Home again, home again, jiggity jig.

**Warning! Really long post with lots and lots of pictures, ahead!**

We're back and already missing our family. Darn. How come vacations are never long enough? I think part of the problem is that when you leave your house, eventually you want to get back "home" again, but Utah is a home for us.

We had a really great time and filled every day to the max with fun activities. We saw and did so many things and visited with a lot of people, but still didn't make it to everyone. So, here is a mass apology to all of those family and friends we didn't get a chance to see on this trip. We missed you! We will be coming for at least a week in December so hopefully we'll see everyone next time.

Here's the basic rundown of our little vacation.

Thursday was Pioneer Day, which for all of you who haven't lived in Utah, and might not know, is actually more than just an occasion to sing fun songs in Primary. It's a state holiday and a lot of businesses close for the day and there are all sorts of festivities. In Brent's family, one of the traditions is to go downtown and watch the parade. Several of us got there around 7am and found a spot to sit, then the others gradually trickled in and we ate lots of yummy sweet rolls, orange rolls, fruit and cold cereal. Brent's dad marched and played with the Post Office Band, as he does pretty much every year, and we saw lots of fun floats. Some of the cousins played a card game while waiting for the parade to start and the rest of us chatted and passed around our niece (Brent's sister Andrea's baby), Hannah, who is 3 months old.

After the parade, we went back to the house and rested up a bit and then got to work on preparations for the big BBQ. July 24th is also Brent's sister Camille's birthday so most years, after the parade, the whole family comes over to my in-law's house for a BBQ and games and just plain ol' fun. They have an amazing yard and we have lots of room to spread out and be silly. Everyone brings food and it's always delicious. This year we had steak, salad, dutch oven potatoes, fruit, scones, cookies, grape lemonade, homemade root beer and homemade ice cream. After dinner, people played water balloon volleyball, "I love all my neighbors", Four Square and shot water balloons with a giant slingshot while the rest of us watched and laughed and talked. I rarely had big parties with extended family growing up since we were so spread out geographically so anytime we get to be with Brent's family, I just sit and soak in all the love and laughter. I think at one point we had almost 30 people. We also stuck candles in the cookies and sang Happy Birthday to Camille. What a day!

On Friday, we slept late, took a long walk and then had a big yummy breakfast. After we all got cleaned up, we (Brent's parents, sisters and us) went to Randy's (my father-in-law) cousin's house to look through some of Grandma and Grandpa Gray's things to see if wanted any things from their house before the rest got donated. We found some fun treasures and quite a few useful items. After we got back to the house, we were joined by Brent's sister's husbands and we went to the Mayan for dinner. It is a Mexican restaurant with a jungle-y atmosphere and a rock waterfall and a diving show. The atmosphere and food were better than I remembered but the diving show was much worse than it used to be. It was still fun though. After dinner, we went to see Horton Hears A Who at the $2 theater. (Might I just add that cheap movie theaters are one of the things I miss about Utah.) It was hilarious! I thought it was going to be a little silly but it was awesome. "You take care of the meatball, I'll take care of the freaking out."

Saturday morning, we (Brent's immediate family, minus Andrea and the baby but plus his cousin Jared who is pretty much a brother and whose wife was out of town) woke up early and headed down to Mt. Timpanogos. We hiked up to the cave and did a tour of it. The hike was starting to get pretty strenuous (at least for those of us that are out of shape) towards the end and I was beginning to wonder/hope that the cave would be worth it. It was! I have never been in a cave and most of the family hadn't been there either so we were expecting it to just be a big room. We were wrong! The tour took about an hour and our guide, Ranger Sue, was great. It was just the 9 of us on the tour so she took extra time and shared lots of cool things with us. After the cave tour, we hiked back down the mountain and had a picnic lunch near the river. What a great experience! The day was beautiful and we started early enough that it wasn't too hot and the side of the mountain we were hiking was still mostly shaded.

After the hike Brent, Jared and I went to Provo. We went to my sister Cami's house where she was throwing a baby shower for her sister-in-law, Ana. During the baby shower Brent and Jared went to visit our boss from when we (Brent, Jared, Cami and I) worked at the Law Building at BYU. They had fun visiting and catching up. The shower that Cami threw for Ana was really great. She makes the BEST centerpieces. So creative! After the shower, Brent, Jared and Cami's husband Luis hung out and played video games while Cams and I had our own fun. As she put it on her blog "we spent most of the afternoon giggling about ridiculous nonsense, which is just the way I like to spend my afternoons". She showed me her beautiful house, her wedding dress store, and the designs for her line of bridal gowns that will *hopefully* be available this fall. You should see these gowns, they are gorgeous and unique and totally modest. So here's my plug for Casablanca Gown Co. If anyone knows someone getting married and wants a custom gown, let me know and I'll pass along her info. I love being with Cami because she is one of the few people who knows everything about me and she totally gets me and whenever we get together, it's a riot. Thanks, sissy!! Also, while I was at Cam's house, I took some pictures of her garden and some pregnancy portraits of Ana since she hasn't allowed anyone to take pictures of her for the past 8 months. I guess she trusts me and that's very flattering.

After visiting the Farias family, Brent, Jared and I went to American Fork to a friend, Jeff's, house. Brent, Jared, Jeff and another friend, BJ were all roommates in college for a couple of years and it was about time for a reunion! We are all married now and Jeff and BJ have kids that we had never met. So we sat on the back porch with all the guys, their wives and kids and roasted hot dogs and caught up and reminisced about the old days. It was so fun to see all those guys again, some of whom I hadn't seen since their weddings almost 4 years ago. It's fun to see how we've all "grown up" in some ways but are still young and crazy in other ways. I spent quite a bit of time talking to Jeff's wife, Hannah, who has also experienced lots of infertility problems, but now has 2 beautiful twin girls from IVF. It was nice to trade stories, complain, and share advice and tips with each other. I am always sad to hear when others have problems getting pregnant but it is so nice to really talk with someone in "the club". Thank you Stevenson's for a wonderful evening!

On Sunday, we all slept late and then had a huge breakfast of pancakes, eggs and fresh fruit. Afterwards, Brent spent some time showing his mom some new tricks on her computer and then we all went to church. After church, we trekked up to his grandparent's house for dinner. It was so fun to visit with his grandparents. After dinner, Brent's aunt and uncles and cousins came up for dessert and there was more visiting and more games. It was hard to leave that night because we knew we would be flying home the next day.

We really loved our vacation and remembered how much we miss living near family. It was so great to have all of Brent's sisters and their husbands sleep over at the house so that we could all be together for so long. We can't wait to come back at Christmas!! Yay for family!!

Wow, that was long. I guess if you've made it this far, you're either family or really bored, or both! I was going to cut it down a bit but Brent said it is good and our blog is basically our journal and we don't want to forget what we did on our vacation.