Vacation Part 1

Six days after moving (and before unpacking much of anything) we left for a big vacation.  It's a miracle that we packed the essentials.  Ha!

Day 1: We traveled to Mount Rushmore.  On the way we stopped at the World's Only Corn Palace because it was so heavily advertised.  'Free', 'Fun for Kids', etc.  It was literally a tiny event center decorated in corn husks with tons of expensive vendors outside.  It was so ridiculous that we just had to laugh.  

After many more hours, and HUNDREDS of advertisements, we arrived at Mount Rushmore.  (South Dakota, you get points for the best advertising we've ever seen!)

The kids were thrilled to get out of the car and excited to see this mountain goat.

Day 2: After camping for the night, we attended church, and then drove to Utah.

Pit stop in Wyoming to change out of our church clothes and check out the visitor's center.

At one point, Jim asked me to look at the map and I noticed that were just a few miles from Martin's Cove. We hadn't realized it was on our route, and knowing that we might never take that route again, we had to stop.  It delayed us quite a bit, but was totally worth it.

Day 3: After arriving at Jim's parents home in Utah really late (or really early), we crashed.  We slept in that morning, and then settled in.  My first order of business was haircuts, baths, and fingernails.  The kids were gross!

Brig had his first haircut.

So handsome!  He didn't like it much, though.

Grandma snuggles

Daddy snuggles

We went for a drive in the mountains later that day.  We really miss the mountains.

My brother Josh got married!  He and his new wife were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple.  It was a very special experience.  Afterward, we took some of our own pictures on temple square.

There were three other wedding parties that day at the same time that had the exact same colors.  One group even had the exact ties that Josh wore.  At one point, a photographer took these two pictures, and then realized we weren't part of her group.  Ha!  She was super nice to send them to us.

Here they come!

We enjoyed their reception that evening.  Karen is from Colombia, so they had a full Colombian buffet.  It was amazing!  We all stuffed ourselves.

Jim spent most of the reception decorating their car.

Annie caught the bouquet!

My dad was able to spend a couple of days with us after the wedding, so he took Logan to Park City to celebrate his birthday. Logan did an alpine slide, alpine coaster, and the bungee trampoline thing. Later on we went out to dinner as a family. Fun day!