HOME!!! Finally!

After one year (almost to the day) we finally got to go home!!! It was a relatively short visit, but I will take what I can get!  We had 9 days to visit (2 of which were traveling) and 2 families to split the time with.  Needless to say that it was a busy week.  We tried to visit with as many people as we could.  I think we got to see just about everybody, even if it was only for a short time.  We started our trip in Utah with Brian's family!!  Here are some pictures

Apparently we were the only people flying out of Pittsburgh at 6am on a Saturday morning

Our first stop in Utah!!! Food and Cake!!!  I have been craving Zupas for months! So once April picked us up from the airport we stopped at Zupas for lunch!! Then, we picked up the Granite Bakery cake I had ordered.  When I called the bakery to order the cake, she thought I was crazy.  I just wanted to order a white macadamia cake with German chocolate cake filling, our favorite part of our wedding cake.

 I just wanted a plain white cake, I didn't need anything fancy, I just wanted to binge on it.  But the lady at the bakery really wanted to put something on it, so we got flowers

   Yup, I was PRETTY excited about that cake

After getting some sleep after a long flight, we hit the lake!! We have missed going boating with Doug!

 Doug clearly missed going boating with Brian

 Soaking in some sun!! Living in Pittsburgh I forget how good the sun feels, 

especially with no humidity

 Brian just chilling with his dad - some quality father/son time

Good times on the boat!!

One of the days we were in Salt Lake I was lucky enough to have lunch with Denise and Sarah.  Denise flew in from the Zones swim meet and Sarah drove down from Idaho Falls to meet up with her before they both flew out on vacation.  So Brian and I got to pick Denise up from the airport and then we had lunch with Sarah at PF Changs!!!

I can't even say how great it was to see these two lovely ladies!! Definitely two of my 

favorite people on the whole planet!!

After a lot of catching up with a lot of people, we crammed all of our things into Doug's Smart Car and headed up to McCall, ID to meet up with my family!!

 Cruising in Idaho in the smart car!

 My family knows how to treat Brian right!! My mom bought him chocolate 

milk and Sarah served it to him a wine glass.

 After arriving in McCall, the kids immediately wanted to go on a "hike" with 

me.  It lasted like 2 minutes.

My family!!!!! All together!!

John had been itching to go golfing, so he set up a tee time for the boys our first day together.  I went along just to watch and take pictures, since I'm not very good. 

 Matt, John, Brian and Johann all had a really good time.  No one was very good....but it was still fun to spend time together.

We spent a lot of time at the lake playing in the water.  We had a few hours one night, so we took the kids for a swim!!

 Me and my babe hanging out on the beach

 Granny and her BFF Madilyn....and Uncle John

 Maveric packed his brothers swim suit...so this kept happening. So cute!

 The kids love making smores, so we had a little fire in the backyard!

 Papa is a really good smores maker

 Next thing you know, Uncle John is dressed in a monkey outfit!

The kids thought he was super silly

The next few days were spent at the lake playing in the water!!  Matt even rented a jet ski for us to play on!! 

 Maleeya getting on the jet ski with Aunt Suzanne and Uncle Brian!

 Matthew and Mckeely were ALL about the jet ski! They even rode on 

the tube pulled behind the jet skit

 Maveric wouldn't get on the jet ski without his daddy.

 Sarah got on too!!!

Granny got on!! it shocked everyone!! But she did!! And she had a blast!!

 The kids had SO much fun playing on he beach and in the water. 

They literally played for 8 hours straight.

 Brian was brave enough to get on the tube with Matthew or Johann driving

 Granny and Papa chillin on the beach....with Madilyn, of course

I snuggled little Madilyn as much as I could, even if it was on the beach

 Uncle John and baby Madilyn

Just a few pictures of our on the beach!!!

Besides playing on the beach, we spent a lot of time just goofy off with each other!! The kids loved playing with Johann! 

 John wanted in on the fun with Johann

Mckeely and Maleeya playing make up with Aunt Suzanne's (very) old make up.  

They are so cute and girly!  I miss playing dress up with them

We also took a nice family picture at the cabin.  It wasn't easy getting all the kids to look at the camera, but I think we did a pretty good job.

 The parents and the newlyweds!!! With Matthew photo bombing us

The whole family. I love them so much

The one thing that I always look forward to doing with my family is playing games!! My mom always plays fun games for the whole family to play.  In the past few years we have really gotten into "Minute to Win It" games. Here is just a sample of the games!!

It was such a long and busy week, but I wouldn't have traded it for anything!!! Pittsburgh has been good to us, but we miss being close to family.  I'm thankful that I have all these great pictures to look back on until I can be with my family again.