For the first time in two years, we took a family vacation!!
A real one!!
We packed the car and headed to Alpine to stay 4 days at Brent's brother's house.
His whole family had headed up there earlier in the week and we mustered our courage and decided to join them!!
The car ride up was smooth. The girls sang every song they knew and we spotted every horse from home until Beaver. Then I gladly handed over Ipads with full charges!!
They happily played games and watched Frozen a dozen times.
The driver.
My BIL's house is amazing. HUGE and amazing!!
He's in software, enough said!!
My girls swam in this pool every. single. day.
For stretches of 3 hours at a time!!
Ella the shark.
Scarlet went down the slide at least a 1000 times. She couldn't get enough!!
She would sit down, roll over and go down on her belly.
Thursday morning we headed to Hogle Zoo.
Scarlet wanted to see elephants.
The weather up there was BEAUTIFUL. Just perfectly cool and pleasant.
We spent very little time in doors.
We spent over 2 hours wandering efficiently from exhibit to exhibit.
My children don't dawdle!!
They observe with a purpose!!
Classic gorilla picture.
The observation train.
There was a beautiful, cool breeze that soothed my spirits and as the train moved, it was down right chilly!!
We had so much fun together!!
My children were good and ate dutifully and were obedient!!
The view from the guest house we stayed in.
It was so breath taking.
Every morning when the sun rose, I took the time to do a few minutes of yoga.
The air was so crisp and cool.
It was the most amazing, peaceful place.
On Friday we went to the aquarium.
We saw penguins.
My favorite was the rays.
We even got to pet them!!
This was some huge, monster fish from South America.
It was at least 8 feet long and fat!!
I would collapse if I saw that thing swim toward me in a river!!
Scarlet was properly impressed!!
At the gift shop Ella found a wishing pearl.
It includes an oyster that you crack open, it contains a pearl in one of five colors, each one with a different meaning. Then, you put the pearl in as special necklace. She picked out a turtle shape.
She was so excited and hasn't taken it off except to sleep.
My BIL's house sits on 2 acres.
The house takes up most of it, but his yard is GORGEOUS.
It even has this little side walk for skating, bikes or wiggle cars.
I was not the only adult to take a turn!!
I think every one went down the hill!!
And you can get going FAST!!
It was so wonderful to be outside.
We could live outside if it wasn't a million freaking degrees.
The longer I stayed up here, the less I wanted to ever return to the ugly, brown, HOT desert from whence I came.
Ella had 7 other cousins to play with and was in absolute heaven!!
The zoo had a carousel and we took our turn.
Scarlet was shaking with fear but as long as her daddy held onto her, she laughed and had fun.
I almost didn't go up to the reunion.
My panic attacks are embarrassing and I didn't know if I could be around Brent's large family.
But my poor family has been supportive and bored the last several months, so I mustered my courage and packed up the car.
I am SO glad I did.
It was wonderful and everything we all needed.
I felt very safe among my SILs and my MIL, and my BILs and FIL are hilarious!!
My husband's first friends were his brothers and I know he misses them.
It is so good for him to see them.
I cried from Alpine to Provo because I didn't want to go home.
To the desert and the heat and everything ugly and brown!!
Good news it's August now and hopefully I only have 4-6 weeks of blistering heat, and then I will merely have to deal with a moderate burn.
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