Just my Mom and me

My Aunt Lois was having a surprise birthday party in Moab.  What an excellent excuse for a girls trip! My mom flew to Utah, and we ditched the kids with Mark and headed south.  The first night we stayed in Monticello at a hotel that my cousin-in-law, Hetal, parent's own.  It was an adventure.  I had never met them before, and they were so nice to let us stay there.

Dinner in Monticello

 We checked in and went to one of the few places to eat dinner.  Time for a side story.  There were only a few other people in the restarucant, so we could hear the other people talking.  The table next to us had some teenage girls and a grandma.  One of the girls was looking at the ads in the paper, and asked out loud, "how much is 1 pound if its 3 pounds for a dollar." No one answered.  So she started to guess, "22 cents?" Then the other girl chimes in, "no I think it is 29 cents."  We giggled.

Mr. Patel and Me

 As we were leaving the restarant, this guy came up to us.  Turns out to be Hetal's Dad.  He had been looking for us to go to dinner.  But since we had already had dinner he said he would take us to ice cream.  So we started to follow him, not knowing where we were going (and knowing there are not too many places to go).  We pulled up to a gas station.  We had an ice cream out of the freezer.  It was great.  So we chatted with him for a while.  It was fun to hear about his time in little old Monticello.

Mrs. Patel and Me

 Then we went back to their place/hotel and met Hetal's mom.  We checked out pictures of Hetal when she was little.  The Patel's were so nice.  It was really great to meet them.

 The next day we headed down to Blanding.  Mr. Patel thought we would have better luck there for breakfast.  Only, no. We didn't.  The only places open were Clark's grocery store, and Subway. So we stopped to pick up some things at Clark's.

We knew it would be good with the Blue Bird on the sign

 We drove all the way to Bluff.  Just when we were about to give up on breakfast we saw this little cafe.  And it was fantastic.  Totally worth the wait.  We had blue corn pancakes, a quiche, and a pumpkin muffin.  And every single bite was good.  And we were the only American customers.  There was a group of people from Germany, and then another from France. We chatted a while with the cook then went on our way.  But I did have to take a picture of the little ass.  Probably the only time I will have a little ass in my picture :)

Little Ass in Bluff

Baskets

 After the delish breakfast we went to the trading post that we had driven so far to see.  Story time- in June when my Mom came to Utah we went to the Natural History museum and saw the most beautiful baskets weaved by some Dine people.  We knew we would be in the neighborhood of where the baskets were made, so we decided to check it out.  And they did not dissapoint.  They were really cool.  I really liked the story baskets the best.

 After seeing the baskets we headed back to Moab.  We made a few stops along the way.

Colorado River

We made it to Aunt Lois' party.  She was very surprised, and it was great to see her.  We also were able to see my Uncle Colin and Aunt Donna and Uncle Ross.  Those pictures are on my Mom's camera.  I think Gma Kathryn was smiling at us that day.

It was nothing less than a fantastic trip.  I loved being with my mom, especially with no extra distractions.  I learn something new each time I am with her, and it makes even more in awe of her.  I am one lucky girl.

The best way to see a parade

We went to the Utah State parade last year.  To put it nicely, it was a nightmare.  So this year I learned they have a float preview.  So we went to check it out.  We also took some of the neighbor kids.

The float that the kids liked the most was this huge ice cream sundae.  And they had this photo op by it.

This is totally the way to see this parade.  The floats are over the top amazing, and most had little activities for the kids to do.  They were even passing out candy :)

Maissie and Makenna

Sometimes you meet people who are just cool.  Maissie loves and misses Makenna dearly, but when they do get together it seems like they pickup like they never missed a day.  I love how well they play together-still.  I hope they don't mind that Laura and I plan their older lives together :)

Good times at the ranch

 We took a ranger ride to find a mine.  We didnt find it, but we did see this cool tree that had been struck by lightening.

I thought it was a fantastic time at the ranch. I cant wait to do it again next year.

is that a gun?

Boom Boom Pow! We had some pretty sweet potato guns to try out.  I am mad I didn't get a picture of the awesome target in the field, cuz it was awesome.

ranch games

someone (AK and Carolyn) had the brilliant idea to do a slip n slide! It was a huge hit.

Grandpa came down to watch

Brent hooked up the fire hose for us

Da ranch party

We were lucky enough to go to the Ranch for the 4th of July party/reunion.  It got started off right with helping my Uncle Eldon and cousin Brent with some hay.

Trevin, Brent, Andy, AK and Arthur

loading the hay on a trailer

Mac watching the cows eat

Mac helping Uncle Eldon take a break

The hay was stacked really high

Mac thought the tracker was the coolest

had to have a snooze after

4th of July 2012

We are still figuring out the Utah thing.  The fourth of July was huge.  Parades, parties, picnics everywhere.  Only, we decided to just check out Sandy.  They had a little festival with bounce houses and such.  Mac thought the best thing was the police stuff they had.  He got a real kick out of it.

 We had a little BBQ with the neighbors, Pacia and John and kids.  Pacia is a master cook, so between her food, and Mark's food it was delicious!

We finished up the evening outside with the neighbors watching fireworks.  Next year we will plan a little better and hit up all the parades and fireworks shows.  I guess we missed a pretty good show from our neighbors (the own a firework stand) on July 5.  The only part of it we did catch was a hole burned in our tramp:(.