A Grand Journey

I've been meaning to take the kids to Utah for ages.  I still hadn't met my new adopted cousins, who have been here for years.  Plus visiting the rest of my mom'a side of the family, and my brother and his wife, so we really needed to visit.

Thursday after Jack's summer school class, we took off for the first leg of our journey: Grand Junction!

Picking up:

A break in Silt:

Made it!  There was about as much screaming, crying, and junk food eating as you would expect.  But they were pretty good overall.  They even made each other laugh for a good chunk of the drive (Sam appreciates Jacks fart noises in a way that I can't).

New toys to explore and the pool:

The next afternoon we packed the car to its limits, trapped Dad in with luggage, and made the next section of our journey: Layton!

Passing Country Jam

Jack settled in at Green River:

The boys were far from thrilled to be back in the car.  Sam exercised his lungs through most of the metro area.  But we made it and were quickly surrounded by family and food.  I can't believe how much older my cousins are.  But I had to remind myself that I was presenting my second son, so I'm getting old too :-)

Gah!  I hardly took any photos of my cousins!  Crap.  I was so tired and trying to keep an eye on the kiddos.  Maybe my mom has some she can share.

The boys had to so some final carousing, and is had to dash to Target for some forgotten essentials (ha, did I think I could  go four days without a trip to Target? Oh naive one).

New toy positioned by jack after I tucked him in:

And that brings us to this quiet, peaceful morning.  The boys are well slept and fed.  Grandma Lois is being a good sport about the mess we bring.  Jack is on his fifth turn on the big swing.  It will be a nice day.