Another Wild and Crazy Summer

Every year our summers are full of crazy adventures and this year has been no different! We sadly had to say good-bye to Alaska at the beginning of July, but were happy that we got to come home for a few weeks to visit family and friends and experience a little bit of Utah summer (a rare thing for us:)). We did a good job of fitting in all our favorite summer activities - swimming, shaved ice, sidewalk chalk and soccer games. When we couldn't handle being away from Reno anymore we jumped in our car and drove to Washington to live out the rest of our summer in the luxurious Travelodge. While we love living out of suitcases and doing dishes in the bathroom sink (ha!), we will be happy when September finally comes and we can all be back in Utah together as a family.

Good-bye Alaska! We loved the time we spent in Alaska and are so grateful for the opportunity we had to live there, even if it was for a short time. There are many things that we will miss...



We will miss looking out our window at 10:30 at night and seeing it this light outside...
We will miss all the beautiful rivers and trails and playing by the water in our underwear trying to catch fish...
We will miss eating pizza at the "Moose's Tooth", Oh the Lu-Wow and apricot pizzas, how I will miss you!!!

We will miss the beautiful mountains, glaciers and other scenery we were able to experience...

Marli and Reno loading up the car the night before he left. Reno was so set on not missing any work that he left early Sunday morning, drove through the night for 2 days to get to Washington on Tuesday.

4th of July - Marli, Laney and I took the red-eye flight to be home in time to surprise my family on the 4th of July. I hadn't been home for the 4th in five years so it was so much fun.

Laney loved all the yummy food from the BBQ

Marli loved playing with all her cousins that she missed so much!

It wouldn't be the 4th of July without the annual "freeze-off" homemade ice cream contest. My favorite was the snickerdoodle ice cream with a little of Dad's famous vanilla on top:)
All the kids were watching a movie on my parents bed while the fireworks show was being set up.

Marli and Laney didn't quite make it long enough to see the fireworks - it had been a long day!

Girls Night Out! + Dad - almost all of my sisters were in town when I was there so we went to Cheesecake Factory for a little girls night out. But we didn't want my dad to miss out on the fun so we invited him too.

Besides being all together, the best part was we all ordered different kinds of cheesecake then did the take-a-bite-and-pass routine. My favorite is still the Godiva:)

Summer Fun - Marli and Laney were both so happy to be back at their "toy room house".


Since we hadn't even seen a swimming pool in Alaska, Marli was a little nervous about jumping right into the water, but she quickly warmed up to the idea.

Marli was SO excited to get home and play with her friends.

Even Grandma came back to Utah to play with us

My little brother had his final soccer game at BYU so here is a picture with him and his biggest fans

Reno here we come!- Luckily my sister and her family were driving to Oregon the same day we were so we could caravan together and I could have some help along the way.

Home sweet travelodge? These are our lovely living conditions for the next few weeks - Only because we love Reno so much and can't stand being away from him for too long.

The girls are so, so, so happy to see their daddy again!