Maddox in Grand Jct. We spent the day hanging out and swimming at Highline Lake. 

Then on to Utah meet up with our friends Mike, Rhonda, Jake, Ryan, Justin & Owen, who happen to live in Nevada, but Utah is a good place for us to connect. We enjoyed bouncing around at a trampoline place. The best part was that we were able to have some adult time, going out to dinner and taking a walk, giving us lots of time to visit and catch up with good friends. (I took some pics with my phone...I'll try to get them uploaded.)

Next, we were on to visiting Auntie Mara & Uncle Ryan. Mara is expecting twins in August and we wanted to spend some time with them before the babies come. We can't wait for the babies to arrive. We hope to visit them after they arrive, but not sure how that's going to work out with school starting in August. I of course, forgot to pull out the camera in both (GJT/UT) places, so there are no pictures to show.

While we were in Utah we went to Salt Lake City and visited the Church History Museum. Something we've never done before. We had read in The Friend magazine about this fun interactive exhibit about the Book of Mormon, and wanted to see it for ourselves. At home, Esaias has also loved looking at the special Ensign issue devoted to temples all around the world. And with his fascination with the Angel Moroni, we had to take him to Temple Square. Walking around Temple Square, although it was super hot in the sun, was one of our favorite events. Marina enjoyed meeting and talking to several sister missionaries, and guessing where they were from by the flag below their missionary tags. Marina's favorite was the sister from Canada. She was very excited to learn that our Friend Rhonda is from Canada, and Mara & Ryan's friend Kate is also from Canada. Danny was able to practice up on his Russian while talking with 2 different sister missionaries from the Ukraine. One sister was even from the first area where he served, and knew some of the same people that he knew. Very fun too see all those sisters serving from all over the world!

We were hoping to see my Aunt Bonnie and Aunt Sharon while we were in Utah, but time was just too short and too busy. But we got to see my cousin Lars for a few minutes. He is Isaac's age and was a great sport talking to us even though we made a surprise visit. I was impressed he remembered who her were.


On our way back home, we spent the night with my brother Eric & his wife, Lindsay, & 3 year old Davis. It sure was great to see them. We just don't get to see them enough.


Although it was the 4th of July when we returned home, we were exhausted and happy to retire to bed early without fireworks. I guess we had had enough "fire"works on our trip. With the extreme fire season this year, we had to pass through and around multiple fires on this trip. On our way into Grand Junction we had to detour off the highway to get around the DeBeque Canyon fire. We were crazy close to it, and at night it had an eerie glow from the flames tucked just behind the walls of nature. Then after dealing with days of smoke in the Utah Valley, we drove out of town as we watched a new fire and pillar of smoke take hold in the mountains just outside of Provo. The grey skies we drove through were saddening and smothering as they told the story of all the fires in the area.


We enjoyed our trip out of town, and are grateful to the friends and family that spent time with us, and made it possible for us to visit, by letting us crash at their house and feeding us.