Out West Again

I'll admit it. We love the West. We can't seem to keep ourselves away. We love the mountains, we love the dry crisp air, we love the rolling hills, but most especially, we love the people. Why else would we spend two whole days in the car each way with barely stops for gas and potty breaks? With two trips in 4 months, it is all about our extended family.

The purpose of our trip was to attend conference and have Lilly take her endowment out in the Logan Temple so family could attend.  We had tickets for the Saturday afternoon session of conference....but apparently so did almost everyone else (new apostles were called this session) as this is the closest we could get before they closed the doors and said it was full.

 As you can see, there was no one between Ethan and I and the doors. As disappointed as we were, we still enjoyed the atmosphere on Temple Square, and feeling the Spirit as we heard from our apostles and prophet throughout the weekend.

 We were able to take Lilly through the temple for her endowment, and were so pleased to have extended family members there.  It was such a beautiful experience, one we will never forget.

My sister Lila hosted a dinner after the session for extended family, and we had about 50 people there.  It was such an amazing experience to have so many people supporting our Lilly.

This is three sweet girls on our walk to the park - newly married cousin Julia, Lilly and Leah.

We were able to get together with Steven's sister, Mary Ann for a few days. It was fun for cousins to spend time together.

 Aren't they so cute? Elijah was so sweet to Olivia.

Even Diana and her sweet baby Ryan came to see us while we were there.

We even went to the Olympic ice skating oval which is around the corner from their house.  Cousin Devan works there and showed us a good time.

These guys are awesome!  We haven't ever been able to make them sick of us yet (at least not that they've told us).  Gotta work on that one a little more I guess. We just love them to death!

Mom's love to see some sibling love like this - makes the trip all worth it!

This too!



Of course, the trip would not be complete without spending some quality time with grandparents!  This is what makes my heart ache to not be living closer. My kids adore their grandma and grandpa. What a treat to be able to see them twice in a year!
We were able to take advantage of the loaded down apple trees and take home the best tasting apples on earth, which we turned into 40+ jars of tasty applesauce when we got home.


Before we went home, we had to go on a hike in the mountains.  Olivia and I were happy to sit and watch the others climb to the top of the cliff.  We captured this selfie right before my phone fell out of my pocket and cracked on the rocks, but the hike was worth it!



This face has a story to it - Aunt Kathy decided they needed another kitty to help catch mice, so she stopped at a neighbor's house who had found a little kitty.  Well, needless to say, Olivia lost no time in 'mothering' or was it mauling that little guy.  He seemed to keep coming back for more, but I'm sure he was happy to see us go.  (Not before Olivia tried to sneak him in the car though.)

You can take us out of the west, but you can't take the west out of us - LOVE it!