Quick trip

My family is pretty spread out. It's hard for some reason to get us all together at the same time. I've had many trips where I have seen members of my family, but just not all during the same trip. In fact, it's been almost 5 years since my whole family was together. 5 years!! Over the 4th of July, my sister,who lives in Idaho, was visiting at my parents, my little brother from Cedar was also there visiting, and my older brother already lives close. I wasn't sure I was going to be able to go and meet up with them. Corey was really busy at work and I didn't want to just leave him behind. But the morning of the 3rd he just said I couldn't be the only one not there and that I should get things together, pack up and leave. I decided there really wasn't a good reason not to go and we headed out early the next morning.

We made good time and got there in perfect time to spend the afternoon and evening together. I am so glad I decided to take off. It was worth it. 

My dad fixed a delicious BBQ dinner for all of us and then we did fireworks together.

We attempted to get a picture of all the grand kids together. The two little ones were not too cooperative and gave us about 2 seconds to get the shot. Regardless they are some pretty good looking kids.

 I tried to also get a decent shot of my kids. You would think that would be easier as they get older, but I guess that's just not always the case. They also gave me about 2 seconds of their time.

Funny thing is, we had a big box of fireworks, but the kids had the most fun with the glow sticks my sister-in-law found in her trunk. That kept them going for a long time.

The next morning, I was able to make a trip to Ikea with my sister without kids. Just she and I. Grandma was nice enough to supervise kids. It was so nice to be able to chat and catch up with her before they had to head back to Idaho the next morning.

The kids and I spent a couple more days visiting at my parents. I wish we could have spent more time, but so many things were waiting for us at home. 

We did take time to go to the Payson pool. We love to go there and had such fun. Everytime we go to any pool though Emery begs and begs to go on the big waterslides. She is usually tall enough, but I worry about her getting knocked down when she hits the bottom and maybe having a hard time getting back up. Here, at the pools, they won't let me go down first and wait for her at the bottom just to make sure she could get up. But at the Payson pool they would. She was so so excited. I was still a little freaked out, but I figured we'd see how she did. 

There are two slides at the pool. The curvy one is much slower and the kids had been going down all day. Carter took her up first, went down, and then waited for her at the bottom.

 She did really well and was able to stand right up and just needed a little help getting to the side of the pool. She went down dozens of times. Carter and I took turns taking her down while Kayden buddied up with Hailey to take her. Brendan spent the majority of his time floating in the lazy river.

   

One trip up with Carter she wanted to go down the faster slide. I didn't know they were doing it until they came and told after the fact. It really freaked me out, but Emery was grinning ear to ear and loved it. Loved it. She handled it just fine, so again, I agreed to let her do it a few more times.

 I never could catch Hailey or Brendan for a picture. I always was 3 seconds too late. But Hailey braved the big slide several times too. 

 I caught Kayden on one of his rides down.

We had such a fun day and were totally worn out by the end. We even managed to keep from getting sunburned this time. Made the day even better.

We had to come home the next day, but it was worth the trip. Emery has not stopped talking about the water slides since or how much fun she had playing with her cousins. Cousin time is always worth the trip.