This summer we decided to make a trip to Utah to visit family and friends and to introduce Jaden to everyone. We left on June 30th. We ended up driving this time. We were originally going to take the train, that's our favorite mode of transportation. However about a week before we were to leave a semi truck crashed into our train. We still could have taken the train, they provided back up trains and buses, but with it being the 4th of July weekend and the added delays from the train accident we decided that it would be better to just drive ourselves out there instead of having to deal with all the craziness. The drive actually wasn't so bad. The kids did really well, of course they were all stocked with snacks and their DS's and portable DVD player with movies. We bought a car charger for the DS's so they could keep their games going. Ron and I brought some trivia cards. We like to talk to each other while we travel, it helps keep us awake while driving. Plus, trivia is fun because we like to learn new things. Our drive took us along the train route. We didn't actually plan that, it just happened to be that the cities we stopped in were the one's the train stopped in( mainly because they were the only cities we saw in Nevada). Jaden did so good! He wasn't fussy at all which surprised us because he didn't sleep much on the trip either. He took maybe a 20-30 nap soon after we first left but stayed awake until the last couple hours of the drive. He woke up when we were about 20 minutes away from Ron's mom and dad's house and it was then that he finally got fussy and wanted to "GET OUT" of his car seat. But 20 minutes of crying during a 12 hour drive isn't bad for an almost 5 month old. The next day, July 1st, Ron's mom and dad took us to Seven Peaks Water Park. It was a lot of fun. Ron took Kaeryn and Tristan on some of the slides and I stayed by the kiddie area with Jaxen and Jaden. Jaden did not like the water one bit so he stayed in my arms most of the time. He did like to look around at was going on until he fell asleep. Jaden did hang out with Abuela and Abuelo so Ron and I could go for a run in the lazy river. Of course Jaxen had to come too. I must have looked really great because I wasn't planning on getting into the water so I wore a sun dress into the lazy river. It was fun though! We did have a great time. Oh and we were surprised to see my sister Kaela and her husband Landry and their baby boy Kole there. It was so fun to see them! I hadn't met Kole yet and so I was just thrilled. We all had a fantastic day!
The next day, July 2nd, we went to my family's picnic. It's been a tradition of my family to meet at the rock canyon elementary park for dinner and play and to watch the fire works from the stadium of fire. It's always been so fun. I haven't been to the family picnic for 7 years. I was very excited! I was grateful to Ron for snuggling with Jaden so I could visit with my family. He's such a good daddy! Jaden was so tired and Ron will put him on his knee and rock him and he falls right to sleep. It's so sweet!
All my brother's and sister's were there. It was so great to see them. I don't always get to see them all when I come for a visit. It was so great to all be together!
Amy and Kyle brought this rocket launcher for the kids. They all got to make their own rocket, Amy showed them how to put it together and then they each had a turn launching their rocket. The kids absolutely loved that! It was so much fun watching them play with their cousins. They were so happy! Scott also brought some games to play that were a lot of fun. The fireworks were fantastic as always, Jaden slept right through them. I'd rather have him sleeping through it than screaming, right?
July 3rd we had a special open house/get together for Jaden. It was a chance for everyone to meet our newest family member and to visit with and see family and friends we haven't seen in such a long time. This was a wonderful day! Lot's of our closest friends and family came to meet our new little guy. This is one of my favorite pics from that day with Amy and Danny and their girls. They had fun playing with Jaden.
We put Jaden into Kole's chair and Kole just thought it was the greatest thing ever. Hey smiled and giggled and loved trying to figure out who this was in his chair. It was the cutest thing ever! When you have two babies together what could be better?
All in all it was a happy day and we thank everyone who was able to share Jaden's special day with us!
July 4th we went down to Mona to hang out with my sister Amy and her kids. We went to Buraston Ponds and had a day camp. The kids could not wait to roast marshmellows! That's one of their favorite things to do. We had fun doing all the stuff you do while camping. Eating, talking, playing in the dirt, hiking around, enjoying the beautiful scenery. It really was a nice day, not too hot. One of Amy's friends came to join us with her kids as well. All the kids got along and played well. Jaxen even tried to be Madison's hero. One of the little boys was throwing dirt, well they all were, but some kept getting Madison and Jaxen would run up to me and tell me " that boy keeps throwing dirt at my cousin! I keep telling him to stop and he won't stop!" It was so cute to see how concerned he was over it. I don't know if it was bothering Madi at all because, like I said they were all digging in the dirt, but Jaxen really wanted to defend his cousin. I'm so happy that my kids are able to play with and love their cousins. It makes me smile! I do wish they could do that more often. After a while, Amy brought out the raft. We had the raft but no pump! So what did Amy do? She sat there and blew into the raft until it was full of air and ready to go. It was a great sight! And the kids had fun taking turns in the raft. We haven't been kayaking in a while so they really enjoyed this. Ron tookthe boys out and Kaeryn went with Erika's friend. Kaeryn and Erika found some tangled up fishing line that had a gummy worm stuck to it. So what did they do? They found a stick of course, and put the fishing line on the stick and tried to go fishing with it. There were actually some small fish along the shoreline and they actually nibbled at the gummy worm. Guess fish have a sweet tooth also. Well, after a fun day of marshmellow roasting, hiking, rafting, tree climbing, dirt digging, gummy worm fishing, we decided to pack up and head back to Amy's house. Erika saddled up her horse Toby and took Kaeryn and Tristan on a horseback ride. They always look forward to that when we go to Utah. I was really proud of Tristan, when he came in after his ride he asked for some carrots for the horse and he fed the horse himself. It was great to see him be so brave. We also had a shake off while we were there. I say Granny's has the best shakes and Ron say's Stan's has the best shakes. So we took the kids to both and let them be the judges. This year Granny's won! Wahoo! We'll have to see who wins next time. We also took the kids to the nickel arcade. We sure wish they had one of those here in Sacramento. They had fun. The boys learned why I love skee ball so much. I took them to play and they wanted to play that game the most. Jaxen would say " I love skee ball!" I think it was a good game for him because he would still get a ticket even without a high score. We left on July 8th to come back home. We left in the morning so we would be back home at night and we could sleep in our own beds. We drove back the same way we came. It was fun to see the places we normally only see at night on the train. The kids would say " wow this place is bigger than we thought" as we drove though Nevada. We also made an unplanned stop to Circus Circus when we got to Reno. We needed to take a break somewhere, Jaden needed to eat, we needed to eat, and so Ron decided to stop at Circus Circus. He had been there but the rest of us hadn't. It was great. I was surprised at how cheap the games are to play. We let the kids each play a couple games and we even played one as a family. Ron won and gave me his stuffed dog. We did get to see an act before we had to head back home. We had so much fun that we decided that sometime this fall we will go back and spend more time there. We really did have a great trip! It was wonderful to see everyone that we did! Hopefully next time we'll get to see some of those that we missed. This definitely was a wonderful adventure and we can't wait for the next one!
