Home Sweet Home

The last couple weeks have been a lot of fun!  Jon and I were able to travel out to Idaho/Utah to visit our families out there.  It was a vacation full of lots of family, good food, and fun times!  I'm frustrated we didn't get any pictures up in Idaho, but we got lots the rest of the vacation.

We spent Labor Day weekend at my family's reunion in Idaho.  We rode up to Idaho with Becky and Isaac.  On the way we stopped for lunch at Zuppas!  Yum!  One of my favorite parts of visiting is definitely the great food in Utah.  Iowa really needs to get on board!

Rider Family Reunion

Friday night we all met up at Willow Flat, a campground in the mountains outside of Preston, Idaho.  I love Willow Flat, it's so beautiful!  My sister Jenn and her family had car troubles and weren't able to make it to the reunion.  We were really bummed they couldn't be there!  My dad made some delicious dutch oven chicken and potatoes for dinner and then we all sat around the campfire telling dumb jokes and stories.  It was Colton's first time camping so we were all little nervous about how he would do, but he did great!  Slept the whole night!  We had pitched our tent right next to the river so the sound helped, I'm sure.

Picture of Willow flat I found on the internet.

The downside of Friday night was that, in the midst of a major drought, it decided to POUR rain the entire night!  We were nice and cozy dry in our tent so I actually found it really nice and peaceful.  Turns out, however, my parent's tent was not water proof and they had a bit of a rough night!  At about 3:00am, soaked and tired, they had to move to the truck and attempt to sleep the rest of the night there.  It was a total bummer because instead of the pancake breakfast and hiking we had planned for Saturday morning, everybody just wanted to pack up and go home to dry out.  It was sad.
 We spent the rest of the weekend hanging out in Clifton playing games, making treat runs to Papa Jays, watching movies, playing Jeopardy, and enjoying family.
Sunday we went up to the pavilion by the church and had a picnic lunch and playing games.
 The only real downsides to the weekend were #1.  Colton, Jon, and I all had colds (pretty much unavoidable when we go on vacation) and #2. Turns out Colton is terrified of dogs and my brother had his dog up for the weekend.  That meant a lot of Colton screaming every time the dog came around and having to hold Colton a lot more than usual.  Aren't kids supposed to love animals?
 On the way back to Utah, Becky-Isaac-Jon-and I stopped in Brigham City for some Wingers.  Mmm, sticky fingers are good!

Utah

We spent the rest of our vacation in Utah with Jon's family, although I did get to see some of my family a couple more times.  Colton and I enjoyed going for morning walks in the beautiful, non-humid, Utah weather.

Out for a walk!

Colton and daddy.

We also played outside on Amberly's play swingset quite a bit.  Colton even figured out how to climb up the little slides all by himself!  Colton also loved playing with all his cousins.  He is so funny!  He is terrified of adults he doesn't know but absolutely LOVES little kids.  One of the Sunday's we were at church and Colton went and hugged a whole primary class when the came out of the door near him!

Cousin Owen pulling Colton around.

He liked it more than he appears to.

Hugs!

Kiddos playing.

On Wednesday, Jon was working at an Accounting School recruiting even at BYU for Deere so I spent the day with my sister, Pam.  We took our kiddos to a splash park in Highland and the kids loved it!  Colton was having so much fun watching the other kids and splashing in the water!  Afterwards Pam made me some delicious pesto pasta (my first experience with pesto- pretty good!),  and then we went out for frozen yogurt. 

My little boy is so grown up!

He loved splashing in this little waterfall.

Colton and cousin Brynlee.

Colton in front of his first house, American Fork, UT.

Thursday, we went to the Provo temple and did sealings.  It was so pretty and so nice to be in the temple!  I love having family around to help watch Colton!  On the way home we stopped for some Jamba Juice!  Jon is so good to me and my cravings :)  Thursday night we enjoyed some Pizza Pie Cafe.  As you can tell, we totally pigged out on this vacation- but the food was all so delicious!  

Friday, Jon and I had Cafe Rio for lunch (again, YUM!!) and then went to the BYU bookstore to look around and re-live college memories.  Then I met up with Becky at the mall and we did some shopping!  We even splurged and bought some gourmet fudge to top it off!
That night Jon and I stayed up late playing games with Jon's family, just like old times. 

Saturday we went for a bike ride with Colton.  He loved it!  We spent the night in Herriman, spending some more quality time with Jon's family.  Amberly made home-made pizza and it was super tasty!

Sunday morning Amberly made crepes (Heather made them Saturday too, but crepes are always delicious!)  and we packed up and headed to the airport to come back to Iowa!