Holden Highlights

Oh what fun we had in Utah! We spent an entire week in the big town of Holden. It was a much anticipated trip. Ginger and her cute boys were there and it’s always good to see the family and where we use to call home. We had many adventures and late nights, I swear it took me about a week to recover from all the fun that took place! My sweet angelic mother of course always makes your stay so inviting and welcome…catering to your every need. My endearing father full of positive energy and ambition…always busy but so willing to give of his time. I really do have the best parents!

Our first stop was picking up Jauncee from her ½ the summer stay with her father/grandma. Having her back was long overdue! I missed her sweet smiling face and her contagious laugh. I couldn’t believe how much she had grown. She seemed more excited to see Clay than anybody, but that is okay.

Once we got to Holden, we settled in nicely and all the kids got reacquainted with one another. It was fun to see Ginger and her cute little boys. We never get to see them so we were excited to get to spend the entire week with them!

While there the kids enjoyed many ice cream treats, lots of fun in the pool, hours jumping on the trampoline and more ice cream!

We also made a trip up Holden canyon – Maple Hollow…I love that place. It brings back many fond memories of my childhood. It has changed over the years but is still as beautiful as ever and always makes for a fun outing together as a family.

The swing was a big hit! I think all the kids had fun on it and seemed to get a little impatient with one another waiting for their turn.

Splashing away a hot summer day!

My mom purchased a swimming pool and a slippin slide for all the kids. (I had to show them how to go down the slipping slide, thank goodness no one got a picture of that!)

This is a common occurrence at our house…too much lovin!

A trip to Utah is never complete without a Kanosh visit. It was good timing, while there my mom’s sister Margaret and her family were visiting from Alabama, and of course we never get to see them so it was great that they were there. Her youngest boy, Jared is Jeslyns age and close to Brady’s so they all got along well.

Brady even saddled up the horses for a ride out back, which Jeslyn loved!

I thought this was a perfect picture of all the kids there that day. Of course you can’t visit Grandmas without a trip to the Merc next door. This has always been a tradition since I was little. I think my grandma often wonders if it is her we like to come and see or the treats we get next door. Of course being around her is much better than any treat!

Clay had so much fun on the little 4 wheelers. He was so funny though, for some reason he had to have his feet up. Clay really admired Sam, he was gaga over his every move. I don’t think Sam liked him at first but as the week progressed he grew a fondness for my little man, I can still hear him say “Baby Clay”. Too cute!

And then there was more SWIMMING!

Aunt Kellee stopped by to give the kids all a haircut. The girls have both begged for bangs, so bangs it was. Now I kind of regret it, they sure are hard to keep up. Seems like they always need trimmed. But they are happy and like them so that is what counts.

I also got to meet Oakley (Judd’s little girl) for the very first time. She is darling, and was very quiet, but a good little eater.

The week passed by quickly, I didn’t even begin to take enough pictures of all of our adventures. 2 nights we were there we went to softball games. One night we headed up to Nephi to the Ute Stampede which by the way was awesome. We even had a family photo shoot! It is a very rare occasion that all of us siblings are there at the same time so my parents thought it would be a good time to capture a family photo. Of course with the late decision we opted to take the photos ourselves. We used Gingers camera and my mother dug out the ole tri-pod. The fresh baled hay under the “new” hay barns made for an awesome backdrop. I haven’t had the opportunity to actually see the pictures but the few that Ginger posted, so I stole these from her blog. (Gotta have them in the blog book). The pictures were minus Dirk and Paul and baby JR, maybe next year we can get them in. After the pictures we all headed into Fillmore for a greasy lunch at Cluff’s Car Hop Café. I hadn’t eaten there since the day we moved. It was good but I haven’t been missing too much. We all said our goodbyes and us Idahoans headed on home.

I love visiting family and am glad that I got to spend some time with Ginger. Although I am having some regrets that we didn’t meet up a little bit later in the summer so we could have enjoyed some fresh, yummy garden goodness! What do you say we plan it for later in the summer next year?