Our LONG road trip across country part 1....

Well this summer we did a family vacation (on my side) to Virginia where my sister Emma and her family live.  Since Sophie can't fly on planes because of her oxygen need, I knew that I was going to have to drive.  However because there was no way that Damon could take that much time of work my dad was gracious enough to come along.  The drive there the girls did so good.  We left Friday morning and got to Virginia I think Wednesday evening.  Along the way we stopped in so many church historical sites.  It was really neat.  So for the next few days I am going to be FINALLY blogging about our trip.  Now be warned they will be very long posts.

Somewhere in Wyoming.

At a rest area but I just loved the look of the windmills in the horizon.

Blowing bubbles, a sure way to keep a toddler and five year old entertained.

At Winter Quarters visitor center in Nebraska, such a neat place and a great place to stop for a few hours. 

My pioneer children.  Olivia getting to see what it is like to pull a hand cart.

Winter Quarters temple. 

Flooding in Iowa, they had so much that part of the freeway was closed, making us get lost and spending a couple of extra hours on the road.

Look at all those sandbags along the road!

So many cornfields in Iowa, I have never seen so much corn in my life!

An Amish family! I was so EXCITED to see them.  I have never seen Amish before and thought it was really neat.  They were very nice and gave me a wave as we drove by.

  Mississippi River, was even bigger than I had imagined!

Indio, Ca

About a month ago the girls and I packed up the van and headed down to Indio, Ca. It is 30 minutes away from Palm Springs with an elevation of -13ft. The reason for the trip was to see how Sophie would do in low dry heat. It was about a 12 hour drive and I knew I couldn't do that all in one day by myself. So the first day we drove half way to Las Vegas and spent the night. Since my mom was just getting back from England, my dad arranged that she fly into Las Vegas so she could come with me to help me out. Well seeing how my dad hates to be left out of anything he then flew in the day after we got to Indio to Ontario CA which was about 90 minutes away from Indio. The girls were so excited that Nanny and Grandad got to be with us. The resort was GORGEOUS but the weather was miserable. It was SOOOO HOT there, 113 degrees for most days. To say the least we spent LOTS of time in the pool and in our air conditioned condo.

The trip was good though because we were able to see how well Sophie did in low elevation in dry heat. She did really good and was having really good numbers!  We had a fun time and wish that Damon could have been with us, but he had to work. 

Look out Sophie's red face from the heat!

Feeding the ducks that lived in the lagoons at the resort.

Breakfast on the balcony.

Olivia doing one of her many jumps into the pool.

Sophie with Grandad, floating in the pool.

It looks like Olivia is crying in this photo, but she's not, just wiping the water of her face!

In a blink of an eye..

I don't know when it happened but Olivia has gone from this:

                                                                            To this!

She has really grown up in the last few months.  I think she is just becoming the most beautiful girl and her personality is really starting to come out.  She LOVES to play outside and would all day if I let her.  We live in a wonderful neighborhood surrounded by little girls and they all love to play with each other daily.  I can't believe that she will be starting Kindergarten in the fall and riding the bus!  Ahh I'm super nervous about the bus and I will probably follow it the first couple of days, lol!  How I got so lucky to be this girls mom I will never know.

St. George

A week ago we went down to St. George with Damon's twin and his family. My sister-in-law's grandmother has a condo down there so we got to stay there.  The condo was in a nice subdivision with a nice pool and playground.  So you can just guess where the girls always wanted to be.  They loved the pool, and with the weather being in the high 90's who wouldn't.  We were there for 3 nights which was just perfect. 

One of the days we spent up at Zions National Park.  It was beautiful!  We did a nice hike and got to walk under a waterfall.  I was so proud of Olivia, she hiked up the whole thing and did a really good job keeping up.  Sophie got it easy and got to ride in BOB, lucky girl!
On our first morning there Damon and I were actually able to go the St. George Temple it was so beautiful inside, I loved it!  It was such a nice moment on our vacation to go and do that.
The trip was a nice break, we had such a fun time with everyone and all the cousins had so much fun playing together.

On our way to the pool!

Look at that cute ruffle bottom!

Swimming with daddy!

Having fun with cousin Alyssa!

Oh its so bright!

Our outdoors girl!

Standing under the waterfall.

I love this picture!

All smiles!

For Nanny...

My mom is in Wales right now taking care of my grandmother, and I was told by my dad that I needed to add some pictures to the blog because she was going through grandchildren with drawl. So these are for my mom. They were taken last night before bed. We have been spending LOTS of time outside enjoying the sunshine.

Oh and the last two pictures are from what I got this morning at Bountiful Baskets. Quite the assortment of fruits and veggies!