Multnomah Falls

When you quit one job, take an amazing 10 day vacation, and then start a new job immediately upon your return, one thing you fall woefully behind on is blogging your vacation pics. But, in a show of good faith, here is Day One of our Pacific Northwest vacation.

After flying into Portland and hopping into our rented minivan, it took me about 10 seconds to switch into "Vacation Mode" and convince myself that Multnomah Falls is pretty much on the way from Portland to Seattle. Which, technically, I'm told is not true.

But it felt true. Jason and I stopped there on our honeymoon and he'd mentioned several times that he wanted to come back with the kids someday. Today was the day!!! So we drove to Multnomah Falls "on the way" and walked up to the bridge. Unfortunately, the higher portions were closed due to fire damage. (We were so far into Vacation Mode at this point that we thought we wanted to hike the mile to the top. That's funny.) So instead of continuing our walk, we bought some delicious fudge --spoiler alert: our best of the trip-- and perused the gift shop before continuing our drive to Seattle.

We stopped for dinner that night at a Jack in the Box that was conveniently located next to a prison and had the ambiance to prove it. Good thing Multnomah Falls had been as amazing as promised, or the kids might have been seriously questioning my vacation judgement by this point. And we were all still a little delirious from the blueberry cheesecake fudge. Which really was incredible.

PS - Mickey commandeered my phone for much of this trip. He has a great eye for photography and captured some pretty awesome shots. He told me I'd have a lot more followers on social media if I let him take all of my photos so my posts "had good pictures." He's probably right. Which is one reason why I will continue to post my own photos. 

Hummingbird Haven

I need to (quickly) learn all there is to know about hummingbird eggs. First, how do I have the patience not to take the nest down to see if there are eggs in there? I think there has to be - this little lady keeps returning. The only thing I can say for sure is that we don't have a hummingbird feeder. And the nest is very intricate.

The Shupester

I finally had a cute boy to take me to a Ryan Shupe concert. Jason and I saw them play at Founders Park the day before the Fourth of July. The Shupester and Banjo Boy haven't changed a bit. But it was a HUGE crowd getting ready for Centerville's fireworks show, and not one person in the audience besides me knew the words to any of the songs. It was kind of a rude awakening that maybe I'm not 23 anymore. When did that happen?

Anyway... same cheesy-with-a-slight-bite style of showmanship - and same great sound. I'll always be a fan of the Rubberband. Dream Big.

St. George Weekend

I don't want anyone to feel too bad that Jason and I stayed home and worked while the kids lounged about in St. George for a week. Jason and I were able to make a quick trip that weekend, so all's well that ends well.

When you roadtrip with me, you end up visiting Pioneer Museums and temple grounds. The kids actually enjoyed the museum tour and the visitors centers because of the air conditioning. Because St. George in June is hot. WAY. TOO. HOT.

We also escaped the heat by going bowling. We bowled two games and my total score was over 200, so I did pretty good for me. Disclaimer: I used the bumpers and I do not apologize for that.

Kids with Grandma and Scott. We learned this trip that Scotty is a decent bowler and that he fries a pretty mean egg. Also, he doesn't use the bumpers and thinks it's a little strange that a grown woman would. Whatever.

We ended Saturday with a sunset swim in the pool. It's not heated, but even I can brave a private pool in 100+ degree weather. Especially if there's also a hot tub.

Last picture. This one makes me laugh. Years ago, my family rented a house in Bountiful and we were surprised one Christmas when our landlords sent us a Christmas card of them sitting in their hot tub drinking beer with their dog in the background. It seemed like an odd Christmas card. (Although I'm pretty sure it's still in a family photo album somewhere because aren't you supposed to save photo Christmas cards?) Fast forward a couple of decades, and here's me posting a weird hot tub picture, minus the beer and the dog. Maybe it's the circle of life.

Grandma Kaylene's Resort & Spa

Mickey and Dahlia have been looking forward to summer when they could spend a week at their Grandma's new house in St. George. From the pictures, I'd say they had an ok time.

They spent hours and hours in the pool, played many games of Skipbo, went to Zions National Park, and had ice cream at an old fashioned ice cream parlor. They mostly loved having Grandma's undivided attention all to themselves... and also the pool.