The Long Drive

I flew from Portland to Salt Lake  on July 1st.  I got to hang out with Oma for another few days and then the boys and I packed up our Hyundai Elantra and hit the road.  It turns out, three kids in the back seat of a car tend to fight a lot and get on each others nerves during long road trips and I was wishing I had my van to drive.  But, I was determined to have fun on my long trip to Oregon so our first stop was Lewiston Utah for some 4th of July fun with my friend Kari Christensen and her family.

Lewiston 4th of July parade with Maggie Christensen.  They sure throw a lot of salt water taffy at this parade, the boys each got a full bag!

How cool is this for a swimming pool idea?  Blow up the river raft, add water and let sit in the hot Utah sun for a few hours...the kids all loved it!

We can't visit with Kari's parents without a trip to the baby cows.  Kari's dad owns a dairy farm and the cows are always a big hit.

We also can't miss the chance to go to the Lewiston ice cream shop "home of the Fat Boy" ice cream sandwich:)

Julian was just in heaven riding around on the ATV with Kari's brother in law Jensen.

What's the 4th of July without sparklers?

I love this one of Emerson...what a crazy kid.

We left Lewiston on the 5th of July and headed to Driggs, Idaho.  We visited Driggs for two reasons.  One, to see my sister Kristen and her family and the other was to see Hyrum's fathers gravestone.  I loved that my kids got to have so much fun with their Porter cousins for a few days.  We went swimming and jumped on the trampoline and played games...I think the boys really had fun!

Playing with Porter cousins on the trampoline

A visit to Opa.  I'm so happy the twins are old enough to remember Opa a little bit.  The cemetery in Driggs, where Opa is buried, has quite a few Durtschi family members in it.  We played a game called "find your name"  All my boys have Durtschi ancestor names for their middle names and we were able to find all 3 names in this cemetery.

We left Driggs, Idaho on July 8th and headed for Boise, Idaho.  We stayed a few nights with some good friends we knew during Med School days, Krystal and Dan Knorpp.  They had chickens to play with, a sandbox to dig in, art supplies to create crazy things and of course, fun kids to play with:)

Townsend playing with one of the chickens.

Emerson and Sophie using their creativity

All the crazy little monkeys playing at an indoor jungle gym

The boys helped Marly turn the sand box into a wading pool.

We had so much fun visiting with family and friends on our way up to Oregon.  We left Boise on July 10th for one final 6 hours in the car to make it to Portland.  We made it safe and sound.  Hyrum had worked really hard to get the house all set up for me and the boys so when we got home all the beds were made and ready to fall into.  Boy, I sure needed a good rest after a crazy week of traveling!