Road Trips!

Hey, family! Let's go on a road trip!
Car wash first! Then lots of driving!

Let's go on a road trip to Wyoming!
Lunch at Independence Rock? Let's do it.

Uh oh. We didn't make it before Independence Day which is what the landmark was named for. Groups from both the Oregon Trail and pioneers from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints tried to make it there before Independence Day so that they wouldn't be caught in the snows later in the season.
Of course we had a van and we were going the opposite direction and I couldn't stop thinking about the video game we grew up with- Oregon Trail. I wasn't worried about anybody in our party getting sick or dying along the way. And our lunch was in the cooler. We didn't have to shoot a buffalo and only be able to carry some of its meat back. Ham from the grocery store is much easier. Man, life is good.

Let's go on a road trip to Montana!
It really is nice to have air-conditioning in our van. Even if we got to the hotel after midnight, it only took us a day to get to our destination from Utah. And our kids are good travelers, although a long day in the van plus too much junk food isn't the best on someone's tummy. Yay for cool air in the room.

Let's go on a road trip to North Dakota!
Never been to North Dakota before? That's okay. Neither have we. Oh, now we have. It's nice that there's a reservoir so close to the border so we had time to take a morning to find some new birds- never seen a brown thrasher before, now I've seen many- and throw rocks in the water. We also saw male and female orchard orioles.

Let's go on a road trip back to Montana...
so Jeremy can finish up his amazing balloon scene. A cowboy snoozing in the desert with landscape and animals around. Love it.

Let's go on a road trip back to Wyoming!
Good thing we went to church in a little branch 2 1/2 hours into the drive. It gave us a chance to dry off after loading the van in a downpour.

After church, we enjoyed the scenery on the drive.

Time to visit cousins! We love you guys. Thanks for letting us crash at your place overnight and play and talk all day.

Let's go on a road trip back to Utah!
Just in time to celebrate National Root Beer Float Day on August 6. Yumm!

Let's go on a road trip to Monticello!
Yeah, we'll stay in Utah this time. Such a short 5-hour drive.

Too bad someone got a bug bite that made his hand puffy and scared Mommy. Thankfully my dad was able to give me some advice over the phone that made me worry less. Also thankfully I was able to get hold of a local bishop who was able to find someone who was working across the street from our motel to come right over to help Jeremy give Jr. Jr. a blessing- also helped me to worry less. He's fine.
The fellow that helped us out even checked with us after church on Sunday to see how our little boy was doing.
The church building we went to was right next to the temple in Monticello.

Let's go on a road trip back to home!
Just in time for the neighborhood ice cream social the night we got back...

and the annual juggler's BBQ the next day.
The boys again enjoyed bouncing on the bounce house, several of us enjoyed some juggling practice (reminds me of my college days), and we all enjoyed food.

Road trips are fun! And exhausting! But we survived. Go, us!

Vernal Holly Days

The day after Thanksgiving we celebrated in Vernal.  Jeremy was working at Vernal Holly Days so our whole family made the trip.  It is often very cold while Jeremy is there, but this time the weather was warm- the warmest Jeremy's ever experienced for Vernal Holly Days he told me.
We still dressed warmly in case it got cold.  That meant that when we went indoors to the bounce houses, I got to hold a lot of gear besides shoes- hats, scarves, gloves, etc.

There were a lot of activities at the event. 

 
Plenty during the day and plenty after the sun went down.

They had their parade of lights.  One float was from Dinosaur National Monument which we went to in August.

We also got to watch fire dancers.

And ride on a camel.

And close the balloon line for Jeremy.  Jr. Jr. loved getting to wear the "line closed" vest.

There was definite silliness going on

including dancing

and shadow puppets lip syncing to the holiday music that was playing.

 
On the way home, Jeremy and I switched off driving a couple times.  By the time we got to Heber, Jeremy had been driving but I was still not capable of driving at all so Jeremy stopped at Walmart to wake himself up by walking around and getting something to help him stay awake the last leg of the journey.
The kids and I slept in the van.  When Jeremy got back to the van, he showed me what else he bought- a couple movies that were still on Black Friday sale.  $4 each.  And he didn't have to deal with crowds.  Ha Ha.  That's how we do things.

We made it home really late and really tired.

Luckily the next day was Saturday so we were able to sleep in.  Phew.
It was a long day.