A special homecoming

Jason had quite a bit of time on his hands while we were in Utah visiting family. Luckily he was able to volunteer to be on-call and was able to spend a lot of time at work. But, the time that he did have he decided to use it putting together every Lego set we have. This was what we came home to. The kids thought it was awesome. Jason is now sick of Legos for awhile.

Baby Cousins

The pictures of these two were just too funny not to post. Eliana gets a little vicious here, but notice in the first top pic what Naomi is holding...

Hopefully these two will grow to be great friends. We love our cousins and are so glad we finally have a girl cousin!

Hiking with the Fam

Both before and after the wedding we had a little time to spend with our Gonzalez family! We went on a few adventures and played with our cousins, had some good food and enjoy good company. We did some Salt Lake touristy things since my kids had never done them, and we got to go climbing. But our most favorite thing to do with this group is to be in nature and especially to go hiking! Aunt Kimberly really is the best to go hiking and exploring with. This time we got to go with Jude and Grandma too. We went up to Donut Falls and then to another little falls too. It was fun despite some complaining from a certain toddler.

What is not shown in this picture of Grandma is that they are all standing in the middle of a creek. Jude had a great desire to not get wet at all, and Grandma was basically walking through the creek carrying Jude and with at least one other pulling on her the whole time. What a trooper, and we all survived!

Cousins. Just cleaning their hands in order to get a snack.

Donuts at Donut Falls. Aren't we clever?

...and just a little bit messy.

The boys. Who were going a bit faster than the girls, who were pausing to enjoy the scenery. So they had to sit and wait for us at the bottom of the trail.

Eliana fell asleep on the 3 minute car ride to the next hike, so Grandma volunteered to stay with her while the rest of us hiked to the little falls without them. Then about 10 feet into the hike, Jude fell and had a hard time recovering emotionally. So, the four of us went on alone. The kids found this spot to climb and did so about 3 or 4 times before Aunt Kim and Jude found us and we headed back. It was a wonderful day spent with awesome people.

Aunt Taylor gets Married - the Temple!

I was super excited that Taylor and Cache decided to get married in the new Provo City Center Temple. It is so beautiful, inside and out and I was grateful for a chance to see it. It was a perfect day that wasn't too hot, although it was a bit overcast. Eliana was kind of the favorite, and got passed around from person to person and got to know a lot of new family. 

Eliana might have been the only one not too impressed with the flowers or the fountains. She actually hit her limit while we were waiting for the couple to come out and take pictures. Actually taking the pictures was (as usual) the worst part of the day and I might not have handled myself very well. But we all got through it and most of us were still smiling.

So maybe there were a few others not impressed by the fountains or the flowers ;)

Although she had been informed several times that Taylor already had a bouquet, Adelaide insisted on making this one for her while we were waiting. She looks so pretty and has such a good heart!

Grandpa tried really hard to get those boys looking their best for the pictures. We got them new belts and tied their ties, but I'm pretty sure none of those things are even noticeable in any of the pictures. Thanks anyway, Grandpa.

Two beautiful people who are also some of my favorites (ever) and made the day so much more bearable. Both took turns with Eliana after she had reached her limit, and didn't even seem to mind.

Waiting isn't so bad when you've got super fun people to hang with. Aunt Jodie and Nolan are some of the best around.

Nice face. And nice dress.

The cousins. Looking super excited about being at the temple on this auspicious occasion.

The Bride and her parents. Aren't they all so lovely?

I think they're happy. Just a little. Probably mostly that it's all over.

While I had the camera, Addie was quite the little photographer with my phone. She got some good ones which I may need to add to here when I've got the time.

More nice faces. This one is pretty awesome from our favorite Jackson. The boys were all really good for how long they had to wait and then how many pictures they were made to be in.

This was one of the happy ones from Andres. The others were him growling at the camera.

My beautiful sister Paige.

Aunt Taylor gets married - The Breakfast!

I was lucky enough to get some pretty good pictures for Taylor's wedding. She and Cache decided to have a breakfast before the wedding and it was at a park and rather casual. It was fun to see so much family and the kids had a great time running around playing with cousins and eating donuts. Eliana slept through most of it and then woke up sort of cranky, but was a trooper throughout the day.

Bear Lake

We (the kids and I) got to go to Utah again this summer. Yeah. Don't get me wrong, I love being able to see family and there are some pretty great things about going to the mountains. I was just hoping for this to be our one summer of not going anywhere. Especially since everyone had just come to visit us for Adelaide's baptism. Instead, I flew half way across the country by myself with 4 children. Yup. That's what you do when your sister gets married.

Our first stop was in Bear Lake, and Eliana was kind enough to wake up early enough for us to catch this awesome sunrise. I honestly can never get enough of the view from my parents' house there. It is so beautiful all year long. While at Bear Lake we got to enjoy some of Raspberry Days and even went down to the beach a few days. The kids actually enjoyed playing in the water and Eliana tried to eat the sand.

Even though this little stinker was sick most of the trip, she actually really likes being around lots of people, so she didn't complain very much.

We love seeing family! Especially when they're so spread out and far away. We got to spend good time with cousins and Uncle Michael even came up for a night.