We took a quick vacation and headed to Utah to see friends and family the first week of July.  We were gone for 9 nights, but it didn't seem nearly long enough.  We spread ourselves pretty thin trying to see and do all that we wanted to, but still didn't get to it all.  But we did enjoy every moment we could with the friends and family we saw.  Nick's mom and step dad hosted a bbq for us where we got to visit with the Miller's.  It was really great to see them and catch up with friends that stopped by.

We also spent a day at the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City with Nick's parents (Nana & Papa).  It had been a really long time since we have been there!  I can remember this lion drinking fountain from my childhood.

We had to stop at the other cute photo ops as well.

The zoo has changed a lot and is much nicer now for the animals as well as the visitors.  There are some super cute things for kids to see and do, including a splash park area.

And that eagle's nest and this elephant.

This is a really neat new habitat area for the polar bear that we can see under water.  I got this shot just as he was diving in the water to cool off!   Owen is really into animals and creatures these days.  That's about the only kinds of books he will check out at the library now.  The zoo was right up his alley and he enjoyed every minute!

 After a weekend with Nana and Papa, we headed south to St. George to meet up with some friends from dental school who still live in Las Vegas.  We thought about driving the extra 2 hours down there, but decided it was hot enough in St. George.  And hot it was!  It was well over 100 degrees each day we were there.  So what did we do 3 days in a row?  Swim!!

Owen was reunited with his good buddy Jackson, and Teslyn with her cute friend Adalynn.  It's been 2 years since we've seen them.  That's too long!

 

Mia stayed cool in the pool too.

We took the kids bowling one day, something we used to do more often with our friends.

We love these friends and miss them like crazy!  

 These are friends worth driving 16 hours to see.  We love the Welch's like family and hope to someday be living at least a little bit closer to each other.  Even if we aren't, we are forever friends!

On the deck enjoying a sunset and the desert scenery.  We missed getting a picture with the Davis family who also joined us for a night.  We love them too and are so glad we got to spend some time catching up.

Our last night in town we headed over to see Nick's sisters Heather and Jamie.  Jamie and her kids drove up from Vegas just to see us!  It was not nearly enough time with them.  We love them and their families.  We wish we could see them more often.  Our next trip will need to be twice as long.  It's hard when we both have such big families and such great friends!

We left the heat of Southern Utah and headed to still some heat in Draper where my parents live.

We were in town and made it to a family reunion for the cousins on my moms side of the family.  Lots of them I haven't seen since our wedding.  It was great to visit with them.  

My parents have a huge yard with lots of trees.  The cherries were on so we did some picking.  And then were informed that they have worms.  We still picked and just washed out the worms when we pitted them, and froze them to take home with us.   

 

We lucked out and were with my family for the 4th of July!  We had a big bbq at my parents house with everyone that could make it.  

It was the perfect day for a backyard bbq.  

My dad built this neat pavilion in the backyard for such events.

I love my parents house.  It's like going home to the farm.  Mia got to meet the chickens for the first time.

My brother spent a little time tending to his honey bees.

My fun sister set up a slip and slide for the kids to enjoy.

 And of course there were fireworks!

 

Happy Independence Day!

It was hard to leave.  Utah in the summer with friends and family is pretty amazing.  We will make the trip next summer a little longer.  We missed out on seeing a few people I had hoped to.  I hardly got to spend any time shopping and we didn't make it up the Utah mountains at all!  But the time we did get to spend was priceless and we are grateful for that.

The drive home was extremely long, but it helped that we got up at 4 am to get an early start.  Sometimes it's hard to feel so far from family, but it helps that we came back home to a really beautiful place.  Summertime in Sandpoint is amazing.