Fun Times in the Sun

Who doesn't love St. George in the summer?  100 degree weather, cars where the buckles burn you when you get in, constant sweat.  I actually do love it and I have been looking forward to taking Max back "home" for the first time.  In May Max and I took a trip to Utah for my mom's 60th birthday party. The party was quite the undertaking and was a wonderful celebration of my wonderful mother.  My siblings and I wanted to show our appreciation for her.  We have been doing conference calls for months to plan this and put in lots of hours the week of the party.  With the help of Katie, Natalie, and Sarah it ended up being very beautiful.  Sam, Zach, and I were more the worker bees.  We only had one big fight during the planning and then things were smooth from there on out :)  Sarah put together a beautiful bio of my mom that was both witty and complimentary.  In the end, it was a great celebration of our wonderful mother and her interesting life.  My mom is amazing, smart, understanding, fun, and has been a huge influence for good in my life. 

It was great to see friends at the party and catch up.  I miss my friends and family so much and I love seeing them even if its only for a bit.  Hannah was kind enough to pick us up from the airport and even after 2 hours in the car alone, I could have used another 20 hours of talking to catch up.  I also got to see Lauren and her cute baby bump.  She is going to be such a cute little mommy and her baby girl is going to be BEAUTIFUL.

Besides the party, Max and I did lots of fun things on our trip.  Mostly Max just had a blast with the cousins.  He loved them and thought they were super cool.  Isaac was such a good little babysitter, I wish he lived by us.

We went to my Dad and Dee's house for dinner and watched the solar eclipse.  Dad also took us swimming and out to dinner but somehow we were having too much fun to take pictures.
We figured out you could use 4 pairs of glasses to look at the eclipse and not go blind. 

  We went hiking up in Zion and had pizza in Springdale for Zach's birthday.  Zion is probably my favorite place to go when I go home.  It is incredible.

 This lady totally photo bombed us.

We took my mom out to a great dinner and I snagged a few pics including one with my mom's little sister, Aunt Laurie, who came all the way out from California for the party.  She is hilarious and is pretty much the same person as my mom except politically.

 With mom and Auntie Laurie

 Han, beautiful Sarah (that's what people call her), me and Katie

 with my favorite brother Sam (not my favorite, my mom's favorite)

Sam, Canyon, Han, and Sarah

Max and I got to go swimming with Hannah, Bo, Kensey, and Crue.  It was sooooo fun.  I miss them so much.  Kensey, Hannah, and I have spent countless hours at the pool together while growing up and it was fun to carry on the tradition with our little men.  It brought back floods of memories of the past and our years of carefree summers together.  As much as we miss those carefree days, these little guys are too cute to live without.

 Kensey and little Crue who is so sweet and cute.

Hannah with Bo who loves to move and check everything out.  He happens to be Max's second cousin which is so great to finally be related to Han :)

My dad has a photo exhibit at Dixie College and he met up with us there to give us a tour.  It is pretty cool to see all his photos up.  There were a lot I had never seen before.  He is very talented and has some beautiful work.

 

Max loved his cousins so much and he seemed so bored when we got home.  The cousins were constant fun and entertainment.  They were so cute with him and it was fun to seem them all interact.

Wonderful times with a wonderful family.  I am a lucky lady.  We are planning on heading back out for Christmas and I can't wait to see everyone again.  Who knows, maybe Max and I will take another quick trip by ourselves :)