Utah Vacation

This summer we were able to travel up to Utah to celebrate these two and be there for the wedding of Sam and Sarah!

They are a lovely couple and Sarah is a beautiful person inside and out.

We drove up from El Paso, a twelve hour drive.  We broke it up into chunks and stayed the night in a few hotels.  The kids enjoyed the hotel breakfasts!  Despite Melody's face, she loved the oatmeal.

We stopped at Four Corners Monument and stood in four states at once.  It was a quick stop but fun.  There was an orderly line for pictures and each group got a few seconds for their photo opp.  A couple in front of us was trying something fancy where the woman stood on the man's shoulders.  They must not have gotten the picture they wanted because while we were walking around looking at the booths we saw the same couple cycle through the line several more times trying the same stunt for a picture.

Driving through the Southwest was really beautiful.  The landscapes of southern Colorado and southern Utah are unparalleled.

Melody enjoying a different hotels oatmeal.  Still loves it.

We planned on spending time at Arches National Park.  It was amazing!

We loved exploring some of the trails.  This one was very sandy.

The twins even took off their shoes.  They loved climbing everywhere.

This was a good arch for a family picture.

The kids had so much fun exploring.  Melody wanted to climb higher than we wanted her to go.

Sylvia loved to climb too.

We had so much fun we decided to go on another hike in the Park.

The weather was hot but not unbearable.  It was great to spend time in gorgeous nature and move around after being in a car for so long.

Melody is in this selfie too... can you spot her?  We found another arch.

Cute picture of the boys.  We found more vegetation on this trail.

The two older kids are very talented hikers.  They have been training for this their whole lives.  We used to call them our mountain goats because of their sure footed-ness but they didn't like that too much so now we call them our mountain lions.

Say cheese

Having fun!

We stayed the night at a nice AirBnB, had pizza for dinner and slept well.  The next day we packed up and spent the morning at Arches again.  We explored a different part of the Park this time.

There were a lot of people and it was a gorgeous day again.

Sweet sisters.

I think these were called the double arches.

I kept the twins from climbing too high by a snack break.

Cutie boy.

We are so glad we carved out time to visit Arches National Park.  We hope we can go back one day!  We loved it!

Another big highlight from our Utah vacation was meeting Evelyn Simone for the first time!! Camille and Hunter's baby girl is so precious.

Evelyn with Aunt Rachel.  You can see how enthralled Sylvia is with her baby cousin.

We spent one night in an Airbnb in Provo before we stayed in the Airbnb for the whole family.  Since we were in Provo we had to visit BYU!  We showed the kids Mommy and Daddy's Alma Mater. 

Andrew and Sylvia have visited BYU campus before but they were very little and didn't remember.  They also have been making so many updates and changes to BYU it seemed like a new place.

At the Hinckley Center.

Such cute future cougars.

We stopped at Cougar Eats and got some doughnuts.  Andrew's was shaped like a Y.

Who recognizes this statue?

It was fun to walk around BYU campus.

We headed to the family Airbnb which had a gorgeous backyard!

It was perfect to host a dinner for Sam and Sarah with family from both sides.

The cute couple.

Twinnies love Grandpa!

Some pictures of everyone having dinner.  The weather was sunny and it was so nice to be outside. 

There was even a little stream running through the yard.

It was like having a garden party in the secret garden.

My parents had Cafe Rio catered for the party. Andrew gives it the thumbs up.

Melody loved the fresh flowers.

After we had dinner close family members and friends gave speeches.  These were all heart warming and emotional.

These are Sarah's niece and nephew.  The kids had fun playing together.  They are having dessert, strawberry shortcake!

Having shortcake with Uncle Hunter.

That evening was the Bachelor Party.  Sam and his friends went to Top Golf.

They had fun, Tyler even got the best score.

Breakfast time!  Christian went to bed with jammies on the right way and woke up like this.

The twins love cousin Evelyn!

Aunt Rachel loves holding sleeping babies.

Grandma Tuell made a yummy french toast casserole for breakfast.  It's always a huge hit.

The Airbnb house also had some fun games in the basement.

Finally it was the wedding day!  I love this picture in front of the Cristus statue in the waiting gazebo building outside the Provo City Center Temple.

What cute girls all dressed up for the occasion.

The temple sealing was wonderful, we are so happy we could be there for it.  This was taken by the professional photographer after Sam and Sarah made their big exit.

It may be hard to tell but it was blazing hot that day in the high 90s. 

Here we are taking a break in between pictures in the shade trying to stay cool.

We snapped a few pictures of just our family outside the temple in front of the really cool fountain.

Grandpa Judd with our good friend Scott Acton.  He is mimicking Christian's pose. 

In between the wedding and reception people went in different directions, some to a restaurant and some to a family members' ranch.... we opted to stop at the nearest air conditioning location which was Sam's club.  It was just too hot and our van's air conditioner was acting up.  We cooled down, drank water, rested on their demo couches, used the restrooms, and walked around the store.  Tyler captured the moment when the twins gave each other a little smooch.

At the reception!  It was an inside garden venue and was really pretty.  It had started to storm a bit outside by this time so it was perfect to feel like you were outside when you really weren't.

Here is the professional's Judd side family picture.  The wall behind us is a waterfall wall.  Very fancy!

Sylvia loves to get in Evelyn snuggles whenever she can.  Grandma Tuell looks happy with two of her great granddaughters.

Sam and Sarah with all their nieces and nephews, just missing Evelyn.

We had fun eating and dancing the night away.

The girls felt so special when Sarah danced with them because they were in awe of her beauty.  She looked like a wedding princess.

Christian taking a water break with Daddy.

We had so much fun!  These are some cute pictures with Grandpa and Grandma.

By the end, as you can see, Melody was basically falling asleep in Uncle Bennett's arms on the dance floor.

We did some more fun things after the wedding day, like visit BYU campus one more time.

The campus has changed so much with different roads and buildings that we hardly recognized it.

One night Mommy got to go to a live storytelling event that she has been listening to a podcast of for years.  She knew the gal on the right in college, they lived next door to each other.

Then we all went to the zoo together (minus Sam and Sarah who had left on their honeymoon).  What a cute family!

Sylvia was tired of walking so rode in the baby carrier for a bit.  It was surprisingly easy to carry her this way, but it didn't last long because she felt weird because it's a BABY carrier after all.

The elephant made the family picture.

We had fun at the zoo!

Grandma and Grandpa with all their grandchildren.

We headed home and stayed at another hotel.  Melody knew how to use this type of phone without anyone telling her.

One of our hotels was awesome because it had a bunk "room" where the big kids slept.  We had a great Utah vacation and were happy to have a safe drive back home.