UTAH

I love being able to spend time with my family and this month Brad, Ella and myself got to spend three weeks with them!!  I've only been home a week and I already miss all the good home-cooked meals and the mountains for sure!  We had so much fun hanging out with all the crazy kids and I took TONS of pictures.  We celebrated the 4th of July, went up to the mountain, went swimming, and played, played, played.  We had a blast!    

Our vacation kicked of with my sister bringing her kids over to my parents house.  We were all so excited to see each other.  The kids decided they needed to dog-pile on uncle Erik! 

Everyday Ella helped Grandma Jan water the plants outside.  I think she was fascinated by how the water came out of the hose.  And when she learned that she could take a drink out of the hose, she really thought it was great!

 

My family has this tradition that every year on the 4th of July morning we make waffles and have a contest of who can make the best flag out of their waffle.  I get so excited and take my flag making very seriously!  We use fresh strawberries, blueberries and whipped cream!  They are delicious to eat and not too bad looking if I do say so myself.  Here is Ella and I with our flag we made!

What's a 4th of July without fireworks?  Ours are never very spectacular, but the kids love it and the boys have fun trying to blow things up.  Here is just a picture of some of the fam doing some sparklers.  

Ella and Dad lighting her first sparkler!

I just had to throw this picture in.  I thought it was a cute picture of Ella in her 4th of July dress.  She was very interested in the flag and liked to watch it blow in the breeze.

Next up on the family vacation was the big mountain trip up to the Carter cabin.  None of us are super big on camping so it's always interesting to see how it will go.  This year we decided to stop by Navajo Lake and have a picnic.  It was so nice to see so much water in the lake this year.  It has been so low in the past.  We also decided to see if we could rent a boat to take out on the water.  It ended up being a lot of fun and hopefully we will be able to do it again

Ella liked riding around in the boat at first.  We saw ducks and some fish jumping.  She thought it was pretty cool.  But then....

she got splashed by the water and this is how she sat for the rest of the boat ride!

Since only 4 people could go on the boat at a time the rest of us hung out on the shore.  The kids found this frog.  Uncle Erik showed it to Ella.  She might look like she is going to grab this frog, but really she never dared touch it.  

Whitney (my oldest niece) thought it would be funny to put it on Grandpa's head while he was relaxing.  I thought it was pretty funny too!

 

When we made it up to the cabin Erik decided he would take Ella and I for a 4-wheel ride.  She had never been on one before, but she loved it.

In fact, she never wanted to get off and kept wanting to go for more and more rides.  Thanks Erik for taking her!

Ella and Uncle Erik giving each other "knuckles" after all the rides.  Erik is leaving to go on his mission to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for two years.  We sure will miss you!

You can't camp without making s'mores so I am so glad that the fire danger level wasn't too high and we could build a fire.  This is Ella and I getting ready to roast some mallows! 

My mom roasted the most perfect mallows I have ever seen so I had to snap a picture!  Aren't they lovely :)

These are all of my nephews getting their sticks ready for roasting.  Starting from the left: Trevor, Cooper, Kaden, Carter.

I was laughing so hard when I saw the stick Cooper was using to roast his mallow.  It literally was a tree branch and was equipped for some heavy duty roasting!  Such a funny kid... 

Earlier in our vacation Ella went to the swimming pool with some of her cousins.  She has always liked the water, but this time she had an absolute blast.  I think having all her fun cousins around rather than just her boring Mom and Dad made it even better.

She loved to just hang out on this little ramp that went into the water.  It was perfect for her to walk up and down.  She felt like such a big girl playing in the swimming pool by herself!

Ella and her cousin Lauren spent almost as much time on these bleachers as they did in the pool.  Ella would just laugh and squeal while watching all the kids splash in the pool.  Too Cute!

Ella and I getting ready to pack up after a fun day at the pool.  

These next pictures are just random, but I still wanted to post them.

One day I couldn't find Ella so I started searching around.  I heard some rustling in the bathroom so I went to see what was going on.  I pulled back the shower curtain and I found her splashing around in the water that was dripping from the shower head.  She can be so sneaky sometimes!  

This is Ella and Aunt Lyndsie.  What a cute picture!