Family Reunion at Bear Lake

While we were in Utah we also got to take a quick trip down to St. George. It was Carter's first time and of course it was the hottest week of the year! :) We flew into Cedar from Salt Lake because the tickets were super cheap. Rory's parents met us at the airport and then we met Hunter and Heather at Rusty's Ranch House for my second birthday dinner!

After dinner we went to Hunter and Heather's to eat the cake Polly made! Thanks Polly!

Later in the week we had a reunion with Rory's family in Bear Lake. It was a blast! Rory's Aunt and all her kids and their families were also with us so we had quite the group. There were 16 adults and 11 little kiddies all under the age of 8! We were all staying in one large cabin.

The night we got there we went to Pickleville Playhouse for dinner and a show. The dinner was great, even if Carter wasn't very happy. :)

After dinner Polly and Mike were great enough to watch Carter and Boston and Capri while the rest of us went to the show. We watched The Hanging of El Bandito. It was my first time watching a melodrama and we loved it. Rory even wanted to go back and watch it again. :) It was HILARIOUS! We could tell a lot of it was improvised and it would have been a lot of fun to watch it again and see how it differed. I even got a pickle during intermission. I love pickles so how could I not get one when I went to the Pickleville Playhouse? :)

The next day we went to the lake.

Carter's first time in water! We just put his toes in and he loved it, even though you can't tell from this picture. :)

Carter is so cute in the little life jacket. :) He has no neck so the jacket is up in his face.

If you look really close you can barely see the top of Carter's head and part of his body. :) We just putted around for a couple minutes so Carter could have his first ride on a wave runner.

Chilling in the beach chair while Mom and Dad were on the wave runner.

Naughty Grandma!

Carter loved the licorice.....

We forgot Carter's hat, so he borrowed Dad's for a bit.

Sorry about the picture overload, but there's still more! :) We spent lots of time playing at the cabin so here are some pictures of our fun!

Rory and I beat Hunter and Heather at table tennis.

And they beat us at pool. :)

Annika loved playing with Carter and he loved the attention! :)

Saturday we got a little game of wiffle ball going. In the beginning there were only a few of us, but by the end I think everyone was outside either playing or watching!

The guys had to bat left handed.

We spent a lot of time cheering on the little ones. :)

Carter had fun on the sidelines.

You always have to get pics of the grandkids!

We had such a fun time with everyone! Sharing a cabin with that many people can be crazy, but it was definitely a blast! I hope it's not too long until we can do it again. We were sad it had to come to an end, but we definitely needed to recover from our vacation when we got home! :)

Screecher

July Vacation Continued

After the 4th we got to spend the next four days with my family as well. We had a lot of fun just hanging out. Carter struggled throughout the whole vacation with sleeping so a lot of what we did was planned around him.

Thursday we were trying to figure out our clothes for family pictures and ended up having a little photo session with Carter and Nolan. :)

My dad tempted Carter with some delicious chocolate covered macadamia nuts.

Carter tried to eat Nolan's hand...

Friday was my birthday! We had a delicious dinner at a hibachi restaurant in Salt Lake. Thanks Mom and Dad! We had lots of food that we all shared. The sushi chef even gave us a free plate of sushi that was delicious!

After dinner we had family pictures. Carter did great. We even got a really cute one of just the three of us. Hopefully I can post some of them when we get them.

Later that night we finished celebrating my birthday with cake!

Then I got presents! :)

Thanks everyone!

I already said this on an earlier post, but my favorite gift of all was the tickets to the Carrie Underwood concert that Rory gave me!!

Sunday we got to visit my Grandpa Butterfield at his nursing home. We really wanted Carter to meet him. My parents said that is the most alert my grandpa has been in a long time. He can't carry on a coherent conversation, but he was talking. He smiled at Carter and Nolan and seemed to really enjoy having us there.

Four generations!

We switched babies. Oh, and there's Nathan with his baby. :)

Of course at the end of a great trip you always have to go home again. At the airport my mom got to come with us to the gate to help me through security and everything with Carter. :)

Rory, Carter and I had a blast with my family! Thanks for letting us take over your house for a little while. Carter loved the attention and I know he would love to go back. We wish we could too! We miss you!

4th of July

I was so excited this year that we got to go back to Utah for the 4th! The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays and I was pretty bummed last year that we weren't with my family. We spent 2 weeks in Utah with both of our families and we had a blast.

Carter and I flew together and Rory flew seperately. Thankfully Carter was pretty good. He's so curious that he was entertained looking around at everyone. I'm always just grateful when we get off the plane with no screaming incidents. :) I wish I had a picture of us on the plane, but that was definitely not what I was thinking about at the time. Oh well! All three of us got to Utah on the 3rd.

We had a delicious breakfast on the 4th. Rory helped make the waffles and pancakes while most people were getting ready for the day. After breakfast we headed to the parade. Carter needed a nap and he finally fell asleep as we were walking to the parade. First up were the fire trucks and their loud sirens. So Rory and I waited a little ways away until the fire trucks had gone through before we met up with the rest of the family along the street. Carter slept through the whole parade. We were a little worried how he would handle all the noise so it was wonderful that he slept! :)

For dinner we had a BBQ at my aunt's house. It was a lot of fun to see my cousins again and their kids who are all getting so big! The food was delicious and the company even better!

Rory and I were trying to decide what to do for the fireworks that night. We knew Carter would not like them. My parents were kind enough to stay home with the babies so we could go. We got Carter to sleep and Jenny and Scott got Nolan to sleep and then we headed down to the fireworks. They were so good! I LOVE watching the fireworks every year. They're so cool. Especially when there is music playing as you watch. All in all, a great holiday!