Vacation, The Final Chapter

It wasn't all Family Reunion stuff. Here are some of the high lights of the other fun activities we did. We stayed at Grandma and Grandpa Hoods house and while we were their Matt got to make cinnamon rolls for the first time and we took those camping with us to share. He wanted to do it all by himself, he is getting so big and independent.


Grandma Hood got out her cow sprinkler that when the water is on the tail swisher back and forth. It is old and wasn't working so well but it didn't bother Matt at all, he grabbed the end and started squirting Daddy (this is him trying to be sneaky).

My cousin Cade was there also for a bit. Matt just loved having someone "big" to play with. Well it got quiet one time when they were playing, a little too quiet so Rob went to see what they were into. He got this cute shot of the boys reading books.

And I got to show Grandma how to got on to peoples blogs on her computer. I was telling her that is was a really cool way to see pictures and keep updated on her grand kids really quickly. I am just tickled that she is trying to learn something new and complicated. Good luck Grandma!


One day we had decided to go up the canyon. First stop Bridal Veil Falls. They have nice trails at the bottom for viewing.
And some not so nice, tiny trails going up the mountain to get to different sections of the falls. Silly me thought is would be fun to hick up a ways. Some parts of it were really tricky for Matt and scary for us with him. It took us a half hour to get to the first (bottom most) section of the falls. We were right next to it! It was loud and misty but really cool. By the way I don't advise going hiking 7 months pregnant.


Next stop THE DELL! One of my most favorite spots in Utah. We got to sit outside and visit with my Aunt Toni and her kids and put our toes in the pond (I forget just how cold it is). Some things have changed, like the swing at the pond is gone, others haven't like the old charm of the house in the Dell.

We continued up the canyon to Heber City to visit Rob's brother Jordan and his family. By the time we got there Matt had fallen asleep, but woke up to play with More Cousins!


I was good to see Jordan and his family we don't get to see them as often as we would like. They have the three girls that are so cute and different from each other, it is fun to have all that different energy around you.

They took us to a restaurant for dinner that had a train that ran around the top of the wall with tunnels to go though. Matt was enchanted by that train. He had never eaten so go for us the whole trip. Rob and his brother got to talk and catch up a bit then is was back down the canyon to get ready for camping with the Pattens.

Well that was the whole vacation, we packed a lot of fun into a little bit of time. Lucky fro us we had a few days to recoup before it was back to work. We loved going to see everyone and we miss them so much.

Vacation Part 2, Patten Reunion

The Patten side was a 3 day long camping fun in the Moab mountains. Matt was way excited to sleep in a tent. We had a trial run in the back yard to see how he would do (he did great).On the way up we saw beautiful sights the the red rocks. We had to go over some bumpy washboard dirt roads to get there (that sucked) and we had to pack in our own water and pack out our trash but it was a wonderful experience.


We were camping in the group camp area and it was cool to see all the wild life wander around the camp. I could hear them get close at night.

Well maybe not so wild . . . .
Matt steeped in a fresh cow pie with in a half an hour of getting there. Now so fun.

This is the view we had at the camp site. it was in a little valley of sorts with just enough shade so it wasn't unbearably hot like it was down in the desert ( we were up over 9,000 ft from sea level).

They had just stocked that lake with rainbow trout a week before so just about everyone who went fishing got a fish. My Uncle Doug was such a nice guy he took Matt down to go fishing. i think Matt has found a new best friend, he thought that was so cool. Matt got to hold the rod and real it in all by himself! he was thinking he was big stuff. He even caught two fish, and talked about it for days. Too busy to look at the camera.


And the boys enjoyed a boat ride just the two of them. It really was a cool little lake very close to the camp site.

One of the days some of us went further up the mountain, went up a very bumpy rock filled narrow road to get to another little lake. It was feed by a little waterfall of melted snow coming off the mountain, so it was way cold! But the lake was crystal clear and we chucked rocks in it for a while and explored a bit. The road going up was bad enough we had to go back down it. It took forever and by the time we were done I was so sore but the view was amazing.


Rob had brought out his bike so he went for a bike ride at slick rock that day and had a great time. I think he liked having some time to himself. He really had been a trooper being around all of my family it's not like I couldn't let he have some fun too. He served part of his mission in Moab, Ut so for him it was cool to see what had survived changes over time, what was still there and what wasn't and what was new. As we drove thou town he would tell me what roads would take me to so and so's place (if they still lived there after 13 years). it was fun to listen to some of his stories.

One of the car toys I had gotten for the long drive were a bunch of little diggers for Matt to play with, and what better way to break them in good was in the dirt. Some of the other little cousins wanted to play too so they had to share. And it wasn't really dirt they played it but the unused fire pit full of soot. They were so filthy when they were done and no showers in site, so he got a wipes bath before bed time that night. Good thing I brought a big thing of them.


By the way who taught these people how to camp. We hardly had any campfires! It wasn't for the lack of wood, they had a ton of it chopped and ready to go. I get there and think oh goody lots of wood lots of fires. Nope we hardly used any of it, a little at night for a few hours (2 or 3) then we had to put it completely out. It's not like we were in danger of starting a forest fire, there was a good size ring with nothing but dirt for 6 feet in any direction. We practical had to sit inside the fire ring just to stay warm, and if you put more on then you had to stay up till it was gone (even thou they didn't start the fire till 8:30). And none in the morning to burn any garbage. OK I'm done ranting.

There was tons of people to talk to again and tons of kids I could never remember their names too and it was hard to get back in the truck again to head home. But home we went, we wanted to stop by Greg and Sarah's house but we wouldn't have gotten there till 1 in the morning. So instead of stopping, like I wanted to and have a bed to sleep in, Rob drove all night and we got in at 5am. The next day was brutal, Matt was up at his regular time, I needed more sleep and was sore from being in the car so long and Rob hadn't sleeped 'cause he was driving. I took the first shift and Rob took over at 2 pm. After a few days we got use to being home and I wished we were still on vacation.

Oh well Home Sweet Home


Still to come the everything in between.

Another Room Done!

This last weekend I made Rob paint my kitchen. I told him it was a job that had to be done before the new baby came. And being the wonderful husband he is went right to work no grumbling or complaining (ya right, I told him in April and it just got done after lots of nagging). I told him I would take Matt away for the two days so he wouldn't have a little helper and I needed to be out of the house anyway. So Matt and I took of and did some shopping for the new kid (diapers and such) and Rob did a great job getting
everything done in two days! I love it and can't wait to get another room done, but I had better bide my time or Rob will go on strike.





This next one is for you Sarah. . . . .

Vacation Part 1, Hood Reunion

We sure had a lot of fun in Utah. Here are some of the highlights from the Hood Reunion. The day before we got together with my grandparents, uncles and aunts, cousins, and 2nd cousins. It was at a park and it was nice to see everyone. One of my Uncles is a firefighter and he was on call so he brought his fire engine with him and Matt got to check it out. Too cool!


At the reunion their was a ton of people there. We got to play relay games and Matt was on my team. He loved playing with the big kids. And as always my Hubie was a trooper meeting tons of people he didn't know and taking care of Matt so I could chat. Well it started to rain so some of my cousins and us decided to go bowling till we met later for dinner and a show.

Yes that is me trying to bowl, I paid for it later. Who knew bowling had such fun things for little kids. And of course bowling is thirsty work so a quick pit stop for a refreshing drink (got to teach the kid what the good stuff is). I wanted to have one of these everyday, they just don't make them in Wisconsin.

Matt thinks they are delicious!

Visiting with family was so much fun I had wished we had more time. My aunt Dawn (with the help of her son) did a great job putting together a dvd she made from pictures and interviews of my grandpa and his siblings. It was fun to see what they had to say.

Stay tuned for more vacation highlights, Patten reunion and in between.