My Time in UTAH! :)

UTAH...that word makes me so elated!  Sappy, I know...but, I don't care what anyone thinks.  I left my husband for 2 weeks, and headed to the great state of Utah, to see my family.  It was blissful, to say the least.  How do I love them so much?!  My friend told me before I left that I had the most AMAZING family...and you know what?!  She's TOTALLY right!  I am sooo blessed!

Sometimes I think it's best that I live far away from them.  Maybe I appreciate them more that way ;)

I am a loser and didn't take any pictures, so I will just use some older ones to describe my experience the best I can.

Here is what I did...

I traveled with my GREAT Aunt Linda to Salt Lake via Jet Blue. :)  I do not have a picture of her, so you'll have to use your imagination.

Once we got to Salt Lake, my cousin Alison picked us up!

I stayed the night at her house.  The next morning she took me to my Aunt Cindy's (where I would be staying during the duration of my trip).

This would be Aunt Cindy and Uncle Rick.  I know, I know...I look just like my Aunt Cindy...we're practically twins...sheesh...if I aged a year every time I heard that, we WOULD be twins! bahaha! (She is gonna kill me for that little joke!) ...Love you auntie! ;)

So, I got to hang out with these two cool kids.  Lucky me, right?!  My Aunt Cindy and I did a lot of running around to get ready for the annual family reunion the first few days I was there.  We went to lunch and hung out too, so it wasn't all work. ;)

  Lucky for me, I got to have lunch with my Aunt Terri too.  It was great to spend time with both of my aunts.

...and I got to see these pretty ladies. love my cousins!


Unfortunately, because I suck at life, I have NO pictures of me meeting baby Charlie, or me and my aunt taking Luke and Layna to the zoo.  BUT, we did do that...and it was more than enjoyable.

Overall...it was amazing...and, while I may try, no amount of gushy words will begin to express how much I cherish the times I share with these extraordinary people.

The Adventures of Cindy and Samm

Later in the week we headed to our family reunion...Uncle Rick had a golf tournament, so he
was gonna have to meet us later. So, my Aunt Cindy decided she was going to just drive the RV herself. YA...I thought...girl POWER! So...we got in and drove off...but not before we almost drove off with the RV plugged into the house. Oops!
SO, now I must finish my story in a dialogue, because that is THE ONLY way I will do this story any justice.
Achem...
We get on the highway...and....


Aunt Cindy: (singing "I am Woman hear me Roar")
Samm: Wow...(thinking: are you really singing that right now?!)
Aunt Cindy: It's the adventure of Cindy and Samm!
Samm: (laughing...and thinking my aunt is sooo cute!) Yup, it is..
We keep driving...
Aunt Cindy:  I hear somthing weird...do you hear it?!
Samm:  Ya, I do...

Sound goes away...

Aunt Cindy:  Ahh...I think it went away...
Samm: Cool.

5 minutes later...

Samm:  Do you smell that?!
Aunt Cindy:  Smell what?!
Samm:  I smell something burning.
Aunt Cindy:  No...I don't
Samm:  Humm...
Samm:  Are you sure?!  It smells like something is burning...
Aunt Cindy:  No...let me check the gauge.  (looks at gauge)  No...the engine isn't overheating or anything.
Samm:  Oh, okay...just keep your eye on it.

2 minutes later...

Samm:  I STILL smell burning...

Meanwhile Grandpa and Aunt Terri are in front of us.  We're following them.
 
Aunt Cindy:  Woah, look at my dad swerve!
Samm:  Geez...grandpa is gonna kill someone.
 
Grandpa pulls over fast and so we pull over too...
 
Aunt Cindy:  I wonder why he is pulling over.
 
As we stop, smoke fills the air, and it's coming from the engine!
 
Aunt Cindy and Samm: (screaming!!!!!!) Ahhhhhhh!
 
Aunt Cindy:  Get the dog!!!!!!!  (yes, we thought the car was on fire, and YES she screamed "get the dog!"  not "save my niece...she's too young to die!")  LOL! :)
 
The RV was smoking and it looked like it was on fire.  Luckily it wasn't.  We just blew the radiator hose.
 

I knew I smelled smoke! :)

We had to call my Uncle Jim to come and save us.  He did...and we made it to the reunion...AND we had a good story too!

PAUSE!

Ever wish you could make time stand still?!  I DO!  ...and if I had the power, I would have pushed the pause button here!  Then I probably would have rewound and replayed a few times.  <3 my family to pieces!

I did, however, make sure to soak up all the time with them the best I could.  Afterall...it's gotta get me to Christmas, and I am ALREADY having withdraws! :)

Kristin's Annual Birthday/Bowling Extravaganza!

The day after Christmas, my family has an annual bowling tournament...boys against girls! We started the day off by heading over to the portrait studio to get family pictures taken. It was the first time, in a VERY long time, that the Reid B. Pearce family was all together. We were able to get a few really great pictures.

After getting our pictures taken, we headed over to have lunch. After lunch we went to the bowling alley. We had three lanes...one for the boys, one for the girls, and one for the kiddos! As usual, the boys won, but it was probably because they always cheat! LoL! j.k.!

Christmas Evening...

Christmas evening was spent at my Aunt Terri's house. We had dinner at her house and waited for my cousin Katie and her family to come down from Idaho Falls. They hadn't celebrated Christmas with us yet, so her kids got to open all of their presents from everyone. It was a lot of fun watching them! Afterward, we played bunko. I wasn't very good, but it was fun anyway!

Christmas Day!

We woke up Christmas morning and headed over to my Aunt Cindy's again. It is always a lot of fun to have breakfast at her house. Dan, Danika, and Luke came over from Layton, Cory, Kristin, Braden and Will came from home, and Jenni was already there. It is always so much fun being in a house full of family! :)