Visiting Family

Now that we're back home and in the swing of things again, I thought I'd share how our trip to my family went. Eli and I left Josh for a week so that Grandpa and Grandma Grant could spend a little more time with their grandson since Josh couldn't take too much time off from school. We surprised Grandpa for an early Father's Day. Grandma and Monica came to pick us up from the airport in Las Vegas. We were going to surprise Grandpa at the door, but he spoiled the surprise somewhat because he came out to meet us while we were still in the car. He was still surprised, though. His jaw dropped when he saw Eli, and it was obvious my Mom did a better job at keeping it a surprise than Josh thought she would. :-)

Eli seemed to bond with Grandpa. He especially enjoyed their walks together. There are three horses in a field behind my parents' home, and Eli went with Grandpa (and sometimes Mom and Grandma) to feed them. Unfortunately, his walks are not quite the same here in Houston--definitely not as peaceful, and there are no horses nearby--so I think Eli misses them.

Eli also got in some swimming time in St. George and hopefully got over his fear of the water or cold (whatever the reason is/was for not liking it). Before we left, he cried if we tried to put him in our pool here, but Josh said that Eli was wanting to get in the pool today when they went for a walk, so maybe he got used to the water while we were there. After all, he went about four times.

After a week at my parents' home, Josh joined up with us. We were so glad to see him, and I think he was even glad to see us, though I'm sure he enjoyed the peace and quiet. :-) The Hinton Family (my mom's family) reunion happened while we were there, so that was a nice bonus. The last time I went to one was when Josh and I were dating, about five years ago. We enjoyed talking, eating, playing games, getting beat up in basketball..... ;-).

We actually ended our trip by getting to see Josh's side of the family. Tana and Chris took a little anniversary trip to Las Vegas the day before we flew back home, so they graciously let us crash their little party for a while. We spent Sunday night and Monday morning with them before going to the airport.

We even got some good news from Josh's sister Megan while we were there. She's getting married in Salt Lake on August 8th. Congratulations sister! It looks like we will finally be headed back to Salt Lake after four years away. We were beginning to wonder if we'd ever make it back there again.

Here are some pictures from the trip. Enjoy!