Summer Vacation: Visiting Family

Our yearly trip out West was a success! And I say that mainly due to the fact that I survived the flight back with the three kids by myself.  Since we were in Utah for McKinley's birthday, she basically decided (subtly) that the entire trip was going to be birthday party after birthday party with every bunch of family members we saw.  Smart girl.  First we got to have a fun visit with Milt's family while his parents drove up to spend time with Milt's Utah siblings & their families....and went out for McKinley's Birthday to Brick Oven (with the highly anticipated balloon characters, of course).  Oh, and be forewarned: there are ridiculous amounts of photos included in this post.  Welcome to the age of digital photos and 3 week long vacations.

The next day we got to hang-out at Ryley and Shayle's new house with Trent and Lacey & Brandon, along with Nana Jacki & Big Daddy before they had to head home.  We really loved all of the of the great quality playing time with some cousins! And the girls LOVED getting their nails painted by Aunt Lacey & Nana Jacki, and they always love climbing on all their Uncles.  We even got Nana Jacki to agree to a "purple" picture with all of the purple items we've found for her!  She is such a good sport. ;)

After Jacki & Big Milt left, we headed up to Star Valley,Wyoming to visit with Nana and Papa Ken (plus yummy Sticky Buns and LOTS of golfing).  Wyoming is pretty fun because when Papa Ken is around, life is ALWAYS a party. 

While in Wyoming, we went to Jackson Hole and had a great time walking around shopping and taking pictures of all the fun "stuffed animals" hanging around.  Maddox was not a fan of the bear.

After Wyoming we drove back to Utah and then celebrated McKinley's ACTUAL birthday at Nana Betty & Papa Kirby's house with a fun Harry Potter birthday party!  All the Utah Aunts and Uncles got to be there, and it was a great party.  Apparently McKinley isn't sick of all things Harry Potter quite yet. ;)

And we had so much fun staying at Nana Betty & Papa Kirby's house.  The kids loved playing with all the neighborhood friends and Uncle Trevor.  Plus, it's always good to have lots of Nanas around for hugs and stories!

After Milt had flown back home for work, the kids and I had a bit more time to do more stuff with my side of the family. We went up the canyon with Nana Farol my Aunt Connie, plus my cousins and their families.  And we even got to see my Aunt Nancy & cousin Alice who were out visiting from DC.  We always go up the canyon together for these outings and it is so beautiful being up in the mountains, and Kennedy loved getting to climb trees to her heart's content (even in her frilly skirt.) 

While up the canyon, we even had lots of opportunities for picture taking too.  The Freeman family photo-ops are legendary -- especially according to Kirby & Milt.

The night before we flew home, McKinley and I went to babysit darling cousin Ryley for Lacey's birthday, so she and Brandon could go on a date night.  McKinley just loves all her little cousins (way more than she ever liked her little siblings at that age), so she was in heaven!  It was great practice for her to get ready for the upcoming babysitting years!  And she especially loved (and pointed out often) that Ryan liked her more than me...I figure that's because she looks so much like his mommy!  This cute picture was taken while McKinley was singing Ryan his bedtime song...it was pretty darn cute!

The #1 thing we miss while living out East is just hanging out with family, and we were so glad we got to spend lots of quality time with everyone during our trip.  We did have some great outings with friends too, but that post will have to be separate because I don't think I can handle any more photo collages for awhile!