This July 4th weekend we had the awesome opportunity to go up to the Hairpin Ranch in Montana for a family reunion on Kathryn’s side.  This was our 2nd time up to the ranch, and the first time with the girls.  The family was really great playing with and helping with the girls.  We had a blast and really enjoyed our time up there.  The sky just feels bigger in Montana.  Thanks Spencer and Kristen for our hospitality and inviting us to come along with the girls.

Over the past several years I’ve gone on quite a few trips for work to the East Coast.  Back before Ashley was born, Kathryn met up with me in DC for an awesome trip.  Other than that, the family has stayed on the Western side of the country.  I’ve found myself wishing that Kathryn could come on some of my trip and see the countryside and enjoy the food with me.  This was the impetus for our Carolinas trip.  My cousin Nancy and her family live in the Raleigh North Carolina area, and Kathryn’s brother James and his wife live in the Charlotte North Carolina area.  WIth a destination in mind, we started pricing out a trip.  We were excited when we found direct flights from SLC to Raleigh for under $300 a ticket.  The icing on the cake was I could get all our tickets for free with our skymiles I’ve been accumulating.  Over the course of time, the trip evolved.  First, Kathryn’s family decided it would be fun to come out as well for the James and Marta part of the trip.  Then a stop in Charleston South Carolina was added to the itinerary.  It was a great trip with lots of fun, food, family, and adventures.  If we don’t count Eliza being up frequently in the nights, the girls did awesome.  Here are some of our adventures.

Getting to the airport was a very stressful adventure.  We left with plenty of time for a normal day, but we didn’t take into account two huge wrecks and delays on the freeway.  We were the last ones on the plane, and they called our name over the local intercom.  Luckily we weren’t to the point for the airport wide intercom.

It was a 5 pm flight out, so that makes for an 11ish pm arrival EST.  Then we had to get our rental car and drive for 30 minutes to Nancy’s house.  We made it though.  Thank goodness for navigation on our phones.  It’s hard to imagine a trip like this without it.  Driving through the winding countryside in the middle of the night is challenging enough.

Check out these two little buddies.

Ditto

Nancy has this great museum / kids place call the Museum of Life and Science.  It was awesome and had so much fun things to do like a giant treehouse village, a fun stream to splash around in, animals, puzzles, a space section that I loved, and so much more.  You could spend days there.

Check out this hands on toy.  It’s one of the most amazing things I’ve played with at a place like this.

After the museum, we went to a fun BBQ place then after that, Nancy and family went home to put the kiddos in bed and  we went to a popular local creamery for some delicious ice cream.

DId I mention that Eliza didn’t sleep well?  She had a bit of a stuffy nose and couldn’t breath very well while sucking on her binky and we were in new unfamiliar places.  Anyway, it made for terrible nights.  On Friday morning we were planning to head out for Charlotte after having breakfast, but Eliza woke up at 4 in the morning and we decided to just go for it and get a jump on our day.  So we quickly packed up and threw everything and everybody in the car.  Both the girls slept for several hours of our 5 hour trip to Charlotte so that was great.  We finished listening to the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell on the drive.  Great book and very thought provoking.

We met up with the Hawker Clan at the hotel in downtown Charleston and in no time we were off on another adventure.  We visited the Magnolia Plantation and Gardens.  It was very pretty.  Lots of different plants than we’re used to.  It was hot and humid too!  Really a fun place though.

What better way to cool off after a hot afternoon than to go swimming!

“I get you mom!”

The next day we went on a carriage tour of the city by Palmetto Carriage Works.  It was fantastic!  We had a native Charlestonian retired college professor as our tour guide.  He was very knowledgable about the city and had lots of fun stories and facts to share.

After the carriage tour, we split from the group and headed off to the beach.   We crossed the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge on our way to the Isle of Palms beach.

The water was a perfect temperature.  This was my first time swimming in the Atlantic.  I’ve walked on the beach several times, but never made it in the water.  We all had a blast playing in the waves.

When we were done at the beach, we packed up and headed out for James and Marta’s house in the Charlotte North Carolina region.  The next day we had a great Sunday with them enjoying food, fun, and family.  Ashley really loved her uncle Adam.  He was so great with her!

The next morning we were off again on another adventure.  We got breakfast at a little boutique waffle place.

Then we stopped at Lake Norman.  It’s a large man made lake for hydro power, water for the surrounding cities, and lots of beachfront property.

“Seriously Mom!?  Another picture?!  Ugggg”

The next adventure of the day was pretty awesome!  We drove out to the Lazy Five Ranch in Mooresville NC.  It’s a drive through zoo where you can feed the animals.  It was a really fun experience.  The emus were particularly creepy when they’d come right up to you and stare you down.  It seemed like at any second they would start pecking out your eyes.

Here is a video to get the full experience.

Here was our sweet ride for the trip.  Now it was time for our final adventure, the trip home.  We worked our way back to Nancy’s house that evening and had a fun time with them.

We really appreciate their generosity in hosting us twice, especially since we disappeared on them twice in the wee hours of the morning.  We were out of there and off to the airport before dawn again.  Ashley was a little loopy in this picture 🙂

Wahoo!  Toe touch!  We made it back to Utah!  “I’m sooooo glad to be off the plane!!”

This whole luggage rack was our stuff.  We had quite the system to move all of it through the airport.  Luckily most of it was checked.

We had a fantastic trip.  Thank you to everyone that made the trip possible and so much fun!

This is a random smattering of fun pictures from the last little while.  We love our family.

Kevin’s graduation.  Woot woot.

Last rides before we sold the bike.

Tim’s first concert.

Work trip to Hood River.  Such a pretty valley.

I’ve been to Multnomah Falls many times now, but this was the first time I’ve hiked up to the top.

First ever painted nails!

We love these guys.

First dirt bike ride of the season.

ATV ride up to the top of Powerhouse mountain overlooking Springville.

Tin foil dinners.  Things were going so well until Eliza decided to fall out of her chair and split open her head.  We threw everything back in the car as fast as we could and made record time getting back down the canyon and to the Instacare.  Sorry sweety.

As you probably know, Kathryn is a member of the TSO.  For their grand finale of this season, they had a concert and then kicked off their world tour.  It meant quite a bit of orchestra time, but I’m happy that Kathryn has the opportunity to share her talent and to have so much fun doing it.

Thursday, rehearsal night.  We decided to go on a drive up Hobble Creek canyon.  This is one of the meadows at the start of one of the dirt bike trails.  We hiked up to it and took some fun pictures.  Such a pretty place.  We continued to drive up the canyon intending to do a big loop and come out Diamond Fork canyon to Highway 6.  However, near the very end of the road almost to Highway 6, the gate was locked and we had to turn around and go all the way back home.  We didn’t get home until 10 pm, but the girls didn’t seem to mind too much.

Saturday, another rehearsal.  After watching the girls in the morning, Kathryn was gracious enough to let me go dirt biking with Devin.  It was the first ride of the season.

Monday, concert night.  Kathryn did amazing and looked great!  Thanks to Gina, Tim, Suzanne, and Adam for the support!

On Thursday, Kathryn set off on her world tour.  Kevin was awesome and drove Kathryn and the other Springville-ites to the orchestra rendezvous point.  Thursday was Tooele, Friday was Brigham City, and Saturday was Nephi.  So more of a Utah world tour.  Kathryn had a great time and had way way too much fun with her friends.

Thursday morning Suzanne came down and picked up the girls and took them home with her.  They had a great time staying the night with her.  Thanks so much for the help!  On Friday afternoon, I headed up to SLC to meet up with them.  We went to the zoo and had a great time there.  Ashley absolutely loved the merry-go-round!  When she saw it, so jump in front of me and put her hands up to stop me.  She made sure I was paying attention then started saying “turn” repeatedly as she grabbed my hand and drug me over to it.  Once we were on, we passed several animals before she declared that the zebra was the one she wanted.  So fun!

On the way home, we decided to skip the hustle and bustle of rush hour on the freeway and take the scenic way home through Park City.  It took a little while longer, but it was really pretty and well worth the extra drive time.  This picture doesn’t do any kind of justice to beauty of the canyon, but it’s the best I could do driving along.

Daddy hairdo.

On Saturday night, Kevin was awesome and watched the girls so I could go to Kathryn’s last concert in Nephi.  They played movie music.  It was lots of fun to listen to and be there to support her.

Here she is with the first violin section and the conductor.

When we got home, Eliza was so happy to see her!  It was a fun trip and I’m glad that Kathryn is a part of such a great orchestra.  I’m also really thankful for the summer break before the next orchestra season starts 🙂