Christensen Family Reunion part 1

After finals got over this year we literally RACED down to Utah to join in on this wonderful family reunion! Casey's mother's side is the Christensens, you can see her dad in the far right of the photo with the white hat. What a joy it was to be surrounded by such great people I get to call family!

We made the trek from Lincoln to Green River, WY (on my birthday!). Ugh car driving is not fun with tiny babies who can't be entertained easily, they just want to crawl. Plus this time around we didn't put an empty seat between them for me to sit in since Max can entertain them at times, there was a lot of crying and a lot of stopping.

Nebraska is seriously so hard to drive through with this as your scenery. It's pretty for the first 2 hours, I admit,  but then the next 4 are just LONG.

a. Max covered his ears in the car a few times as he watched his movie, ha poor guy. He didn't get mad at the babies when they began crying just tried blocking them out, sweet kid.
b. We get to stop in Laramie, WY to visit our very favorite friends, the Christophersons! It was such a joy to see them again!!!!! (and I wanted to cry over the largeness of their house, ha, I want a bigger house so bad it hurts!) But seriously, we just love that family to the very bones, so happy to be reunited.

Katie was so sweet to have some cookies, a candle, and singing for my birthday. My one birthday celebration of the day, ha.

Back to the road

We stayed the night in Green River and made the 4+ hour drive down to Ephraim Utah the next day to meet everyone at the reunion that started the night before. This house below was owned by and lived in by Casey's great great grandfather for years and years and since then it has just stayed in the family and been kept in its original form. It's like walking through a time capsule almost with all the original walls and carpeting!

Green carpet and velvet wallpapered walls.

We picked up and left to the "farm". A bunch of land the family owns and went for a tractor ride (which Maxson was thoroughly impressed with).

That man there in the white shirt is why we all come together!

We hold our babies like footballs all the time because it's the easiest way to hold two at a time. I think it's normal. And then I see photos like this and think, maybe I should hold them mrs like babies.

Playing in one of the old barns

A cake was brought out during dinner to celebrate my birthday once more, such kind family to think of me!

What staying in a hotel with lots of small children looks like. 

Our hotel had 2 large rooms to sleep in. We filled our room with all 5 of us who decided to wake up at the crack of dawn. We tried our best to stay secluded in our room as to not wake up the other family. Ooy. Staying in a hotel is voluntarily paying for a crappy night's sleep, ha.

Our hotel was also near this memorable Maverick! From instagram:

Last night we happened to stay at a hotel in Orem right next door to this memorable gas station. Leaving for Christmas break from BYU in 2008 with some friends to the airport on a snowy early morning we got a flat tire and pulled over at this gas station. Each of us girls called family members in the area to help us and no one answered because it was so early in the morning. I had a wild idea to call up the cute boy I broke up with a month previous. He came to our rescue without a moments hesitation. If I had only known then that he'd be my future husband, ha! And if he had only known then that that would be his first request out of a long list of extravagant honey-do's

Part 2 tomorrow! Lagoon and the family fun run!

Park City

All these posts are apparently going to be blogged in reverse chronology.

We speedily drove up to Utah (in our new shnazzy van, oh the room inside!) to meet up with Casey's family after our time in Airzona. They happened to have a time share in Park City the week following our trip in Hawaii so we joined them for the latter end of it. When we first got there they happened to be in Springville working on cleaning up a lot they own. While Casey worked with them, that's when I took Max to the splash pad (that the idiot put in the do not play in the fountain water feature close by). We were allllll tired by the end of the day. But we were able to snap a quick 4 generation picture with Grandpa Hal (bonus: Maxson saw all 4 of his living grandfather figures within a 24 hour time frame 1. my dad in AZ 2. my Grandpa in St. George 3. Casey's dad in Utah 4. Casey's Grandpa in Utah. Pretty cool!)

We all went to In-N-Out for dinner but I don't know where that picture went...

 Derek was kind enough to be our baggage boy, ha.

Max was obsessed with Papa the whole trip. We all decided it was because he could actually say his name.

 One night we took a little stroll and trolley ride through some of the main street of Park City. Wow that town is so majestic. Quaint yet spectacular at the same time. I loved oohing and ahhing over the gorgeous mountains everywhere and the enormous but beautiful homes lining those mountains.

 Miss Karlee Jo

Grammy styled his hair this night and I kept looking at Max like "who are you?"

 We stopped into the incredibly popular Java Cow for some fresh ice cream. It sure was thick and yummy! Maxson thoroughly appreciated it begging everyone for their ice cream after he had finished off Casey's.

 A night of Settlers (6 player version!) We finally got to teach the parents how to play. I think they both loved it, hated it, understood it, and were totally lost at the same time. 

 Went swimming in the chilly pool with everyone. Then  everyone sat in the hot tub so I dangled my ankles in and Max sat on the very top step that was 2 inches deep; he wouldn't get in the regular pool after that (smart child).

 Maxson devoured the left over smoothie from one morning and had a mustache and large round circle on his face to prove it.

 This was also the first time that as I took pictures of him he was yelling at me "NO!" while putting a stop sign hand at me. So funny.

 We drove back to Wyoming at the end and hung out with everyone there for the evening. Max was in heaven with this tramp (and I think the big kids were too as seen from those smiles).

This is out of order, but one day in Park City we went to a very fun park!

We had such a fun time with the Cutlers in Park City. Love getting to experience new places and adventures with them. Thanks for letting us crash the party!

On a side note we went to Zupas for lunch in Park City and man oh man, that place is gooooood. This was my second time there and I had the same thing as last time: An Italian sandwich and the Lobster bisque soup, both were divine.