Utah Trip--Week 2 Blanding

Next up on our vacation was a trip down to Blanding for the official Oswald reunion. We spent the next week catching up with those we hadn't seen yet and continuing our visit with those we had. And of course the stay was jam-packed with lots of activities too keep us busy and exhausted. We went swimming at the city pool, took some of the youth to the Monticello temple, visited the Dinosaur Museum, saw a fun melodrama, and enjoyed Flavel Bread (Kendall and some of the other cousins pulled an all nighter helping Chris bake). We watched several family members compete in a one mile or 5K Fourth of July Race (including Kendall, Lynnsey, and Spencer), went to the Blanding 4th of July parade followed by a huge festival at the park with lots of vendors (including Chris and his bread) and kids activities, and went back to the same park to watch a fantastic fireworks show with a concert beforehand. We took a field trip to the historic Bluff Fort which has been restored to the way it was when early pioneer settlers came to the area--it was really fun to visit the pioneer cabins and let the kids dress up and pull handcarts. We had lots of  family history discussions and time to visit and play.

Mandy's little boys are so adorable. Still hard to believe that Susan is a Grandma! 

We tried to plan the temple trip for when more of the cousins had arrived but just couldn't fit it in. Still, it was a fun trip even with just four youth.

Moon rock at the Dinosaur Museum.

We had so much fun and laughed a ton at the annual melodrama put on by Kalen's old high school drama teacher.

Edge of the Cedars was right behind us at the melodrama.

Chris had to make a ton of bread to sell at the 4th of July Festival so he recruited a few helpers and they made bread ALL night. Kendall loved it!

Runners for the One Mile Fun Run (Kendall and Spencer) and the 5K race (everyone else!)

4th of July Parade!

The all night baking session followed by a mile long race caught up to Kendall.

Spencer was thrilled when they started throwing out popsicles at the parade.

The best part of the parade is always when the fire trucks come through to cool everyone off.

Dress up at Bluff Fort.

Cute little Statten--Mandy's second baby.

One of the cabins at Bluff Fort.

School room.

Jaden has so much personality. This picture just makes us laugh every time we see it.

We drove up above the old Bluff Cemetery where the rock formations provided an amazing view.

On our last day, Susan took Taylor, Kendall and Lynnsey to Monument Valley while Kalen and I packed the van and Kaya got to ride a horse with her cousin Felicia. 

When Kendall's shoe completely fell apart, he borrowed the only duct tape on hand to repair it--pink piggies. Grant (Mandy's oldest) saw Kendall's shoe and decided that was the coolest thing ever so he had Kendall fix his sandal to match.

Utah Trip Week 1

The highlight of our summer was definitely our road trip out west! It had been four years since our last visit so Kaya, who was only two at the time had no memory of it at all. It was so much fun to go and see family and to explore such a beautiful state. As much as we love Michigan and consider it home, it is always fun to return to our other home. 

We broke our trip up into segments. The first was spent in Cache Valley and Idaho, the second was spent in Blanding and the the 3rd was spent in Duchesne. We got to see so many unique parts of the state and had so much fun.

Here we go! Goodbye Michigan!

Stopping for a stretch in Iowa.

We drove straight through. That part was difficult. But it did get us there faster so we could spend more time at our actual destinations so that was good. We stayed with Sherrie and Keven for this first part. The kids had a blast with all the kitties and the dog. We got to meet Monica's little cutie Jaden. I can't believe she already has a child of her own! He is seriously adorable. There was lots of trampoline time. Eric, who was out a few days before the rest of his family, came up from Salt Lake and spent some time teaching Lynnsey and Kaya how to do backflips on the trampoline. We visited the Logan Temple with Sherrie and Kevin--always one of my favorite temples, considering I married my husband there. It is so beautiful. We ate dinner at El Sol, our old favorite Mexican Restaurant where we realized as yummy as it was,it has nothing on our own La Casa Mexicana in Albion. We took a day to drive up to Idaho where we visited Grandpa and Grandma Rhodehouse's old house. It's not the same without them there, but the kids enjoyed going into the old green house and each picking out a special rock to add to their collections. We toured the BYU-Idaho campus and were seriously impressed. What a beautiful campus with such nice people. We had hoped to convince Taylor that it would be a better fit for him than BYU Provo, but of course, there was no swaying him. I can totally see Lynnsey loving that campus someday though. But that would mean she would meet someone out there and get married and never live in Michigan again, so I have some serious reservations about that idea even though I think it would be such a good fit for her. Then we went to Aunt Loa's house where Kalen's dad was visiting. Uncle Arlen and Aunt Karla came while we were there and so did their son Casey and his wife and two cute kids. It was a really fun visit even if it was only for a few hours. My favorite day was when we all took a picnic up Logan Canyon to Tony Grove for the day. In fact, that's probably my favorite day of the entire trip. It was stunningly beautiful up there. Oh, if Michigan only had mountains! I've missed that so much. Todd took us on a hike up the side of a cliff. Literally. Straight up the side of a cliff. It was terrifying but so amazing at the same time! We hiked up to some ice caves and explored the top of the mountain before taking a much easier trail down. We spent an afternoon visiting our old Utah State campus where we had Aggie Ice Cream and showed the kids around. And we had a quick visit with my brother Andrew and his wife Marni and their cute kids. We had delicious Shaved Ice from Shonee's Shack (a cute booth that Shonee runs in Mendon) twice! There was a fun mother daughter activity that Lynnsey, Kaya, and I went to with Sherrie. Kalen and the boys got some soccer playing in with Tanner and Kevin. And we had lots of visiting time with the Oswald side of the family up there before we all journeyed south for the official Oswald Reunion in Blanding.

Rubbing it in that she is most definitely not allergic to cats!

Kid magnet Kendall was about the only one of us to successfully hold Jaden and still have him be happy.

Long ride to Idaho!

Grandpa Rhodehouse's old truck parked in the same spot as always.

Grandpa's Rocks!

BYU-I campus

I just love the landscaping on the BYU-I campus!

We stopped for a picture of the old Ludwig Frederick Oswald house.

It was fun for out kids to meet their cute second cousins. Avery and Kendall.

Second cousins! Lynnsey and Cooper.

Kaya loved Avery who is a couple of years younger than she is and she told me that she is planning to ask Avery to be a bridesmaid at her wedding someday. :)

Of course we had to stop at Red Rock Pass and climb to the top. Even though it was raining and kind of chilly.

Kendall and Brecken canoeing at Tony Grove.

Shonee (who's knee was bothering her) and Kaya(who was till too small for the hike) bonded back at the lake while the rest of us went on the hike.

It was seriously quite a climb!

We were quite a ways up at this part and you can see how nervous Kendall was  posing on the side of the cliff!

Spencer and Lynnsey were like little mountain goats scampering right up with no fear at all!

We made it to the top!

Sheet of ice from one of the ice caves.

A few souls were brave enough to go down into one of the caves, which were less cave-like and more like big cracks in the earth.

Such a stunning view! This seriously has to be one of the most beautiful places on earth.

This big rock was literally full of fossils. 

We found this really cool dead tree that was on its side and the kids had fun climbing into it's roots for a snapshot.

This is where we climbed up. The picture doesn't even do it justice. It was seriously challenging. And scary. 

Here's the same cliff from a little further away.

We got to make ice cream with liquid nitrogen. That was a new experience!

And we got to have Aggie Ice Cream when we visited USU's campus.

We have an ongoing story about Abraham Lincoln that Spencer started in our family (he's still alive and is a thousand years old and lives in a cave in case you were wondering), so Spencer spotted this bust at USU and had to stop for a photo.

This was my favorite view as a student at USU. It was awesome to see my five greatest accomplishments standing in front of it on this visit. (We'll just skip the part where everyone was ornery and not cooperating for this shot so we actually left and had to convince them to go back for it. Totally worth the trouble.)

Before we left for Blanding, we crashed at Monica and Josh's to watch the World Cup. It wasn't the outcome most of us wanted but still a fun afternoon.