On the 4th of July, we said goodbye to my family and drove from Rexburg down to Utah to visit Ben's family. We spent the evening chatting over dinner while the kiddos played in the water in the back yard.
Brrrrrr
Poppers
When it got dark, we went to see the fireworks. We sat right under them and it was a great show! Ellie sat so well through the whole thing, too. I was impressed!
Afterwords, we did our own fireworks and the kids (and some of the adults) really loved it. I decided not to lug my camera around all night, but I caught the pretty sunset as I was walking to the car to put my camera away for the evening.
The next day, we drove down to Provo for the day. We had a nice visit with my Grandpa Johansen and then met up with my Grandma Harding and cousin Crystal at the mall. It's quite the drive for them to come up from southern Utah, so I was glad I got to see them!
After that, we spent the evening with good friends. Somehow, the only pictures I got were these of Ellie and Lyndsay riding in (or pushing) the wagon, with a little help from Asher...
....and one of the guys playing basketball.
It was a fun night though, and we were glad to be able to see everybody again!
On Friday, we drove up the canyon to Huntsville to go shooting with Ben's dad, his sister Aariel, and her husband Kristofor. My boys were in heaven. All three of them.
An apple that Ben shot
Ellie wouldn't keep ear protection on (surprise, surprise), so she and I went into town to explore. My ancestors are from Huntsville and I hadn't been there since I was really little, so I thought it would be fun to look around. I'm glad I did! I found this cabin that belonged to one of my ancestors:
Ellie in front of the cabin
As well as this statue that my Grandpa Johansen sculpted.
I also found the names of my grandparents and great grandparents on this plaque honoring the people who helped settle Huntsville.
I ha no idea that any of these things existed, so I was pretty excited to find them.
Pretty scenery on the way to Huntsville.
When I got back to the shooting range, Ellie had fallen asleep, so I got to shoot a little bit too. Ben helped me with my form. Really, I think he just wanted to put his arms around me. ;)
That night we were treated to a yummy dinner, courtesy of Lynette, and then we went to the drive in to see Brave and The Avengers. The movies were good, but honestly I don't see the appeal of the drive-in. It was late, cold, hard to see, and hard to hear. Give me a good old movie theater over the drive-in any day. Still, it was fun to hang out with friends.
On Saturday, we had our big Jensen/Peterson family party. We hung out family reunion style.... complete with croquet, volleyball, and the "guess the number of candies in the jar" game.
There were water squirting things, so of course a water fight was inevitable. (P.S. This is the last picture you will see from this event where Ellie is still wearing her shorts. It didn't take her long to find the water puddle and sit in it.)
The buckets were for refilling the water guns but Ben decided a better use for them would be to unexpectedly dump one on Michael.
Someone didn't change into his swimsuit before getting wet like I asked him to.
Lynette brought cupcakes to celebrate our four one-year-old (or almost one-year-old) babies. We sang to them and then they dug right in!
Ellie
Irelee
Clover
Nixon
Ellie couldn't stuff hers in fast enough.
Amy won one of the jars of candy in the guessing game....
...and Chris won the other FOUR. (He guessed three of them right on the dot!)
Evan and Ben built a bird house, which Evan was extremely proud of.
There were also beads for making bracelets and necklaces, so I made a little bracelet for Ellie.
Asher and Ellie enjoyed blowing bubbles. Ellie thought it was hilarious.
Ellie was LOVING the watermelon. She polished off her first slice and tried to eat the rind. She was SO MAD when I wouldn't let her!
I got her a new one and for some reason she wouldn't hold it. I put it on the ground thinking she'd pick it up, but she improvised. Silly girl.
What a fun day with the family!
That night, Rileigh chopped my hair off for me. She always does such a fabulous job and I've been drooling over this haircut forever, trying to get brave enough to do it. I love it!
(It's a crappy arm's length photo, so it' doesn't show the haircut well, but you get the idea.)
On Sunday, we packed up and made the drive home. It was sad to leave after such a wonderful, short visit, but it did feel good to get home. Those big, green, pine tree covered mountains looked so pretty and welcoming. :)
Excuse the blurry spots.... our windshield was pretty buggy by this point!
That night, we fell into our beds exhausted.... always a sign of a great trip! :)
1 comment:
Looks like fun!
And love the hair. :)
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