Dahlquist family reunion trip

Love a road trip with two little ones. We were so excited to go on a vacation as a family, before Pete starts work next week. It's hard to believe that these last few months have flown by so quickly! We'll miss him when he starts working. We love having him around full-time. 

So, the Dahlquist family reunion was being held on Saturday, and since many of the relatives had never met Parker OR Austin, we knew we wanted to go.  We headed out bound for Las Vegas after preschool on Wednesday. We made it in about five hours, and the boys were pretty good. It's hard to be strapped into a car seat hour after hour. 

We stayed at the Rio hotel ($40/night on Priceline). We had an amazing suite. Unfortunately the pool was closed by the time we got there though. Too bad, but Parker handled the disappointment well. He LOVED all the lights of the casino. 

 Lounging in our suite. Thank goodness for the Ipad. We used it sparingly, but boy were we glad to have it.

 Viva Las Vegas!

 Austin was a happy camper as long as he wasn't resigned to his car seat. Check out those top teeth!

 Parker found a beanie I had brought and said, "I look like Chloe!" That's my brother's girlfriend, who wore a beanie with a pom pom on top last time we were together.

 Parker loved wearing the headphones. But it made him talk SUPER loud!

 We visited Westridge Elementary where I used to teach school. So fun. We even got to say hi to some of my old colleagues, though the staff has changed a lot in the last three years.

 And the playground where the kids would play and I would sit with my dear friend Kara on recess duty.

 BYU campus was beautiful, as usual. The boys were tired and grumpy, after spending Thursday driving the rest of the way to Utah, but we had to make the stop. So lovely.

The next day we went to an awesome pumpkin patch. We miss the rural pumpkin patches and apple orchards or Michigan, so we were happy to have the mountains as a beautiful backdrop. Cornbelly's did not disappoint with all their kid friendly activities. 

Pump the water and make the duck swim down stream. 

 Ride a cow train.

We didn't notice that some of the cow seats were smaller and others larger to accomodate a parent passenger. Pete unfortunately got smashed into a one-seater (as did I).

 Friday was a busy day. Pumpkin Patch in the AM, followed by going to Grandmas Joyce's for a visit. While we were there, I cooked some freezer meals for her and Pete's other grandma. Then we headed to Grandma Ruth's. She had a cute dog, but it wasn't very fond of my kids. Following that we went to our friends the Hawkes's house. They were friends from San Diego, but moved a few years ago, so it'd be a while since we saw them. Their daughter Alexis, who's my age, was staying there a few months with her kids, while her husband is on deployment. The kids loved playing together. When her little girl walked into the room, I said, "Look Parker, there's Londyn." He responded. "She's pretty." haha. Good taste, Park.

I have the rest of the pics on my camera and I'll have to work on getting those off. All the fam reunion pics are on there. It was lovely, though. We left early Sunday morning to drive straight home. We hit horrible traffic during the second half of the trip so our 10 hour drive became 13, but overall, we can't complain. We had a great time and made wonderful memories. 

For now, we are working on moving into our new apartment. Phew. Busy few days.