UTAH!

So we're on vacation now and having a BLAST!!! Friday we left at 1:00, just as I promised! Aaron met me out on the street (he was so impatient that he started walking!) and we were on our way! We went to Vegas Friday night and hung out with my sister and her boyfriend for a while, and went to dinner with them and two of my friends who I knew from when I lived in Vegas. I decided that I was oh-so-sick of my hair, so my fabulous sister, Dixie, cut it for me. She's my younger sister and has been cutting my hair since I was 15 or 16. I've seriously only been to maybe 2 other people in the past 10 years! I usually ask her to just trim it so I can keep the length, but I was sooo sick of my hair that I told her to chop it! I took before pics, but those are on Aaron's phone, but here's the after pics! It's so cute! I totally love it!

Saturday we picked up these two cuties

This is Jacob, the 2nd to the oldest, and my little protege! When he was a baby and I would be babysitting him people would ask all the time if he was my kid, since he has red hair and is so cute!

Gabriel is just below Jacob, and I went with my brother and sister in law on a cruise, and we took Gabriel when he was about 5 months old. Raquel, my sister in law and his mom, told him the story about the cruise, so now he asks her to "tell me the story of me and aunt Savannah and the boat!"

They are 2 of my brothers son's. He had to work, and his wife had a conference in Idaho, so we jumped at the chance to take their kids to Utah with us! Their older brother came up about 5 days before we did, and the youngest brother will be getting here tonight! My sister Rachel is about 30 minutes away, and the kids are just dying to see her and her 3 kids! Saturday was filled with playing at parks, throwing water balloons, playing volleyball, and playing a family favorite of ours, "Annie-I-Over". It's been around for years, my niece asked me how I learned it, and I've known it since I can remember! Sunday we all went to church where my niece, Jordan, spoke in church. It was a great program of praising fathers, of which I have the best ever! We always have a big lunch on sundays, and then the rest of the day was spent playing more volleyball in the backyard, and other things. My family has a hotel, so we had to come down and clean some rooms, and Aaron got his first taste of being a maid! He wasn't sure who to listen to though, because me and my sister Heather kept telling him different things to do! We got it done and went home for root beer floats. We played the game of life with a bunch of the nephews and my brother in law, and the kids headed off to bed early, they were so tuckered out!

Monday (today) most of the kids had swimming lessons from about 7:30 am to about 2:30 pm, so it was my two nieces, Jordan and Isabella, and my nephew Gabriel. We all cleaned the house as a surprise for my mom, and then Aaron and I went to lunch with one of my old roommates that I grew up with and went to college with. It was great fun, and when we got home one of my other sisters, Heidi was here!

Not the greatest picture...she looks like the long-neck off of "The Land Before Time", but I'm sure we'll be getting better pics! The kids decided to take Aaron on for a game of Monopoly, which I was ok with, because I really don't like that game! It's his favorite, but I haven't played with him yet. Hopefully he'll get his fill here and won't want to play again until New Years when we come back here! The game started out with about 7 people, then dwindled down to 4, and then ended up between Aaron and Jordan.

Aaron has always won, but Jordan beat him! I was so happy for her! She's super cute, and is definately in the #1 spot for favorite niece! Tomorrow we're going to a place called "Willis Creek" (pronounced "crick", which rhymes with hick!), Wednesday we're going to Bryce Canyon to have a big picnic and birthday party for my nephew Parker (pics to come in following blogs when I actually get some!) and Thursday is the day we're all gearing up for, where we go to Pine Lake, and go fishing, playing, romping, maybe a little swimming (depending on how slimy the lake is) and then we have a big cook-out at the end. We're planning on being there all day so I'm sure I'll get some great pics! Last year we went for just a few hours and Aaron showed me how to gut a fish. I told him I would do it when I have rubber gloves on, so I'm sure we'll be doing a bit of grilling too! Anyways, here's just a bunch of random pics of my adorable nieces and nephews, and we'll be updating in a few days!

Check out that carpet! My parents built this house about 30 years ago, and it is so vintage! It has a hodgepodge of random bright shaggy carpet squares downstairs in the play room, and the rest of the downstairs and the stairs have the orange stuff that's off to the right hand side. After much convincing they re-carpeted the upstairs, but we were all kind of sad to see our carpet go. In the office there was bright red shag carpet that looked like raggedy-ann's hair! It was fun! Anyways, here's just a few more pics of the boys jumping on the trampoline...

And here's Isabella, quite possibly the cutest little girl to ever walk the earth. If I ever have a little girl I don't even know if my own kid will be as cute as this one!!!

Yes, she is sitting on the cat. Aaron got a great sequence shot of her walking to the cat, playing with the cat, bending over the cat, and then her sitting on the cat. It was so funny!

Check out that lip! Who could not love that!!! Aunt CC (my sister) got that dress for her from India, and I'm hoping to get it passed down to me if I ever get a little girl!

Here's my mom, the best one in the whole wide world!

Here's my dad, doing his thing on Fathers day!

Here's my brother in law, Carlon, the father of Jordan and Isabella, Jarom, Isaac, and Ian

Here's my dad again, with my sister Heather, who is married to Carlon, and the mom of the cutest kids ever! Sorry for the overload of pics, but I figured it would be better to do a few at a time than all at once!