Coeur d'Alene in July

Q and I are up in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho visiting my family and friends and right now and loving every minute of it. (Minus the heat, the heat kinda sucks) Soaking up quality Nana & Papa and uncle Michael time.

{Q and Nana}

Q and I had dinner over at my best friend Emily's house on Friday and had a blast. I really miss Emily, I wish we lived closer. Her husband Derek makes me smile, he's such a good guy. They had fun playing with Q and in typical Quinn fashion he had fun flirting with Emily.

{Q and Emily}

The only unhappy part of Friday night was the phone call I got from my mom right at the end of dinner. She called to tell me she and dad were in the hospital. She thought dad might be having another stroke so they went in to get checked out. Luckily everything turned out to be okay, but it was still scary.

{Quinn and Papa in the hospital}

Q and I are sharing a bed right now and of course Quinn sleeps like this:

{yup, in the middle of the bed}

We sure do miss daddy though. Eric had to stay in California for school so we're making late night phone calls and constantly texting throughout the day. Any one who's been away from their significant other knows what I'm talking about. It really sucks, but we'll see him on Wednesday! :)

Back from the Ranch

There really is no place like home, and there's nothing like a 3 week vacation to help you realize that. We just returned from a 5 day stay at the Westover Ranch in Rexburg, Idaho.
Here are a few photos from the event:

Cousin Rylee covered in dirt & chocolate

My best friend's son Aiden

Eric's best friend Trevor and a few of his kids

Cousin Elle

Aunt Alison & cousin Katie

(Favorite) Cousin Kaeylynne (or Kaelin)

Cousin Andrea holding Q

Cousin Tyler playing ball

Amazingly enough it seems like everyone got sick the minute they showed up at the ranch. My mother in law had pneumonia, uncle Kim had a double ear infection and sinus infection, my brother in law had the flu (and very lovingly shared it with my mother in law), and Q and I came home with the sniffles and a possible cold. Oivey! Yet another reason why getting a million people in one place at one time isn't such a great idea.

Nevertheless, we enjoyed our time spent there and the opportunity to see family that we don't get to see that often. Thank you to all that made it possible, especially Layne and Kris :)

And we're off...

We just got home, and yet here we are gearing up for another outing. This adventure will take us over the mountains and through the valley to Grandfather's farm we go. Well kinda, we're heading over to the Westover Ranch in Rexburg, ID for the great and wonderful Westover Family Reunion.

Reunions are a novel idea to me. We never had any growing up, so it's completely foreign to me. The only 'reunions' we had were the occasional trip to Utah to see my dad's siblings or the forever long flight to Virginia to visit my mom's family. There was no get-everyone-in-one-place-at-one-time shindig. And I kinda liked that. It seems a bit more special to have the one on one time when you close the gap and visit just that family or just those relatives for a while. Having everyone in one place at one time just seems like a bunch of chaos to me. But, cest' la vie and to each their own.

I shall post photos and updates upon our return.

Hasta la vista baby!

Home, Happy and Tired

Phew! That was a LONG adventure. Eric, Quinn and I just returned from our two week exploration of the great state of MINNESOTA. It was such a nice, long and relaxing trip. We stayed with Eric's sister Tamara in Apple Valley and had the pleasure of touring her husband, Mike's, office - also know as - The Target Corporate Office. It was certainly a treat for me to be able to walk around another corporation's stomping grounds. Clorox is the only other headquarters that I've been in so it was fun to see the differences and similarities between the building, cubicles, elevator banks, and overall use of space. (Mike, I'm pleased to announce that Target passed with flying colors!)

We stopped by the Mall of America for a day where we met our dear friend Morgan and her mum for lunch at dear old Bubba Gumps. Then it was off to the heart of the mall with all 12 explorers to see the craziness of it all. We explored the Build-A-Bear factory where Quinn's cousins Katie and Zack helped build 'Charlie' and outfit him in the coolest duds around. Eric checked out the log roller coaster with Zack in the middle of the mall, and got sufficiently soaked. And aunt Julie joined Eric in getting soaked, only her's was on accident (thank you crazy lady who doesn't know how to look before turning around in line with a very LARGE drink at McDonalds.)

Our journey took us 6 hours South-East to the beautifully remote Nauvoo, Illinois. A journey that Quinn did not enjoy AT ALL and was very vocal in queuing us into this bit of information. We enjoyed all that Nauvoo had to offer, especially the live performances and play places for the kids. We experienced the vast assortment of food options - McKee's (I'm all for local businesses but I just can't recommend this place) and The Nauvoo Inn's buffet (highly recommended!), along with the fudge shoppe (two thumbs up) and a stab at the custard shop (CLOSED! uggh!).

Vocal Point - BYU's male a Capella group - was performing and we just so happened to be able to nab tickets for it. It was a close one though, the place was packed! (also highly recommended)

And while we were in Nauvoo I got word that my dad had had a mild stroke. :( Talk about scary! Here we are in this super remote, itty bitty place with barely any cell phone service and this happens. Luckily, it was super mild and he is doing really well now, but seriously! My best friend just lost her dad and I was having serious panic attacks that I would be mourning the loss of my father right beside her. Its a sad thing to loose a parent, and I'm just not ready to deal with that yet. That's a warning to you dad, you better get all better, kay?!?

Three days later we repeated the very long, very noisy drive back to Minnesota where we three ventured out on our own to the Minnehaha falls located just past Minneapolis. The 'falls' were really just one 'fall' and a whimpy one at that, but still a welcome and beautiful adventure.

The last few days of our adventure were spent leisurely lulling about the house, attending Zack's baseball game and having Family Home Evening followed by some of the best desserts ever! Thank you Tamara for you amazing baking abilities!

A quick 6 hour flight back to OAK landed us exactly where we wanted to be and an even quicker 15 min. car ride brought us HOME. :)

Like I said, Phew! That was a whirlwind and a happy escape for the summer. I cannot say thank you enough to my super star sister-in-law and her family for putting us up and putting up with us for two whole weeks. Thank you , thank you!

And now, its time for a nap. Good night y'all!

Minnehaha Falls

Eric, Quinn and I ventured out on our own yesterday (sans family) to the great Minnehaha Park. Located just North of Minneapolis, and very happily situated overlooking the Mississippi river. It features a 53 foot waterfall, lushous landscapes, and a happy little walk next to the river. While on our walk Eric and I found a cute little trail and decided to veer off of the main path for a minute. At the end of the very short, very little trail it opened up into a very green and happy meadow. My first thought and reaction was "oh look, we found Edwards meadow!" Even funnier was Eric's reaction "I was just thinking the same thing!"

No more Nauvoo

We spent our last day in Nauvoo yesterday followed by a trip to Carthage and a 6 hour car drive back to Minneapolis. This was certainly a once in a lifetime experience - no really, I won't be doing this again - ever! It was beautiful and worth the trip, but once is enough for me! :)

Here are the last of the photos from our travels. There are actually a few of me this time! (Thanks Eric & Julie!)

Brigham Young's House

Downtown Nauvoo at Night

Carthage Jail

It's our last day in Nauvoo today! We're going to make one more mad dash around the historical sights and then its back in the car for the 6 hour trip to Minneapolis. Lets hope Q likes this car ride better than the last one!

And, its my big sister's birthday. Have a supercalifragilisticexpealidosious sung at the top of your lungs while playing settlers kind of day!

Nauvoo, Illinois

The bad part about being the photographer is that I'm never in any of the photos. Here are some cool shots from our trip to Navuoo, IL. Its been a hot, humid adventure that I'm willing to not repeat any time soon. :p

The Boys

The Temple at night

The Pretty architecture and such...

Father's Day 2010

Eric celebrated his first Father's Day while here in Minnesota. Here are a few photos of the wonderful event. :)

Eric's card from Quinn

Happy Father's Day Eric!

Zack's Baptism

We're currently in Minnesota visiting my sister-in-law Tamara and her family. Her oldest son, Zack, got baptized on Saturday. Here are a few photos of the happy family, and Quinn - of course!

Minneapolis Sculpture Garden

We had the great pleasure of touring downtown Minneapolis yesterday with the family. Quinn did not enjoy any of the car rides and was very vocal about it. :(

We ended our tour at the Minneapolis sculpture garden. Its an outdoor museum, and it was perfect! It even had a spray area (the cherry) to help cool you off - which Zack, Christian, and Katie loved!

Here's the family in front of the massive Spoon & Cherry