August Vacation

   These pictures are from this August when we went to visit Haley and Hunter! It was such a fun visit and we were so glad we got to go.

This will be a very summarized version of our trip and somehow I don't have pictures of a lot that we did! But here goes anyhow.

 The kids were so good on the drive. It was 8 hours and we only stopped twice. The first stop was here in Jackson Hole. Ahh... it's so pretty there, but boy did we stand out like sore thumbs with all our kids. And, to top things off I hadn't even put makeup on that day, how dare I! Even when people saw Irelyn, who always gets acknowledged as cute and charming, the old ladies looked at her like they didn't know what to do. I'm glad my kids' Grandmas aren't like that. 

 But, it is pretty there. Which is why we learned later that you should go camping there and not stop anywhere else. Really beautiful country.

I can't believe I don't have any pictures of us at Haley's house! What was I thinking?! Oh, wait, I was trying to keep 5 kids entertained and happy and fed. Anyhoo, we got there in the evening and poor Hunter had waited up for us. He was so cute and excited. We all visited and tried to get the kids to go to sleep, which was an adventure in itself. 

If I remember right, we left on Saturday, then the next day we went to her ward which was fun and in the evening went on a beautiful hike outside her town. It was so pretty and has this great waterfall at the end. 

Here is the lovely picture we took. 

(Haley, I don't know why, but I have like almost no pictures of you. Since you were about to pop with Paige, maybe you will be glad!)

 

 What this picture doesn't show was that all our kids were climbing all up the mountain side, especially Alex, and they wouldn't listen and I kind of wanted to strangle them all! I remember being very annoyed and Haley talking about how nice it was when they came with Hunter and that it never would have occurred to her that our kids would try to climb the mountain. Doesn't she know our kids yet? But actually, now that I have the luxury of looking back on it and not being in it, it was still fun and super pretty. 

Oh, in all the pictures you have to see if you can find Irelyn. She is always barely there.

 The next day we took the kids to Natural Bridges Park, or something like that. When we got there we were all annoyed because there were a ton of little kids from some school, but it actually was awesome because the kids were nice and then their counselors were doing all the manual labor.

 

 

 We brought a lunch and ate there. I actually did get a picture of Haley while we were eating, but I will be more generous than others have been with me and not post it, as it was not flattering. May the favor be returned one day.

The kids had lots of fun climbing on all the rocks and the toys, and then we went over to see the big natural arch over the water. It was really pretty. And, of course, our kids wanted to wade in it. Then Alex fell so we told him to just go ahead and swim. Then they all just swam. 

 That was one of my favorite things, just watching them swimming around and having fun. It was such a pretty area and the water felt so good.

Look, I did get a picture of Haley!! She will be so happy!

The kids really had so much fun here, as did we. What was really funny was that I kept telling Danny that I just wished we had brought extra clothes with us, as they were all going to be cold when they got out and that I wanted to swim, too, but didn't want to be all wet. Then when we got back to the car, what had been in the car the whole time? Our bag of swimming suits!

This is going to be kind of a long post, so maybe I will write less. 

The next day we headed off bright and early from Haley's house to Mt. Rushmore. (Thank you Megan for the idea!!)

This was a dinosaur dig place that was on the way, but it was really expensive so we told the kids that all it had was this giant woolly mammoth skeleton. They thought that was cool enough, and it was free!

Lunch at Subway. At the end we were all done except Irelyn, so while Tristan was in the bathroom Danny took the other kids back out to the car. When Tristan came back I told him that Danny had left with the other kids to go on to Mt. Rushmore and that he would come back for us later. I'm so mean. I just couldn't resist it!! But I only let him be sad for a minute and then we laughed about it.

Mt. Rushmore! Yeah!! I have been surprised at what an impression this made on our kids, especially Alex. They find it on all kinds of things now, like the game Life and in books, and get so excited about it. It was neat to see it in real life and it did evoke very patriotic feelings.

Umm.. Megan, what is this thing called? It has all the state flags and is called something. This is what happens when you wait 3 months to write about something.

This looks like the kids are going to fall off into nothingness, but there is something just below and then a big amphitheater.

 

This was on the Presidential Trail, a fun half-mile hike. The kids are hugging a tree as part of their Junior Ranger requirements.

Danny doing double duty with the kids. There were a lot of stairs at this point and the kids were kind of tired.

Do I look a little bit like I am trying to strangle Alex? I actually wasn't. This time. 

                                                       In the Artist's Studio.

After spending a few hours there and completing their Junior Ranger certification, which can I just say a little something about that? We told them that Alex was autistic and he had already done most of the requirements for the younger age. But, no, not only could they make no adjustments, but Alex had to memorize all the stuff, too. Blah, if I could have just bought the badge I would have. 

What really made me laugh was when they have passed it all off and they have to take this little pledge. Tristan was doing his and the guy says, "Say 'I'." 

Tristan- "I."

Ranger- "Say your name."

Tristan- "Say your name."

He is so literal sometimes! But, in the end they all got their badges which they wore proudly for about 3 weeks and I think have since disappeared. 

After that we went down to the little town that is before the monument. One of the fun things about going to see something is seeing what is all around it. The kids each put a little money in and Alex, Tristan, Alaina and Danny each went on the Alpine Slide! It takes you on a ski lift up to the top of the mountain and then you get to ride a sled down the chute to the bottom. You can each control your own speed, and Danny said that Alex went sooo slow at first. He tried to explain to him, from his sled, how to control the speed, but Alex wasn't getting it. He tried to demonstrate how to push your lever forward to go faster, and Alex copied him exactly and pushed him arm forward, in the air. But, he eventually figured it out and they thought it was soo fun!

The little town there is cool, but the food is really expensive. So we went to the next town about 20 minutes away and got McDonald's and took it to eat at the Dinosaur Park, which sat on the top of a hill overlooking the city. It was quite cool and the kids liked it a lot. In fact, we got them each a t-shirt from there that glows in the dark. That was really cool.

Then back to Mt. Rushmore for the lighting ceremony. (Sorry, Megan! I know that you wanted to do this and didn't have time!)

There were tons of people and they showed a video about the monument and then had all those who had been in the armed forces come down to the stage. Everyone clapped while they walked down and that was really touching.

Then back through the, oh, I think it is called the Hall of Flags. The kids kept stopping to "charge" their t-shirts so they would glow brighter.

To be honest, sometimes it is really hard at these things with all our kids. People look at you strange and it feels like everything is designed for people with 2.5 kids. Sometimes your kids are rotten and sometimes they are whiney. Some moments are really fun, and sometimes you wonder why you even do it.

But after about 3 years you will know that it was all worth it.
No, really it was a lot of fun and the kids were really good. And while there is some truth to the saying that things are enjoyed more in retrospect, we did enjoy our day immensely. Plus, these kinds of things seem to bring you together more and give you fun memories to share together. 

We drove back to Haley's that night. It really was a fun day and for just being one day, it sure made an impression on the kids.

I think these next pictures are all out of order, but oh well! 

We watched the new Muppet movie at Haley's and had popcorn. Haley is in background fighting her battle with the ants, who showed up every time there was a crumb on the ground.

Ahhh... Tristan reading to Hunter and Emme.

Cute Cousins saying goodbye! 

Oh, the day after Mt. Rushmore we went to the super cool dinosaur museum in Haley's town, which was free! And, there was a class there and this cool guy was giving them this great tour, so we joined in and got to see behind the scenes where they were working on real dinosaur bones! Too bad I didn't take any pictures! 

Oh, and here is a random picture of the porch. 

Irelyn having fun with the baby wipes.

I have no goodbye pictures, which I am sad about. But we had so much fun, but the kids were kind of going crazy. So we left the next morning, and here are some pictures of the great rest stop that we went to. It really was great! It had toys and tables and really clean bathrooms. It's cool that on oil, we never stop at gas stations, which are usually not the best places with kids.

 

 We had more adventures on the way, but this is realllly long already and I am getting tired of Blogger being weird. So I will stop here. Let's hope I finish writing about the rest of our vacation, it was soo fun!!