Salt Lake City and Father's Day

On Saturday we headed up to Salt Lake for the weekend. We went in to see Temple Square. What a beautiful and peaceful place. I just wish I had thought to take the kids to visit Pres. Hinckley's grave (didn't think of that till later in the week when we were back down in Utah Valley...)

The Christus statue in the Visitor's Center.

We stopped for a photo shoot on the steps of the temple. Here are the bookend boys. The girls LOVED watching the many brides coming out of the temple. I think we saw 5 in the few short minutes we were standing there.
And the girls...
This was a highlight of our stop at Temple Square. We watched a family of quail walk across the sidewalk. There were probably 20 babies, and they were so cute and little. We observed them wandering through the flowers for several minutes.

After our visit to Temple Square we went and picked up Rick from the airport after his LONG day of travel. It was 12 hours from the time he left home to the time we picked him up. We spent that night at G'ma and G'pa's and went to Church with them the next day. We had a nice family dinner there for Father's Day and Kevin's birthday. So nice to be with family for such occasions. I need to take this chance to give a little tribute to Rick. I feel so lucky that Rick is the father of my children, and that we are partners in the adventure called parenting. He is the greatest dad. I've always known that was something he would be great at, from the days when I first was getting to know him at BYU. I love that being a father is so much of a focus in his life. He strives to be the best dad he can, which is particularly challenging for him right now as he serves as Bishop. I hope he knows that he is being a great father through the example he sets of service to the Lord. Thank you, Rick for the fabulous Daddy that you are!!!

Not Quite Complete

Just thought I'd mention that our family is not quite complete these days. No, I'm not announcing that we're adding to the family. When we left to come home from Utah, Dallin and Dailie remained with Grandma and Grandpa Jeffs. Currently they are in Missouri visiting Aunt Wendy and Uncle Brian (and Ethan and Emma). They will come back home next week on Wednesday. They are having a good time, and it's been different dynamics here at home, with just the three youngest, but I definitely miss them. Our home is not quite complete without them here. I love you and miss you, Dallin and Dailie (Dad says to add that he does too).

Tha Saga Continues

The next leg of our journey was spent in Springville at my sister's house. We were there during Art City Days, and enjoyed going to the carnival one night. Daniel was fearless and in awe of the sights and sounds of the rides. Dallin had a lot of fun accompanying him.

The carousel. Daniel kept saying "I'm going up, I'm going down."

Eliza enjoying the carousel as well!!!

Uncle Dave and all the kids in front of the kiddie roller coaster.

We also went on a little hike in Hobble Creek Canyon. The kids all were in awe of the mountains. We were able to get up in them a little, and the kids really enjoyed it. The mountains were especially green while we were there, due to the unusual amounts of moisture Utah has recieved. It was beautiful. We all loved spending time with the Taylors!!

Back Home

We're back!!! I guess the biggest news is that we made it. It was a great trip, and will take many posts to catch you up on all that we did. So, I'll start with the drive out. The kids and I had a great time driving out together. They were great, travelled well, and Daniel was a potty champ!!! We stayed entertained listening to Weird Al Yankovich on Dallin's MP3 player. A favorite of the trip was "Albuquerque". We took pictures at rest areas in each of the states we passed through.

First stop, Iowa. After leaving home at 5 AM, we stopped in Iowa for breakfast. Lucky for us, there was this sculpture, perfect for an Iowa picture.

Next stop, Nebraska. We had lunch at this rest area, where there were more cool sculptures to play on, and perfect for pictures. We spent the night in Ogallala, Nebraska where the kids had a chance to swim and play on a nearby playground. Great for expending bottled up energy!!!

Wyoming was WINDY and then some!!! So I had the kids get in front of this monument (to the Mormon pioneers, incidentally), to show just how windy it was. We laughed and laughed at how windy it was.

Stay tuned for the next installment, of...The Trip West...

Heading Out

Although I realize I haven't been posting much at all lately, I thought I'd let you all know that things will REALLY be slow on Cougar Blue Jeffs for the next couple of weeks, as we head out for our grand adventure tomorrow morning!! We'll see many of you soon.....