Summer Vacation (Part 1)

***disclaimer**

*lots of pictures and lots of narration*

On June 17th, Chad and I packed up the car and headed out for our month long family vacay. WHEW! It was a lot to prepare for.

lots of driving,

lots of eating out,

lots of driving,

lots of family,

lots of site seeing,

and did I mention lots of driving?
First we drove from Kansas to Utah. I had 2 cousins getting married, my nephew's birthday, and Chad's brother was blessing their sweet baby.

We arrived Thursday, June 17th. My awesome Uncle Rick and Aunt Sherrie own a condo in Midway, Utah, and so graciously let us stay here. The girls had a blast and so did we. Thank you Uncle Rick and Aunt Sherrie for sharing your gorgeous condo with us. It is amazingly beautiful up there!!! Chad and I always say how we couldn't live in Utah long term, however, every time we go back there I am in awe of the beautiful mountains and the gorgeous evening weather. I LOVE how it just cools down at night.

The post will be long, my apologies. I'll try to break them up throughout the next few days. ;)

DAY ONE: Alpine Slides

I can't count on both hands how many times we've been to Utah and NEVER have been to the Alpine Slides. OH.MY.GOODNESS. If you've never done this, it is a must! We had such a blast we didn't want to leave. We went with my Dad and Mom, sister Kelli, sister Kari and her hubby Brandon and their sweet bebe, Krew. We also met up with one of my besties, Shayna and her sweet children. We all had so much fun!


Rylee and Asher-- Rylee honestly thinks Asher is the funniest human being on the face of this planet. She will repeat his funny jokes over and over again for days.
Charlie exploring or trying to escape......what's the difference?

Here comes Mama Bluth, down the slopes

And here comes my sister Kelli, holding up the line a little ;)

Sister Kari, classy as always

And here comes my dad.... the speed demon

Rylee and myself about to head up on the coaster ride. This was by FAR my most favorite! Had to do it over and over again!

Here are all the trouble makers. I love how Violet and Charlie and checking each other out.

DAY TWO: Wedding Day

This day was definitely one of the funnest days of the trip. We did have to get the kiddos up early and drive them from Midway to West Jordan to my dear friend Shayna's house. She was such a trooper. We were going to be attending 2 weddings and a luncheon that day, so we ponded the kids off on her. She was probably ready to pull her hair out by the time we picked them up. Thank you so much Shay. You truly are the best.

After we dropped them off we drove to the Salt Lake Temple for the 9:30 am wedding, to see my gorgeous cousin, Brianna and her darling hubby Eric. It was a beautiful ceremony. His father actually performed the ceremony! He is a member of the seventy for our church. What an amazing experience for them. I always enjoy going to sealings!

Me, my Auntie Pam and Chad

My Auntie Aundrea (mother of the bride) with her other 3 daughters

Mother and Father of the bride

Auntie Aundrea with her daddy (my grandpa)

Grandpa Bob, Shaunelle, and my Daddy

After the pictures we went to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building for Eric and Brianna's wedding luncheon. I have 3 words for you ---Lion House Rolls--- Holy Cow!!! Those things are dangerous. Did you know that they sale them at Deseret Book?!? Oh ya baby!
Cute girls patiently awaiting the food
After the luncheon we went right back over to the temple to attend my hunk of cousin Tosh and his too cute for words bride, Angela's sealing. These two are adorable. It was so fun to see Tosh. I haven't seen him in YEARS. They are so happy together!

It's so fun to go to the temple grounds and see all these brides and grooms getting married. ***I told Chad I want to come to SLC every June on a Saturday and just watch all the newly married couples come out of the temple.*** It's seriously so much fun. All the brides are gorgeous, the grooms are total studs and bridesmaids are too cute! I wish I could get married all over again. ;)

Yes, I was that random stalker photographer going around taking pictures of adorable brides and grooms.

My mom and her brother, my Uncle Brad. Okay, and doesn't he look like Tim McGraw? All he needs is his signature black cowboy hat and he's good to go!

My cousins Jessica and Melissa and my sister Kelli

My sweet grandma and her husband Jim are standing in the middle along with my Uncle Brad and Aunt Vanese

The Happy Couple

After the picture taking for wedding #2, we drove back to West Jordan to save Shayna some of her sanity. =) We got to her home, changed the kiddos clothes, did their hair, and headed to Alpine for Brianna and Eric's reception.

But first, here are some pictures I borrowed from Shayna's blog. These are some of the things the kids were up to while we were gone.....

Charlie and Violet already "parking"

And here is the wedding reception for Brianna and Eric. What a CUTE theme! I was dying. Knowing how much I love a party, I took as many pictures as I could. They did this adorable vintage theme and served yummy sweets and soft serve ice cream!!! Too cute, right? Here are the pictures............

When the reception was over and it was time for the bride and groom to leave, Brianna changed out of her wedding dress in to this adorable dress. SO.CUTE.

DAY THREE: Brunch, Baby Blessing and Family Dinners

Sunday morning my awesome Uncle Rick and amazing Aunt Sherrie came up to have brunch with us. OH.MY.GOODNESS. Can you say YUMMMMM!!!!! I have never seen so much food in my LIFE! Seafood, omlets, fruit, crepes, pancakes, waffles, bacon, sausage, and a table that was about 20 feet long dedicated just to DESSERTS! Wow! To say I left completely satisfied would be an understatement. =)

Here is my cousin, Nick and his wife Lauren. She is from Flinstone, Georgia and is the sweetest thing you will ever meet.

Excited to go eat some yummy food!

Aunt Sherrie and Uncle Rick

After our brunch, we drove down to Spanish Fork to meet up with Chad's family. Troy and his wife Jana were blessing their #2 baby, Samuel. Chad's parents came down, along with his sister Erika and brother Cole. We were also blessed to see his sister Bev as well. After the blessing, we went back to Troy and Jana's house to chow down on some food. They have such an adorable home! It is always so fun to get together with Chad's family. Each one of them is quick witted and so funny, it's hard to not wet your pants when you are around them. I adore this family!! I'm sad that I forgot my camera, however, I did borrow some pictures from Troy and Jana's blog . =) The kids had fun playing with their cousin Olivia and getting wagon rides from Grandpa and Uncle Cole.

Here are Troy and Jana with their daughter, Olivia and new addition, Samuel

After a lovely time with the Withers clan, we drove up to Brigham City, Utah and got together for another eating fest with my mom's side of the family. Because we didn't get to go the reception for Tosh and Angela, we wanted to make sure we came up to visit with this fun side of the family as well. And boy how I have missed them. We ate, visited and great grandma had a pinata for all her great-grandchildren. There was fun had by all!

Daddy with sweet Krew

Aunt Vicki with her son Shane

Vanese and Brad

All the great-grandchildren thus far. What's nice about being one of the oldest cousins, is that you get to see all these children grow and get to know each other. I can't wait to see what the future has in store and how many more great-grandchildren there will be the next time we get together!

Trying to get a picture of Charlie and Jim. And of course Charlie is "being himself"

My sister's little boy Krew and all my bebe's. All we were missing was Boston. We missed you Karlee and Kent!

It was SO good to be able to see so many family and friends while we were out in Utah. Thank you all for making our stay there absolutely glorious. We miss you already!

There are a few more events that took place while we were in Utah, but that is going to have to wait. My hands are cramping and my eyes are closing. So for now, I'm signing off. Good night.