Our annual trip to Utah took place around Labor Day this year. Of course as always, we did a whirl-wind tour of two states to maximize the visits with family. If you've never visited Utah or Idaho, what are you waiting for? Both of these places have tons of things to do and see!
We started by heading north to visit Jon's grandparents in Idaho.
First stop was in Grace, Idaho to visit Grandpa Gillett. We love Grandpa and wish we had a magic portal we could walk through to visit him every day.
Four generations of Gillett's!
Grandpa has an extensive collection of home-crafted pens that he insists on sharing.
Amie took the one carved from antler.
Anybody want to go skiing?
...on old military skis?
After too short of a visit with Grandpa Gillett we headed to Blackfoot, Idaho. Grandma and Grandpa Wyrouck recently made Blackfoot their new summer digs. Jon has two aunts and several cousins in the near vicinity, and we had a nice visit with many of them at a birthday party for Jon and his cousin Frannie (born just 4 days apart).
While in Blackfoot we also enjoyed visiting the famous Eastern Idaho State Fair and watching the accompanying parade from Aunt Alice's front yard.
Grandma and Grandpa waiting for the parade
Sick on carnival food, we drove back to Utah to rest up and visit Jon's siblings. Also, Spring (Amie's sister), JT, and cousin Jack drove from Reno to visit. JT gave Jon a lesson in the art of golf, while Amie and Spring visited.
We had to visit Emily and Dave to see all the work they've done on their house before they sold it. Their house looked great and ended up selling shortly after we left! Dave needs to come down to Texas and help Jon finish a couple home improvement projects.
Visiting Dave, Em, and cousin Seth
We ended our visit by driving to the bottom of Utah to visit MJ, David and cousin Charlie. They live in Springdale, Utah (entrance of Zion National Park) where the first of many David West Galleries is located.
The girls were memorized by the huge mountains of rocks. Aunt MJ tried to send them home with a shopping bag full of rocks.
Just in case you were wondering how they keep the fly population in check...
Jon couldn't be that close to the mountain bike mecca without taking a spin. He and David rented bikes and headed out for nearby Gooseberry Mesa. Don't pass it on, but Gooseberry rivals any trail in Moab--and they had the trail to themselves. Watch out MJ and David, we'll be visiting much more often.
David's 3rd grade BMX racing skills made him a natural!
One of the few shots of David without his camera in hand
After a hard day of mountain biking and visiting we drove back to Mapleton to say goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa and to pack for home. Amie had to drive most of the way because Jon was so exhausted from riding.
The kids loved Grandma and Grandpa's homemade grape juice
Utah gave us this scene just before we left Mapleton
...a promise for another visit?
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