Utah Trip

Or more appropriately titled “Yukon's, Tow Trucks, and Rental Cars”.  We make a trip to see our family every summer. This summer was also Bridget and Tommy’s wedding and I was going to stay an extra week with Heidi. We always look forward to summer fun in Utah.

This year I started the first leg of driving. About 5 hours into the trip I got pulled over, going 78 in 65 zone. The cop actually let me off! I was so lucky and promised to go the speed limit the rest of the way. I thought this was our lucky trip, we really dodged an expensive bullet there!

I was WRONG!!!

We quickly stopped for lunch in Boise and got back on the road.  A few hours later Casey and I hear this weird noise, like crosswinds or dragging something (it’s hard to explain). So we decide to pull off on the Eden exit and see what was going on.  As we slow down up the exit the noise gets worse, then horrible. At the top of the exit is where we were stuck.  (Oh and it was only 104 degrees outside.)

(The ride in the tow truck was kind of fun. We got to see the new Twin Falls temple.)

Casey called a tow truck that took us back to Twin Falls, of course it is Saturday and every thing is closed for the weekend. They won’t be able to look our Yukon until Monday, and most rental dealers are closed. We hung out at the Chevy dealer and finally found a rental and finished our trip. We arrived at the Baldwin’s at 11:00pm (we left Washington at 5:00am). We were beat!

(They look really sweet and happy, but  keeping these kids under control and happy only lasted 15 min. And we were there 2 hours! Not fun!)

We had the rental for 3 days, then mooched rides off everyone for the rest of the week. Then $2,200 later our Yukon’s transfer case was fixed. Casey caught a ride up to Twin Falls with Andrew and Whitney to get it so I could have it while I was at Heidi’s.

4th of July

We celebrated the 4th of July on the 3rd this year. Sundays are way too busy! We did our traditional swim party at my parents with the Dyers and enjoyed homemade ice-cream and strawberry rhubarb pie. Brooklyn created some red, white and blue rice krispie treats. Then we headed over to the Foltz for the big firework show! Everyone pitches in and we get a really great show. This is Brandon’s baby!

    

  

   

   

  

    

  

  

  

Grandpa Manship

Grandpa Manship passed away June 20th.  at 7:30 am, Fathers Day. We miss him so much. We traveled to Boise for his funeral. It was just perfect. I was hoping I wouldn’t get too emotional, I’ve lost control of my emotions as I’ve aged, because he had lived such a full and wonderful life. He raised 5 children who all were married in the temple, and who have also taught their children the gospel. He was his stake patriarch, and had served in the church in so many ways. I know that I would forget some or get the order wrong so I can’t list them. I just know what an influence he had on me. I grew up in Washington so I didn’t get to see him all the time, and yet he instilled this desire in me to do what is right. I always wanted to make good choices and to please my parents, but I especially never wanted to let my grandfather down.  He loved our family reunions and we are lucky to have had so many wonderful memories with him! Needless to say, even with a celebration of a wonderful life, it is still emotional to see a chapter of life come to a close, and to think about the plan of life. It makes me want to try to live each day a little better.

 

 

 

After the funeral we stayed an extra day to visit with our good friends (who housed us all weekend!) the Patterson's. They baled on us and moved to Boise a couple years ago. We took the kids to their local water park. It was SOOOOO hot, we didn’t last very long, even with the water.

 

We also got to visit the Meyers’ Farm. My cousin Jared and his family live there now so we got to visit with them and my other cousins, Holli and Becky. It is so fun to catch up with them and remember old times! I do become very aware of what a city slicker I am when I’m there though! We all had flipflops on, which is not a good idea when you are walking around on a dairy farm!

Cody LOVES to hug his cousins!

 

Olivia, Kayleigh P., Brooklyn and Taylor

(Brooklyn really had fun with Taylor and wanted to stay with her longer)

 

This is the now “traditional” rest stop on the way home. We all have to get a picture with “the bears”. This is for you Heidi!

June

In June Callie and I both got to go on the Kindergarten field trip to the zoo! It was so fun going with my sister and our kids!

 

I am a really good babysitter. While Ashley and Logan were moving in, I offered to watch Baylor and put him down for a nap.  Half an hour later, while looking for Cody, this is what I found! (Cody had even brought drinks and snacks!)

 

Briggs and Natalie and family came to visit! June was SOOOOO rainy so it kind of limited us on what we could do, but on a semi-dry day we went up to see the rose gardens. Even with all the rain this year it was very beautiful. My kids are obsessed with taking pictures with my camera so I have a million  pictures of roses. I don’t know which I took. But these are a couple of my favs. We also celebrated Eloise’s 1st birthday!

 

That weekend we headed down to Sunriver for the May family reunion. Awesome! Callie planned the A MAY zing Race! We went on a bicycle scavenger hunt throughout Sunriver, roadblocks and detours and all. The kids got to shop at the very popular “Grandma Store” and we enjoyed the traditional Ice-cream cones at Goodies.

 

   

It was just warm enough to go swimming. Cody didn’t get to go though, he didn’t feel good that morning and was throwing up. So Casey took the kids to the free fishing day while I stayed with Cody.

      

This picture was taken just after Cody threw my camera bag over the bridge. Thank goodness I had already taken the camera out! We watched it float down the river, Casey wasn’t too sad, he always hated my orange and red Hawaiian camera bag.

Hi True.    

When we got back the kids all had a day or two left of school. On the last day we all went to Panera Bread. The kids were so excited, we don’t do this kind of thing very often. Olivia got really nervous and embarrassed though when she saw all the 1st grade teachers come in. Her new teacher even said hi, all she could do is just half smile. Her eyes were all watery and she said she wanted to leave.

 

Heidi stayed through the 4th of July, so we had alot of fun with her.  We went to Esther Short part and let the kids play in the stream. The kids had a blast and even got free Otter Pops from a local Hospital. (They were passing out fliers and stuff.) I forgot to bring Cody’s swim shorts though….

Brooklyn and Casey went on their first Daddy Daughter date with activity days. Brooklyn was a little stressed out because her class hadn’t been able to practice the hula and she couldn’t remember it. She’s kind of a perfectionist.

 

Then the girls had soccer camp at the High School. It was pretty hot, but they really liked it.