Vacation Deja Vu?

Before this summer started my family was trying really hard to organize some sort of vacation that everyone could be a part of. With Kristie and her family moving and Sydney starting a new job, it was getting really difficult to find some common ground. Not to mention, we couldn't all afford to fly out to Virginia this summer and then again for Christmas. My parents wanted to drive out to Utah and bring David with them (since he never gets to come along for most of our vacations). But Sydney was the only one we could all stay with and that was just not happening in her little 2 bedroom home. We decided pretty much our only option if it was going to happen for us this summer was to beg Nate's grandma to let us use the Ranch for a week. We were so excited when they said yes! So about a month after our Larson Ranch trip, Nate and I and the kiddos were headed back up to Utah for a repeat Ranch week :). It was kind of funny doing the same vacation twice in a month. We did a lot of the same activities but it was different company so there was enough variation to make it just as fun the second time around! The Ranch is just such a perfect place for family gatherings, and we are so grateful to Nate's grandparents for their generosity! We made some wonderful memories there this summer and I'm so glad everyone was able to be there...even David! :) Here are about a million pictures to illustrate our week.

I think this picture tells it all!

My dad brought some super soakers for the boys...they loved it!

Of course we spent ALOT of time on the massive slip n slide...everyone had a blast!

Well David isn't smiling in this picture but I promise he had such a great time the whole week! He just loves to sit out by the pool and pour water out of a cup all day long. So this was pretty much heaven for him!

Taking a break from the fun to feed our faces...loved sitting outside to eat every night!

Even David went down the slip n slide!

And a month later, Violet could still care less :)

The little boys LOVED swinging on the rope swing. They didn't jump into the water but we were pretty impressed that they were ok with swinging at all!

So on Monday we were all headed to our good friends, the Stott's, house for dinner. We stopped at Walmart to buy some arrows for the bow & arrow. Nate went inside with Sawyer and when he came out, half of his tooth had been knocked out! Sawyer whipped him right in the mouth with the shaft of an arrow! So two of Nate's front teeth are temporary veneers right now...not a huge deal that they broke cause he's still working on finishing the permanent ones. But it kinda sucked for him to have to go meet friends and then spend the rest of the week with such a WT grin. We all got a good laugh out of it. (you might need to enlarge the picture to see it clearly)

And here are some pictures from our dinner with the Stott's. We LOVE them so much!!! Thanks again for hosting such a fun night. We are glad we got to finally get together...it's been way too long!

The boys loved playing with little Kaitlin Stott...can you blame them? She's such a doll!!!

The kids were so cute to play ball with David

Us with our 'other' sister, Meghan!

Funny story about our families. Both my mom and my dad's families were friends with Meghan's dad's family back in Germany. Our dad's even knew each other when they were little boys in California! It was so fun to get the two families together!

One of the best parts about our week was how much fun Sawyer and Jake had together! Those boys just get along so well. It makes me happy :)

The domestic deer that lives at the Ranch. He totally comes right up to you and lets you pet him

!

Such a cute picture of Sawyer with his Uncle Mitch.

Uncle Wes teaching the boys how to shoot the bow and arrow

Dad had the best shot of the week! Split his first two shots right down the middle!

Nathan and I started the Insanity Workout Program a week before going to Utah, so we continued to work out every morning while we were there and managed to gather a couple others every now and then! It's going really well and I'm so proud of Nathan for sticking with this program...it's been super fun working out together in the mornings and he's almost more dedicated to it than I am!

David just had a great time...

We copied Ashley's idea of making surf shacks and took it up one notch by turning it into an adult competition between couples! They were really fun and pretty creative, if I do say so myself! I think Sydney won the prize for being the only one to build her shack on the water!

Nate will probably hate this picture but I love it...just snuggling with our cute little kiddos in the morning

And lastly, some of you may remember how we got our car stolen the first year we lived in Arizona. When we found the car a few days later I was devastated that they had taken the jeans blanket my mom made us for our wedding! Of course my mom promised she would replace it but I never expected her to. Well she showed up at the Ranch with a brand new blanket for us! I love it so much! Thanks mom..you're the best!