SunValley 2009

We headed to Sun Valley a week ago for what has become a yearly tradition. We, 8 of us, participated in the Spudman Triathlon in Burley where we stayed for one night and were able to catch up with Dave's extended family.

We started our trip with a very packed car and that didn't included our bikes that Sarah and Dave were bringing up. The kids watched a couple of movies on the way up and Leah was a great entertainer for Milli. I love Dave's cheesy fake smile in the above picture...jajaa. The trip was long but the kids were happy and Milli took nice nap. We were all excited about our week.

Our first day in Sun Valley we went on a bike ride with Uncle Bob and the older kids. One of the kid favorite spot is the candy shop in the village and a great motivation to get up those hills. Its a great time to get the cousins together. They are good little buddies and that is a great thing to witness.

Maddie, Nicholas and Mylo (along with Carmen, Uncle Dave and I) went to the ice rink and later in to town to get a yummy treat. Leah didn't get to come because she got in trouble. I thought I should add that since I would hope to not forget what happened :)

This year we stayed at a house, rather than condos. We were all able to be in one place and it was great! Sean and Karalee found the house and it was wonderful compared to our previous accommodations. The kitchen was SO nice. Sarah was our cook, as always. She makes great meals and its fun to be in the kitchen with my SILs. We had a huge deck that over looked into the golf course and the beautiful mountains.

The view was simply breathtaking and we loved it.

Of course the best of the trip is being able to make memories with the kids and seeing them develop friendships that will last more than a life time. Our yearly picture taking was as difficult and stressful as always but it HAD to be done.

Grandpa with the grand kids.

All of us. This picture took a few tries. We had it on the timer and as soon as the picture was about to take someone would move or point to the camera or place a child back in its place, it made for a few fun pictures :)

I love taking these family pics. We have slowly been growing, in every sense of the word. I love to see the changes the kids have made in just a year and these are good memories for our family. Clearly missing this year was Karen. She would have LOVED this trip and being all together. She was very missed and it was different not having Karen there.

I am not done with the Sun Valley 2009 recap and there is still so much to journal about this weeks events.