Epic Vacation part one

We finally returned last week from a really wonderful and really long vacation.
The kids and I headed out on the open road on Friday June 18th.
Our first stop...Roswell, NM. It's only a few hours from here and we've driven through many times. This time we decided to hit some of the crazy tourist spots. So we went to the Alien museum and you can see how excited Colton is about that.


It was pretty cheesy but Kirsten actually really liked it.

I let her use our old camera and she took tons of pictures. Unfortunately, the camera stopped working by about Day 3 so I don't have any of her pictures.

I'm not sure what this horse has to do with Aliens but thought it was a good picture spot.


Oooh scary...


Our next stop was one of my best friend's from high school, Lauri's house. I didn't take any pictures the first time we were there but we came back on the way home. Kirsten absolutely loved playing with Lauri's 5 year old daughter, Jocelyn and I loved staying up until midnight talking just like old times.

The next morning we were back on the road heading for Moab. On the way we stopped at some Aztec Ruins.




Kirsten had to be my eyes on this stop since I wasn't going to risk Colton tearing down thousands of years worth of history by letting him loose. So she took her camera all over, taking pictures and then bringing it back to show me. Let me just say I could not have done this trip without Kirsten. She was such a big help and made the trip so much more fun just to have her there to talk to.






The GPS took me a different way this time to Utah and it was so much more beautiful than it normally is, which I was very grateful for.


Next stop...Moab.

We had so much fun there. We just walked all over town, ate pizza and muffins and swam at the hotel. Well, actually Kirsten swam and only for about 10 minutes because the water was cold.

The next day we went to Arches.
This was as close as we got to the famous arch.






I have a lot of pictures of the kids in the stroller, this is why. I let them out for one second and I had to chase Colton down past all of the Europeans looking at me like I was crazy.




After Moab we headed up to Provo to stay with Geoff and Alayna. I don't know why I don't take any pictures of the people we stayed with. I guess I was either too busy making sure Colton didn't destroy anything or I was having too much fun chit chatting, either way I don't have a picture of them. Kirsten was so excited to see Uncle Geoff and Aunt Alayna. It was great to hang out with them for a couple of days. While I was there my Nauvoo friends put on a little reunion. It was so fun to see these people I hadn't seen in years. We went out to eat and did some traditional crazy random things. I wish I could've spent more time with them. I don't have any pictures of that either but I'm expecting to get some from those who actually brought there cameras. hint hint.

The next morning we went up to Boise. On the way I saw a sign for a waterfall in Twin Falls. So we decided to follow it to see what it was about. Who knew Twin Falls had a waterfall? Now the name makes sense. We were just driving along through neighborhoods and then there it was. I could not believe how beautiful it was.

Kirsten getting a closer look.







We drove by the brand new Twin Falls Temple on the way out of town.


That night we had so much fun swimming in the pool at the hotel and watching cake shows. Up until this point Jonathan was at scout camp. We weren't able to talk to him for a few days, because he was out in the middle of nowhere, which is longer than I've gone without talking to him in 9 years. It was really awful and we missed him like crazy. So we were so happy to be able to talk to him again on our way to Boise. The next morning we got up and set out to Great Grandma and Grandpa Townsend's house.

Grandma and Nathan were so nice to swim with Kirsten in the freezing water.




Everyone tried to get Colton to go in but it was just too cold.


This was as close as he would get. It's ok mommy was a chicken too.


I always loved going to Grandma and Grandpa's house when I was a kid (actually I still really love it) and my kids loved it so much too. They swang on the swings, played with gus, watched Toy Story, and ate Grandma's delicious pancakes. We also got to see Uncle Karl and Aunt Jana and Uncle Scot and Aunt Nancy. We love seeing them all so much.
We got to talk to Grandpa too. Kirsten told him that she is named after his mom, Grandma Rose, because we love him so much.

It makes me sad that Kirsten won't remember Grandpa Townsend the way I remember his mom. But She loves him anyway and I love him too even if he can't talk to us.

I love this picture of my grandma and grandpa.


To be continued...