The rest of the trip

It's been so long since I went on a long road trip. And it's been so long since I was on a long road trip out west. Everything was beautiful and new.


We drove from Salt Lake City to Lava Hot Springs Idaho.


It was nice that Shane was driving. Minna and I shared the backseat with Hannah.



From the backseat I could see:
Large trucks


Kerianne


Shane


Pretty much the only things to do at Lava Hot Springs have to do with water.


We had a ton of fun with our Family. I just wish the reunion was a day longer, it would give me more time to get reacquainted with all my cousins. Not all of them were there and I still didn't even get to talk to some of them. Candice ended up posting a ton of photos of the reunion, go take a look. Be sure to scroll down and see the synchronized swimming routine video by our family.

Then back to Provo. One of the most fun things about the whole trip is when we went to "Jump On It" to entertain the little kids. Well needless to say Shane and I probably had more fun than they did.




It was also Sharalee's birthday while we were there. (HAPPY BIRTHDAY!)


At the end of our trip we went up into the mountains with Tony and his wife Jocelyn.


It was very muddy


We were up very high. It was very beautiful.


The remainder of the trip was filled with no sleeping red-eye flights. No one felt like taking any photos, so we have none.

I ended up taking a jumpseat from Salt Lake to Vegas, then taking a jumpseat again from Vegas to JFK. That was the red-eye portion. Then I tried to go to work the next day. Around lunch time I actually went into a conference room and took a little nap.

It was a hard trip but family is always worth it.

The photo album is here.

In Utah, before the family reunion, we...

...fed ducks at a duck pond. You can see Jane trying to get in the water in the background. For her that was the whole point.


...took a walk up onto BYU campus.


...went up to Sundance, a very beautiful place.


...took a family photo.


...shane threw a bottle in the air for me to catch. I did not catch it. I was concentrating on taking the photo. Notice he is off the ground he threw it so hard.


...were told by Hannah that these are the flowers "for when mama gets married". She has already picked out flowers for her own wedding. I'm not sure how she learned that you pick flowers for a wedding at her age. We'll probably discuss the fact that mama is already married in the very near future.


...enjoyed the rain. Jane loves umbrellas. You can see her in the background of this photo. Shortly after this was taken we walked into the bike rental place and she knocked over a bike. I caught the bike with the umbrella between me and th bike. The bike was fine and Jane was fine, but the umbrella didn't make it.

T5

On Sunday we were so tired...

After church I took a little tiny nap and then I was a Chef the rest of the day.
We have had a surplus of eggs and blueberries since our visit to Costco and so I tried Blueberry soufflés. They turned out ok.


I started the dough for these cookies on Saturday and let it sit in the fridge for about a day and a half. The extra time apparently makes them better, I think it definitely helped in this case. These turned out fabulous.

On Saturday we went to...

The ward BBQ and to the park. Minna was away all day taking photos in Patchogue. I'm sure you'll see the fruits of her labor in the next week or so.

I didn't get any BBQ pics. I was busy enough feeding the girls and myself. It was a little easier to keep the girls contained at the park.

On Friday I was not in the office

I went to Governor's Island. I wanted to take some kite photos but it just wasn't the right conditions. So I watched Minna take photos of the girls, and enjoyed the view and the relaxed atmosphere only 800 yards from one of the busiest financial districts in the world.

Check out Minna's photos here and here

My photos are below

Our bike ride tonight

Sometimes it is more work than fun, to have fun. Tonight it was about 50/50. Minna left on her run and we were going to meet at the store. Just after she left Hannah decided that she didn't want to wear her helmet. After negotiating her helmet back on and finally getting the trailer into an elevator that was empty we were on our way. Which was probably 30 minutes after I intended to leave. When Minna finally found us I swear she was about to call 911.

But once we got going it was all worth it. I had fun taking pictures while biking.

Hannah as a plastic bowl because she was sick yesterday and this morning. She threw up yesterday and she'd had a bowl as a constant companion. Don't they look cute in their helmets!

We're pretty sure she doesn't need the bowl anymore, but I think having it makes her feel important. Tonight, as I tucked her in bed, her final goodnight request was, "Can I have a water and a bowl."

Jane had fun too.

I took this photo seconds after I took the above photo.