the 5 weeks in utah... june 2009

Well, again, I'm gonna do a "mothah-load" post. Because, frankly, I like doing this better than the whole "part 1, part 2, etc."---deal.

Remember how we left our house for 5 + weeks this summer? Apparently it is a well known practice for the people of San Antonio, b/c it seems like MANY of the friends and neighbors we have did the SAME thing!?! What?! Who knew? Oh well, when you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

And we had some good times.
Here are the photos to prove it.

-We spent plenty of time in this fun pool of my parents. Best decision ever to put in the pool. And, how much do we love the polka dotted umbrellas?? Lots. Thanks. Tillie LOVED floating around and playing on the little 18" platform my parents added in the shallow end. It was PERFECT for her. And, having SHADE over there too with the umbrellas? Heaven.

-My cousin Lacee and her son, Declan, and my aunt were able to come play for a bit! That was great to see them again! Even though they live only in Cedar City, I hadn't seen them since I got married?! HELLOOooo! Far too long. Why is this the only "good" picture I got??

-Speaking of Cedar City, we drove down to visit my grandparents. They hadn't met little Matilda yet, so we thought it would be a good time to make a little day trip of it.
Matilda, however, didn't love the idea. She proved it by not sleeping ONE WINK the entire trip there AND back!?! Let's just say, we all had to practice patience there in the suburban that day.

Evidence that no nap had been taken. Boo. But, look how great my grandparents look! They are my dad's parents. Too bad Matilda didn't make this Kodak moment very magical.

-Back in Utah County, we were able to have some fun with Kirstin, Aaron's sister, at her new house with her kiddos. Max is 9 months older than Tillie and it is fun with each trip we make, they get to be better friends. Here we are taking advantage of the fact that Kirstin owned a GREAT cherry tree with TONS of delicious cherries. Love it.

Little baby Krieg! Look at what a sweet heart this little boy is. What a darling!
Do you love his little AND1 b-ball shorts? HA!

-While I spent the duration of the trip in Utah, Aaron had multiple externships he went to. One was in Dallas at Baylor. Let's just say the hotel he stayed in was not super nice. It was gross, in fact. He said that had I been with him, we would have definitely left upon seeing the room. But, being a manly man and a "non-complainer", he decided he'd stay.

Well, that was a decision we regretted MAJORLY! Guess who got BED BUGS?!?! GAAAAAGGG! So, poor kid was EATEN alive and SUPER itchy. Who knew bed bugs were a REAL thing? And so awful. It was really really sad to see Aaron itchy and so miserable for so many days afterwards. Here is a shot of his face and all the bumpy rashy awful bite marks!

Look how somber he is in this picture. So sad.

-While in Utah, and when Aaron could be around, we had a little Mini Wood Family Reunion. It was fun doing stuff around the valley. Here are some photos from the two day delight.

are they mother and son, or what?!

me giving it a stab. nice form. good posture. wonderful swing. it's amazing i don't do this more often. don't look too closely, you'll see that there was more MUD than grass where I was. I hit the ground more than the ball.
Whatev. We all have our things... golfing obviously isn't mine. It was still fun.

Can you tell by all the red hair who's siblings these are?? :) I love it!

-Hike (1/2 way, we turned around once it started raining mega) to Horse Tail Falls. Tillie was pretty worn out with no naps, so she decided to snooze on the way up. Man alive, Alpine was a great place to grow up. It is SO beautiful.

the crazy crowd. i have no idea who that weirdo is on the very far left. weird. :)

is this picture too funny? sad, but funny.

We finished off the reunion with a swim in my family's pool. That whole morning we had spent in the Wood's yard doing a little trimming/weeding/you name it. We had worked up a sweat and were ready to eat and relax. It was a good ending to a fun weekend.


-Aaron and Adam (his little bro.) decided to pull a switch-r-ooo on Matilda to see if she knew which one her dad was. She was pretty confused at first, then upset that they had tricked her. Hence the red face and teary eyes. Nice one.


-When Aaron got back to Utah we also decided to do a "Snyder" family reunion of sorts... at the best place on earth= Lake Powell. It seems we got more pictures traveling TO and FROM rather than on the lake, which is odd for us. But, oh well. Here they are:

click on this one to see the sign we were standing by. I laughed pretty hard about that.

let's not notice my lack of make-up. I look super pleasant in all these pictures, I know. But, it's Lake Powell. I think they ban things like MASCARA. It says so in the official Rule Book. I'm certain of it.

Hello, perfect. Warm and glassy smooth. Just how I like it.

Luckily, Aaron and I are on the same TEAM forever, but let's be honest. I couldn't help but be irritated with this nut because he got up on the very FIRST run of the trip, very FIRST try EVER, doing slolem skiing. This is totally unfair because I have tried UNSUCCESSFULLY for approx. 10 years to be a slolem skier. And, never have caught the hang of it. So, it stunk that he seemed to be a natural the FIRST time he ever tried. That was the same for him learning to water ski (got to 30+ mph his first attempt last time we went to LP), and I think it took him only three tries to get the hang of wake boarding. He's pretty much passed me up in his short tenure.

So, I may or may not have been secretly happy when this happened below.

just kidding. It was as fun for me to watch him as it was for him to be out there rippin' it up.
He's a keeper. That's for sure. And, like I said, forever TEAM-MATES, so I can deal.

cutie tillie eating in the trailer. is she darling or what?

-Back in Utah County again. No 4th of July celebration weekend would be complete without taking a trip to the Freedom Festival stuff in Provo. That was fun. We went down with Aaron's parents for a little date and met up with my sisters for a minute. Here we are rendezvousing.

-The actual 4th of July was great. Tillie looked darling. Good food. Good friends and family. Overall, I'd call it a success. Here we are whoopin' it up in our neighbor's back yard. They have a fun evening every year complete with relay races, bocci ball, and delicious food. We stuck around for the food part and then went over to finish the evening with the Woods. The joys of having both families less than 3 minutes away. We get the best of it all.

becca and I doing what we do best... eating. I love how both of us have our eyes closed. weird.

I love this one of Aaron and Matilda. She is such a good little walker!!

Watching the firework display in the backyard at the Wood's. Quite entertaining. I don't know what was better---watching the fireworks or watching Tillie and Max's reactions. It was great.


Then we ended off the night at the Pleasant Grove big firework show. It was BEAUTIFUL. I love fireworks in ALL forms. So fun. Here are some shots to finish off our 5+ week post!

You made it! Success! Finally posted!! Thanks family for a fun few weeks!

ok. then we headed back to Texas the very next day. And then Aaron started back to school the next day. It was jam-packed and a little crazy, but we're glad we did it. We love being with our families.