July 23rd, I packed the kids up, and Kevin took us to the airport. I had a 7:00 flight, with two children, 3 bags of luggage, 3 carry-ons, 1 stroller, 1 carseat, and no husband to help. We were flying to Salt Lake to visit, and to go to the family reunion. Kevin pulled up in front of the Southwest zone, and he helped me check my bags with the aircap. While he got my luggage checked in, I unloaded the kids from the car and our carry-ons. We prepped Jameson this time by telling him we need to wear our seatbelts and sit nicely on the plane. We made it through everything just fine, and boarded. Luckily, the plane wasn’t nearly full, so I could take Ella’s carseat on. She slept from just after take off, till we landed. Jameson actually sat quietly playing his games or reading his books. The loud ones on the plane were the teenage girls across from me. I’m pretty sure the guy in front of them was so glad when that flight was over.

We always seem to get on the planes that have flight attendants with personalities. Just as we were landing, they came on and told us, “We will be landing in just a few moments. We are actually 5 minutes early so tell your friends. We know you always tell them Southwest is always late.” I was laughing, because this is normally true. Not this trip, though.

So we got into Salt Lake just after 11:00 pm (it was a 3 hour flight plus time change). Paul picked us up, and when we got to Grandpa’s and Grandma’s we were greeted by Kayden. They drove up that night and met us there. We got up early Saturday morning and headed up to the reunion at my Aunt’s cabin near Preston Idaho. We were able to make it there by noon which was pretty good for us. The kids had a blast. They had cousins and second cousins to play with along with swings, cars, slides, and rootbeer to keep them occupied for the day. We never saw them. (Well we did, because we keep watch on our kids, but you know what I mean. They were busy, and didn’t care about us.)

Grandma and Grandpa had gone up the night before, so she had her first meeting with her 2 newest great-granddaughters. She also has a new great-grandson that was there. I want to say she’s somewhere around 45 great-grandchildren.

Ella is named after Grandma Cartwright’s mother, Ellen. Everyone called her Ella. I was reading Grandma Cartwright’s autobiography she wrote when Kevin and I first got married, and knew I wanted to name our daughter Ella one day.

Grandma meeting Jenna…

They even match.

Aunt Carol put the hose down the slide for the boys. It was hot, especially for us who came from 60 degree weather and we’re now in 90 degree weather.

(Sorry the video is sideways. I forgot I can’t rotate videos.)

It was a little fast with the water, so Jameson always ended up on his bottom. Drew had a little help from Aunt Carol

The older boys left Drew behind, and found the teeter-totter and the other kids. Don’t worry, Drew found stuff to keep him occupied.

These cars were the biggest hit of the day. This is where Drew was most of the day, especially when the older boys ditched him. They would do circles, around the patio, into the pavilion, back around the patio, back into the pavilion. The only time they stopped was to get rootbeer that my Aunt had made. It was in a big 10 gallon cooler, that the boys learned how to work the spout on. They had free access to rootbeer with no monitoring… if they didn’t get caught. We tried to monitor.

These boys would all head to the top of the hill, and the ride down and land in the grass. They thought it was hilarious, and did it over and over all afternoon.

While the boys rode their cars, the adults sat and chit-chatted.

Grandma and I took a walk down to the river behind the cabin. There were cows on the other side, which we couldn’t tell what they were until getting a closer look.

Ella took a nap in the stroller, and only her toes were making appearances.

Drew was probably the biggest rootbeer thief of the day. He was so quiet about it, where the other boys would be laughing and talking while getting their rootbeer and get caught. Drew was more sneaky.

Jodi kept Ella entertained for me once she was awake. Even with her hurt leg… what a trooper.

I think this picture describes my child with no words needed…

Chase and Easton are always so good to play with Jameson. We wish they lived closer, because Jameson loves them.

Love this picture of these two…

After the boys had played all day, we decided to head out. We got everything cleaned up, and then it was time to pull the 4-wheelers back inside. Paul and my cousin, Blake, gave all the boys a ride around the yard before pulling them in. Jameson did not like how loud it was, but didn’t complain. He just covered his ears. This was my test since we were going to the cabin. I was wondering if he would like the 4-wheelers there.

While the boys were giving rides, Aunt Kathleen was trying to get her lawn mower started to pull it back inside. For a while, I thought the lawn mower was going to win.

In the end, she beat out the lawn mower.

We got everything cleaned up and headed back to Salt Lake. The kids were out cold before we even left the drive. They slept the whole way home. We’re so glad to have been able to see family and play together. Jameson has been lucky this summer to see his cousins more often and play even though we live further away.