Chicagoland

Last week I went to Chicago for a convention for work. It was the same convention I went to in January but this one is in Chicago, not LA. I had a lot of fun, worked a lot of hours, stood on my feet for even longer, ate lots of yummy food & suffered through a heat wave + LOTS of humidity. Here are a couple pics of the Silhouette booth, we had a brand new booth this year, it was beautiful and huge. Silhouette just announced a 12" machine and because of that we were super busy, it was great!

 This is the "make and take" table where we demoed the new machine. That's where I was all day everyday of the show.

We were pretty tired each day after the show so we didn't get to do a whole lot after we scarfed down some dinner! We did get a chance to go to Wrigley Field and see a Cubs game. It was a lot of fun to be in the oldest stadium in the country.

Wrigley Field is right in the middle of a residential area. Surrounding the stadium are homes and they all have bleachers built on top of them. Plus everyone inside those homes got to watch from their windows, how amazing would that be?! We had a lot of fun that night.

That basically sums up my trip, it was a busy one full of lots of work and tired feet.

After I got home Logan and I had a 3 day weekend together, which was wonderful to relax and re-cooperate from my trip. We found out there is a waterfall here in our home town. So we decided to check it out. The hike was all uphill through a small canyon along a river which made the walk feel air conditioned, it was fabulous! Here are a couple pictures.

It was so nice standing by the waterfall after the hike, it let off a really nice mist.

Unfortunately the random person I asked to take a picture didn't know how to use a regular point & shoot camera :( The second one was worse haha.

Lots of people climb this but when we were there a dad and a little girl, she was probably 11 or so. Quite the little daredevil! The hike only took us about 50 round trip, but it was really fun and perfect for an afternoon hike.

That's about all that is new for us, Logan is hiking the Zion Narrows this weekend with his Dad, hopefully I'll have some fun pictures to share from that.

4th of July & summer swimming

We went to Salina this year for the 4th and had such a great time. 

 

3 family BBQ's (the whole family minus 2 cousins)

lots of yummy food

fireworks

4th of July parade

jumping on the trampoline

and so much more...

I totally failed at taking pictures, I had my camera but forgot to take it to any get-togethers. Luckily Logan took a few with his phone.

 

Logan & his dad setting up the trampoline

 I hadn't jumped in years, we had so much fun!

 Logan doing a backflip

 4th of July parade, there were a lot of us! The group started with Uncle Brent way down there in the red shirt and cowboy hat. We got a LOT of candy.

There was a replica of Mater from the movie Cars in Gunnison so I grabbed a picture of it on the way home. It's a little blurry, but we didn't want to get out cause it was raining.

Here is a link to a KSL movie about the replica, our niece Presley is in it for a second, she's the little one in yellow.

 ksl.com - Meet Utah's real-life 'Mater'

Last Saturday we spent the day at the pool. The community pool in Linden has a flowrider, a lazy river, some slides and a big pool. All of my brothers and their families met us there. The guys rode the flowrider, we all went in the lazy river, swam in the pool and had some snacks while relaxing on the grass. We had a lot of fun, but got kinda fried!

 not the greatest picture, but here's Blake & Logan riding the flowrider

 Ryan, Lani & Maddox

 Maddox, Lani & Kara

Ryan, Logan, Lola & Blake. 

Did you love floaties when you were little? I know I did...and so does Lola!

Logan & I...you can't tell but we are pretty darn burned!

Idaho sand dunes-it's a long one!

Last weekend we had the opportunity to go to the sand dunes in St. Anthony, Idaho. I had never been to Idaho (well, I did drive through it at night on the way to Montana when I was little, but I don't think that counts) so I was quite excited to go. We all packed into Logan's dads truck, Logan's parents, sister and our niece Presley. The drive wasn't nearly as long as I thought it was going to be. And it was beautiful, there is so much water in Idaho, simply gorgeous (at least this time of year)!

When we got to our camp ground we got the trailer all set up and enjoyed the warm weather. This trip was my first trip to sand dunes with warm weather, I quite enjoyed a short sleeve shirt while riding. We normally go for 1.5-2 hour rides but these dunes were much longer and larger than what we are used to. We went for a 4 hour ride and a 5 hour ride...they were super fun, but also way more tiring. Not to mention the 5 hour ride was during a sand storm :)

One of my favorite parts of the dunes was the lake. There is a lake right in the middle of the dunes, we got out on each ride and took a break. It was so beautiful...and weird, a lake with lots of trees and plants right in the middle of sand dunes.

Presley & Logan at the lake, she sure does love her Uncle

the beautiful lake

The third day we went to Bear World, a drive-thru zoo, petting zoo, rides and gift shop. It was a lot of fun! Logan and Brandi had never seen a wild bear so they were quite excited to see a bunch of them. I hadn't seen a lot of the animals either and it was really cool to see them in person. We saw mountain goats, deer, elk (including a white one), bears, wolves, buffalo, and moose. Plus some goats, baby deer, a pig, a couple peacocks and baby bears at the petting zoo. 

 pretty bear

this little guy was pacing back and forth forever, right when I said "hey buddy pose for me" he stood up! Its was the cutest thing ever!

A similar thing happened here, I asked the peacock to show us his feathers and a couple seconds later he popped them right out!! Animal Whisperer? I think so! ;)

 that bear almost ate us-Lorri, Brandi, Presley, Me & Logan

 the deer at the petting zoo were quite friendly

Presley & I were the only ones who could handle a spinning ride so we went for it, old rickety spinning bear and all!

After bear world came one of the highlights of the trip for me...I got to see my best friend & cousin...Clarice!! I watched her play in a tennis tournament and win! Then we drove around Rexburg since I'd never been there, went to the farmers market & then to dinner. After dinner we decided we hadn't had enough time together so we drove around some more, we walked around the temple and then went back to Clarice's apartment. 

Side story: when Clarice and I were little we used to lock arms and tell our parents they couldn't separate us or else they'd have to take us both! Clarice lived in Arizona but luckily our parents got us together quite often. I wanted to do the same thing this past trip, I don't see Clarice enough, but I'm glad I got to spend a few hours with her.

 The Rexburg temple is now one of my favorites, the surroundings are breathtaking, as is the temple.

Thanks for showing me such a great time Clarice :)

The next day was the day of our 5 hour ride. We rode all the way to a huge dune called choke cherry, a huge almost vertical dune. Logan, Lynn, & Brandi were brave enough to ride to the top while Lorri, Presley & I watched from below. I forgot my camera so I didn't get a picture of them climbing the huge hill, but it was impressive! Just as we were leaving a group of 10 sand cars rolled in, and they thought they were pretty awesome stuff! It was quite the site.

 One last stop at the lake

The last night we were there the sunset was incredible. It was a great ending to our trip. We had a lot of fun being gone for five days, spending time with the fam & getting some time to relax.

Thanks again Lynn & Lorri, we had a great time!