A Week with the Holden's

As you can tell with my lack of blogging, I'm back at the grind with school. Things are going good there, but I must warn you this might be a long post. I apologize in advance. I've already been spoiled by taking some days off to play. Stephen's little sister Erin is starting as a freshman at BYU. So his family decided to bring her out here and make a little vacation out of it. It was so good to see them. Stephen's been out a few times to Michigan, but I haven't seen his family since last Thanksgiving. We were able to have them stay with us in our house and we played hard. I have a few pictures of our adventures, but my camera all of the sudden decided not to work. We spent one day up in Park City where we walked the streets and shops and then saw an awesome ski jumping show up at the Olympic Park. It was really incredible to see how they train in the summer time. They had about 4 different jumps and did some amazing tricks and flips, then landed into a swimming pool. Some of the athletes were as young as 13 years old.

After that we went and spent some time up at my parents cabin. It was nice for everyone to at least have their own bed for a few nights. We played lots of games, rode the 4-wheelers and even caught frogs and salamanders at a nearby pond. I always love spending time up there. Here's the murky pond where we were catching frogs and salamanders.
One of the many salamanders we caught.

As soon as Stephen found out that his family was coming he's wanted to take them flying. Tuesday morning we got up early and went to the Provo airport. He ended up taking 2 short flights, since the airplane only had 4 seats. He took the girls up and we flew up Provo Canyon and around Timpanogos. Then he took his dad and brother up they went up to Heber. He even let his dad fly around for a while. They all really loved to go flying...you never know with it being such a little plane. It can be kind of scary.
Then we spent an afternoon up American Fork Canyon. We packed a picnic and hiked up to Timpanogos Caves. I'd forgotten how steep the hike was and even with the elevation difference from Michigan, Stephen's dad hiked us into the ground. (I guess that's what happens when your a marathon runner.) The cave's were beautiful and it had been about 10 years since I'd hiked up to them.
Then I sadly had to go back to work, but they ended up moving Erin into her apartment and spending the day at BYU. After work, I was able to go and see the new place and meet her roommates. It really made me think about when I headed off to school as a Freshman. How fun those days were!
It was so great to have Stephen's family out here for a week. We had a great time entertaining them and showing them the area. It was sad to see them leave and get back to our everyday lives.