4 Weeks...

Peyton has been away at college for four weeks. So far, so good...

I remember when we were so proud of ourselves as parents for keeping her alive for four weeks! It seemed like such a big milestone.

She seems to be loving college life. She dyed her hair the first week, so our cute redhead now looks like this:

I think she expected us to be mad. Honestly, I kind of like it. Go figure.

I'm assuming classes are going well. We really don't hear much from the "Great White North."  I think that's a good thing? Also, if you got that reference, you are SUPER cool...hoser.

We did get to see her over Labor Day. She and Emma sweet-talked Mark into letting them come home for the long weekend.

Macie was probably the most excited to see her...

 I think the feeling was mutual.

I'm sure Peyton was super excited to hop in the car again the next morning...

 It felt a little like this:

We put her to work at the Catholic fair booth at the Twin Falls County Fair Saturday night. I think Uncle Scott was happiest to see her there. He needed all the helpers he could get! We've been helping for the last several years and I think Peyton would have been bummed to miss out.

We got to have a little fair fun, and a lot of fair food on Sunday.

Mark missed his baby a wee bit I believe...

Not me though. I'm stoic...

We will get to see her for Homecoming the first weekend in October. I think we'll totally play it super casual though. ;-) Oh, and....Go Vandals!

Like campfires and marshmallows, we're just better together...

This past weekend we headed to Bruneau Sand Dunes. If you've never camped here, know you better go early in the season. It tends to get super hot and mosquito-y later.

We left Friday night and rolled in just in time to set up camp and play some Yahtzee before bed. We are wild y'all.

Saturday, it was pretty cold and windy when we woke up. We decided to have breakfast inside the trailer. Solid choice. After breakfast, we figured if we were going to hike the dunes, we had better get to it!

About 15 minutes in, the sun came out. It was gorgeous! Unfortunately, we also found the mosquitos. Poor Peyton gets it the worst. We have decided it's because she squeals and flails around so her adrenaline is an attraction for them.

Macie and Sydney had boundless energy. I think I hate them a little.

Just as we rolled back into our campsite, the heavens opened up and it rained and hailed for a few hours. Perfect time for a nap! I love naps.

One must always dress appropriately for the occasion...

The rain stopped about the time we were getting hungry for dinner. I was able to cook outside which makes me happy. Mark and the girls went to the Observatory Saturday night. I stayed behind and read and went to sleep early. Macie did the same. Minus the reading...

It was the perfect combination of activity and rest. Just what I look for in a camping weekend!

Vegas, Baby!

It's Wednesday evening and I've just woken up from a nap.

Mark and I got home from our Vegas trip around 3 and let me just say that I am officially too old to survive for long on so few hours of sleep!

We spent a lot of time buying this...

Mama needs her coffee!

This is a shot of our new found freedom:

Because everyone needs to see us on the plane, right? LOL

It's funny that I didn't actually take a ton of photos. I'm usually whipping my phone out on the regular, but there are SO MANY PEOPLE on the streets and such. I think I've mentioned before that I'm not a fan of too many people being around me.

So, what did we do while we were there? Well, I gambled...a lot. Mark doesn't love it quite as much as I do, but he played along. We also walked...and walked...and walked.

Check out these stats from our first full day:

We did see a show our last night. I cannot recommend this enough!

So impressive! We kept thinking how much the girls would love it! But, I'm sure they were having a ton more fun without us. Ha!

This show was at our hotel. Which was why we chose to see this version of Cirque de Soleil. Because, lazy. And our hotel was amazing. I'd show you, but no pictures. 

Speaking of the girls, they went to Disneyland with the Bishop Kelly choir. Which was the catalyst for us going to Vegas. Win/win for sure! My friend Jennifer sent this of the girls:

Clearly they miss us.

And clearly, I was eating responsibly on our way home...

Airport Cinnabon? Yes, please!  (Poor Mark had to be my photo assistant)

I will say that our journey home was delightful with all this leg room. So nice for those of us who normally are squished up on airplanes!

And now, it's back to work. I can say that I'm actually happy to be home. And I'm also actually looking forward to the normalcy of life. Exactly what you would hope to achieve with vacation!

Now I just need my chicks to get home...

A shout out to home towns and family and ridiculousness...

As per our usual, we took off Christmas day and started our annual drive to Washington. We had already decided that since we had people staying with us, we would only drive as far as Pendleton. A wise choice as we didn't end up leaving until almost 4 PM. Here is our obligatory start-of-the-trip photo:

You can't see the Dutch Bros. for some reason. Weird, since we ALWAYS make Mark stop.

Most of our drive the first day looked like this!

Which was a welcome sight since we had been getting a bit of snow before we left. I thought the drive was easy, but probably because I was in the passenger seat reading magazines.

We got on the road "early" the next morning...around 10. Which is fairly early when you have two teens.

When we got to Grandma Jeanne and Grandpa Brians, the girls immediately headed outside for some rock skipping. Love this view!

They were also mesmerized by the record player we got G'ma and G'pa. 

No trip to Washington would be complete without a trip here...

Along with the accompanying shenanigans...

And our selfie game is on point...or on fleek. Whatever these young whipper snappers say these days.

We spent some time here:

And even though I went to Fort, NOT Evergreen, I seemed to have spent quite a bit of time here my senior year for some reason. Weird.

We got to watch this chick (who goes to Fort, and never hangs out a a rival school) mix it up on the court.

We also got to hang out with these hooligans who are so, so much cooler than we are. 

They fed us drinks that were on fire for goodness sake!

And took us to a classy pizza place...

And to a place that only serves pie. Well, mostly they only serve pie...

 It's like they know my love language!

Obviously, the girls miss the days when I used to dress them alike...

Awkward.

There is no doubt I grew up in a gorgeous place:

We will sure miss it until the next trip.

Happy 2016! 

And in the interest of full disclosure, this was written while sitting on my couch in my jammies, snuggled under my new heated blanket, sipping a homemade flat white. I {heart} vacation!!