Leg 4 of our Trip: Headed Home!

We made a last minute decision to take two days coming home instead of doing it all in one. I am so glad that we did!

We had to stop at Big Rock Candy Mountain so David and I could get a Honeymoon photo. We spent a few days of our honeymoon here, and for whatever reason, never got a photo.  So here is our official "Honeymoon Photo".  :)

We also stopped at Zion National Park.  We debated about going through the park; it's kind of pricey for one car, let alone two, but we're glad we did it.  Even though we were only there for a few hours, it was well worth the money.

Brychan was just happy to be able to get out of the truck!

And Kehlton enjoyed the shuttle ride

We were only able to do one hike; the lower trail to the Emerald Pools. 

It was a fun hike, though, and we had so much fun!

Kehlton pouting because we wouldn't let him get near the cliff.  Go figure!!

The Emerald Pools.  There was a bit of a waterfall coming down, and the boys had fun walking underneath it.  We got pretty wet with each gust of wind, but it felt really good!

We also ran into a deer with her baby...

And at the end of the hike, we stopped to play in the water.  I expected that water to be fairly cold, but it wasn't at all.  We had to drag the boys out kicking and screaming.

Within about 5 minutes of getting back onto the shuttle bus, Brychan fell asleep.  He soon fell into my lap and was sprawled out all over the place.  A German couple stopped to take pictures of him; I guess a cute, little, sleeping American boy makes for good stories back home! :)

We made it to Las Vegas late Saturday night, and then drove the rest of the way home Sunday morning without any pit stops.  Well.  Without any fun pit stops.  Kehlton was sick and vomitting for the first half of the trip, so there was plenty of stopping to clean him and the truck up.  We're guessing he was just over heated and dehydrated from playing at Zions the day before; after he got plenty of fluids in him, he was doing much better!

After being gone for almost 2 weeks, it was nice to get home!!  This was such a fantastic trip; we had so much fun without any horrible issues or mishaps.  And I am dying to get back to Zions now and do a bit more hiking and exploring.  So if anybody wants to go...the Stander clan is totally game! :)

Leg 3 of our Trip: Wedding Day!!

My youngest brother, Nathan, was sealed to Megan Drake on June 22 in the Manti Temple. It was a gorgeous day; minus the wind. It was out of control!!

David and the boys

And my cute little family

(you can tell just how excited my boys were.  And that was just the start of their day...)

Nathan & Megan

Happy to be there!

And happier still

My sisters: Ashley and Missy

(This was the first time in 4+ years that I had seen Missy and her kids.  I'm so sad I only got to see them for 24 hours.  Somehow I need to convince my brother to visit with his family a little more often)

After the wedding and all the necessary photos, we headed across the street to The Manti House for the luncheon.  I'm so sad I didn't get any photos; the luncheon was beautiful!  Although...I did get a pretty funny video of Kehlton eating his cake that I'll have to take off my phone to share.

After the luncheon, we had a few hours to drive up to Herriman for the reception.  We had the wind to deal with again; making things a bit difficult.  Tablecloths wouldn't stay on the tables, dresses flying everywhere, the cake just about blew over and had to be re-arranged to prevent it from doing so...bad hair all around.  BUT.  We still had so much fun!

Well, except for maybe Kehlton.

Ashley and I

My brothers and sister

The siblings and all the spouses

I LOVE this photo!!!

Little Payton. 

She was about as happy to be there as my boys were.

Thank heavens for this trampoline!! This is where all the kids spent 99% of their time, which made life so much easier for all the moms!!

My mom with a long time friend, Laura Korth.

And getting ready to dig in!!

There are a few photos we didn't get (or that didn't turn out) that I'm pretty sad about.  There's none of my parents, none of the groomsmen, and none of just my hubby and I.  I also would have really like one with all the cousins together, but what can you do?

It was a super long day that was jam packed full.  We left our hotel at 8:15 and didn't get back until well after midnight.  Despite the few hiccups we had, it really was a fun day.  I SO love my family!!

Leg 2 of our Trip: Salt Lake City

After spending a week in Idaho, we headed down to Utah to meet up with my family before the wedding. Wednesday evening, we stayed with Ken & Angie in SLC. While I went to dinner with some girlfriends (thanks so much Amelia & Alayne!!), the boys met up with their Stander cousins again to play at the park.
One super fun thing the boys got to try?  Walking on a tight rope!!!  I guess there was a group of college students there practicing in the park, and Brychan was very adament that he wanted to try.  They were nice enough to let both Brychan and Kehlton try.  I was SO bummed I missed it!!

 Thursday morning, we went to visit Grandma Taylor and then headed to the airport to pick up Lala.  We then met all of our Davis cousins at City Creek for lunch, and then headed to This is The Place Park for an afternoon of fun.

Brock and Payton washing laundry

 

With Lala helping Brychan try his hand at scrubbing the clothes and hanging them on the line.

Riding the horses was a huge hit!

And enjoying the petting zoo with Emery, Aunt Missy and Reagan.

Brock and Missy's family have their own chicken coop at home, so their kids were pros at chasing them down to pick them up.  Kehlton loved holding them!

And Daddy and Brychan sitting in school.

We all had so much fun at the park, but were exhausted by the time the afternoon was over!  We all met back up at our hotel in Salina for a quick swim and then a good nights sleep in prep for Wedding Day!!

Leg 1 of our Trip: Twin Falls

We're back!!  After being gone for almost 2 weeks, we are finally home and trying to get back into a somewhat "normal" routine.  Of course, that will all be interrupted next week when I go to Girl's Camp, but we're trying! :)
There are a TON of photos of this trip, so I'll break it up into sections and try not to overload with pictures.

The first stop on our trip was at Grandma & Grandpa Stander's in Twin Falls, ID.  We were lucky enough to have a few cousins come by and play with us for the first couple of days too!  Grandma has quite the variety of toys for all the kids to play on, so they had their own little amusement park to keep themselves entertained.  My boys played outside ALL DAY LONG almost every single day for the week that we were there.  It was so nice!!

There were rides on the 4 wheeler...

 Fire trucks to drive

 Naps to be enjoyed outside

 A swimming pool with a slide

And their very own bounce house

They also had a huge, homemade slip and slide set up in the yard as well as an airplane teeter totter, which I didn't get photos of.  Spoiled kids?  I think so!!  They all had so much fun together and loved all the play time!

Of course, there was also time to make brownies with Grandma

 And a (very cold and windy!) trip to Shoshone Falls.  By the way?  The last time we were at Shoshone Falls I was also pregnant.  I do not plan on making that a habit.  :)

We also got to go see Madagascar 3, go shopping for fabric (which was only fun for Mommy and Grandma!), enjoy lots of yummy food and play Wii to our hearts content.

Baby Ducks

One of my favorite things about where we live is the fact that we have a lake in our subdivision.  Obviously, living in the desert, large bodies of water anywhere is rare.  But, because we live across the street from this lake, we also get to enjoy lots of birds year round.  Right now is the time for Canadian Geese, a wide variety of ducks, quail and all their little chicks.  Our entire neighborhood seems to be extremely cautious of all the birds around, and traffic is quite frequently at a stand still to let a family of birds cross the street.

Kehlton especially loves the birds.  All birds to him are geese.  Except for ducks.  And to him, all ducks are "baby ducks".  He loves these baby ducks so much that he even calls himself a baby duck.

The other day we stopped at the lake so David could take some photos of his truck.  While sitting there, we had a few little visitors.  You can tell they're just waiting to be fed, but that is strictly against the rules (and there are several crabby residents near by that will let you know if you're infriging upon those rules).

Kehlton wanted to just get as close as he could.  He was very slow and quiet, and you could just barely hear him saying "quack, quack" as he tried to approach his little duckies.

Love this photo.  Just a boy happily watching his ducks.

Since there's no place around here to feed the ducks, we've decided that while we're in Utah, we're going to have to make a pit stop at Beuss Pond.  My boys will LOVE it.  And so will I.  It's one of my favorite places in Ogden!!

Random Photos

Just a few random photos from this week...


THIS is what happens when I'm trying to clean up raspberry applesauce out of the carpet in the hallway (Don't ask. Had something to do with one little boy stealing another little boy's blue spoon, therefore leaving Boy B with no spoon?  I don't know.  There were two spoons on the table.  Why they needed to run their applesauce down the hallway is beyond me):

A 24oz bottle of Comet all over the kitchen floor.  Because Mom obviously wasn't A) frustrated enough at the red stains in the carpet and B) not busy enough cleaning those said stains out of the carpet and needed something else to do at that very moment.  Luckily, I have an amazing husband, who, when he receives a phone call from his pregnant wife in tears over her already horrible day that had just become 100 times worse, leaves work early to take over cleaning and parenting duties.  Otherwise, those two little boys may still be sitting out on the curb.  (I will say, that as soon as David got home, my attitude improved greatly!  And, after consoling myself with some more ice cream and a good nights sleep, the next day was drastically better!).


This is one of the many lizards hanging out in our backyard this year.  He looks much smaller in this photo, but he is the length of David's hand...from thumb to pinkie.  He was very tame and calm, and almost let David catch him.   Almost.  That's okay.  I don't want and/or need two little boys figuring out that they can, indeed, catch the lizards if they really want to.

And this is my 20 week belly shot.  Had just rolled out of bed, so no hair.  No make up.  Pretty, right?  Anyway...so far this is still my miracle baby.  20 weeks and have still only gained 6 pounds.  My goal this go around is no more than 15.  And let it go on record, that if by some miracle, at the end of my 6 week recovery period I can end up weighing less than I did when I started this pregnancy, this WILL be my favorite child.  :)