Visiting home!

We drove from Alaska to Hermiston, OR. We stayed in a hotel for a couple of nights and then Madi, Brynli, and I drove home so we could drop off the trailer and visit family. It's always nice to come home after being gone for months. I only told my mom I was coming home so we planned to have Erin, Adam, and Luke come over. When Erin got there she was really surprised to see me. It was a lot of fun!
We had a swim day! It was so much fun!
Stealing Grandpa's chips

Swimming with Grandma

Brynli does not enjoy swimming. So she just sits at the table and eats her snacks :)

My brother Mark and cute niece Hadley...

Playing with Uncle Adam :)


BBQn'


We visited our cousins Carter and Olivia! We always have a lot of fun there.
Getting icecream at Nielson's frozen custard. Yum!




Brynli loves Carter's bear...

Playing under the tramp



I walked the midnight 5k in Farmington with Erin. Erin had already signed her and Adam up a long time ago. Erin is pregnant and her doctor told her not to run anymore. Adam was happy to give up his spot and Erin and I had a blast. I was surprised to see that tons of people were walking. I was shocked though because people were pretty harsh. They would say, "Way to run it" or "Come on push it". I almost left Erin in the dust at the finish line because everyone was yelling "run it out" but I didn't :). I just walked passed everyone and smiled. We stayed at the back and picked up all of the glowing necklaces and bracelets that people dropped and had quite the collection at the end. We looked awesome! I had so much fun hanging out with my sister. Not kids interupting, just us. We talked the entire time and a lot of fun.


Fireworks at Weber State with Grandma Flinders!! We missed the 4th of July fireworks because we were in Canada so we were glad we could celebrate the 24th while in Utah. Madi loved the fireworks. Everything we did on this trip she would say, "Maybe Dad would like to come next time." We wished he could do all these fun things with us.





Then we were off to Visit Grandma and Grandpa Burch in Idaho before heading back to Washington to be with John. We were there during the 24th celebration so most of the family was there except John and Andy and his family :(.
Flying a kite with Grandma...


The wind was blowing pretty good and my first attempt to get the kite up I ran it right into the biggest tree in the yard. Whoops! I felt terrible but we were able to get it down.

Jumping on the tramp with her cute shadow underneath:)

We did a lot of playing outside. The weather was wonderful!
Brynli could play on this step for hours!!



Jumping...again



Papa Dave got out the sparklers and Madi LOVED it!

Love this face :)




Carter and Madi had so much fun together at Grandma and Grandpa's. It's nice to just let them run and play outside.
"riding" the 4wheelers

Watching a show in Papa Dave's chair:)

Bryn trying to be like Livy. She was just chattering away to Livy.

We had a big dinner at Great Grandma Burch's house. She lives right on Main St. where the parade is.
Waiting for the parade...

Icecream at Great Grandma Burch's after...
One of my favorite pics

Cheers! Who knows where they learned that.

Riding home with Uncle Pete. Another good picture:)

We watched fireworks that night that Grandpa Burch puts on for the whole town every year. It's a pretty big deal! It was an amazing show. We ended up staying at Grandma and Grandpas house rather than going to the rodeo grounds because Brynli needed to go to bed. Tiffany, Madi, and I watched them on the front lawn. It was a really fun trip but we were soooo ready to see John again!

Goodbye Alaska!!

We had a day out with Dad to show him all the fun stuff we did this summer while he was working!
Pioneer Park





Last ride on the carousel

Santa's House
Santa was away from his house when we went but Madi still told Daddy all about him.


Goodbye Alaska! We will miss you.


Sidenote... This house was an extreme makeover house. Pretty cool huh?!

There is a football field in the backyard with full sized goal posts.

Here are some pictures from the drive home. This is the prettiest place I've ever seen (Alaska/Canada) and I have been a lot of places
A glacier on the side of the road...





We stopped at Bear Country in Hyder, AK on the way home and saw zero bears :(. Here we are in Bear Country...




We did see tons of bears on the rest of the drive though. There were bears on the side of the road there like there are deer on the side of the road here. It was crazy! Here is one of the many bears we saw.


It was kind of a bummer that we were driving through Canada on the 4th of July. We still wore our red, white, and blue!




A big thanks to Stephen Scott and Posey!! They drove from Alaska and they were such a big help. They were forewarned what it would be like in a car with a 1 and 2 year old for 4 days straight. Stephen sat in the back with me and entertained the girls and even slept through all of their screaming.