End of Summer Vacation 2010

My dad, sister Kathryn, Lydia and I all loaded in a Ford Escape for a two and a half week vacation on August 28th. We left Kansas City with a full car, loaded rooftop carrier and excitement! We drove to Denver...which took 10 long hours of boring Kansas. We were greeted by Aunt Cheryl, Uncle Dave, and Connor. It was great to be visiting Aunt Cheryl and she was happy to see Lydia.
(Lydia pulled herself up for the first time on Aunt Cheryl's stairs. She became a master of this while we were on the trip.)

Lydia and Aunt Cheryl

We left Denver and headed to Hurricane, Utah which is located in southern Utah. That car ride was long also...we were glad to leave I-70 and drive south on I-15.

Lydia and I at 10,000 feet in the Rocky mountains!

We had a great visit with Aunt Karla and Uncle Ernest and Karrie, Shane, Mandi, Annabelle and Jessica. We played cards, swam, went for a drive in the mountains and just relaxed. It was a great trip.

Sunflowers and a view of Zion's National Park
I believe this is called Subway...part of Zion's.
Lydia and I at 8.000 feet...it was chilly up there.

One day, I got to spend an afternoon with a friend who was an exchange student with me in Germany. It was great to see Katey and her daughter Nora who is only a few weeks younger than Lydia. They played and it was fun to chat and watch the girls play.

Katey, Nora, Lydia and I

This is Nora crying after Lydia pulled on her ear.

After a few days in Hurricane, we packed up again and journeyed north to the Salt Lake Valley. On our way up north we stopped off at Cove Fort. It was a neat fort that was used by the stagecoaches and telegraph...back in the day. I am glad that we got to see it and see a little church history in Utah.

Cove Fort

We had a small family dinner at Aunt Donna's and Uncle Stan's and then the Holbrook's came to pick me up. I stayed with them for four nights in Heber City, Utah. It was great to be at their house in the mountains.

One night I went down to my cousin's house for a family gathering of the Kieffer side. It was great to see my cousins who I had not seen for two years. We ate and talked. It was fun to watch the 2nd cousins run around and play like we used to when we were younger.

Aunt Elaine and Uncle Max


Kim, Doug and Tara

We spent one morning at Swiss Days in Midway. That was an experience. I could have spent a lot of money, but I bought Lydia two pairs of shoes.


We went camping in the Uinta Mountains. It was awesome! Liz and I had a great time staying up late and talking. Tien had fun playing with Lydia and sharing her toys.

Playing in the dirt.

Sunday we drove to Boise, Idaho and got there in time to celebrate Liz's birthday with Kyle's family. We had a great dinner and cake pops (yum). It was great to see Liz, Kyle and Gram again! Gram is a lot of fun! We watched him during the week we were there and he played well with Lydia. We went to the park, played with toys and just had fun.

Oma took the grandkids down the slide. It was awesome.

Gram wanted to hold Lydia while going down the slide.

Cousins at play.

Opa playing with Lydia.

We celebrated Gram's 2nd birthday while we were there and that was a lot of fun. We spent some time making robots and shopping for the party. The party was a huge success and a lot of fun.

Oma sneaking Lydia ice cream.

She liked it.

We went to Art in the Park in Boise and had fun walking around, buying a few things and eating pronto pups and drinking lemonade.

All worn out. We were busy, busy, busy.

Then we made the long haul back home. We left Boise and drove to Heber for one night. Then we drove from Heber to North Platte Nebraska (a long haul) then the next day we drove home! We were excited to be home...but we had a great trip. Lydia was amazing in the car and she did really good moving around and sleeping all over the place.