Traveling to Utah

It had been years since we went to Utah. The last time was when Miles was 6 months old. We don't have any family there but we certainly have amazing friends living there. Our dear friends Buck and Anna Harrison served in Armenia with me. I got to be companions with Anna twice and then we got to return to Armenia together 2 years ago. So basically, we are lifelong friends (and she is our life photographer) and the most wonderful thing is that she has 3 girls the same age as my three boys. (I'm pretty sure my 3 blog readers know all this information but I gotta write it down anyway) So they just built their new home and we got to be some of the first guests. They even had an excellent Armenian room with carpeted walls for us to stay in!
But I'm getting ahead of myself! We hadn't done many road trips with our boys and Max needed to work a half day on the Wednesday we left so we only drove halfway and stopped in Boise. We planned for our drive to take awhile with needed stops, our stops were pretty quick and minimal (thatnks to having all boys that can stop and pee anywhere.) We got pulled over for speeding a bit by the friendliest cop around and got away with a warning and stickers for the kids.
We eventually had dinner at a little diner 2 hours outside Boise. Edwin trying to entertain us. This kid has been busting with personality these days!

 We were able to stay with the Pews (Anna's parents) while we were there. We've stayed with them multiple times and they are always such hospitable people. We got in late and put the kids in bed (who did great in the car!) Sidenote, Edwin got bored in the car and when that happens, he takes off his glasses and pops out the lenses. When we arrived we couldn't find one of the lenses anywhere and searched the whole car, multiple times. So we just decided to look in the morning when it was light out, so we all went to bed.

 Also at Casa Pew there is a trampoline and amazing pool so we decided to stay there all morning and make more memories.

 Worn out!

After a good couple hours of swimming, we cleaned up, packed up and Max tore apart the car looking for that silly little lens, we also searched our diaper bag,  clothes duffel bag and everything Edwin was wearing, I then remembered he had played in the music room right when we came in the night before so I was on my hands and knees looking all over for the lens in there. As we were cleaning up lunch, Liz had stepped into the music room just to do a quick check and in less than a minute...she came out showing us that SHE FOUND THE LENS. What?!? I was so relieved and grateful and surprised I was about to cry. This may seem like not that big of deal, I'm sure we could have replaced his glasses when we got back home but it would be at a cost and he would have gone the whole vacation with no glasses which may have been straining on his eyes. Anyway, that was our eventful and memorrable first day of vacation and we are so grateful to the Pews for opening their home to our circus of a family. 

Oh and my boys found this secret hideout just before leaving. 

Things you can't do in Oregon....

 So we set off on our way, stopped in Ogden for some Cafe Rio and found out kids eat quesidillas for free which was great because that's probably the only thing my kids would eat and then finally made it to Anna and Bucks brand new lake front home by 10pm!

To be continued...