utah, part 5

utah, part 4

friday morning we warmed our bones with hot chocolate.  we have lots of hot chocolate at the ranch.  the mornings and evenings are usually cold in these mountains with the days bouncing from hot to a little chilly and everything in between depending on the sun.  we also had short rain storms everyday which didn't really get in the way of our fun and just cooled everything off.  so hot chocolate when we wake up or before going to bed is a must.

i sat on the deck sipping my hot chocolate with my cute parents and then we walked down to the gate to check our email (we don't get much service at the house) and get some more truckers to honk.  

when the other kiddies woke up, we tie-dyed some shirts and then riley and i got busy working on our most recent dance video.  it's totally a team effort and we couldn't do it without the family critiquing the choreograph, laughing at our ridiculousness, running the camera and music, and cheering when we get a "good-enough" take (we don't go for perfect anymore).

after the dance video, we made some mentos and diet coke rockets.  it was some priceless entertainment that riley revived from his high school days in chemistry club. 

after an afternoon of playing games and launching diet coke rockets we managed to take some family photos.  the light was golden and the ranch is just beautiful.  this one will probably be on our christmas card this year so pretend to be surprised.

i love this family of mine.  they are hilarious, smart, caring, full of fun and adventure, and just the best people out there.  i love them.  we ended the night with grilled cheeseburgers, s'mores around the fire (i finally found the perfect gluten free graham cracker replacement), and a late night movie. 


saturday we unraveled our glorious shirts, shot guns, stamped tea towels with whittled potato stamps, played lawn games, launched more diet coke rockets, grilled hot dogs and corn for dinner, made homemade ice cream, and snapped some pictures of our shirts.

these 2 were taken right after jeremy surprise-kissed me.  such funny reactions.

and then we packed up our gear, said our good-byes to the blessed ranch, and headed home.

sunday was rather uneventful.  we went to church, ate lunch, and then went to the airport to begin our long journey home.  we had lay-overs in Denver both times and let me tell you, i have been obsessed with moving to Colorado ever since.  only being an hour flight from this fun bunch??!  very tempting.

and this brings our utah trip posts to a close.  we have gathered priceless memories together from this trip, along with a ton of pictures!  our vacation was a blast and we love our families.  let's do this again soon, ok?!  i miss you already!!!