Utah Trip

Stella felt so much better the next day and blamed being sick on the water she drank from a fountain at the reception. No, not a regular drinking water fountain, she said it was a fountain that was pouring down and recycling itself. Hence, people were probably putting their hands in it and . . . I can't continue because I'm gagging.

We stayed at my sister Marci's house in Kaysville and they took us to "the castle park" so the kids could play.

The big boys played catch or frisbee, Stella tore up her hands on the monkey bars, and Malcolm loved the swings. He loved it when Stella would tickle him.

We headed to lunch at Tasty's (tradition) with Travis and Lorraine and the kids Sarah and Garrett. We were excited to make our very near future plans for the CA beach and Disneyland!

The kids quickly ate their lunch so they could play in a nearby field filled with "flowers" (Stella is still positive that weeds that have color are flowers). Sarah and Stella collected those while Garrett tried to burn ants with his magnifying glass.

Stella refused to drop the "flowers" until I took at least 20 pictures of her with them.

We may have been a little early, but Malcolm needed a nap, so we headed over to the Dibble Farm in Layton for the family gathering that would be happening that night. I love it there. You can just take a big breath there and relax. The entire family was called together (Grandpa Dibble's brother and sisters) and quite a few of their kids came as well. It is so fun to be together and I love it that they are willing to spend their night with us and feed us a giant meal!

Grandpa Dibble's siblings in order (Aunt Ann Call, Aunt Marie McComas, Uncle Cleve Dibble, Grandpa Kent Dibble, Aunt Jane Hales, Aunt Ruth Wood-Bourne, Aunt Ellen Cox)

And of course Stella found some sort of farm something to slide down and get pleasantly filthy. I love it. I know she loves it too.

Happy Independence Day!

Happy 4th of July!

Elliot's cousins invited to watch the Kaysville 4th of July parade with them by Davis High School (it's a brand new building, but it's where both of Elliot's parents went to high school . . . aw, high school sweethearts).

We were somewhat late and I had to hurry and whip out my camera to get this blurry picture of my niece Alecia playing the clarinet in the band. She's on the second row farthest away, but we saw her! You march and play impeccably my dear.

We finally found Elliot's cousins (The Hale family) and the kids (Stella and Max) immediately started gathering candy from the passing floats and cars.

Stella loves parades.

After a while, Max (Elliot's cousin Jenny's son whom we haven't seen for 2 years), just started attacking Elliot sporadically. He was having such a great time. After about 45 minutes of this, Jenny finally asked Max, pointing at Elliot, who that was. He had no idea. It's a good thing we were actually related. That would have been awkward. He is so cute!

Stella loves parades.

And Max loved Elliot.

After the parade we headed to Travis & Lorraine's in Farmington to rest a little. Stella got all dressed up for her rest. It was so cute when we got to their house because the kids (Sarah and Garrett) embraced Stella upon opening the front door and exclaimed, "We're so happy you're finally here!". They just saw her a month ago at the beach.

We argued for quite some time about where we were going to go out and eat that night and finally decided to just go to the store and get steaks and eat some seriously delicious vegetables from Lorraine's garden. I just ate cooked spinach for the first time in my life and it was really good.

We drove somewhere to watch fireworks all over the valley. We were sitting on a hill and Stella ran up and down a couple of times. I jokingly told her to do that 14 more times before we left . . . and she did. Her cousins Sarah and Garrett joined her.

Then we made sure the neighbors couldn't get a good night's sleep while we did our own fireworks in the driveway.

More Vacation - The Dibble Side

We love visiting the Dibble Farm in Layton, Utah. It's been in the Dibble family for a very long time. In fact, I'm pretty sure that Elliot's Grandpa George Ralph Dibble was born in this very home.

Uncle Cleve and Aunt Barbara now live in this beautifully remodeled home and graciously allowed us to stay for a couple of days and accompany them to church. I loved them before, but they are even more endeared to me because I love it when people are so good to my daughter that she loves them enough to want to call them Grandma and Grandpa. Also, Uncle Cleve made us breakfast. Elliot totally jokingly asked him to and he actually did it. It was delicious. Also, Aunt Barbara is a saint.

We got to the farm pretty late after the reunion festivities in Lehi and then attended church with the Dibble's. I don't know what it is about being in other places and being comfortable enough to make comments, but Elliot and I both wouldn't shut it in our classes.

Sunday night most of the extended Dibble family members were involved in a patriotic musical performance by Davis High School. Here is Mary Ellen, Anna, Margaret, and Emma (Cleve & Barbara's daughters) singing. Elliot and I are both related to very talented people.

Emma directed the Dibble men (and others) in this little choir. Cleve asked Elliot to join them, but he was perfectly content as an observer and super happy to not wear a shirt and tie in that humidity.

Stella just learned how to blow her first bubble with gum. It's a little hard with regular gum, but she did it. My shirt was soaked with her practice spit.

Stella could not have been happier during this trip. She was constantly surrounded with cousins and great uncles and great aunts that loved on her that she was never, ever bored for a second. Absolute bliss.

I forgot to mention how much fun we had when we stayed at Aunt Ruth's house in Highland during the reunion. They completely spoiled and attended to Stella's every need and Rebecca even let Stella use her make-up and clothes to dress up in. Stella latched right on to Brett because we still quote Brett from his visit to AZ over 3 years ago (Stella hugged him goodbye and he said, in his very Brett way, "I don't know how to do this." It was very funny. You have to say it in his voice.). Stella got to play with the dogs, jump on the trampoline, watch a movie, ride the 4-wheeler with Uncle Kirk, demand everyone's attention, and laugh with us when they showed us some ridiculous YouTube videos (which Stella is still quoting). We love them!

Stella just read the Sunday comics for the first time. I had a hard time pulling her away from them. She wasn't laughing, but she did say they were funny. I'm sure she had to read them a couple of times to get it.

Stella had her own room upstairs and was quite pleased with herself for not falling out of the bed. She didn't fall out, but Elliot did find her practically standing next to the bed late one night.

Out the window you can see the beautiful art on the barn that Elliot's cousin David Dibble painted. He also did the color in the new movie "Rio." He's very talented. See, I told you we were related to very talented people. Maybe our children do stand a chance.

One more reason to love the Dibble family . . . they have ice cream every night. Enough said.