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7/13/2008

Home Sweet Home

In case you thought I caught a life threatening disease, you can rest assured that we were just on vacation. The world's BEST vacation in fact. We spent the last week and half in Utah and Idaho visiting with friends and family. There's nothing like a 15 hour road trip to break in the new car. I do have to say that my kids were great little troopers for all 3o hours there and back. We only had to stop and pee on the side of the road once and the biggest melt down lasted about 2 minutes when Nate woke up in the middle of his nap and his neck hurt.

So as not to over whelm you with all the pictures I took -- and yes, you will have to scroll through all of them, no photo montage skills here -- I'll divide our trip into two parts. And also because I am so tired I don't think I can get them all up tonight. So without further ado -- Our trip to Utah.

We spent two days in Provo where we attempted to brain wash the kids, and hang out with Casey -- Dustin's younger brother -- and his wife, Sarah. We hung out downtown for Freedom Days, went swimming, Sadie chased around poor Nevilleplayed games, took the kids up to BYU and tried to convince them that this is where they should go to college. Who can name the sculpture we're standing in front of?
And of course we went to Stadium of Fire where we saw Glenn Back, Blue Man Group and Mylie Cyrus.
We had so much fun in Provo and as soon as we started pulling away, the kids started crying because they didn't want to leave Casey, Sarah and Neville. We were then on our way to far away Pleasant Grove -- in case you don't know UT geography they're 2 freeway exits apart, to see our college friends the Casabars.Me and my BFF, Holly ;D

We became really good friends when we all lived in Union Square after we got married and lucky for us, she was happy to have us all come crash with them for a few days despite being pregnant -- cutest pregnant person ever! They even threw a BBQ for everyone in town from our Union Square days. It was so fun to see everyone 6 years later. We moved to AZ right after Ellie was born and a few people had one baby but look at what happened in 6 years. If you can believe it, there are actually a few kids missing.

It was so fun to see everyone and tell stories. It was amazing how many stories I had forgotten. My cute neighbor Katie had to remind me of the time I slowly took things out of her apartment waiting to see how long it would take her to notice because we were always laughing about how unobservant she was. She never did and I had to bring her over to show her the stash of things I had taken. And Holly reminded me of the time she and Damon flooded our apartment -- while they were in the shower.Carrie, Lara, Pauline, Megan, Me, Holly, Joni and Katie
The boys.

The rest of the days at the Casabars were spent making smores, watching movies, trying to get the kids to fall asleep, playing farklein case you don't know how to play farkle, this roll is worth 3ooo points

breaking into houses, going to church, staying up late and just hanging out having a good time. The kids loved each other -- especially the girls. It made me laugh that they wanted the same hair style every day.
Also, please note how gorgeous her little boys smile and what a stinker mine is!
And now, if you can stand a few more pictures, I'll finish up our Utah half of the vacation. We finally had to pack our car and say good bye. Once again the kids cried and cried and cried until we made it to Tasha's house. She fed us some lunch on our way up to Idaho. Tasha ditched us a few months ago to move back to Utah and it hasn't been the same without her. Especially this summer! My kids miss hers so much and the 1st day of School won't be the same without the two of us driving the girls up together. How often do you luck out and have a friend with kids the exact same age and gender as yours?Macey and Sadie are 2 months apart. Sadie's older if you can believe it.Tanner and Nate are 6 months apartand Ashley and Ellie are a little over a month apart.

Exhausted yet? Sick of pictures? Too bad because there's more! But just a huge thanks to everyone in Utah who made our trip there so much fun. It was so much fun. I love and miss you all! It almost makes me want to move there just to hang out with you guys all the time. Note that I said almost.

21 comments:

Sarah said...

Maddy, could you email me your pics from Stadium of fire? I didn't have my camera and I wanted a big enough file that I could print them out and burn them for my sister Rachel (my fam is really bad about bringing cameras)

Sarah said...

Oh I want so pics from all us hanging out too, just email me any that involve being in provo with us. heheh

Lara Neves said...

K, the side of the road pic is HILARIOUS!

I still think it is so great that you gave your kids a tour of BYU. Love it. I hope they make the right decision.

It was way fun to see you, and everyone else!

And while people are asking for pictures...if you want to email me the pictures you took of Sophie and Sadie, I wouldn't be sad.

lalakme at gmail dot com.

Sarah said...

Woohoo!! Maddy's home and blogging! Looks like you guys had a great time. We missed you!! Ann and I have made that trip so many times with the kids. One roadside pee stop would be like a dream. A certain young man...ahem Ben...has the smallest bladder ever and we are stopping all along the hwy every 30 minutes to pee. Consider yourself lucky!

Amy F. said...

Thanks for chatting, even though you were super busy and probably so tired!
You make family road trips look super fun, so I can't wait (Dax and I are attempting one next week...). Those kind of visits are the best, getting to see everyone. Ok, my friends and I all got late starts on kids, because I'm only like 1 yr younger than you and that was a TON of kids!!
Glad all went well, and I'm glad you're back. Lets try to go see Janel and her new house -call me!! (or I'll call you, whoever calls first ;)

Holly said...

We had a blast with you here! It was seriously wonderful seeing your cute family, and watching our kids become great little friends! Bria really misses Ellie!!!
So, yeah...we flooded you...did you HAVE to put that in your post? I can't believe you forgot about that! I think we tried to avoid seeing you out of pure embarrassment for quite awhile:) I think the best part about that story was your messages on our answering machine! So stinkin funny!!! You guys are the greatest and are welcome anytime! And...I'm so glad the bbq turned out, even though everyone ditched us for their families...but whatever! We had fun without them, right? Miss you already!

Lisa Brown said...

Oh, I would love to take my kids to Utah to show them BYU :) - and convince them to go there, of course. It sounds like you had a fabulous time visiting friends.

Kaelene said...

I'm so glad you had a great time! Those kinds of trips make childhood worth it! LOVE the roadside photo, by the way! :)

Dave, Bonnie, and Taten said...

Thanks for sharing. I can see why you loved BYU so much. It looks like you had a fantastic group of friends. Your trip looks super fun. I guess we can look forward to your post of the 2nd half of your trip. There is no way that blogging would have been the 1st thing on my list when I got home from a long long road trip. Glad you had fun.

Chelsea said...

Soooo much to say. Let's see if I can remember all my thoughts.
First: I SOOOOOO knew it was you guys. Nice trying to act like it wasn't you two! You two are so funny.

So glad you are back. I was hoping you could have just swung by Tx when you were in Utah. ;)

Nice buns!! I wish it was easier for girls to just stop on the side of the road. My dad always made us pee in a cup. Classy...

How awesome to go visit so much friends and family. I miss Utah. It's been too long. It made me miss it seeing all your pics with the canyon in the background.

And you should do that memory thing Sarah and Ann are doing. I bet you would have some fun ones since you guys started all the reminising this past week!

Can't wait for the rest of the pics!

Kat said...

I'm glad you had a good time! Can't wait for the second half :) Isn't is so nice up there in the summer, and that you can be outside at night?! Enjoyed the pics.
Oh ya- seriously- you didn't know who won yet? How could you hide from the truth for a whole week??

Anonymous said...

Fun photos! I love the side of the road pic- that's hysterical!

Welcome back!

Casey said...

Fun trip! Nice a**!! And yes I'm still pregnant, and not happy about it one bit!

Lisa said...

great pic of your arse maddy!! glad you had a great time!! where's the pic of the new buick?

Sara said...

Um . . . I thought I was your Union Square BFF. I always knew Holly was cooler than me! I'm sad we missed the reunion. Darn it. We were in Provo two days later. I'm glad I got to live it thru blogger.

Amber said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
laura said...

nice butts! :)

dang - that's a lot of kids!!!

looks like you had a great time! :)

Dustin said...

ok who has a cuter toosh...Nate or Madelyn?

Dustin

Amber said...

How fun is that! Sounds and looks like you guys really enjoyed yourselves. Oh my, 30 hours in the car with three kids! Very brave!!! The longest that we have drove with the kids is 8 hours, and that is when we only had two. I am already so extremley nervous about taking a 4 hour drive this weekend with three! You guys are AMAZING! If times get a little tough this weekend, I will remember your 30 hour drive that you survived lol.

Kathleen said...

how does this have 19 comments??

that is a cute dog.

i feel like i have seen enough of nate's butt crack/ nate peeing in weird locations for a life time.

kyle cannot name that statue and he has been a BYU student for like 80 years. he says MAYBE it is the "tree of life."

i see trampolining was not important to you as you had already done it with your union square peeps.

MISS YOU!

The Bullocks said...

What a fun Vacation. I honestly had so much fun catching up with you. I wish we there was more time for us to have a girls night. Please be sure and call me the next time you guys are in town.