Utah Trip- Milcreek Canyon

Monday was such a perfect day!

Started off with a little girls outing. Pedicures, lunch at Costa Vida and shopping at Wood Connection (our tradition) and Tai Pan to pick out some decorations for the Gertsen's newly finished basement...the day was perfect to me!!

Annie and I had never had hot wax before...quite an experience!! Annie thought it was HOT and I really enjoyed it.

Than, later than night, we drove about 15 short minutes up the Milcreek canyon and were in an absolutely beautiful spot to cook hot dogs and make S'mores!

Nature selfie- stick!

Cutest picture of the Gertson's dogs, Maggie and Charlie.

These were gourmet S'mores! 

Andrew insisted on me catching a picture of his stick on fire!

We spotted this tiny critter...thinking initially it was a mouse. It seemed like it was half dead and Andrew fed it and gave it water and tried to bring it back to life. Without touching it, he hung around and played with it for about an hour. Later, after getting home and researching, we are pretty sure it was a baby possum that fell out of the pouch!

Such amazing weather and a perfect evening!!!

Utah- Sunday Dinner

When we come to Utah, Jeannine always finds the love and energy to invite everyone to come over for a huge family dinner. Which means about 30 ppl. It's no small feat, and she somehow makes it look easy. But we always appreciate it and it's awesome to get to see everyone together a couple times a year.

Somehow, Jeannine and Neal were suddenly downstairs wearing matching outfits! Everyone thought that was totally hilarious, apparently Neal bought them about 15 years ago and this was the second time they have worn them! Then, next thing I know, Jaden is trying on one of Pa's Hawaiian shirts. We had to capture a picture because it aged him about 50 years! He thought it was cool though.

The kids always want to play games at the adult table, but they know the rules and so finally, after years of trying to get them to do it, these girls played a card game at their own table for hours!

 I felt like I was part miracle worker but I got some of the Gertson's to smile and pose for a picture!

 

Peyton with her "twin" Brock.

And her Emmi :-)

This is the amazing view of Mount Olympus from Gam & Pa's backyard.

Gam made her famous watermelon ice cream dessert, it's amazing how fast we gobbled that up!

I'm trying to remember how many pounds of chicken Lynda Ann cooked up, but I think she said it was 30 pounds? I don't think I've ever seen that much chicken cooked up for family dinner!

One boy and all girls at the older kids table.

And then one girl and all boys at the younger kids table. Jaden was nice enough to sit with the younger kids.

Cute mother/son picture!

Jeannine bought this huge pack of extremely thick, nice, patriotic paper plates at Costco. She had planned to use them for Sunday dinner. But I told her I KNEW we would come home from Tiffany's house and the table would be set with her China. I was right! She couldn't get herself to use the paper plates LOL. But they definitely came in handy the rest of the week.