On the other side...

Cutest Sun Devil ever.  We miss you already Liv!

Grossest motel room ever...somewhere called Willows, California...sounds way prettier than it was.

Me and Liv in her new home away from home.  :-(

We saw a lot of cacti.  They are pokey.

We left Liv on Monday the 16th, and headed to Vegas to meet Mike and Jack.  Sam flew home after a night in Sin City with Momma...woohoo.  Not the way she expected to see Vegas for the first time, I'm sure.  She gambled and lost a grand total on $2.00 in a penny slot machine.  I lost $20 in the dollar slots and it took the same amount of time.

Gracie and Jack didn't like Vegas.  Me neither.

Jack taking a beating from Rocky at Planet Hollywood Las Vegas

Then the gorgeous St. George Temple.  St. George was hot, we had the bestest frozen custard in the world at Nielsen's Custard.  Nice pic, Jack. 

Next it was crazy beautiful Zion where we literally had to kick the squirrels to keep them away from us.  Damn tourists.  We had a picnic in the park next to the lovely Virgin River.  The most beautiful place in the world, I need to go back and spend more time hiking this incredibleness.

I'm so glad we took the opportunity to travel and see Utah, it helped to take my mind of how sad I was to leave Liv behind.

Me and Mike at Ruby's in Bryce Canyon.

These rock formations in Bryce Canyon are called hoodoos, it's like being on another planet.  Really eerily beautiful and the kids learned some things about geological history.

Next stop was Park City, Utah.  Totally upscale but rustic ski town.  We rode the luge slide and the alpine coaster.  Unfortunately the zip line was closed to anyone under 100 lbs due to wind, Jack really wanted to go on that.  I made myself go on the ski lift, 40 feet above ground, and I'm so glad cuz it was beautiful up there.

We spent two nights right there in the village in a cute condo with a loft for the kids.  We then drove to Salt Lake City with a quick stop in Provo....

The mother of all temples in Salt Lake.  I really wanted to sneak inside but I'm pretty sure I would burst into flames.

Inappropriate but funny.

Spent my birthday in Boise, which is surprisingly charming.  Dinner at PF Changs, followed by a power outage at the hotel.  It was over 100 degrees so our room got a little stuffy.

Spent Sunday driving home from Boise.  It only took about 7 hours, less then we thought.  It's so good to sleep in my own bed and I'm pretty sure I'm not going to complain about Seattle weather for a while.  We loved our trip though, we saw so many amazing, beautiful things.  Next year Yellowstone.

I'm counting the weeks until Liv comes home...October 8th can't come fast enough.  I'm not so sure I'm going to get used to this.  It's just very weird.