Back from Vacation!!!

We had a BLAST on our family vacation to Texas! I love to visit family especially when that family includes all the cousins. My boys were in hog heaven with all their cousins to play with, joke around, swim with, and learn a little Karate (thanks Uncle Wade!). We started our journey on Friday the 8th . We left from Auntie B's house in West Jordan. We drove to Gallup, new Mexico and stopped at what I can only call a "charming" motel 8. The bathroom lacked the charm of a toilet brush but we were so tired we didn't care. Early the next morning we were on the road again driving through ABQ, New Mexico and my favorite city in Texas Amarillo. We made it to GranMary's about midnight, and it was a blessed time to get into the guest bed and sleep. On Sunday we went to church with Auntie Carla, she goes to the nicest ward I have ever visited. I would move to McKinney just to go to that ward, honest!! People remembered my sil and I from May when we went out for the funeral. So nice. Monday was family day. We had a talent show and man our J's relatives talented!! One brother played the trombone while his daughter sang, and danced. His other older brother demo'd some Karate for us. Neat! His older sister's family did a fun little "dance/interpretation" of a song. Man are her kids cute. His brother Glenn sang a song with his wife and did a great job. Glenn's kids did the Flamenco. Sooo darling. Our family sang and did some magic tricks, well I should say J did the magic and little J helped. Auntie B sang a song that she wrote with her husband. It was such a fun song. Tuesday, we blessed Samuel and it was a really great moment for our family. I was nervous before but had a wonderful confirmation about J's blessing for him. We were very fortunate to have my dad come down from Missouri with my sister Karen, and nephew A.J. That made this special day for us even more special. We had family pictures taken and that was a trip and a half. For anyone who doesn't know this already getting a picture with 10 kids under the age of eight is nearly IMPOSSIBLE, but we tried none the less. I know you think we would know better but hey, its for posterity :-) The rest of the week was just chillin' with the fam, and that is where some of the funniest moments were. I mean nothing in specific, but lots of kidding around, talking, and playing games. Oh! and who can forget all the time we spent watching the Olympics. Good times! On our way back from Texas, which we hated to leave :-(, we stopped at Four Corners. It was good times, got the obligatory photo of everyones foot in another state. We left there and drove straight throught to our house in Northern Utah. It was a great vacation and we already miss our cousins, Aunties, Uncles, and GranMary. The one bonus to not traveling though, sleeping in our OWN beds...ahhhhh....! I never new that I loved my bed that much but apparently my body knows better, and really enjoyed the jersey sheets a little extra! I also loved that Utah has like zero humidity, and in TX in was like 85% ...eek! Not good for the 'do, if ya know what I mean . In the end we love our family even more and are glad that we can share special moments with them. Next family renunion is in Utah, ummkay!

This post is an ode to Texas and the motto is "go big or GO HOME!"