Our Summer Trip

We started off our trip with a plane ride to Boise, ID to see my grandma.  Ben stayed home to work and then he was going to join us later.  Makayla was so excited to see her great grandma Shirley.  I was so excited to see her too because she had never seen Kyle and hadn't seen Makayla since she was two.  My mom met us there at grandma's house to join in the festivities. 

Makayla and Grandma Shirley got along great.  They had such a fun time teasing each other.  Now everyone knows where I get my great height from...  After a few days we drove to Utah to my parent's house. Makayla was so excited to meet her new cousin Brighton and see her cousins Addy and Zoee all who live with my parents.  She also got to see her cousin Brooklyn since my brother recently graduated from dental school and had moved back to Utah.  It was so fun seeing everyone and just hanging out. 

I took Makayla and Kyle to "their temple" (the temple they were both sealed to us in.)  It was so much fun seeing it and brought back many wonderful memories.

One day my sister and I took the kids to a fun little water park.  This was Kyle's first time in water besides the bathtub and he loved it.  He loved the fact he could spash as much as he wanted and not get into trouble. 

We had a fun one-day Harward family reunion.  It started out that morning with all you can eat breakfast from Kneaders.  It was so good!!!  Oh how I wish there was a Kneaders in Fallon.  Then we went swimming.  That night we had a yummy bbq and the kids went on a treasure hunt.  This is all the loot they found.  Kyle was mad because he wanted all of it not just his!!!

Here we are playing with some Snaps (thanks to Jennie) and bubbles (thanks to Megan) waiting for it to get dark for fireworks.

When it got dark we started the fireworks.  We decided that we'd just do street fireworks instead of going to a big show.  We aren't allowed to do fireworks in Fallon so this was really fun for Makayla.  Kyle absolutely loved them.  Everytime the firework would stop he would clap and then say, "more, more, more."

Next it was time for the Shawcroft family renunion.  This reunion actually lasted for four days.  We had so much fun.  We started it off with a Shawcroft family talent show.  Makayla sang the song Believe and did a beautiful job.  Ben surprised us all (including me) with a little cowboy poetry.

I was pleasantly surprised at how well he did.  He even memorized most of it.  His only mishap was when his Colorado cowboy cousins informed him his cowboy hat was on backwards.  Such an attorney!!!

Kyle's talent was looking absolutely adorable in grandpa's cowboy hat and walking around everywhere while stealing everyone's leftover food.  For my talent I was going to do an amazing gymnastic routine but too bad we ran out of time!

 

That night all the cousins stayed at grandma and grandpa Shawcroft's house for a camp out.  Lucky Ben and his brother Tyler got to be the chaperones. 

On our last day of the reunion we went to Ben's sister's house and went swimming in their pool.  The water was the temperature of a bathtub and was wonderful.  The kids has so much fun.  Makayla's favorite thing was to take the water gun and pretend it was a hair dryer.  Both mommy and daddy got a hair makeover from her.  What a girl!!!

Kyle's favorite thing was having daddy throw him up in the air as high as he could and then catch him.  Again after each throw we'd here, "more, more, more, more."  After swimming each of the children told fun stories about their childhood.  It was a lot of fun to hear all their memories.  When it got dark it was time for fireworks.  Kyle again clapped after each one chanting, "more, more, more, more."

We had such a great time.  Thanks to all the family for making our stay so great.  A special thanks to the Shawcroft family for giving Kyle and me the flu.  How can we ever thank you for that special gift???  One of the best things we were able to do while we were there was visit Kyle's birthmother and birthfather and Makayla's birthmother.  I will tell more about this special experience later.