Goodbye Connecticut, Hello Vegas!!

I've been procrastinating this post.  Mainly because I can't find the cord that goes from my camera to my computer to download all the great pictures we took of our great friends in CT and our fun trip out here, but I'm also procrastinating because it's hard to say goodbye.  We miss our friends in CT.

Our trip out here was fun and kind of complicated.  I came out early with my sister in law Colleen in the honda.  We did it in 3 1/2 days so we could meet the moving truck so my stuff didn't have to go into storage.   We did great driving and making it here, but our stuff got here a day late.  That wouldn't have been a big deal, except that I was flying out to Minnesota that day to meet up with Justin.  Luckily my flight wasn't until the evening, so it worked out all right.

In Minnesota I met up with Justin and the kids over at Brandon and Kim's house and we had a great time celebrating the 4th with them.  We went to a parade and then swimmming and to fireworks and a concert that night.  It was a lot of fun.  The next day we went to Interstate park and went camping and hiking on the 5th.  Then on the 6th we went canoeing down the St. Croix river.  We all had a great time.  A few canoes tipped over and the boys had an adventure storming mosquito island.  After it all we went out to dinner at Denny's and went back to Brandon and Kim's for the night.  We had church with them and then headed out to Idaho that night.

In Idaho we stayed at our friend's the Peck's.  They very kindly let us stay at their house and we met up with Brandon and Kim and family for most of our meals over at Justin's cousin Kelly's house.  We had a couple of nice visits with grandma and grandpa and then also went out each day on an adventure.   One day we went out to the 17 mile cave which is 17 miles from Idaho falls.  It was really huge and a lot of fun.  We stayed in the big rooms since there were a lot of little kids and it started to get wet as the cave narrowed.  After the cave we went to the Anderson dairy where we all got ice cream cones.  It was delicious.  The next day we went out to the sand dunes in St. Anthony.  They were a lot of fun and the kids had a great time digging, sliding and jumping there.  Afterwards we went to the temple in Rexburg and ate pizza on the grass.  It was a nice afternoon.  After that we all had to go home and take baths.  After we were cleaned up we went to grandma's for another nice visit, had dinner at kellys and went to my cousin Melissa's house for dessert.  We had a really nice visit.  At each house we went to, I was really struck by the sweet kids.  All had just great teenagers and they got along really well with my kids.  It was fun.

On our way to Vegas from Idaho, we stopped in Salt Lake to visit with Ryan and Barb, Kristy and James and Kami and Brian.  It was fun to catch up and see everyone.  It was the first time we met little James, Ryan and Barb's little baby.

After we made it to Vegas, Colleen was still here and had cleaned and unpacked a few things for us.  She also had arranged for my cousin Jana to give us a dryer and got it all hooked up for us.  That was really nice.  Colleen and Matt stayed at our house for a few days while Colleen's family had a reunion in Vegas.  We unpacked as quickly as possible and were ready for company the next week.  Maia and Kendall came on the 18th and my mom and dad came the day after.  We had planned to go camping up at MT.  Charleston, but there was a forest fire so we were unable to camp there.  Instead we stayed at my house.  We went to the Springs Preserves on Saturday and had a birthday party for Michelle and Kate that night. We went out to hoover dam and lake mead on Monday.  That was fun, but unfortunately after that Colleen got some bad news about her sister.  She had died and they had to make arrangements to go back for her funeral.  It was pretty sad.  Matt and Colleen went to Boston the next night and the rest of us went to a spray park and came home and watched movie.  The next day we went to the old mormon fort, had a picnic and came home on time for Maia and Kendall to go on their way to the Greene reunion in Las Angeles.

It was really nice to see so many people in so short a time.  I'm so grateful for my family and for the knowledge we have about life after death.