Back Home!!

We are thrilled to back home in our own beds after being gone for sixteen days, putting over 2700 miles on the Burban, traveling through six states twice, drinking way too much Diet Coke, eating desserts every day sometimes TWO, and having so, so much fun!!! This summer we went to Colorado for almost two weeks while Jon headed off to Boston for work. Here's a recap of our some of out activities!

The first two days we just DROVE! Brinley kept on asking "Are we in Colorado?" I had to tell her no we still have to go through Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, and then we'll be in beautiful Colorado! We arrived Monday evening to anxious cousins who had been waiting for two hours on the front lawn. My sister recently moved to Albuquerque, NM and is now only six, yes SIX hours from my parents house. This is the closest any of the siblings have been to my parents since we all moved out! She's thrilled to be so close and I'm jealous!!! The first few days we were there we just swam at my mom's friend Robyn's pool! I figured out that we actually were swimming almost 70% of our whole trip. I kept telling the kids enjoy the sun, pools, and water parks because we don't have many outdoor pool and NO waterparks here! We went to Robyn's pool six times and every time they loved it! Morgan was awesome at entertaining the little girls while Monique and I relaxed. This floaty toy became Maddie's favorite especially since it was a FROG!

On Friday we were all loaded in the car to head up into the beautiful Colorado Rockies for an authentic steam engine train ride. We were all excited to go and then Brinley barfed in the car. We quickly exited the highway and headed home. Instead we went swimming at Robyn's then we all went to Chick-Fil-A dressed up like Cows for Cow Appreciation Day!

My dad dressed up like a farmer and led his little cows into the restaurant with his rope. The manager loved it and took a picture of us to send to their corporate offices. We all received a free meal of our choice off their menu for dressing up! Saturday was spent shopping at the downtown Littleton shops, lunch at Panera Bread (only the girls went on this outing and Mason let me know that he too wanted to go out to lunch with only me!), more swimming, pedicure with Monique, movie, and Wii games in the evening. I brought my Father's Day present with me to give to my dad. I got him a puzzle of Times Square in New York City. Brooklyn says to my dad "Grandpa my mom was so excited to get you this puzzle for father's day because you went to NY last summer! We got it at the Maplecrest Garage Sale for only 50 cents!" Yikes, I wasn't going to tell him that because it looked brand new!

The big kids loved putting it together plus many more that Grandma fished out of the game closet. Every day the kids would spent endless hours on the trampoline. Morgan loves Grandma's trampoline because it's "So much more Bouncy than ours!" All the kids became friends with my parents neighbor's little girl Beth. She's an only child and would watch the kids daily as they jumped and jumped. Her mom let her come over and play, but only twice! This picture is the three little girls talking to Beth Sunday afternoon.

Monday morning we were up early to go to Chemotherapy with Mom. Monique and I both went and sat with her during her fifth session of Chemo.

I guess I was expecting something different like images I have seen in the movies or on television of Chemotherapy. She was hooked up to an IV in her favorite chair along with many others. We chatted, read magazines, and I wrote in my journal. The whole process was about three hours. Mom is doing well although some days are better than others. While we were there she had lots of energy the first week and then a few days after Chemo she was very tired. She has been a real trooper through this cancer stuff! We cried together and here we are smiling together because we are glad to be with her finally for at least one treatment. Brinley lost her first tooth while we were in Colorado. She's just like her big sis Brooklyn, pulling it out herself! She was so excited to get her five dollar bill. Brinley, Carter, Mckenna, and Maddie all woke up at 4 o'clock in the morning to talk about the Tooth Fairies surprise!

It was a hot and sunny day when we went to Pirates Cove! It's a smaller water park only 10 minutes from my parents house!

The entire day was spent swimming, floating on the Lazy River, playing in their huge sand box and going downs the water slides. Maddie LOVED this little kid water slide and probably went on it almost fifty times! I just watched her go on it over, and over, and over again!

Monique and I were pretty tired from a long day in the sun and water! We took a small nap at 10 pm, had another Diet Coke, packed our candy and headed off to the theater for the midnight showing of Harry Potter. We were there again with hundreds of teenagers! It was so worth it even though we didn't get home until 3:30 AM! Once Uncle Al arrived in CO we decided to take the kids fishing. Mason and Brooklyn were both surprised at how much fun they had catching a fish!

The kids all took a turn fishing, throwing out the line, catching a fish, and scooping it in the net! Monique and I were both so glad that Al was there to help! Everyone had a great time and thought that this was one of their favorite days!

We did many more fun things like shopped, ate dinner at Costa Vida, more swimming, outdoor movie, miniature golf, and the sprinkler park. Most of these pictures are on Monique's Fancy Smancy new camera! She took 600 pictures on her new rapid fire camera (I have no idea what the name is) I took about 30! So I will definitely need to get some copies from her! Tears were shed when packed the car and started our trek home on Sunday morning. We drove back through boring Wyoming and stopped in Ogden,UT to spend the night at Aunt Linda's house. It was fun to catch up with Linda, Russ, and Jon's cousins. The next day we met some of our best BYU friend's the Lopezes at Cherry Hill in Kaysville, UT. It was so fun to catch up, reminisce, and swim with them. We were all thrilled to have another fun vacation day this time with Dad! After Cherry Hill we went to Amy's parent's house for a barbeque and swimming in their pool until 10:30 pm!

We were exhausted when we finally made it back to Linda's at midnight! After a long thirteen hour drive, five movies, a book on the IPod, many more Diet Cokes, and lots of snacking to help keep us awake we made it Back Home! What a fun vacation for all of us!