Summer Vacation - It's a long post :)

This is going to be another LONG blog post with LOTS of pictures. I hope that you enjoy though.

James and I took our summer vacation about 2 weeks ago to Idaho, northern Utah and central Utah. It was so much fun! We drove all the way up too J. While we drove we kept ourselves entertained by finding license plates from different states. It was a lot of fun. I focus on that a little bit later though. While you’re reading see if you can guess how many USA license plates we saw and also Canada/Mexico plates. We’ll reveal the answers soon…

Our first stop on the trip was Las Vegas. James’ friend Dan Riggs was letting us stay at his home as a stop before driving up to Idaho. On our way we saw the Hoover dam. The dam is getting a new bridge built so that you can bypass driving on it. This thing is HUGE! The bridge is massive both James and I were amazed. I took pictures on my phone but they do nothing. You’d have to see it for yourselves.

You can see in the picture on the left, looking closely, a yellow crane. That's how big this bridge is!

The next part of the trip was Idaho; Sugar City to be exact. My second mission president and his wife, President and Sister Gee were giving their homecoming talks in their ward. I was so excited that I could go. It was like a little mini mission reunion. I saw two of my companions and some of the elders that I’d served with. There were a few other sisters and elders that were in OK after us. It was really neat to be there. I grew a lot under President and Sister Gee and I’m so thankful they were a part of my life.

(above right: Me, Sister Hess (now Cooper), Sister Hunter; above left: The Gees; lower left: Me, Sister Hunter, Elder Montoya, Elder Ricks, Sister Hess (Cooper) and Elder Krall; lower right: Elder and Sister Hubert from the mission office) I know that they’re no longer elders but I feel weird calling them by their first names.

While we were visiting Idaho, we got to spend a whole evening with Grandpa Hall and Grandma Jean (as she likes to be called). That was so fun! We got to look at pictures, learn history, listen to stories and see where James’ dad and uncles grew up. I loved it. James and I were really happy that we could have our time with Grandpa Hall. We live so far away we wish we could spend more time with the Hall side of the family. So we really treasured our time with Grandpa. Grandpa I think enjoyed it too. He was so excited to show us the dairy. We even got to see some cousins! That was a treat.

As we continued our vacation, it wouldn’t be complete without water – Bear Lake and Willard Bay water that is. James has been dying to get some water under him this whole summer in this H²0 deprived state. Bear Lake was too cold but we got to paddleboat and play in the sand. I made a turtle J Also while up at the cabin we went four-wheeling. We all got so dirty! This is why we liked the water so much!

Gavin, Katie, Mack, Michael, Chalyse, Talmage and Elle also came to Willard Bay. Mack even went on the boat! And fell asleep!

Elle has the cutest "cheese!" face :)

I'd have to say this was my favorite memory from Willard Bay - the boys "enjoying the view"


And what would a Saturday afternoon be without hotdogs and baseball! It’s America’s favorite pastime! What made it the best was that it was at home.

Now begins the vacation on the Brinkle side.

What better way to meet up with family than at the temple? My little brother was endowed on July 15th at the Jordan River Temple. It was a great experience. He had all his immediate family there, my mom’s sister Patti, her brother David and his wife Lori, and a great family friend of ours in attendance. It was a great experience. All of my family members have gone through the temple now. Hard to believe all of us kids are all growed up.

And a funny story about James – he’s always forgetting clothing when we go on trips. The first time he came down to meet my parents, he forgot all his whites! So we had to buy him some. (we still tease him about it) When we went to El Paso, he forgot to take his suit home. And again, this time, he left his suit at his parent’s house J So, about an hour and a half before we’re supposed to leave, he had to make an emergency trip to Ross. He said when he brought everything up to the counter the girl said, “A full outfit?” James replied, “That’s what happens when you forget your clothes.” That’s my husband!

For Jordan’s last “hoorah” before his mission he chose to play at Lagoon. We stayed there from open to close! And we did just about everything! It was a ton of fun. I don’t have many pictures because we were riding rides most of the time but here is a few.

Family picture time!

And taken on the beautiful campus of Brigham Young University. Oh it was awesome to be back on campus. I even went to the store and splurged on alumni paraphernalia and got a Jamba Juice. You can’t go through the WILK and not get a Jamba!

Aint they cute!

Here are some fun shots we kids took :)

After family pictures we headed back up to Salt Lake City to tour Temple Square and the museums. We saw the model of the Salt Lake City Temple. I really think that is the coolest thing! I love that we can share the beauty of the temple with others. It’s a great missionary tool.

At the end of the day we had big BBQ and had our cousins from Utah join us. We had scrumdillieumptious chicken, potatoes, salad, corn on the cob, and cup-cakes for dessert. Michelle REALLY got into her cupcake. Literally…

This is Clayton and Aden (aka: The Little Dink)

Janelle, Kelli, Aubrey, Hannah, Erin

We celebrated Lori's ?? birthday while we were there too. Most of the boys rocked out on the Wii but we ladies sang Taylor Swift purdy nice :)

"What's goin on Dave?" And I got Chris to smile real big!

This is Michelle eating her cupcake. Instead of bringing the cupcake to her mouth, she brought her mouth to it. Priceless :)

All Done!

And now...because I know you were all guessing how many states we saw, here is the answer:

We saw 37 different US plates, 3 Canada (Alberta, Sascatchawan, and Ontario) and 3 Mexican (Chiuahuah, Sonora and Baja). So who guessed right? It was really a fun game to play. And James and I were amazed at some of the east coast states we saw - even a Hawaiian plate was traveling between Arizona and Utah. Crazy!