July Trip Part 3: Provo & Lit. Conference

Saturday night we arrived at my parent's home in Provo. It was so great to meet my nephew Lewis:

That night we also went to dinner and then to "The Chocolate" with my cute brother and his beautiful wife:

  Love the Kazookie!

Jane took LOTS of pictures of my neighbor's lambs too :

On Monday we went to visit Grandma & Grandpa Great!

 We also got SNOWCONES..

 For dinner we met up with part of my family at a Mexican restaurant- yum!
 

We also swam in Salem Pond-

 On Wednesday my sister finally arrived and she finally got Kate to paint her nails:

 On Thursday and Friday I went to a Children's Literature conference and we got to listen to very talented writers and authors.  Here is my mom and I with Erin Stead who illustrated "A Sick Day For Amos McGee"

 We also heard from: Karen Cushman, Jennifer Nielsen, Tony M. DiTerlizzi, Sara Pennypacker

and my favorite Steve Jenkins!! He makes paper collages and writes books- click here.

 
Other things we did:
Bowling at BYU- 

 Jane made lots of potions & caught chickens

On our last night there we hiked the Y on the mountain:

July Trip Part 2: Yellowstone!

On Sunday we drove to Island Park Idaho to start our:

This beautiful woman and her family were in charge of organizing it:

THANK YOU SO MUCH CALIFORNIA DAMSTEDTS!!

The BEST part of the week was being with cousins again!

On Monday we went to a Bear and Wolf park and saw some amazing bears:

On Tuesday we did the lower loop of Yellowstone.  We saw lots of Geysers and Buffalo:


 

We visited "Old Faithful" 
 



and we saw waterfalls:


 Wednesday we hung out at the cabin and also went to the beach:
Kids went in the water~

Lots of people fished:

Other times we did this:

On Thursday we drove the upper loop in Yellowstone: 

We stopped at the "Artist Paint Pots"

(Andy- you're in a picture! :)  

And Mammoth Hot Springs:

Friday Kate had her dream come true and got to go horseback riding.

Everyone else went rafting and sadly, B's glasses are somewhere in the river..

 Oh and Jane and Kate got their "Junior Ranger" Badges:

More pictures:
James and Andy-                                                  Jessica's Birthday Party:

Our room at the cabin-

On the drive home we stopped at this cool museum:
                                                                                                       Kate is mashing potatoes: 

Bruce and the biggest Pringle:

We are excited for the 2016 reunion!!

July Trip Part 1: Flying to Utah & cousins..

We just got back from a FANTASTIC month out West.  This is going to be a 5 Part blog with lots of pictures.  It's a fun way for me to organize/journal how we spent our time. 

Here we go.. 

 

On July 4th- "Red, White and Blue"  we flew to Utah (via Chicago) 

 

as we were landing it was super fun to see so many fireworks going off everywhere.

 We drove to my brother's home to spend the night and the next day.  We walked and played at the playground.

 Bruce LOVED riding around:

 This is the view from the backyard- LOVE these mountains.

 We spent an afternoon walking around "Temple Square" and going to museums.

 We ate at Culvers with D, Maddy, Ben, and Sam:

 On Saturday we went down to Payson to celebrate my niece Mabel's birthday and Kate's late birthday.  Joanna made these adorable cupcakes:

 Here's my Mabes..

Part 2 coming next: Yellowstone..