Summer Vacation- Washington & Utah

On Tuesday morning we flew from LA to Portland. Brian's sister Emily picked us up and we stayed at her house in Vancouver. It was a low-key rest and recover day for us. On Wednesday we met our dear friends the Gillespie's (who just graduated from dental school in Indiana and moved to WA) at a park, had playtime with cousins, and went out for ice cream. On Thursday we went to the Portland zoo where we met up with Christy, Darin's fiance, and her daughter Makeala. It was great to finally meet them. We are glad they are part of our family now (The wedding was two weeks ago). 

On Friday Brian's dad drove us to their house in Grandview. All of Brian's siblings spent the night for the Naylor reunion on Saturday. The theme was Country Living. Brian's sister Lisa headed up the decorations and did such a great job. It was super cute! Grandma even made matching skirts and shorts for all of the grandkids to wear. The day was filled with great food: a big breakfast, hamburger/hot dogs for lunch, a cookie bar, and BBQ ribs/ brisket. We also had drawings throughout the day, games including: three-legged race, bean bag toss, bow/arrow, stick pull, needle in the haystack, and a pinata. It was a lot of fun!

On Monday we went to Pasco to visit with Lisa and Jaime and my sister Jessica's family who live next door to them. The cousins played all day and that night we went out on the Christensen's boat. It was a longer trip than we expected because the boat died out on the water and we had to wait for a friend to tow us back! But we got to see a beautiful sunset on the water and have a good laugh about it! On Tuesday we just hung out and went to Costco for fun.  

We spent the rest of the week hanging out in Grandview. Brian and his dad did some yard work to prepare for Darin and Christy's open house, we went swimming, played on the playground, rode the riding lawn mower or "tractor" as Thomas calls it, went shooting (my first time), watched movies, and visited. We also celebrated Thomas' 2nd birthday. I made a Mater ice cream cake. He got all cars, trucks, and trains... he definitely has a motor on him! Jessica and Lisa and their kids were able to come for the party. 

On Wednesday, June 19th we flew from Portland to Salt Lake for the last week of our trip. I honestly am kind of embarrassed and sad about how few pictures I have of this part. It is obvious I was getting tired and lazy at this point. The lack of pictures isn't a reflection of the amount of fun we had there. We had a really great BBQ and pool party with some of my cousins. We visited BYU campus, went to Burgers Supreme and Rodizio Grill, sent to Bridal Veil Falls up Provo canyon, and mostly hung out giving Maybrie and Thomas plenty of time to play with their cousins. I think being with cousins was the highlight of the whole trip for Maybrie. She talks about them all the time and every few days she tells me that she misses them. That is probably the hardest part of living far away from family right now. It was the longest trip I've ever been on, and was a little long to be away from home for me. But only being able to visit once a year, I'm glad we got to spend so much time there. We love our family and the trip was a great way to spend our last month together as a family before Brian started dental school.