Out West 2018

We were a little nervous about our annual trip out to Utah this summer.  We were traveling with a baby less than 2 months old plus three other rambunctious kids so it was a bit stressful thinking about it!  To ease our stress, we decided to pay a little extra money and expand our drive to 3 days (staying 2 nights in a hotel) instead of 2 or driving straight through as we have done other years.  It was an excellent decision!  It helped our drive go so much easier and made the trip out and back feel like part of the vacation!  It was mostly possible because Jon had 2 weeks of paternity leave left over + vacation so we had some extra days to use up!

As usual, we had lots of fun bouncing around spending time with family and seeing old friends!  We spent some time staying in Herriman, UT at Jon's sister Amberly's house, spent a couple of days at my sister Becky's house in Clinton, UT, and some time up at my parents house in Clifton, Idaho.  The kids wore themselves out every day playing with cousins or feeding the animals at Grandma and Grandpa Rider's house.  We even got to go to a parade with Becky and her kids in Clinton and in Jon's words (and he HATES parades as a general rule) "It was the best parade ever!"  It wasn't too hot, we got to park right along the route, we didn't get stuck in traffic, and they threw tons of candy!
We hit up a few of our favorite restaurants- Cafe Rio, Pizza Pie Cafe, & Carl's Junior, and I got a small bit of shopping done myself when we stopped in Park City on the way back home!

I was able to meet up with two of my best friends from high school, Loni and Lindsey, and it was wonderful!  It's crazy how 12 years can go by since graduation and these girls still know and understand me better than anyone else!

Madison and Lindey's baby- only 10 days apart.

We were also able to get together with a couple of Jon's college roomates, Taylor and Barrett, and it was lots of fun for them as well!

We also drove up to Trefoil Ranch, where Jon and I met, to take a picture at the gate in commemoration of it being 10 years since we met there in the summer of 2008.  It was fun taking the kids there and enjoying some time in the mountains while we were at it!

Overall the kids, even Madison, were pretty good with the drive and we had a great time visiting!  Until next year!