I've Been Everywhere, Man!

We recently drove to Eastern Idaho and Utah to visit some family and friends that we haven't seen in a while. We were able to take about a week and a half for our trip and we really had a great time. We started out visiting a couple of my sisters, Whitney and Shayne, and Wally's brother, Nick, in Idaho. We had a fun time with all of them and showed our kids our old stomping ground, Ricks College (now BYU-Idaho). We played at the splash park, rode the carousel, and ate dinner at Craigo's, where Brandon was so tired he could hardly stay awake for the meal! We drove up to Mesa Falls the next day, and Nick's wife, Angie, showed us where an old train tunnel was that we could hike through. It was really fun being in the mountains and hiking around.

After spending time in Rexburg, we drove down to Idaho Falls and spent some time with our good friends from Pennsylvania, Natalie and Corrie Nichol. We taught them how to play Carcassonne, have a great bbq, and let our kids play for a while. Unfortunately we couldn't stay long and after saying our good-bye's, we headed on down to Utah where spent the next few days with my sister, Kelby and her family. While we were in Utah Valley, we went to BYU, saw a bunch of friends from PA (the Gee's, Katy Knight, and Dan Heist), and hit a few of the water parks around the area.

We caught up with Wally's sister, Danelle, and her family one day and hiked up to the Timpanogos Caves. It was a tough hike, but the caves were pretty cool and we were really proud of Kelsie for hiking the whole way by herself. After our hike, we drove to Bountiful where we stayed with Wally's brother, Christian, and his family. We had fun swimming again with cousins and went to the Handcart Days parade and fireworks.

The next morning we drove to a cabin near Evanston, WY where we met most of the rest of Wally's family. We spent t he last few days of our vacation at the cabin where we got to visit, relax, and ride motorcycles and the 4-wheeler. Kelsie was especially proud of herself for learning how to drive the 4-wheeler, and I did an impressive jump off the motorcycle when I tried to drive straight up a hill. We had a really great time visiting all of our cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and friends. The time seemed to fly by and we were ready to head home.

All in all it was a really great trip, but as it goes, every good trip has to have a little downside to it also. On our last day, Kelsie and Brandon caught some kind of bug and were sick with the stomach flu, throwing up and sleeping most of the day. Luckily, it turned out to be only a 24-hour bug, but unluckily we passed it on to some other family members. We're all fine now and happy to be home. We had a great time playing with cousins and visiting with family from both sides of our family.