After our airport pick up we met up with Mike and Stephanie for a very yummy breakfast. It was the perfect way to start our vacation - Good Food and Good People. Not to mention fantastic kids, they were so good and even Noah did great on the plane.
Thursday we spent just hanging around - Brookie and Ty went to school with Grandma. Of course Brookie had instant friends and was in heaven being Grandma's little helper and I'm sure Ty had a great time too, he was just not so vocal about it.
Friday we drove up to Idaho Falls and had lunch with Trina and kids, Kristen and kids and Dave and his 1 kid. It was fun to see them all, meet Trina's new little one Zoey and see Dave's cutie Amani for the first time since she was just a tiny girl. Kari and J and Mike and Steph and their crews arrived at mom's house on Friday too and work began on our 'Roast' for Dad Empey. Kari had come up with the idea of a roast months ago and on Friday night as we sat down to discuss it, the Magic started to happen. I discovered that my husband may have missed his calling in life to be an actor/comedian. We threw together a pretty fantastic video of the top ten reasons we loved Dad/Grandpa in just over 12 hours and I must say it was a definite highlight of our week. Kayla and Paul arrived late Friday or early on Saturday as the case may be too.
Saturday was the get ready for the Empey family party day. It was the first time the entire family had been together for the first time since I don't even know when. We had a wonderful day together. It was especially great to see Paul and Kayla and their boys since we hadn't seen them in a couple of years. Their boys are super cute and Chase kept us giggling with his awesome dance moves. The family party consisted of lots of food, A Nativity complete with costumes and then of course THE ROAST. We were mildly worried about how Dad Empey would react to the video - good or bad. Let's just say it was a huge hit and never have we all been together and all laughed as hard as we did watching the movie! It consisted of reenactments of all our favorite stories about dad. Thankfully Dad loved it!
The rest of our week was spent just loving being together. It really makes us miss our family when we are there. On Wednesday we headed to Utah with Grandma's car to meet up with our Miller family. The best part about taking Grandma's car was that it meant we would get to see her again before we left when she came to pick it up! Here are a few photos from our excursion. I never get enough pictures, but I know Grandma got a whole bunch!
This is Dave dressed up like his dad for the 'Roast' Video. When he walked in Dressed like Doug - Trista looked at me and said, 'Wow, there is my future!' He looks so much like his dad!
Noah meeting Grandpa Nelson. It is the best to watch his face light up when he holds the babies. These two are only 101 years apart in age. He liked Noah and couldn't believe how big he was.
Noah like Grandpa Nelson too and gave him some great smiles.
Auntie Kari worked her magic on Brookies hair. It was super cute.
'Mary'
The whole Crew. How did our bunch get this big?
We buttered him up before the roast with the crown the Frosty Mug of Diet Coke and the Cape.
One of those moments you just have to capture - it was super cute.
Jake - Rockin those suspenders and the glitter head band.
Josh - so NOT impressed with his cow get up
Steve and I filming our 'Untalent' for the Miller crew
Buddies. These two are super hilarious. In fact one night we noticed a really strong electrical smell and thought we had pinpointed it to the light at the top of the stairs. Well we were wrong and come to find out these two little hooligans had taken some large plastic Candy Canes (the ones we used for Shephards Crooks) and somehow discovered that when touched to the hot glass on the fire place they became great Giant Crayons. So they melted down a couple of those Candy Canes and none of us realized it until the smell of burnt plastic was meandering through the house. I am sure it is an indication of all the trouble they will get in to as time goes on. They both got in lots of trouble from their Daddies - who found them hiding under a bed - even though Grandma defended them to the bitter end.
Little Miss Maggie loves babies and she loved Noah. I am sure if he wasn't almost as big as her petite cute little self she would have been carrying him around.
My cute Kari! All I can say is LOVE HER.
That is it. I didn't get too many pictures of the older kids because they were just too busy playing with their cousins. It was fantastic to see and be with everyone. How we wished we lived a little closer!
