UT—Murphy reunion

We left Yosemite earlier than we usually do, on Friday morning, so that we could travel to Utah all day to surprise Brian’s dad at a Murphy (DeWin’s mom’s side) family reunion. 

On the way out of the park we stopped at a Half Dome viewpoint and took an extremely backlit family picture.  We are usually at this point much later in the day so the sun is not right behind us.

The pink and white cookies my dad gave our girls were a huge hit!  This might have been the first and last time Georgia smiled all day.  She cried for at last 80% of the 11 hour road trip.  It was a long day for us all!

This was also the only time Georgia slept (about 20 minutes) for the entire trip.

We were so happy to get there and finally be out of the car!  We visited, ate a little dinner, and then headed over to see DeWin at a nearby relatives house—where he was recovering from heat exhaustion.  We stayed at DeWin’s cousin, Deanne’s home—she and her husband were so kind and their basement was the best place for our family.  Best of all, it was just minutes from where the reunion was being held, so I could take Georgia home to nap during the day.

The reunion was mostly just on Saturday, at a park in Farmington.  It was very hot!

Papa and Grandma with all of their grandkids.

Everyone in Brian’s family was at the reunion—it was so fun catch up with everyone!

Harriet’s smiles here show how all of us felt when the pool part of the reunion happened—at 7 p.m. after a long, hot day!

Brian and Elna tried to jump off the diving boards at the same time, but Brian landed before Elna jumped in these pictures.  The first time Elna jumped off the highdive, she did without any hesitation at all.  She jumped dozens of times during the evening.  Fearless!

A 4-generation photo with our girls, Brian, his dad, and his grandma.

After the reunion, and on our way out of Utah, we stopped at Temple Square to see David, Samuel, and to meet Samuel’s girlfriend.  We all had a nice visit!

Georgia was exhausted, and she not only fell asleep in Brian’s arms (never happens anymore), but she was also successfully transferred to the car seat (really, really doesn’t happen—maybe never has before):

A miracle.

I took this picture of David who was riding his bike along side us as we were leaving.  Love him!

From Utah, we headed to Boise to stay for the night.  We stopped in to visit Clark—he is such a neat kid—it was fun to see him and see all the fun things he’s into right now. 

And then in the morning we headed home to Adelia.  Jillian and her boys were taking care of her while were out of town—they sent this hilarious picture to us after we left, of their super heroes surrounding the fish bowl with this note: “Dear Elna and Harriet, I hope you made it safely to Cali!  Although there is no pink or purple to be seen at this house, I am still having fun!  I made a bunch of new friends today, they are super heroes!  Can you believe that?  So brave!  Have fun on your trip, love you!  xoxo Adelia”  This note made our day!  So so cute!  We have the best friends!  And good friends definitely make coming home from vacation a lot more bearable.  That, and a nap schedule!