2012 Summer Trip -- Visiting With Friends and Fun in Salmon, ID

After our week with Beckcy and Ramona, Lee flew back into Seattle. Lee had set up a BBQ in the park with some friends from high school. Unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures of those who came. :( It was really fun to meet everyone, though! I think Lee's effort with the BBQ got his classmates going toward planning an actual 20-year high scool reunion. Hopefully he'll be able to make it back up for that!

We spent our last night in Seattle with Lee's good friend Tom Young. He and Lee became friends in 9th grade. He has three children also, including a daughter who is just a month younger than Melissa. Melissa is normally scared around men she doesn't know, but she loved Tom! Tom's daughter, Emme, was nice to share him. :)

 Here is a picture of Tom and Lee with their kids: Abby, Emme, Jackson, Morgan, Melissa, and Brynne.

Our last stop in Seattle was to Jack and Barbara Jenkins' home for another reunion. We got together with a bunch of friends that were in the same young adult branch at church as Lee and I. I was really excited about the number of people who were able to make it and had a great time visiting with everyone!

We stopped at Lee's sister Katie's house in Ellensburg, WA long enough for a good night's rest and a quick hello in the morning, and then we started on our journey to Salmon, ID. Then we stopped in Spokane to have lunch with Lee's dad, Trout. He took us to a restaurant that is in an old train car, which was a lot of fun. I LOVE this picture of Grandpa Trout and Melissa!



We also stopped in Missoula to have dinner with Shyra Scott, a friend of ours who used to live in Salmon. She is such a fun person and it was SO good to see her and have a chance to visit, even if it was a quick visit!

I wish we would have had time to visit all our friends in Seattle, but we didnt' have enough time this trip. Although we did make arrangements to get some ice cream at the local grocery store with Bob Shine, a guy Lee flew with at Salmon Air; and we also ran into Bob & Kelly Wilkins, Lee's bosses at the end of our time there. The majority of our time was spent making the most of play time with our friends Danny & Ruth Cockrell and their family. We went swimming in the local pool where Ruth tried to get in some Melissa-time:

 Ruth's son Jacob (and one of Jacob's cousins) took Lee bridge jumping, which was tons of fun to watch! I love zooming in on the picture below to see Lee's face! :) Lee mostly kept right up with the two young bucks he was jumping with -- even trying a few flips and tricks.

Lee and I both love Salmon and dream of moving back there one day. Great people and laid back living!

A Visit From Grandpa Trout and Grammy Lo

Lee's dad, Trout, is really into formula racing. He travels to Seattle from Arizona for a month or more every summer to compete in several races. We are usually lucky enough to get to see him on his way up and on his way back. This time the girls asked to do something that for some reason I'd never thought of asking: They asked Grandpa Trout if they could see his race car! Watch out Trout -- it looks like you have some serious competition! :)

This trip through was extra special because it was Melissa's first time to meet Grammy Lo! 

 You have to check out the bubble this kid blew! Melissa regularly has a collection of small bubbles hanging out on her lower lip and chin, but this is the biggest bubble I've seen to date.

 Melissa also got to see Grandpa Trout again. This time Melissa looks a bit more feminine than she did the first time she met Grandpa Trout thanks to the super-cute outfit Trout and Lo brought her:

We are big family people, so it was really nice to have a chance to see Trout and Lo. Thanks for a wonderful visit you two!!

P.S. See new 3-month pictures of Melissa below!

A Visit from Family

On Saturday, Trout (Lee's dad) came through Spanish Fork on his way back home to Tucson, AZ. He had my niece Kaya with him. She gets to stay with them for two weeks before her school starts up in Washington. They were only able to stop for a half hour or so, but we were really glad to see them. Kaya made cute animals for the girls out of pipe cleaners (a bee and a butterfly), so now Morgan and Brynne both love her! We had a neighbor take a picture for us, but Brynne wasn't in the mood to join us. Trout, Kaya, Morgan, Hilary:
Since we couldn't get Brynne to join us for the family picture, I had her pose for her own picture. She's wearing a dress Aunt Ashley made for her and gave her at Morgan's baptism. Brynne LOVES it!!

And on a side note...we spent the morning in Salem at a parade. Morgan's karate school was in the parade and Morgan wanted to join them. She actually ended up hurting her knee a little bit (she likes to go crazy and show off when people are watching, and she had more than an hour straight of craziness!), but it already feels a bit better. Brynne and I watched the parade, collected a bunch of candy, and took a few pictures of Morgan. My favorite picture was actually taken before the parade started:

We spent the evening doing errands in Provo and going to the dollar theater to watch the new Night at the Museum movie. It was a fun day!

(P.S. I have a habit of doing more than one blog at a time these days, so be sure to read them all!)

Spring Break Part 1: Welcome to Tucson

I'm FINALLY getting around to posting about the rest of our Spring Break trip to Arizona. It took me a while to organize all my pictures and decide which ones I wanted to post! :)

On Thursday (April 16--has it really been two weeks?) we drove to Tucson and met up with Grandpa Trout (Lee's dad) and Grammy Lo (Lee's step-mom). We had dinner at a beautiful restaurant (tried to eat outside, but Morgan wasn't having it with the bees...) and then listened to a musical group perform. I can't remember what their style of music is called (help me out, Lo?), but it was a western ho-down type music. I had been worried how the girls would do because it was a new style of music for them, it was unbelievably cold (are you sure we're in Arizona?), and it was WAY past their bedtime; but they actually did quite well. We had to leave at intermission, but that worked out okay because then Trout and Lo treated us to Gelatos (which I had never before heard of, but LOVED!) before we headed home to their house to call it a night.

Trout and Lo just finished building a beautiful house about 20 minutes outside of Tucson. You'll want to take a minute and check out the blog Lo kept as they built the home. I can't believe how much I loved it! And their view is amazing. Somehow I didn't realize there would be mountains in southern Arizona. Here is Morgan posing on their roof patio -- love the view!

Brynne somehow got it in her head that she was a little birdy. I kept waiting for her to hold still so I could take a picture of her on the patio; but, thankfully, Lo realized there were some great picture opportunities with her "flying" around and caught some fun in-action photos.

Perhaps one of the funniest things I saw while I was down there (look in Part 3 for another something funny...) was a boat Trout and Lo's neighbor was building. You have to click on this picture to get the full affect. Here I was in southern Arizona (where it finally warmed up to the 90s the day we left) and I find a huge boat. Is a flood coming?
Oh wait, yep...here's the flood... Quick -- everyone on the boat!

Spring Break Part 3: Tombstone and The O.K. Corral

Lee flew in really late Friday night. He was supposed to get in around dinnertime, but the winter storm in Denver held him up until almost midnight. Even with the major lack of sleep, he joined us for our fun activities on Saturday. We spent the day in Tombstone, which is popular for the shootout at the O.K. Corral. I will admit that I was not familiar with this part of history, but I am now quite fascinated with it after visiting the town.

The girls had lots of fun pretending to ride in the buggies.

Brynne even convinced Mommy and Daddy to join her for a quick picture on a buggy. :)Brynne also discovered a pony and discovered that Grammy Lo was willing to put in a few quarters for her to ride it.

It turns out Tombstone has other neat things (in addition to being known for the gun fight), including the world's largest rose bush. You can see it in the background of this picture -- Lee, Brynne, Lo, Morgan, and Trout.

We got a chance to ride on a stagecoach ride through town, which the girls loved. Here are Lee and Brynne peaking out the window of the stagecoach.

And here's another one of the stagecoach. If you look closely, you can see Morgan, Hilary & Lee.

We walked around the town a bit and found some fancy decorating. Too bad this potty wasn't available for public use...

...but never fear, we found Lee another place to go potty! :)

We had a really fun time in Tucson. We got to see lots of things and get to know a little about the area. Turns out I was pretty clueless (surprising, I know)! We're very grateful to Trout and Lo for taking us to all the fun places. Next time we'll have to make our visit a bit longer...

Lee was able to drive home to Utah with us on Sunday and Monday. We stayed the night on Sunday with my long-lost-friend Christine Shroeder Jensen. I really enjoyed visiting with her again! And it was lots of fun to get home and see some progress on our yard (see previous posts). It was a long trip, but one we definitely enjoyed. Now the only thing left is to get our bodies back on a regular schedule...