Road Trip!

Take one car and add five people (two of whom are pregnant) and you could end up with a road trip called disaster. Well, we had our moments on our trip to AZ, CA and back to UT in 7 days but overall it was fabulous and gave me just what I wanted--the chance to be out on the open road and drive through a large land mass surrounded with people I love--and drive to visit precious family members.
Day 1 took us to Southern Utah where we made a brief photo stop at Bryce Canyon then spent the evening in a quaint bed and breakfast inn in Kanab Utah. We had a delightful dinner at the Rockin V Cafe. The food was amazing and the atmosphere was perfect!!!


Kelli & Allison (both pregnant!!! what good sports to join us for the trip.)

Our traditional foot circle--this time on the red rock of southern Utah

Summer contemplating the beauty of nature :)

Summer turns 12

Summer turned 12 and had a blast celebrating with her Utah friends & family. Love you Summie. You are growing into such a beautiful young woman. The party included skating, laser tag, pizza and a private party room with a dj booth complete with music videos. It was a lot of fun!

Summer, Carli & Holly doing their sister dance to "Hot & Cold" in the dj room!

Gorgeous Grampp Girls Allison & Carli (Allison arrived from Minneapolis earlier that week--yeah!!)

Summer, Aspen, Amanda & Abbie

Aspen and Summer in the DJ booth

Summer and Amanda

Abbie and Summer in skates

The whole gang!

Holly & Ed (Ed arrived in Utah in time for the party!!) Notice something different about Holly? She went back to blonde over the Summer. She is a blonde babe once again!

Anisa, Abbie, Summer & Jordan (our good friends drove all the way from St. George to party!)

Earlier in the week I went to lunch @ CPK with Allie & Kelli my beautiful (pregnant!!) daughters.

I was out for a jog during the balloon fest in Sandy and happened to have a camera in the car. This picture doesn't do the magical moment justice. The balloons were closer and more vibrant than they appear in this picture. Later, I ended up jogging by the spot where they were all landing. It was a lot of fun!

Boating and Oral Surgery

A few days after Summer & I arrived in Utah, Holly arrived from Ireland (yes I know, we all want Holly's life! She was invited to Ireland for a visit with her friend Taylor Ribbins who spends her Summers there with her Irish family. She had a fabulous time.) So.... Holly came to Salt Lake City via Dublin!

First order of fun in Utah was a day at Jordanelle on our favorite boat--the Beckstead's Black Pearl. I thoroughly LOVED being up there in the mountains on that beautiful lake and the kids had a blast. Thank you for the fun day!!!
Holly & Carli riding the tube...

Summie fish at home in the water

Holly got up and out of the ice cold water...

Me & Carli... Miss you baby :(

Abbie & Summer... 2 peas in a pod...

Tyler Brunatti catchin some air....

Chillin on the boat after lunch with Car, Ty, Kel, & Mont...

After our day of fun in the sun, we got down to the first order of business which was wisdom teeth removal for Holly AND Carli. They spent a few loopy days on Loritab and kept me busy running up and down the stairs with frozen pea ice packs --and logging miles to and from milkshake runs. It was crazy but I loved taking care of them and they were hilarious! They came through it all beautifully with very little swelling and bruising. Holly's teeth were horizontal so she had lingering pain:(
Fresh out of anesthesia... Love the cotton fangs. Notice it is older sister Carli clinging to Holly for moral support. Holly was totally out of it! I love you Carli & Holly! Glad you went through this together and that you still wanted "Mommy" to take care of you!!!

p.s. Hey Cayman friends have you found a way to get music players back on our blogs? I hate that they blocks us due to our lack of copyright laws. I miss my music!!

Summer Highlights

I love my life! I really do have the best of both worlds--mountains and sea. It was great to spend much of the Summer in Utah and wonderful to return to the beach. So much has happened and so much exciting news to share. I'm going to start at the beginning and blog for a few days about all of the fun and all of the surprises in my family. LIFE IS SOOOO GOOD!!!

July in Utah can you guess where I am? (The music should give it away) Air Supply concert--Sandy Amphitheatre! What a kick. I took my neighbor Ruth Seirup with me--Ed wasn't in town and her husband Bob was watching ManTV with their son

Ruth :)
In order to get her to go I had to assure her there wouldn't be any pot smoking drunks around. Ha! Ha! (We were the wildest girls in the crowd which tells you a lot about the crowd.)

Beautiful Utah my mountain home!!!

We so enjoyed the mountains and mild weather in Utah. I loved running in the shadow of Lone Peak to my old familiar ipod tunes--(it felt fantastic to run hard and fast downhill in the dry air but I was excited for the beach by the time we left.)