We drove. We drove 14 hours. We drove 14 hours straight through the night with a dog and a toddler who had molars cutting through his poor little gums. But the drive up went surprisingly well - there was a lot of audio-book-listening, Sesame Street-watching and Cherry Pepsi-drinking. But we made it and Finn really did pretty well, sleeping for a good chunk of the drive.
Once we got there, we had blast just spending time together. Dan and Courtney, Chase's bro and sis-in-law were there for Dan's med school rotation so we had the whole Child family all in one place! Well, Liz was only there one night because she had school, but still. We went boating and I water skied for the first time ever and it made me so sore! Finn even went on the tube, sandwiched between Chase and I. He loved it! He just had this scared little smile on his face the whole time until the water started splashing into his eyes. Then he was done. It was so fun though!
The night before the 4th was when we actually watched fireworks. We found a big empty field next to the restaurant we ate dinner at, so we just laid out our blankets there and played capture the flag until it got dark. I had so much fun! I think I could have played all night. Unfortunately everyone else is a lot more mature than me, so that didn't happen. :) It was great for the grandkids because they could run all over without being too close to the road.
We ran a 5k the next morning, the 4th, which made me even sorer because I haven't ran in almost 6 years. I was almost last, haha. Well, actually, I did pretty great because Chase and I got our racing numbers mixed up, meaning he did pathetically bad, when you compared my time to all the manly men's times. Then we watched the parade. Finn loved picking up the candy. And eating it, of course.
Later we set up the tripod and took some family pictures, since we had everyone together. The Child's are one good-lookin' fam. Too bad Finn was having a meltdown the whole time. Hence the popsicles.
Later that week we went to some ridiculously too-beautiful-to-be-real glacier-fed lakes in Bloomington. It was so gorgeous. I wanted to just live there, forever. Chase said that's what Alaska is like, so I'm really excited that our next big vacation will *hopefully* be an Alaskan cruise. I'd love to see where he served his mission. Anyway, after the lakes we went to Bear Lake, which is equally as cool! It was so fun because it had a sandy beach that went out in shallow water for over a mile. We went so far out and still it was only just above my knees. The kids LOVED it! Finn kept standing up and then jumping and landing on his bum (he does the same thing on the trampoline). So fun.
The drive home wasn't quite as smooth as the drive up. We stopped in Provo to have dinner with our BFFs Adam and Amanda. Then we went the rest of the way, but Finn had a much harder time sleeping and Chase and I were so exhausted... like, not thinking clearly... like, not clearly enough that we made a wrong turn that added 90 DANG MILES to our trip. We had to switch drivers almost every 2 hours. We listened to Ender's Game and ate Sour Patch Kids, but it was still so hard. When we finally got home (after realizing our stupid hour and a half mistake) we all crashed and slept for 7 hours! Even Finn!
Anyway, it was a great trip, we looooved being around family and being in cooler weather. But I think what I loved most was just spending time with Chase - without either of us having to worry about work. He is the best fellow I know. :)
