Road Trip - Part 2 (or Southern Utah)

So we spent the first couple of days in Cedar City with my cool breezer brother-in-law Greg, my beautiful, fellow bibliophile sister-in-law Jessica, and our adorable and delightfully fun niece Emmy.

While we enjoy the travel aspect, it's always nice to enjoy stops, too. These kids are GREAT travelers. We're very glad.

Sunday

Almost to Greg and Jessica's

Sunday night, Jessica had prepared a delicious dinner for us, which was really nice. We mostly hung out and enjoyed talking and playing with Emmy.

Monday

The next day, we got to watch Emmy while Greg and Jessica worked. What a treat!

We fed her breakfast.

And played Wii with her.

Once Jess got home and it was clear this little girl was not going to sleep, we went to Park Discovery, which Thing 2 LOVED.

That night, we cooked everyone a yummy Portuguese dinner and then we kicked back and did a little dancing in the house.

After a while, we moved our party outside for some Dodge Ball in the backyard.

Emmy took quite a liking to "Mahk . . . heheheheheh" (her words, not mine).

Dodge Ball

After that, we settled down with some stories and movies.

Tuesday

We got to watch sweet Emmy again. And then when Jess got home, we all went down to St. George and met Greg for some In-N-Out Burgers (soooooooooooo yummy!) for lunch.



After that delicious lunch, we met up with Jess's cute sister Sarah and her fun kids and splashed around at a splash pad and enjoyed snow cones!

Our kids would like to adopt these kids as more "cousins"

Pride Rock :)

That night, Jess had the brilliant idea to do boys' and girls' clubs (and the boys got Emmy). The boys went out for pizza and back home for Wii (and those pictures are on Jessica's camera). Thing 2 REALLY likes this fun idea.

We girls went out for a sushi feast! Just look at all that food! DELICIOUS! And Jess was AWESOME. She tried everything (raw included) and ate with chopsticks. I like hanging out with her for oh-so-many reasons. Thanks for such a fun night!

Thing 1? A big fan of this idea as well.

Jess and Stacy

For dessert, we took home a yummy, big, hot, doughy chocolate chip cookie with ice cream, caramel, fudge . . . I don't even remember what else for toppings. It's all a glorious blur.

Then we stayed up WAY LATE talking books, movies, politics, books, movies, gossip. SO MUCH FUN!

Wednesday

Wednesday, we went up North. We stopped at Cove Fort along the way to visit with my nieces (well, 2 of them anyway--the other 3 were elsewhere . . . 2 at camp and 1 in the MTC). It was great to see them. Such beautiful girls!

Awwwww, cousins

Cousins

After a fun visit with them, we continue northward. We grabbed lunch at a Mexican place and hung out with Jess and Emmy for a bit afterward. Then Jess and Emmy went to her parents and we got some Orem/Provo visits in with friends.

Check it out--you can see the "Y" behind us!

We stopped to see some very good friends from Medical School, the Szymanskis, and that was SO SO SO SO SO fun. We love hanging out with them! The kids totally hit it off. We had so much fun catching up and laughing (that REALLY good kind of laughing that just FEELS heart healthy, it hurts so much). We all really wanted to spend more time together so they told us again that we were welcome to stay over and we agreed (not that it took much persuasion--this sounded good to all of us!). Their hospitatilty was really amazing seeing as they just moved in a couple of weeks ago and are still unpacking. Nonetheless, they had us over, we enjoyed REALLY good food, good conversation, good games, we slept well, showered in SOFT water :), talked some more. It was great. (Rachelle, I like this!) *Thumbs up* It went by WAY too fast.

Before settling in at the Szymanskis, we quickly dropped by the Gessels for a quick visit and that was nice to see them and catch up. They are good friends.


We had so much fun at Jared and Rachelle's house. It flew by. I believe the plan is to do some beach/historical vacations together. As soon as they can get out here, they're visiting and we're so excited to host them!

These 2 used to play together as toddlers. They hit it off like long lost friends.

These two knew each other as babies. They totally hit it off, too. So much so that I think they might be the ones responsible for breaking up the sleepover party with their mischief! Good times.

Talking stories and books

Good friends

Let's get this party started!

Meanwhile, this was the scene upstairs . . . after some DELICIOUSLY spicy Indian Food, we enjoyed some Settlers of Catan (and more laughs).
(*Thumbs up* Stacy likes this!)

More to come . . .

(Seriously, thank you so much to everyone who put us up, fed us, and generally let us disrupt your schedules--we felt like nomads and hate putting people out, but loved every minute of visiting with you all! Thank you!)