Other Stuff We Did In Utah

My lovely kiddos were kind enough to step in for me on the blogging job last week, as I was totally swamped with preparing for school to start this week (incidentally, we just finished our first week of the school year today...longest week EVER!...but good!).  However, it is now my chance to catch up on the rest of our short visit to Utah earlier this month.  Keep your fingers crossed that I will eventually get to blogging about the rest of August.  Ha!

Anyhoo...here are a few fun details from our one and only vacation this year.  We left reeeeeeeally early on a Tuesday morning so we could arrive in plenty of time to freshen up for our family photo session in the evening.  So, naturally, we were a little goofy-happy in the car at the outset; I made everybody take #selfies in the car just for fun.  Haha!  Well, okay, I took the pics of Nathan (because he was driving) and of Trey (because if I had given him my phone with the camera on, I would have gotten about a hundred pictures of his hairline with the sun roof in the background).  Coco has this silly little sense of humor, and included a little pic of her baby doll.  Of course I will be posting them all here!

Selfies in the car!

Haha!  Nice face, babe!

Always handsome.

Lovely lady!

Can't forget "Baby!"

Sparkling in the sun.

Adorable!  And strapped in for 8 hours. :)

That evening, one of my dreams came true as we had a family photo session with a dear friend from our days in St. Louis who now lives in Utah.  She is an amazing photographer and a sweetheart to boot (and GORGEOUS and FUN...think Reese Witherspoon but without the booze and bad marriage).  Kara and her husband, Nate, were one of the super fun couples we knew when we lived in the Frontenac ward.  Our Nates were just two of the FOUR Nates in that ward, three of whom were chiropractic students at the time.  Kara and I both had our firstborn sons in St. Louis, about 2 months apart.  They met a few times as infants before the Elmores moved back to Utah and we moved to Colorado.  Since then, they have added 4 beautiful daughters to their family!  So, given that they have one boy and the rest are girls...and that we have one girl and the rest are boys...we were able to arrange quite a few marriages while there (picture a slightly horrified look on the faces of our children...but, man, those would be good matches!).

Anyway, we spent an hour or two doing photos with Kara, then went back to her house to see the family and look at some proofs.  OH, so much fun!  I love it when friendships are so easily rekindled and our children make new friends with the children of our old friends.  What an awesome evening!

These boys haven't seen each other for TWELVE years!  No wonder they look sort of awkward.  Obviously, the parents were more excited about this than they were.  But, they did end up having fun together that evening after the picture taking was over. :)

Some of my very favorite people on the planet.  Hooray for old friends!  And by old, of course, I mean LONG TIME friends...because there's nobody old in this picture!

Okay, so Trey pretty much hated every new person he met on this vacation...EXCEPT for this beauty named Mary!!!  He even gave her a KISS good-bye!!!  We'll have to keep this adorable picture for their future wedding video.  Yup.  The marriage has already been arranged.  Contract is signed.  Too bad kids!

Another less fuzzy picture, with the top of Trey's head next to me!

The next morning, we had to spend a little time recovering from the long drive and late evening from the day before.  But, Nathan managed to spend a little time in the golf simulator with his old buddy James, and in the afternoon we all went to see another wonderful, long-time friend: Jen Julian and her family!  We got to meet the newest little princess that had just joined their crew a few weeks earlier...what a BEAUTIFUL baby!  We never have enough time with these wonderful people and it always makes me sad.  However, we did get our chance to take them with us for our annual visit to The Training Table for the most decadent gourmet burgers.  Yum!  And again, such fun!

Could this boy be ANY cuter?   And he couldn't help but love this little beauty in his arms.

BFF's!  And the newest addition to the Julian Crew.  LOVE!

Seriously...LOVE!!!!!!!

This guy is a fully-engaged business owner and family man.  So, we're pretty used to the phone calls that interrupt our vacation activities from time to time.  LOVE him!

Training Table!  Don't worry; Trey learned to like it later, especially when he dipped his sweet potato fries in the yummy fry sauce!

This is just a funny picture of Jen's silly girls and Courtney at the Training Table.  I actually got a better picture of them, but I had to post this one because...can someone please tell me why Nathan has his finger up his nose????

Look at all the pretty girls!

Later that evening, Nathan experienced a dream come true as well...a RUSH concert with James.  The kids and I stayed behind at Nana's house and they played games together for a while.  I love how Nana always gets competitive with these kiddos and teases and laughs with them while teaching them to have fun together.

Trey loves the swinging counter chairs at Nana's house.  Who doesn't???

Games with Nana!

Thankfully, my extremely cooperative offspring have already blogged about the activities of the next few days, including our FUN at Lagoon, the 5k race at the This Is The Place Heritage Park, and our pool day at the Abbott resort.  Additionally, we enjoyed TWO evenings of family dinners with both sides of the family.  On Friday night, we had a yummy potluck dinner at my Grandma Smith's house, and got to see Grandma, Sheri, my parents, Hillory and her girls, Holly and her boys, Eric's family, and Hanna's family.  That was a LOT of people!  Somehow, I didn't get a single picture of this event, but it was fun.  Especially when most of us were sitting or playing outside on the front lawn when the sprinklers came on.  Trey loved it and played in the water until he was drenched.  Funny boy!

Our last fun activity of this trip was another family dinner with Nathan's side of the family at a park near Nana's house.  EVERYONE was there!  We finally got to meet Lucy, the newest sweetheart to join the Call crew.  She is a sweet little doll!  We also got to see Marcia's sisters, Pat and Cheri.  The dinner was delicious, the games were fun, and it was a fun and bonding experience with our family.

Ed, Meili, Donna, Lucy, and Julia

Coco

Avery was so tired by this point of the evening, that he had to rest and read for a little bit.  He recovered shortly!

Nana, Julia, and Scott

Julia, Nana, Lucy, and Scott

Ed

Meili, Donna, and Emma

Oh, if only he loved me so well! J/K!

Meili

This was such a fun game!

The only downside of that last evening was that our children were hammered by then--so TIRED from all the activities of the week!!!  It was an extremely tightly choreographed vacation with a lot of sun and fun and friends and family.  We finally arrived back home in Colorado on Sunday night, safe and sound and completely spent.  But, what a fun trip!  We can't wait to do it again!