Colorado--Part 1

After Utah we went to Colorado.  Eric's grandpa had recently had his 80th birthday and wanted to get his whole family together for a reunion.  We drove down to Winter Park, CO with Eric's parents and family to spend a week with them and aunts and uncles and cousins--we had a blast.  Winter Park, CO is a ski town and is up in the mountains--it was gorgeous.  We had so much fun hiking in the Rocky Mountains, spending time with family, we took Ethan and Kailey white-water rafting (which they LOVED), etc.  Here are some pictures of some of the hikes we went on.  Also, you will see us all in orange shirts--the front say Nelson Family Reunion and then on the back it has our name and a number which indicates what number we came into the family.  I thought it was such a great idea and it was so fun wherever we went, because we could always find each other!!

Family picture in Rocky Mountains--it was funny, we hiked to a waterfall called "Adam's Fall", but it turns out that Eric and I had hiked the same hike 7 years ago with my family when we all went backpacking!

The kids were very well-loved with all of their great-aunts and uncles around and Eric's cousins!!

Hiking--we took the kids  on another hike to a lake that was 5 miles roundtrip and actually a more difficult hike than we thought--a lot of rock-climbing and hills--they did fantastic, but we were grateful for all the adult helpers along!!

Eric and I--matching shirts!!

Gramps and Granny--Eric's grandparents who are so awesome!!  We had such a fun week thanks to them!!

Grandpa Nelson and I throwing Kailey up in the air.

Colorado was just GORGEOUS!!!

The hike we took the kids on to the lake had a lot of waterfalls leading up to it!!

We reached the lake!!  Eric's cousin was so funny and hiked the whole way carrying this huge watermelon.  So at the top we had watermelon, which tasted SOOOO good--we all had a lot because he didn't want to carry any back with him!

Cade and his little buddy, Cousin Rhea!

The kids and Rhea

So exciting--the hike is almost over!!

Kailey and Daddy on our hike

Gramps giving the boys a hug!!

Again, we just had the best time in Colorado.  Gramps rented a huge cabin and there ended up being like 28 of us that all stayed there together--it was so fun!  I'll blog more about the other fun things we did!

Utah Trip

Well, after St. Louis we flew to Utah to stay with Eric's parents for a week.  It was a VERY busy week, but we had a great time!!  We stayed very busy seeing family, shopping, seeing everything, etc.  Here are a couple of pictures highlighting our time:

Picnic up in the canyon with family--kids had a great time playing in the water!

We went and saw Great-Grandpa Tolman.

Me and Grandpa--it was so nice to see him.

Playing in the water on Temple Square

Temple Square--we went to the Church History Museum--they have a great new interactive exhibit for kids--so much fun!

Celebrating Kailey's birthday--we even found a princess castle pinata!

Grabbing all the candy from the pinata

Opening presents--Kailey is one very-loved little girl!!

Telling Uncle Mike thank-you for an awesome princess gift!

Modeling her new dress from Grandma!

We had such a fun time in Utah and it was so nice to see all our family.  We were sorry it was such a whirlwind trip!!

Visit to America--Part 1-Missouri

So I am SOOOO behind on the blog, but am rededicating myself to it--I have been such a slacker.  So there still are so many posts I need to catch up from Japan.  Our last several months there were a whirlwind!!  My brother, Brandon came to visit us and we did a ton of fun stuff with him.  The most notable, for me, was that he, Eric and I, left the kids with friends and went on a trip to Kyoto, Hiroshima and Miyajima Island--it was spectacular.  I have tons of pictures, but will catch up on those later.

The kids and I left Japan a couple of weeks before Eric.  We had to pack all of our stuff up the beginning of May to start shipping it here to Spain, so there was nothing in our house and the kids and I decided to fly home and spend time with family.  We ended up being in the states for 6 weeks.  We flew from Japan to Seattle and the plan was to spend the night with my really good friend, Shari, and then we were to fly out the next day to St. Louis.  However, as we were landing in Seattle, Kailey threw up all over the plane and when we walked in the door at Shari's house she threw up again and continued to throw up for the next 24 hours (it was kind of a rough flight!!)  Shari ended up calling the airline for  me, I had lost my voice, and we pushed our flight back a couple of days.  It ended up all working out, Kailey was fine after 24 hours, and then we had fun hanging out with Shari and her family, and my sister Brooke, who lives in Seattle, spent the weekend with us.  We had a blast!

Next we flew to St. Louis, where we spent 3 weeks.  We had a great time in St. Louis with my parents and did TONS of fun stuff!  Here are some of the highlights:

Went and watched the dirt-burners--remote control cars.

Papa built a water-launched rocket with the kids--a HUGE hit!!

This thing went SOOOO high--landed on the roof a couple of times and in the neighbors' yard, etc.!

Went to the zoo

Botanical Garden's chinese exhibit

This dragon was made out of plates--amazing!!

Playing at the sculpture garden

The Nature Center

We went fishing a couple of times--had a great time!

One of the many fish he caught

Aunt Brooke chasing us

Playing in the water

Playing with cousins--Kailey and Teagan are best buddies!!

Cade and Landon fixing the bikes

The girls working on their tan

Tio teaching them the sprinkler dance

Celebrating Kailey and Uncle B's birthday

Grant's farm--petting the goats

Papa feeding B

We had a great time--my whole family, minus Aaron got together, it was so wonderful to see everyone!!!  We had such a fabulous time--it was hard to leave!!