What a great 12 days of vacation we have been on. We got to go back East to visit my brother and his family in New Jersey. They basically took care of everything for us. They put together an itinerary, the food, supplied a stroller, a play pen, a car and every little detail was taken care of. It truly was an awesome vacation. This is a run down of the things we did.
Day 1- We flew into New Jersey in the morning and hung out at Michael and Cammie's house. We played games and stayed up late.
Day 2- We drove to Washington DC to see the memorials of Lincoln, Jefferson, Vietnam, WWII and the Korean War. It was a lot of walking.Day 3- We walked to the White House, National History Smithsonian, Arlington Cemetery to see the changing of the guard, the Washington Monument and the Capital Building. On the drive back we stopped to see the Washington DC Temple. It is so beautiful.Day 4- We drove to Easton PA to go to the Crayola Factory. The kids had a lot of fun doing interactive things. That night we got to go to a Phillies vs. Florida Marlins baseball game. It was so much fun. Troy can finally say that he has been to a professional baseball game now.Day 5- We went to Sacrament meeting in Michael's Ward then headed to Hershey PA. We took a tour of Hershey's Chocolate World. It smelt do good.Day 6- We spent the day at Hershey Park. The kids had so much fun going on all of the rides. Taigely and Tacoma loved going on the upside down rides and the wooden roller coasters.Day 7- We drove to Liberty State Park where we took a ferry ride to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Then we drove to downtown New York City- Yikes! Cammie arranged for babysitters so the adults could see Wicked on Broadway. It was AWESOME!!
Day 8- We took the metro to see Ground Zero, FAO Schwarz (a big toy store in Manhattan), Central Park, Time Square and the New York Temple.Day 9- We went to Philadelphia to see the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. We stopped along the way to have a Philly Cheese steak sandwich. It was delicious. We then went on a duck tour. That is a bus kind of thing that toured around at sights then drove right into the river. It was pretty fun. That night we went to an Eagles Pre-Season football game. It was a lot of fun. Day 10- We went to the Wildwood Crest Beach. We spent the whole day there. We all had a good time except for the 15 minutes Talon was missing. He wandered off 3 lifeguard stations down the beach. It was so scary. We were so grateful to finally find him. He didn't leave my sight again.Day 11- We went back to Michael and Cammie's to just relax for the day. It was fun to just hang out and let the kids play even though it was so hot and humid.
Day 12- We got up at 4:30 AM (2:30 AM our time) to fly home. It was nice to be home but sad to see the vacation over. Thanks Michael and Cammie for a GREAT VACATION! We owe you one.

My niece Abby and nephew Joey (he came a couple days latter) from New Jersey came to visit us for a week and a half. We stayed really busy swimming, camping, a baseball tournament, playing cards and just hanging out. We all had a lot of fun and were sad to see them go. Since we don't get to see them to often we had a lot of fun to make up for. When Abby got here she was wearing a shirt that Taigely had so of course she had to change into her shirt. It was fun for Taige to finally have a girl cousin to play with that is around her age. On Wednesday we went to the new Lindon Pool. The kids had a lot of fun and slept very well that night. On Thursday Joey came and my dad took Taige, Joey and Abby down to Manti to celebrate the fourth of July. My sister was in charge of the parade so everyone was in it. The kids decorated their scooters and rode them in the parade. They had a lot of fun with the booths, fire works and playing with all of their cousins. The next day they went boating at Gunnison Reservoir. They had a lot of fun even though the water was a little greenThe rest of us stayed to go to Tacoma's firecracker tournament. This is Tacoma, Tessa and Talon in their fourth of July attire. Tacoma won his first two games in South Jordan and lost the last two games in Oakley and Park City. It was a lot of fun. There was a parade going on in Oakley so Talon and I got to see a parade, since it is not one of Troy's favorite things to do.

We went down to Colette's house on Sunday night and headed up to the cabin on Monday. We stayed until Wednesday. We had a lot of fun and even managed to build our own fires. It was kind of cheating because for the most part we cooked inside the cabin in the oven. Oh well. Everyone had a great time. They have a huge swing that is hooked up between two trees. The kids loved to swing and insisted on someone doing the underdog to them. This is Talon and he is smiling from ear to ear.

Taigely on the swing.My nephew Joey was a great help and loved to play with the kids. He didn't want me to take a picture of him with Tessa, but I couldn't resist. I had to show his mom and dad what a great help he really was. The kids on our hike up to milky falls. That is a big waterfall that I didn't get in the picture.

Milky Falls hike again.

We went to the new splash park "Cowabunga bay". It was so much fun. The wind was blowing so it got a little cold. Tacoma was good for the first 2 hours then he got sick. He got a flu bug that Talon spread to him and Kort. Sorry Colette. All of the other kids had a great time. Even Tessa didn't mind playing in the kiddie pool and basking in the lawn chair.

Cowabunga Bay All the kids getting dumped on by the world's biggest splash bucket. It was a lot of water. We have had a great time with Abby and Joey. Thank You Michael and Cammie for letting them come out to Utah and stay with us!!