Not the beach we all were expecting when we booked a trip to the Olympic Peninsula in the middle of July.

Oh well, that didn't stop us from having fun!

Since my sister Bree and her family were visiting for the whole month of July we decided it would be fun to go somewhere for a weekend all together. We decided on a great house on the Olympic Peninsula since everyone thought it would be fun to be near the ocean. Unfortunately we didn't get the best weather while we were there but we had fun anyway. 

My Aunt Debbie and cousin Kelsey also joined us on the trip, as a surprise belated 60th birthday present for my mom. My mom was super surprised to have them there and we thoroughly enjoyed their company!

Even though the weather wasn't the greatest, we were at the beach so we had to at least walk down to the beach and spend some time there... Here are a few of us with shovels in hand, ready for some fun in the sand!

I thought the Fire Danger Level set at extreme was extremely funny considering the cloudy misty day we had!

Run! Don't let the waves get you!

My dad being the beach lover that he is, was in the water clear up to his knees by the time we left!

Chach and Coco always make for some fun photo opts!

The sand castle that Lydia, Nona and Opa worked so hard on... shortly after it was complete a wave came and swept it away. I wish I had a video of all of us running to grab the shovels, pails and shoes... it was a chaotic 'Treusch' moment at it's best! (The only thing that would have made it more complete is if someone had fallen in the water.)

Momma, with her three kids! (We missed you John!)

Everyone minus my cousin Kelsey who wasn't feeling great and decided to stay back at the house... rather than spend a few hours out on a rainy beach!

Finally, the BEST picture of the weekend! 

As we were preparing to leave the beach I thought, 'you know what would make my beach day complete? A picture of all three kids together!'

Now, I know when these kids see me coming with the camera the must get so annoyed, but one day they'll thank me! Right? And see, I didn't need the 'perfect' photo I just wanted something that captured the moment we were in... and if you ask me it doesn't get any more perfect than this!

The sun managed to come out a bit for us just as we were leaving to get warm and dry!

 After our morning at the beach the sisters and spouses decided it was time to scope out some local fare. 

Fun day... fun vacation!

I almost forgot to post the 'twinners' picture Lydia was so excited about. Lydia loves to have her hair braided by my sister Carrie... she does a mean head band braid. So one more Lydia, Carrie and I decided to have the same hair-do. 

Wish I had a photo with Chach too... then we could have been 'tripleters'! 

Batman Boys

Summer has come (and almost gone by the time I got around to blogging... ha!) so that means they're back together again! I'm always amazed how it's like time stops between these three when they are apart and once they're back together again they pick up right where they left off. 

One day while Natalie was at a Storm game with a friend from school, the boys and I went to the library. I love going to the library with the kids, we can spend forever there and usually walk out with a bag of books that weighs more than William.

This trip to the library was a bit different because Batman decided to come.

 Andrew and Will... err... I mean Batman and Batman wore their suits proud!

 My two favorite superheros!

 This is their 'scary shot', William's head is on backwards... can you tell? :-) 

I think Andrew is zapping us with his laser eyes...

Utah Part 2

Here is the second half of our trip to Salt Lake.

After our visit to the museum we had dinner at Thanksgiving Point and then walked around the gardens.

Christopher and Cristina had a blast messing around with their Tio Ben.  

The kids spent a bit of time at the spray park... even though we were begging them not to get too wet. We wanted to take a few pictures in the beautiful gardens around Thanksgiving Point.

 Somehow we managed to get a few good shots despite all the, much more fun, distractions around us!

The next day we made our way out Ben's sister, Emily's home... and horse stables!

Ben's sister Amy also joined us with her two kids, it was a treat for the kids to see the horses. Emily had an apple they each got to feed to the horses. Mikey also insisted on scoopin' some poop! He was serious about being on poop duty, it was hilarious!

We (or I) decided we just HAD to have some photos in front of Emily and Kerry's cute barn! Doesn't it make a great backdrop?

That just about wraps up our trip, with the exception of a few things we did that I didn't capture with our camera. Thank you to all our friends and family that made time to see us when we were in Salt Lake. It had been FAR too long... we will make our best effort to not let two years pass again before we are back!

Utah Part 1

After way too long... almost 2 years... Ben and I finally had the chance to visit his family in Salt Lake City. We were there for a week and had a blast seeing all his siblings, nieces, nephews and even managed to squeeze in a few cousins! 

Here is a recap of our trip.

Our first stop was Spring City, UT for a family reunion. The Allred family holds a reunion in Spring City every year to honor their ancestors who settled the town in the late 1800's. Ben's mom is a descendant of Redick Newton Allred who is a famous Utah pioneer. Below is a picture of the house where Redick Newton Alldred resided in the 1870's, the house later belonged to his son Isaac.  

 While we were standing outside admiring the house the current occupant (also a descendant of an Allred) offered to give us a personal tour! I believe Ben's mom has toured the house before but it was really fun for Ben and me to learn a little more of the history of the house. The trunk pictured below belonged to Redick Newton Allred, we were told he brought it with him when he was traveling across the plains.

When we were driving home we passed by the ghost-flooded-town of Thistle, UT. Ben's mom was telling us about the town and how it was flooded in the 1980's and is still underwater. I looked it up on Wikipedia and it said there was a massive landslide in 1983 and all the residents had to be evacuated. The town was almost completely destroyed, only a few structures were left partially standing. Ben insisted we stop at the ghost-ish town and look around. It was a bit eerie to see the tops of buildings still underwater after almost 30 years. Unfortunately there was no place to park on the twisty-turny highway with views of the still flooded area. So we had to settle for a part of the town now above water... but you can get the idea. :-)

Lots of thistles in the town of Thistle.

The next day we went up Big Cottonwood Canyon (or maybe it was Little...?) to see the snow run off. 

Sounds boring huh? 

Well it wasn't! Utah had such a cold spring that now that the summer's heat is in full force the snow is melting off the mountains fast and is creating some big full rivers roaring down the canyons.

 I felt pretty insignificant standing on the edge of the canyon watching the water roar down to the valley.

While we were there we also got to see "Cars 2" with Lightning McQueen's biggest fan! (And no, I don't mean Ben.) After the movies Mikey and Claire left their mark on Grandma's french doors! Ha!

We visited The Museum of Ancient Life with Ben's brother's family. Their daughter Cristina is a big fan of dinosaurs and loved taking us to one of her favorite places!

 If you live in Utah, or are visiting and have kids, it is a great place! Lots of interactive exhibits, Christopher and Cristina love the Erosion Water Table and the Fossil Digging area.

 It's always a challenge for me to get a photo with EVERYONE in it. So I'm often looking for places where I can set a camera, turn on the timer and RUN into the photo. It doesn't have to end up being the best photo, all I care about it is that everyone is in it. I managed to find a display case that my camera could rest nicely on while all of us perched right in front of 'Jaws'. 

In retrospect we should have done something more along the lines of what Ben and Cristina had in mind. That would have been the best photo! Oh well! Next time.

Okay, I'm about half way through our trip... but I'm a bit blogged out for the night. So, I'll post this for now and wrap up the rest later!