Road Trip!

Hi everybody!

I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while but we went on a BIG road trip! Any guesses where we went? UTAH! (I'm sorry but no pictures this time! I didn't bring my camera! I should have!) It's hot there and we went to a family reunion! It was on my dad's side of the family. I saw my aunts, uncles, grandmas, grandpas, my great grandma, cousins, second cousins, etc. etc. etc.

We had a lot of fun going there to see them. We drove and it took 3 days! When we finally got to Utah we didn't go straight to the reunion. We stayed at my aunt and uncle's house for a few days. I got to see my almost two-year-old cousin Emerson. She is SO cute! She's 19 months old. She can already talk a little. She can say all of our names plus some other ones my brother taught her: condor, eagle, falcon, hawk, and vulture! (She can also say tree. I taught her that! I also taught her brick!)

The next day after we arrived we got to babysit her for the morning. It was so much fun! But a LOT of work! I got to feed her, help dress her, even hand my dad wipes to change her diaper! But the easiest part is making her laugh and playing with her! I made her laugh so hard SO many times!

The hardest part after that is getting her to take a nap. She SCREAMS, and SCREAMS, and SCREAMS! I tried reading her some books and handing her some of her sleeping time stuffed animals and dolls. That worked for a little while. (What I mean by a little while is two seconds.) Then she goes back to screaming. But then after a while she calms down and talks to herself. (We can hear that from the baby monitor downstairs.) She never went to sleep but she calmed down. Then my aunt came home.

We ate take out from Subway. We got Emmy to come down for lunch. She never really went to sleep.

We went to a park called Park Discovery. It's a HUGE wooden park with monkey bars, slides, swings, and secret forts! We had so much fun but then it got so hot we had to go back to my aunt and uncle's house.

We watched a movie called "Shark Tale" while Emmy slept. (We call Emerson "Emmy.") Then we watched a little bit of "Shrek the Third." Emmy woke up and we had dinner. We watched a little bit more of the movie and then we went to bed.

The next day the morning was the same thing. We babysat Emmy.

We went out to St. George for lunch at In-n-Out Burger. Their burgers are SO good! So are their shakes and fries. Then we went ot my "cousin-in-law's" house. I made such good friends with Sidney and Hannah, my "cousin-in-laws." We changed into swimsuits there and everybody went to the splash pad close by. Sidney and Hannah even went!

After that we went back to my aunt and uncle's house. Then the boys went out for pizza with Emmy while the girls went out for sushi and ice cream.Then we went out to eat sushi my aunt was even brave enough to try RAW sushi! And she learned how to use chopsticks! She tried everything on the table!

After sushi we got ice cream to go! We took it back to my aunt and uncle's house to eat it. The boys beat us there and were already playing the borrowed Wii system. I got to play too!
Then we went to bed.

The next day we saw more cousins from Utah. I don't get to see them much. When I got there my aunt gave me and Maxim presents. I got 4 nail files, two bottles of nail polish, two books, and study cards!

My cousin Anna,who is also nine, and I made a "bird nest." It was really a bunch of mud, which is really disgusting, grass that stuck to it, and leaves we ripped up and put on. I got so much mud on my fingers and hands that the water I washed it up with got TOTALLY brown. We left it on the ground afraid it would get messed up. Then we took pictures and left.

Then we kept driving for a little bit and went out to lunch. (Emmy was asleep.) Then Emmy woke up and started walking around. We left my aunt and Emmy there because her mom and dad were going to pick her up and she was going to go to their house. We were going to stay at their house to; but first we were going to visit some friends.

First we visited some friends I hadn't seen in a VERY long time. By a very long time I mean I havn't seen them since I was 2 or3! Their names were Brita, Leah, and Megan. Brita is 9, Leah is 7, and Megan is just a baby. She's really cute! We went there and talked and then Brita showed me her room. She's reading Harry Potter and The Hobbit! I like those books a lot! And I LOVE Harry Potter! Then I figured out they have Webkinz! I have Webinz, too! Brita and I played on Webkinz for a while then we had to leave; but we would be able to sleep there! First we were going to see more friends then we would get dinner and sleep there!

We went to my dad's friend's parents house to see them. They had books Maxim and I read and then we went outside while the grownups talked.

Then we went to a place called Panda Express. After dinner we went back to Brita's house where Brita and I played Littlest Pet Shop. Then Leah informed us her mom had made homemade treats. We went up and ate them. They were a nice, warm, bread and the inside was filled with hot, gooey, chocolate! They were SO good and SO yummy! Then Brita and I went back to playing Littlest Pet Shop. We had SO much fun! Then we had to go to bed. We slept in sleeping bags near each other in the downstairs of their house. But then we had to sleep separately.

The next day Brita and I played some card games and Webkinz. I had breakfast and then we said goodbye and left. We all drove around my mom and dad's college campus. It was really cool! We got to see where EVERYTHING is! Then we had pizza at the Brick Oven. It was really good!

We kept driving and then we picked up my aunt and Emmy. (We were driving to a barbecue.) Then we finally arrived! I saw my second cousins; Kaden, Tanner, Luke, and Megan!
They had all sorts of stuff to eat: hot dogs, hamburgers, macaroni salad, olives, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, etc. They also had some good drinks: root beer, Sprite, water, ginger ale, etc.

After eating Kaden taught me how to stand up on a two person swing and 'surf' on it. It's really just standing up on a swing and swinging without holding on. Afterwards when everyone started leaving we played frisbee. Then more people left.

Then Kaden and I took out his dog named Nora and let her play outside. She's a big black dog that's really jumpy. Not a good combination for Maxim. Then we had to leave. We went to my aunt's parent's house. They had this really calm dog named Corky. He was fun to pet! They also had this place called the grandkids clubhouse! It had all sorts of fun things to play with!

The next day we went to the park for the reunion Amy the Great (that's my great grandma) had set up. On the way we got to watch a movie on a borrowed TV that plugs into the car! I had never tried one of those before!

I saw Kaden, Tanner, Megan, Luke, Abby (another cousin), my grandma, and a whole bunch of other people I hadn't met before! It was SO much fun! The park also had some pretty cool things too! It had monkey bars that spun when you held on to them, really fun slides, more monkey bars, and seats that spun when you sat on them! Then we had another barbecue with hamburgers and hot dogs!

After we left to go to our motel where everyone else exept Amy the Great was staying. We went to the motel pool. It wasn't that big and it didn't have a diving board! But it did have a hot tub! When I got in the hot tub for a few minutes I got out to do a cannonball into the colder pool. It was only when I was in midair of a cannonball when I realized it would feel freezing! But then . . . too late! I was in the pool and it was freezing! At ten the pool closed and we all went to our rooms to go to sleep.

The next day we went to the park again and I saw my cousins Patrick and Andrew. I also saw my Grandpa! We had lunch then I played volley ball with Abby! It was a lot of fun! Then I went over to play with Kaden, Isaac, Noah, Luke, Patrick, and Andrew. They were playing a game called Rescue Team! It was a game where you had to rescue people in the mulch. The mulch was a deep ocean with sharks and you had to stay on the play part of the park not the mulch. After that we had lunch. Same thing again--hot dogs and hamburgers. I also got a ginger ale.
Then we played bean bags where you got a prize. All the kids got Smarties. Then I started my own game of bean bags! I gave everyone one Smartie if they got over 100 points. If they got over 200 points they got two Smarties. If they got 50 points on their first try they got a Smartie. And if they got over 300 points--three Smarties!

Then we played baseball. The grass was wet. Perfect for sliding to bases. Afterwards Kaden found a frog and eventually caught it! I caught it too when it got away! After that everyone ate Sloppy Joes and told jokes. Here's one Patrick made up.

There was a guy named Sloppy Joe and he LOVED eating Sloppy Joes! He ate one for breakfast, midday snack, lunch, dinner, and dessert! One day some guy came up to Sloppy Joe and started asking a bunch of questions.
Guy: Hey! Sloppy Joe! What do you eat for breakfast?
Sloppy Joe: Sloppy Joes!
Guy: What do you eat for midday snack?
Sloppy Joe: Sloppy Joes!
Guy: What do you eat for lunch?
Sloppy Joe: Sloppy Joes!
Guy: What do you eat for dinner?
Sloppy Joe: Sloppy Joes!
Guy: What do you eat for dessert?
Sloppy Joe: Sloppy Joes!
Guy: Who are you going to marry?
Sloppy Joe: Sloppy Joes!

What makes the joke funny is that Sloppy Joe is so used to answering by saying Sloppy Joes that he says Sloppy Joes to answer "Who are you going to marry?"

After eating Sloppy Joes we went to my Great Grandfather's grave to put flowers on it. After that we went to Amy the Great's house to change into nice clothes for the family pictures. After we took pictures we played and picked off snap peas from Amy the Great's garden! They were really yummy!

Then we went back tot he motel and Patrick and Andrew came to our room to play Apples to Apples Junior and Bakugon Adventures! We also played Bakugon Areana! We had a lot of fun!
The next day we went out to eat together. Almost everybody came! Afterwards we had to leave to go home. I wanted to stay longer but we had to leave. We said good bye to everyone and left.
But we took home my Uncle to come for the WHOLE SUMMER! It took us 4 days to get home!
The first day we saw Mount Rushmore! On the way up we saw a baby mountain goat! It was really cute! Mount Rushmore was really cool! It was HUGE! I couldn't believe we were actually there! I told my mom "Wouldn't it be cool if they added Obama to Mount Rushmore?" She thought that WOULD be pretty cool!

The second day we drove a bunch.

The third day we ate Chicago pizza! It was really yummy!

The last day we got home!

I hope you enjoyed my post! Sorry I hadn't written in a while again!