Steamboat

When we drove home from Utah we passed through Steamboat Springs.  There were wildflowers everywhere and it was gorgeous.  Cal and I decided a few weeks later to leave the boys with Nana and Papa and spend a long weekend up there.  We hiked and hiked, played mini golf, explored town, ate, and relaxed.  There was so much more we could have done, but we packed it in as much as we could.  We had such a fun time!

Tons of pictures....sorry.  :)

We went on a nice hike by Mad Creek. I can't remember the name for sure?

 We stopped and ate lunch on these rocks in the river.  It was so peaceful and relaxing!

The "Mad Barn."  

It was built in 1906, but had been restored and was open to explore.  We even got to go up in the loft:

It's really hard to show just how many wildflowers there were, EVERYWHERE.  I loved it!

After our hike we continued driving up the valley to Steamboat Lake.  It was a bit stormy, but we sat by the lake and ate the rest of our lunches.

The lupine was amazing.

The valley had tons of picturesque farms all over.  It just felt simple and quiet.  Nice.

 As we got back into town, we hiked the short hike to Fish Creek Falls.  Pretty, but tons of people!

On the way home we stopped to explore a beautiful random side valley.

I liked finding the little bug on the right of this picture when I got home.

Lupine! 

It was a great weekend!

Utah

I am ridiculously behind on family photos... these photos are from our 4th of July trip to Utah.  Yes, I am that far behind!  

We made a last minute decision to go to Utah for almost a week to visit family and friends.  It was so fun to see everyone we were able to!

We stayed with our friends Aaron and Amy and their 3 sweet girls in Lehi.  On the 4th we went to their pool and then to the fireworks at Thanksgiving Point.

They kindly let us sleep in their basement, also the playroom.  The kids had SO much fun together!

A few trains passed while we were waiting for it to get dark for fireworks.

We were really impressed with the fireworks.  Utah knows how to do the 4th!

We met my good friend from BYU, Katie, at temple square.  We had to buy Zach some new shoes at City Creek Mall because we got to SLC and realized Zach was not wearing any.  Oops.  He had to wear Cal's flip flops in while we shopped for new ones.  

They had fun at the fountain, and may have gotten a bit wet.  It's hard to stop them on such a hot day!

Checking out the family search center, just for Grandma Calli.  :)

It was really hot!  But so fun to visit with Katie and show the boys where we were married.

That afternoon we went to my Aunt Loretta's house.  We were lucky enough to be able to see all of her kids and their families because they were having a get together that day.  Thanks for letting us join you!  It was so great to see everyone!  They had planned so many really fun activities for the kids.  One of the big hits was "panning for gold."  They had sand and water and lots of treasures for the kids to find.  The boys still talk about it!

Zach and Emma were immediate friends again!

Austin and Mia buddied up this time too.

Puddle jumping!

We walked around BYU campus and ate at Brick Oven Pizza.  Tradition!

I didn't take pictures of everything we did, but we had a great time.  Our trip did have a bit of a damper when Zach got a stomach bug towards the end.  Ugh.  Poor boy!  Luckily the rest of us didn't get it, and I really hope we didn't pass it on to anyone else either!

We stayed our last night in Vernal, so we could go to Dinosaur National Monument the next day, and then home.  It was such a beautiful drive!  The boys did well in the car and we were thankful for our DVD player.

Zach is loving dinosaurs, so we just had to stop here.  It's a cool place and I wish he were feeling better so he could have enjoyed it more.

I can't tell you how many times we had to stop for Zach to throw up on our drive home, but it was really a lot.  Like 10?  Luckily he made it out of the car every time.  I just felt so bad for him!!  At least we had some beautiful places to stop!