The Browny Bunch

We drove down to Sandy late Wednesday night.  We didn't get to my mom's house until after midnight, but it was nice to sleep inside after so many days in the camper.  Thursday was a kick back kind of day or at least it felt that way.  Looking back, we actually did quite a bit.  I did laundry and mowed my mom's lawn.  The kids played.  Kyle shut himself in Sadie's kennel.  We debated leaving him in there.


We went to the hospital to meet our newest nephew, Dave and Kelly's baby boy Carter.  (Forgot my camera for that though.  Doh!)  Bought cupcakes from The Sweet Tooth Fairy for a belated birthday dinner for my mom.  Ate THE BEST roast beef sandwiches ever for dinner.  Hung out with Alex.  It was a good day.

We had another great day on Friday.  We ate lunch at my favorite fast food place ever, Rubio's.  Oh, yum!  Three fish tacos and a Vanilla Coke later, I was ready to face the day.  We took the kids to Liberty Park for some mostly free (!) fun.

They played on one of the large playgrounds.

Coaxed Aaron to go down the tube slide.

Played some music.

Splashed at an amazing water park.  This place was awesome!  The only downside was when I had to pull out my mom voice and tell some kid not to ride his bike through the water.



I left Sarah and Aaron alone for a few minutes with the camera.  They had a fun photo shoot.  Aaron showed off his muscles and his tough guy face.

His silly grin.

Kissy, kissy!

Awww!  Who loves his big sister?

Four Washington kiddos enjoying the sun!

We bought snowcones for a tasty treat.  The after effect...  :)


 Mom and I took a pretty darn good scrunch picture.

The kids got to ride two rides.  They chose the carousel...



...and the ferris wheel.  My mom hates ferris wheels.  She had a traumatic experience with one as a child.  Even though this was a small one, she still didn't even like watching the kids go on it.  The kids had a blast though.


Emma was an angel baby (of course) and hung out in her stroller.

By the end of the afternoon we were all hot and tired.  Aaron thought he would be silly and wear Emma's sun hat.  These next pictures were taken over the course of about 5 minutes. 

Fading fast...

He's out!

Two boys down!

We had a great afternoon.  I would totally go to Liberty Park again!

We made it!  After 2 1/2 days of traveling, we made it to Bear Lake!  The kids were so excited to have finally arrived at cousin heaven.  There is always stuff to do and someone to do it with.  :)

Here is Braden, Kylee, Chloe and Sarah standing in a hole that they dug and then filled with water.

Aaron, Brad and Kyle out on the Seadoo.  I think driving the Seadoo was Kyle's favorite thing. 

Grammy and Emma in their beach hats. 

Brad dipping Emma's toes in the water.  A traditional Bear Lake baptism, if you will.

Grammy brought some kiddie pools to have next to the pavilion.  Such a great idea!  Aaron enjoyed being the helper to fill them one of the times.



Brad and Emma.  She loved all the attention she got on the beach.  We had to hold her almost all of the time or else she would try to eat the sand.  I loved her pink little cheeks from the warm air and sunshine.  So cute!

Grandpa and Emma.  She really was smiling, although now that I look at this picture some more, maybe she was starting to protest.  hmmm...

Scratchy cheek, Grandpa!

Alright Mister, I've had enough!

Chloe and Hailey having a little buddy lunch by themselves.  They were giggling so much it was making me laugh!

Aaron and Mason spent a LOT of time sitting in this hole and digging to make it bigger.  I think having a buddy was Aaron's favorite part. 

Kyle, Tyson and Adam.  Kyle was teaching them the ways of the Force and scripting out how they should fight Count Dooku and General Grievous.  Too bad we forgot to bring any lightsabers this time!

Sarah and her cousin buddy Hannah.  These two are only a month or so apart in age.  They've gone back and forth on who is the tallest, but I think Sarah is going to win that race in the end.  The three of us went on a super fun Seadoo ride.  Hannah completely soaked us on her turn to drive.  I love how they can pick right up being best buddies even though they rarely see each other.

Hannah had the brilliant idea to put Emma in the bisquit as a playpen.  Why didn't I think of that?!

After 2 1/2 days of fun in the sun and sand, it was time to head down to Sandy to see my mom....

During the second week of August, we went on a trip to UT.  Brad's family was having their annual Bear Lake extravaganza and we wanted to go down to SLC afterwards to see my mom.  We explored many options and agonized over how to "stay" at Bear Lake.  We finally opted to rent a tent trailer from Brad's work.  I don't think we ever got any pictures of it after it was set up, but we did get one of the rig we drove.  Check this out...

On the way there, we saw this:

It is a U Dub football helmet on top of a VW Bug.  They drive it around the field at football games. It has a name, but I don't remember what it is.  Brad said, "There's the thing-a-ma-jiggy!" expecting me to know what to look for, but I was clueless.  I was glad we passed by it a little while later so that at least now I know what he was talking about. 

The first day we only drove to tri-cities.  Good thing too, because it took us until almost 1 pm to leave home.  We had to finish packing the trailer that morning and it took longer than we thought it would.  Partly because it wasn't just packing, it was packing, setting it down, hooking it up, etc., etc.!  We camped at a KOA.  We were disappointed that their swimming pool closed at 8 pm. that night.  We told the kids they could swim in the morning instead.

And so they did!

Well, not all of the kiddos did.  But she and I had fun watching!



Then, as it approached noon, we realized that we had over 7 hours of driving ahead of us!  Ack!  We stressfully got on the road again, headed towards Twin Falls, ID.  We made it there after 9 pm.  (We also forgot about the time change, which was, of course, working against us.)  Brad and I set up the trailer while the kids watched the rest of a movie in the truck.  Then we fed them all chocolate milk and put them to bed.  Thankfully, this time they went to sleep right away (unlike the night before). 

The next day was sunny and beautiful.  We awoke to what sounded like thousands of birds chirping overhead.  Kind of loud, but also kind of nice.  Maybe it was only a few hundred though.  The kids played on the playground and Sarah took some pictures while Brad and I packed down the trailer.


Then we discovered that the battery on our truck was dead.  Oops!  That's what happens when you let the kids watch 30+ minutes of a movie on the truck's battery.  We won't be making that mistake again!  We quickly got a nice grandpa-man to give us a jump start.  Then we headed off towards Utah and Bear Lake.....

.... to be continued......