To break up the trip, we stayed at Hotel de la Plott. :) My sweet sister put us up for the night. It was so nice to have a comfy and free place to stop. And BY FAR the best "continental breakfast" ever! :) This was the day before my birthday so we had birthday cake for breakfast. Oh my goodness it was such good cake! (But can I just say I'm STILL fighting to loose the pounds I gained on this trip!)
After another day in the car we finally reached our destination! 16 people under one roof means . . . cousin sleep over! And one of my girls favorite parts of this trip was bedtime with Aunt Crystal reading to them. And it was really sweet, even after some of the people went home, and the boys could have their beds back, they still wanted to sleep in with their cousins.
Saturday was party time! We had such a fun pool party to celebrate Cousin's birthday.
But we weren't done partying yet! Normally I don't really want a huge fuss for my birthday. A date out with my husband, (and maybe some chocolate) is plenty good enough for me. But everyone was super nice and spoiled me. It was the biggest birthday party I've had in years.
The next day was spent in honor of the new little guy. It was really so nice to have everyone together.
But all this fun can wear little people out. Poor Cousin fell asleep in this position during family prayers! :)
Eventually part of our group had to hit the road. But we were able to stay and visit longer so we got to spend all sorts of extra fun time together. We got to go watch Cousin's T-ball game. So fun to cheer him on!
There was lots of good fun cousin time! Nerf gun battle! (Pillows make great battle shields.)
These two . . . . . so much alike. They butted heads a bit. Literally.
What's more fun than a drive-in-movie? A drive-in-movie with cousins!
More cousin time.
We also go to watch Cousin in Karate class! (I was very impressed with this Karate school.)
Still more fun, decorating sugar cookies. (Check out miss EMae's deco work.)
All this fun is just down right exhausting!
One of the girls favorite parts of visits with Aunt Crystal is getting their hair and nails done.
KRae's fishy nails.
EMae's Rapunzel braid. So impressive.
Eventually we did have to say goodbye. :( But we were grateful for the time we had. It was a lot of fun and we miss hanging out with them.
But our road trip wasn't over yet. On the way home we made a quick stop in Southern Idaho to celebrate the Fourth of July at the biggest fireworks display west of the Mississippi. But . . . I've got this addiction to running you see . . . and for some reason, that often correlates with sleep deprivation. We got to bed just before 4:00am, and woke up at 5:00am so we could run the Firecracker 5K.
I was super proud of her. She worked hard and didn't stop once. Averaged 11 min miles. Not shabby at all.
While I took a nap, the girls got festive! Grandma Staley and Aunt Crystal made these fun hair clips.
Time for the show!
This is what we looked like without the camera flash. :)
Our stop over in Idaho was super brief. But I squeezed in an early morning breakfast with my best friend from high school. (Sleep deprivation is my middle name.)
And we made sure to get to Arco to see Great-grandma. She gave my girls nail polish. Score! My girls were ecstatic. I'm sure I'm a "good" mom and all, but painting my girls nails is a place where I drop the ball. But I am okay with this. They appreciate it all that much more when aunts and grandmas are willing to do it.
Since we were in the neighborhood we got to pop over to Aunt Virgina's house too. She let us "picnic" at her house since it was so darn hot that day. The girls loved her yard.
But eventually we had to say goodbye here too.
We squeezed in every ounce of fun that we could into those 48 hours. Before getting to bed we celebrated the 4th just a little bit more!
We had such a nice trip I felt a little sad getting home. But I realize we are blessed to get to see our families as much as we do.
BONUS PHOTO: One of the things I got at my birthday party! Isn't it awesome?
