Road Trip to Utah

The kids and I took a trip to Utah for the last two weeks in July.  I was a bit nervous traveling without Milton, but this was a rare opportunity of seeing Kathryn and her two boys, Abram and Bennett.

As we passed through the canyons between Fairview and Hungington we saw the damage that one of the many fires had caused.  This was the same route that my dad has traveled to work for many years.

 

 I was very relieved when we got to Fairview, the trip was long and a bit difficult entertaining the kids. Abram, Bennett and Ayla rode their bikes up to Great Grandma Anderson's to see the bummer lambs and turkeys.  The lamb was very friendly, but the male turkey didn't like the kids getting so close to his territory.

 The kids had a blast playing together.  They even found the coat closet to hide in (one of my many childhood memories).

 We took walks "down the lane" and found more friendly bummer lambs.

 Dear sweet Great Grandma Anderson who just gets sweeter and sweeter! What an amazing lady!

 We took a Sunday ride to Price to Great Grandma Garff's for dinner.

 We then headed over to the care center to visit with Great Grandpa.  We loved the short time being with them, but trying to keep the kids from destroying the therapy room was quite the task. Grandpa kept calling the crazy kids "little shits."

 My parent's long time neighbor Ross Cox was so kind to let the kids ride his horse.

 The night before the horse ride while asking Ross if he would let the kids ride his horse Ayla had quite the scare.  Upon getting out of the car she began to pet the horse only for it to sneeze all over her and even my mom's car.  Even Ross was amazed at the amount of snot that came out. Despite wanting and even begging to ride a horse for a very long time that experience frightened her enough that I had to ride with her. 

 After getting comfortable she was able to ride with her brother.

 Shortly after the horse ride a huge and nasty rainstorm came through.  After it cleared up the kids went outside to play.  They found a little bird that had been knocked to the ground by the storm, was shivering and the ants were already on attack. Kathryn found a little box to put the bird in so it could die peacefully.  Poor Bennett was quite upset when she told him that it may not live.

 A couple hours later the bird had perked up quite a bit so we took it outside to see if it would fly away.  It was able to fly a short distance before falling again.  We figured it had a broken wing and would eventually die, so we put it back in the box.  Eventually, we had to move the bird to the garage because it was becoming quite vocal.

In the morning, Kathryn and the kids took the bird outside, opened the box and it flew away. We were very happy that we took it in and I think it taught the kids a very important lesson.  Aunt Kathryn told them it flew away to it's mommy.  Ayla's didn't particularly like the response and added that it went to it's Papa too. Of course, no birdie (or little girl) should be without a Papa.

 Little man and I at the 24th of July parade.

 After the parade we all met up at Great Grandma's with lots of other family.  The kids were playing in the barn, where Ayla came upon a pile wool.  She was very concerned thinking it was a dead sheep and had to investigate.

 On the very short ride back to Grandma's on the four wheeler little man fell asleep.  I think all the excitement and celebrations were really starting to catch up to him.

 That night we were able to go to the demolition derby.  A must see event!

 To wrap up our awesome trip we went to a pizza place in Mt. Pleasant to celebrate the kids birthdays, since Ayla's and Bennet's are in August and Abram's in October.

 The last couple days of our trip we headed to Orem to stay with their Abuelos.  Tio Pepe and Tia Lulu (Cristina's sister) from Durango, Mexico were visiting.  Ayla had them both wrapped around her little finger in no time!

Enjoying an evening dinner in Provo Canyon.