Holy Vacation Batman!

We finally made it to our humble abode Saturday night after almost 3 1/2 weeks of vacation. We had a WONDERFUL time, but we were all very happy to return home especially to our own beds. We drove to Albuquerque the first night, made it to Park City the second night. Spent the week there, drove up to Boise for the weekend for some Terry family fun, drove back to Park City where we spent the rest of the week making 3 trips to Provo and a few to Salt Lake, drove 10 hours south to Lake Powell for some Platt Family Reunion fun and spent 5 days on the Lake. That Friday we booked it back to Albuquerque where we spent the night and then by Saturday we'd made it home. Our kids did amazingly well for the 4300 miles we put on our car. We got to see lots of family and friends, do lots of swimming, hiking, running, eating, boating, and playing while we were gone, and boy do our families know how to play! Here's the start of our plethora of pictures....

The first few hours of our drive (see the flatlands of Texas in the window??)
Still happy!

Yea, they're FINALLY asleep! They both were much too excited for the first part of our trip to sleep, so Kyle and I sighed in relief once they fell asleep and Janelle's gazillion questions stopped.

Our Utah trip started with a bang! The day after we got there we had some family pictures taken since the whole Mammen clan was in town for the weekend. Here are a few candid ones we took while our nice friend Jeffra did the professional ones.

"Mmmmm...sticky lollipops and dirt...a delectable combination."
(cousins Alex and Spencer)

Boys will be boys.
It was so much fun being around little Axel because he is 100% boy and we can tell Spencer is going to be just like his cousin!
"Bring on the dirt, rocks, and grease...especially before it's our turn to get our pictures done."

Janelle loves her little cousins. She's singing "Popcorn" with Axel in this picture.

Sweet baby Louisa! She really is a sweetheart, we couldn't get enough of her!
(And just so you know, Lulu is 3 weeks old in this picture and still 2 1/2 whole pounds lighter than Spencer was at birth. What a sweet little thing! Give me one of those next time please!)

"All aboard the choo-choo train, all aboard the choo-choo train. All aboard the choo-choo train, all aboard all aboard, CHOO CHOO!!!" (Don't you love that song on Playhouse Disney??)
After family pics, Grandma and Grandpa treated us to a ride on the Heber Creeper. The scenery was beautiful and we all had a fun time.

Later that evening we had a surprise birthday party for Kyle's little sister, Hillary. For some reason it's not letting me download anymore pictures, so I'll try them again later. It was a fun way to start our vacation!!