Utah or bust

For September we were fortunate to get time off to go to Utah to visit "Super" Grandma Jackson for her 80th birthday party. It had been a long time since we had visited with her, Chuck and Odie, and Sue and Dan. As a bonus we also got to see Grandma and Grandpa Jackson too! 

 Of course the big day it would rain! But, the garage provided ample space for a classic back east style party.

 Dan and Chuck were complete suckers, gladly accepting the invitation to "wrestle" with the kids every chance they got. The kids fight dirty, so it can be a perilous venture to play like this with them. The kids loved it though. They had so much fun with all the aunts and uncles that they had never met or didn't remember meeting cause they were too little last time. I think that we will have to make the trip out west more often.

 This is at temple square. So pretty.

 Silver lake up Big Cottonwood Canyon.

We also got to visit the Foote's! We made a trip up to Park City Utah and road on the Alpine slide which was so cool. 

 Lance and Stephanie opened their house to us. The kids seriously only got rest on the drives between the house and going to see their aunts/uncles. As soon as they would get back they would be playing with their cousins and enjoying the awesome toys like the one seen above.

Early morning at the airport. 

Thanksgiving 2014

So late we know.

 On our drive out to AZ, we stopped for a while at Roswell New Mexico. Rachel questioned the wisdom in exposing our kids to all of this, so I took a survery. "Preston, do you believe in aliens?" "No." "Spencer, what about you?" "Oh yeah, there is a place in New Mexico where they found an alien body and performed an autopsy on it." "Where did you hear that from?" "I read it in a book at the library dad." There you go, we decided to go to Roswell. We stopped for a day and a half in Show Low, AZ to visit Grandma and Grandpa Jackson, not sure why I have no pictures of this on my phone. But we had an awesome time there. Some of the highlights include, dinner at Denny's, staying with Rachel's brother's family in Snow Flake, the boys sleeping over grandma and grandpa's house, the kids learning to play chess, an awesome dinner made by Kathy, and so much more. IT was a very busy short trip.

 We met up with the Kimsey's in Phoenix and made it over to the newly dedicated Phoenix AZ Temple. It was beautiful.

After the temple trip, Dave and Garett drove up to the Sycamore Canyon Wilderness Area south of Sedona and hiked 10 miles into an old cabin where they stayed the night. The area is very remote to say the least. They started on the trail late and by about 6 miles into the hike ended up losing the trail after crossing a large dry riverbed. This made for a much more interesting excursion, but they made it.

 The weather was perfect in Phoenix for Thanksgiving Day. Rachel and Julie cooked a ton of awesome food (as did Dorothy and Kristi) (and only required about 6 trips to the store to pull it all off). It was actually too hot to sit in the backyard to eat so we sat in the front.

 Black Friday was spent climbing North Mountain with the kids. They only complained some of the time, but it was fun.

 I wish I had the original picture of us posing on our wedding day at the gates of the Mesa AZ Temple, but this is the re-created shot with all our kids.

 We were hoping to see Sister Rachel Krueger as well as catch the temple christmas lights, but Sister Krueger wasn't there that night. The lights were great though.

 Vaughn and Grandpa Moore.

Vaughn with Grandma Moore. 

 On our long drive home we stopped by Uncle Dan's Restaurant in Tucson and had lunch with Heather.