Family Vacation - Utah part 1

A few weeks ago we took our annual summer vacation to visit family. I drove up with the kids so that I could be in Utah with my family while Trent stayed home to work. I was very nervous driving 7 hours without Trent and taking care of 3 kids in a house that is not baby proofed, but all went well (that is if you don't count Blake getting into the knife drawer as an incident). We had a fabulous time. Grandma and Grandpa have a way of making every little thing fun. My mom was reading a Nancy Drew book with the kids that took place in a jungle, so my mom took us on a walk through the "jungle" to a park.

-Our walk through the "jungle" (really a horse trail)

At the park we played, ate a snack and then grandma taught the girls how to roll down the big hill.

-My mom rolling down the hill

We played in the backyard almost every waking second. Swinging on the hammock with grandma and grandpa, swimming in the hot tub, playing on the play set, and getting to see a snake in the middle of the backyard, which has never happened before. It was about 4 feet long just slithering along. The kids wanted to touch it, but we didn't know what kind it was so I wouldn't let them. We later found out that it was a gopher snake.

We had to take a trip to the zoo since we don't have a good one where we live. The kids loved everything about it! I think Blake takes after my dad because he especially loved the bird show.

The gorilla would walk up to Ashlyn, look at her and then turn his back and sit there. I thought that maybe he didn't like the picture of Curious George on her shirt. He was fascinated by Avery though. He kept trying to touch her face with his face through the glass.

After the trip to the zoo we drove the kids to see the first place that Trent and I lived when we got married. It was a teeny tiny basement apartment across the street from East High School where they filmed the High School Musical movies.

-Ashlyn in front of East High jumping like they do in the movie.

We can't have a visit to Utah without having a play date with our great friends. We have so much fun together and we're so glad that it worked out that we could see each other even if it was only for a few hours.

We always have a blast when we visit family. This post only covers the first weekend of the trip. Many more exciting things happened while we were on vacation. Stay tuned for more.