Our trip to Ohio

Well, I can FINALLY post about our wonderful Ohio trip! I had too many pictures, so it took awhile to get them all organized and online. We took the whole family to Ohio July 9-14th, and we had a blast! We drove down to SLC the night before, stayed overnight, and flew out in the morning. It was Maddy's first plane ride! When we got there, New Grandma was waiting for us. Of course, I cried when I saw her. Actually I cried when we departed SLC, started our descent into Cleveland, and when we landed also. We went home and had dinner and then took the kids swimming at the Schultz's.
On Thursday, we went to Castaway Bay and met Kate and Riley. We had adjoining rooms and the kids swam until 8:00pm with their cousin. The older kids loved the raft ride, Maddy was obsessed with the wave pool, and Dawson liked his little slides. I can't believe how Maddy can just got nailed by the waves and kept going. She is such an animal! We had dinner at TGIFridays and then the kids had silly camp songs with Grandma. Friday was Cedar Point day. Mason, Brooklyn, Dave and I went on Millenium Force and a couple of other big ones while Grandma, Kate, and Z had the little ones on the kiddy rides. We were all hot and tired after a few hours, so we went back to the water park to cool off before going back to Hudson. I enjoyed getting to ride with Kate, so that we could have some alone time to catch up. Thanks to Grandma for taking all of the kids in the Yukon.
Saturday morning, Kate and I went to get my haircut by JACK! He has cut my hair for 20 years, and I have no intention of changing that despite living 2500 miles away. That night, the boys (Dave, Mason, Dawson, Matt and Riley) all went to the Indians game while the girls (Me, Brooklyn, Maddy, Jen, Kate and Grandma) went to Jenny's wedding (my best friend from gradeschool). Aunt Jen made the girls dresses (brown hawaiian) and she took them to Target for treats and out to dinner while I went to the reception. Thanks Aunt Jen! The kids also saw Wal-E so that we could set up for our luau!
The Luau was Sunday, and over 100 of our family and friends came to meet Dave and the kids. It was so wonderful, and if anyone knows my mom, it was another fabulous, over the top, party. There was face painting, a pinata,a bouncy house, and amazing food and decorations. Thanks to Aunt Jen for all of her help preparing. I had so much fun seeing everyone. Thanks to all that could come! When you live far away, you really feel like the queen coming home! The kids accumulated so many gifts that we ended up having to borrow a duffle bag to get back to Idaho!
On Monday, we swam in the morning, had lunch, and then had to say our goodbyes. It makes me tear up just thinking about it. They were asking people to get bumped on our flight home, and we tried to do it, but they didn't need all 6 of us. Darn! I could have used one more day with my family! It was really cute to see Riley and the kids say goodbye to each other. They became such good friends in such a short amount of time. Once we got back to SLC, we drove home to Rexburg with four exhausted children, and I did laundry for 6 hours the next day! It was such a wonderful trip, and I miss everyone already. I can't belive it is over. The last post is a slideshow of some of the fun things that we did. I had sooo many pictures that it was hard to choose. Enjoy!

PS- Does anyone know how I can make my family picture smaller at the top of the blog? It is really bothering me. Thanks!