I drove up to Utah at the beginning of August to visit family. Jerry was only able to take a few days off work so he flew up the next week and spent a couple days there and we drove home together. The timing of my trip worked out so well. I was able to see all my siblings except my oldest brother, Dave that was in Germany picking up his son from his mission. (But two of his children were there with the family) It is so great to get together with family, especially when we can't all get together often. My family is spread out all over the US, so siblings from Kansas, New Jersey, Seattle, Texas, me from Las Vegas, and those in Utah, and my niece and nephew from Denver were there. And of course, being a Roylance any excuse for a party is good. So we had a week full of get togethers and parties.
I drove in on Thursday, the 6th, and on Friday we all met up at a park in Hyrum to visit and ... party.
Rebecca loves pizza - wait, let me correct that. She loves pepperoni's off of the pizza, so she gets pizza fingers.
Hayden had a blast rolling down the hill at grandma and grandpa's house with his cousin Jayden.
Here is Sydney with her cousin, Spencer that is only 6 weeks younger than her.
Playing so much makes you really tired. The kids didn't want to admit that they were tired, but had a great time watching/ sleeping during a movie in g'ma's basement on Sunday.
Monday was a very busy, fun day. We try to have a girls' party every year with the sisters, and we bring a "favorite thing" to share. Yes, it's a rip off of Oprah's favorite things, much less money spent, but way more fun. Here are all the sisters, with the exception of Jana that was in Germany. So fun. One of my favorite things is date night with Jerry, so I took $25 gift cards for restaurants. Before you start thinking I'm miss money bags, let me tell you that another one of my favorite things is a good deal. So I got the gift cards off restaurant.com - they frequently have 80 % off sales, where you can get $25 gift cards for restaurants in your city for only ... ready for this... $2.00. (You do have to spend $35 but that's including the $25. not a bad deal!) So that's what I shared. Plus, I shared some of our family traditions.
Monday night after the "Girls' party" I headed into Ogden to my friend, Sunni's house for our friend party. The 5 of us have been friends since middle school and believe it or not, we're all still good friends. We had a bar-b-que and there was a bounce house set up for the kids. It was a great time. We also built a fire for smores once it got dark. Hayden and Rebecca were excited to play with more friends.
All the girls with all the kids.
Holli, Jaime, Sunni, Me, and Nicole
Rebecca playing in the bounce house.
Getting ready for the smores.
Tuesday was the BIG family party day. We reserved a campsite in Mantua campground and had a get together. It was SO much fun. We brought our own dinners and were entertained by family skits. I didn't get pictures of all the skits, but here are a few.
Esther's family doing the cheerleading skit.
We did a "Sarah, the Explorer" skit. We had to follow the map to find "Daddy". Jerry didn't get to town till Wed. night so unfortunately he had to miss the big family party. I'm sure he isn't too sad about missing being in a skit. It was very fun, and the kids had a good time hamming it up.
Joseph's family did a musical skit. Everything made them break out into song. Doesn't everyone have a soundtrack for their life??
Mark's family did a "You might be a Roylance If..." skit. Very funny.
Here's mom and dad. Hillarious as always.
We reserved the campsite for the whole night, so we were able to stay overnight. Joseph's and my family were the only ones brave enough to stay the night. It was very fun. Rebecca is a magnet for dirt. This is how dirty her face was after only a couple hours. You can only imagine how dirty she was by the morning. Yes, I'll remind you that I stayed overnight before Jerry came to Utah. Yes, me and 3 children. I AM wonderwoman, if you were wondering. I'm so glad we did though. The funniest thing happened the morning after sleeping over. Rebecca was wearing her sleeper jammies and was walking all around the dirt. She wanted to clean them off so she went to the water spiggot and washed off her jammies. But, then they were soaking wet. So she came crying to me over by the picnic tables, took off her shoes and jammies, and noticed that her feet were still dirty. So she went back to the fresh water spiggot to wash her feet. Washed them, then walked over to me to put her shoes on. By the time she got there she saw that her feet were dirty again, so back over to the water again. It continued for about 10 minutes. It was too funny.
Jerry flew in Wed. night and we were so excited to see him. So more on the rest of our vacation in the next post.
Hayden started preschool this week with Mrs. York. He has been looking forward to this day for so long. It is so fun seeing my little baby grow up and to see how smart he is. He loves learning new things, and I know he's going to have a great year there. 
I didn't know if he'd be nervous and cling to me when I dropped him off, because he can be shy in new situations. No, he was perfectly fine and just seemed so grown up. Yesterday was his first day with homework. It's silly how excited we both were that he had homework. 
Rebecca is taking a little class called Rhyme 'N Time there as well. She was so jealous that Hayden was going to school, but was so excited that she'd be able to go to "school." (even if it is just a little class.) Her first day was today and she loved it. So fun.
