Our holiday in America!

So as many of you know in Australia (or England...and probably other parts of the UK) if you do anything other than work everyone calls it your holiday. You don't got on a trip or take time off you go on HOLIDAY. So this post is about our recent holiday in America, otherwise known as home sweet home!

I could talk for about 2 hours just about the trip but all you need to know are the following bullet points followed by too many pictures!

• The flight from Australia to America is a little over 14 hours (that's just to California).
• Thomas and I got a row of 4 to ourselves and he slept the whole way!--can I say BINGO?
• From California we flew to SLC Utah where my Dad picked Thomas and I up where we stayed overnight at his house and then drove 8 hours up to Montana.
• When we got to Montana, I got about 4 hours of sleep and then ran a 5K with my siblings...my time was 30:11 which was great considering the altitude change and jet lag.
• The next day was my sisters graduation--last kid out of the house GO TENILLE
• The next day was my mom's wedding reception...classy country was the theme...isn't that an oxymoron? Here is the pix of the new bride and groom and their grand kids!
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• The following day/ Tuesday was my mom's wedding (in Idaho so we drove another 3 hours south).
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  My grandparents with my kids, this was their first time meeting Thomas!
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• Sarah Cabrera (one of my YW from Great falls, VA-bbsat my kids--cool hu!)
  
• After the wedding we drove down to Utah (5 more hours south) where we stopped by to visit our close friends the Toskovitches and then drove further south where we stayed with Stan's Aunt and Uncle --They hung out with us in Oxford England (which was the last time we saw them so it was great fun catching up...Sorry for keeping you up so late! :-)

• Thursday we found our good MBA friends and crashed for a morning. Mary was best friends with Millie while living in England and after we graduated their daughter came down with Leukemia. Honestly it broke my heart when I saw her!! On a positive note, she seems to be the only one without messy hair in this picture. Millie with Leukemia, Olivia who gave herself bangs, and Mary who never notices the fact that her hair is in her face!
• After seeing our friends we went over to my Sister in-laws house (the Towers) where Stan got to hang out with some family and the cousins were able to run wild through Thanksgiving Point!
  
  Colter, Bridger, Olivia, Thomas, Sadie, Jackson, Mary
  Olivia learning to ride a bike....there are some disadvantages to living in an apartment on the water. The only sidewalk is on the water so I am not too keen on having her ride on it, in case she goes off!

Thomas and Sadie (a few months apart and their first time together)!

Thoma's first time on a horse...he waved the whole way

Mary and I petting the goats

• Olivia and Mary were fighting over who gets to mary Jackson (their cousin) Jackson (being the peace maker) said he would mary both of them! Thanx Jax!
• After visiting the Towers we stopped by our Sydneysider/ ex-pat friends (the Bennions) who headed back state-side! I know, now we are alone now. They came over to the US the same time we did so we let them borrow some suitcases and had to pick them up. Mary played with William for the last time :-( They were so cute together!! And congrats Amy and Don on the new house, we will miss you in Sydney!
• From there Stan and I hit our Alma Mater (BYU) where we were lucky enough to grab a Jamba Juice and say hello to a few professors and then Stan went and played some golf while I took the kids to bridal veil falls!

Then we drove 6 hours South to Saint George to visit Stan's parents!

• The Grandparents threw the kids an early birthday party (because seriously, who wants to mail gifts to Australia), went shopping at the outlets, swimming, saw a musical (Tarzan), had Sunday dinner more extended family (Stans other Aunt & Uncle and cousin with her kids), and almost adjusted to the USA time zone. Thank you so much, what fun we had!
  
  Thomas LOVES sharks so this was a really cool shirt!
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Hiking in the rocks...I love the pictures




The Broadway musical Tarzan, was held in this outside arena against these red rocks, it was breathtaking!

Since Stan's parents are serving a mission for our Church in Utah we got the official tour...yes, that is Thomas climbing over the antique pews :-)

Stan sitting in his great great great great? granddad's rocking chair, you can see the resemblance when Stan has a frowny face!

• From there we drove 6 more hours through Las Vegas and down to Anehiem where we did Disney Land for three days, the kids had a blast!

Mary and Ariel

Belle and the girls

Thomas utterly terrified :-)

Aroura (sp?) told Mary she had the perfect combination of purple and pink, Mary was delighted!

watching the parade

Thomas still terrified....

Cinderella and the girls...yes we saw a lot of princesses!

And the go-karts!

After a full day of Disney we got straight on a plane that night and flew back to Sydney. Jet lag is an understatement--cry!

Overall we hit 6 states in two weeks. We spent over 46.5 hours just sitting either on a plane or car. We did it in a 5 seater car with the kids car seats side to side and we averaged less than 4 hours of sleep a night (one night I got two hours of sleep --from 6-8am). Was it worth it? YES, it was so fun to see everyone and get the cousins together and make fun of mom's country themed wedding and run a 5K and stay up late playing mafia and see old friends! There was not enough time to see everyone and we literally squeezed every second we could to be with friends/ family! Maybe again in a few years hu?

• Also: My little bro is staying with us for the summer (or our winter) while he interns with PwC...so far he has done the dishes every night and said he would bbs this weekend!!!!

• Who wants to live with me next?!