We loved our trip to Utah this summer. First was a few days spent visiting John's family. We stayed at his parents' house, had a family dinner at Millie's house, visited Norma at her new house, visited Grandma Lucas, the girls sang in my parents' ward, and we had lunch with John's parents and visited Spencer's grave.
We then took a short drive up through the corner of Wyoming to Bear River Lodge for our Christmas present trip with my parents. They rented this beautiful cabin for all of us, and two of these cool 6 seat side-by-sides. There are miles and miles of off road trails around there. It was pretty spectacular to go up there.
The little ones had to have a helmet. Holland in a big helmet is about the cutest thing ever.
The first day we got up there, we went on an excursion up to Lym Lake with David and Patti's family and my parents.
Someone found the perfect set of reindeer antlers. :) It was so pretty up there.
It was a beautiful little picnic area. We prepped that meal of BLTs with watermelon.
Then we drove up a rocky trail to Elizabeth Ridge. It was windy and chilly and absolutely breathtaking.
Luke lost his hat off the edge of this drop off and actually went down after it through patches of snow in just slip on shoes. He actually was able to recover his hat, but I am sure glad I wasn't his mom in this moment.
The other way was this beautiful field of mountain wildflowers and a lovely view of the Uintahs.
I haven't been up to the Uintahs since before we got married. It is gorgeous. We should have done more of that when we lived in Utah!
We drove along Elizabeth ridge back to the main dirt road.
Those off road vehicles were really fun. My only problem was that the seats couldn't move and my legs weren't quite long enough to reach the pedals comfortably to drive, which meant I didn't drive a ton, which is just fine with me. :)
Here is the fancy cabin my parents rented. I love that my kids are such good friends with their cousins.
My dad brought up his fourwheelers too. It was nice that so many of us could go out at the same time.
Lym Lake. So pretty. It got a little cold on the drives so we have coats and things, but really once we were stopped it was nice.
This was before John didn't help me get the bug out of my ear while we were driving. That almost ended our marriage. ;-)
Miriam and her bouquet of dandelions.
The cabin was overlooking a valley through which runs the bear river. They also have a couple of ponds at the bottom of the valley. One night we walked down there. It turns out Luke is turning into a bit of a daredevil.
The pond was really fun mainly because we saw a beaver! Or maybe two?? Ah, that girl! She's a doll!
I am not sure why all of my kids like to do this with their hands. It's pretty good though.
Cousins together on the 4 wheelers! This was such a chill, fun vacation. Yummy food and playing at the cabin and awesome exploring to do.
She never drove this 4 wheeler, but she rode on the back. :)
The wildflowers were magnificent. Oh, and I was there too.
Ellie and I had a quick turn on the 4 wheeler too.
Here is the trail we went up.
We saw a beaver dam. Eliza is so cute. She gets so happy about little things.
Miri girl had a chance to go with Daddy.
One night we went with Grandpa up to Lily Lake. It was a long drive, but so pretty!
I love the flowers on the lily pads.
I couldn't get enough of how picturesque this lake was.
Holland loved the blue wildflowers right outside of our cabin.
Many bouquets were picked.
You can kind of see the river and the ponds from the deck of the cabin. What a view!
Peek-a-boo!
One of my favorite parts was staying up late playing Hand and Foot Tournaments. Some of the kids are even getting old enough to learn how to play. Eliza learned, but Miriam wasn't interested.
I spy...some cute little girls.
On our last day we went on a drive to one of the Uintah Lakes. It was surprisingly crowded, but gorgeous. There are so many lakes that we passed. Again, why didn't we visit more when we lived in Utah??
Cutie Pies!
Our kids had so much fun exploring. We played and had a picnic, it was such a nice day.
I feel so blessed that my parents makes these vacations happen for us. It was wonderful.
On our way home we got caught in a hailstorm going south by Park City. We also stopped by our old apartment in Orem. We decided to split our drive into 2 days which was so nice! We stopped by the cheap Virgin River Casino in Mesquite and wanted to go swimming, but it turns out someone had vomited in the pool...yikes. So we went to Cafe Rio instead. When we went to bed that night, this was how the girls had gone to sleep. :) Oh Holland. :) What a great trip!
