August Utah Trip

The last week of August, Clark and I took a trip to Utah so that I could meet this handsome guy. Oh is he adorable. This is baby Jonah, my nephew. And his AMAZING mother, Toby, my sis-in-law. Toby is amazing for many, many reasons. Here are some examples: She is married to my brother and is therefore part of our crazy family. She has given birth to four of the most beautiful of God's creations. She has an incredible testimony. She is waiting patiently, faithfully for a cure for MS.

She made and hosted a dinner for all of my friends when I came to visit. Seriously, how much more amazing can you get??? It was so much fun. Liz and Michelle came with their hubbies and their ADORABLE kids. I had never met Liz's new baby, Kaylie, or Michelle's son, Asher. Good times. And yummy dinner! Thank you so much Toby!


I absolutely loved every minute of the trip. Getting to know my nephews and my sweet niece was so fun and so worth the long drive! By the way, I was terrified to drive for 2 days with Clark, but he did AWESOME. I was so proud of him. What a little trooper. Again, Toby is a great hostess and we had fun-filled moments every single day!








We all went to dinner on Thursday night at The Mayan. It's this restaurant where they have a waterfall inside and guys dressed up in loin cloths dive off the cliffs into a pool below. Very impressive. They have gorgeous flowers outside and the kids had a blast picking them!




I love this beautiful family. Oh my goodness they are so very precious.

After dinner, we went to the mall and the kids had a blast playing at the indoor playground. I absolutely love this picture. Chandler's cute smile melts my heart. And I love Anna's pigtails. You can even see Thomas in this one, through the back window, chatting it up with another kid at the mall. Later that night, we put the kids in bed and I got to go hang out with Liz and Michelle without our kiddos! It was so great to have a girls' night with them. Seems like a century ago that we were all roommates at the Villa in Provo. I'm so blessed to have them in my life. Still.

On Friday, Jake had the day off and was able to hang out with us, which was super fun. We took the kids to a splash park. It was fun to watch them.

Clark refused to get in the water, of course and ran around like a crazy man. That night Jake and Toby headed up for Park City for their anniversary, and I got to hang out with the kids. We had fun making a fort downstairs and reading bedtime stories. Getting 5 kids in bed took me an hour and 15 minutes! But we had a great time and they were all so good.

On the way home, (my aunt Becky had driven with us to Utah to drop off my cousin Eliza at BYU, which was fabulous 'cause I didn't have to make the trip alone) we saw a huge wildfire. The column of smoke you see here had to have been about a half a mile wide. The sun blazed bright red through the smoke. I've never seen anything like it. It looked like pretty desolate terrain, but I just hope that no homes were lost.

It was a wonderful trip. I'm so glad we went.