The last leg of vacation

 Heading to Cache Valley, area of my ancestors. I love how rural it is there. 

 Gordon is obsessed with combines. He was always excited when we could point one out to him, and mad if he couldn't see it. 

 We headed here to stop by and say hi to some friends of ours. This is the only good picture we got, which is not great because it's of Gordon showing his mad (or lack thereof) light saber skills. He had just smacked Hudson on the hand. Sorry! The girls played games and Barbies upstairs. This was also the place where I had my first bite of French chocolate, and I must say, the French know how to make a blissful milk chocolate bar. Way better than Hershey's.  It was good to visit and catch up on all that's happening. 

 Then we headed to the Bountiful area to see Ben's Grandma. We stayed here for two nights. Ben braved a bike ride with an old friend, Jason, who he met in Boston. Jason took him up City Creek Canyon, but after a while Ben thinks he must of gotten altitude sickness or something, because he felt terrible and they had to come back down the mountain. 

Happier times at lower altitudes. 

 We took Grandma Green to the In n Out in Centerville, where the food was just as good as in Cali. 

 I took Grandma on some shopping errands with Jilly while Ben took the kids up to Farmington Pond, where he caught his first fish. 

 Playing with toys one morning....Jillian getting a tractor forehead massage, I really don't know what she's doing in this picture. We watched as much Olympics as we could at Grandma's. The kids really liked the gymnastics and swimming events. 

 We stopped in for a visit with Ben's other grandma, Grandma Cluff. The kids don't know her as well, so Gordon ended up falling asleep in my lap. I was shocked, this hasn't happened for at least a year. Jilly was glued to my side while Evelyn played 'Flow' on Ben's smartphone. After this, we headed to the Bountiful Costco where we (I) drooled over all the stuff you can get at a Costco geared more toward families. We even bought food here to take back to California, stuffing it in our already-overflowing minivan. 

 Then we stopped to see some of the oldest friends of Ben and I's married life, and their cute kids who are the same age as ours. They played great together and we're hoping we can get together and see them again. 

Astronaut Gordon. So precious. 

 Next up, we headed to our old BYU stomping grounds and stayed with these friends we know from school here in California. These kids spent hours playing together at the playground near our apartment until they moved last year. They played dress-up/superhero/andwhoknowswhatelse games all day long while we visited. It was fun to see them having a blast. 

 And finally, we opted out of staying in Las Vegas for another night, and drove straight home. It was mostly pleasant, albeit brutally hot, and interspersed with 20 minute crying jags from Gordon about nonsensical things, like wanting to turn around to see the combine he missed. We stopped briefly in Vegas to visit with Ben's best friend from growing up. He works at a flooring, tile, and appliance outlet, so I had fun perusing all the options while the girls asked a million questions. Gordon was mostly bored and wanted to leave or touch everything that could fall and break. 

When we stopped somewhere between Riverside County and Orange County in the hills, we could feel the ocean breeze and it was so wonderful! It wasn't  hot anymore! Just so pleasant, like the weather usually is here. 

We had a good vacation again this year, and Evelyn's already talking about where we're going to stop next year. I'm grateful for good family and friends who let us impose upon their routines, and a minivan and mechanic that make it possible for us to travel so many miles without car trouble.