Our first stop was a quick family trip to Grass Valley, CA to visit Bryan's parents and grandparents. We hadn't seen Paul and Leona (Bry's Grandma and Grandpa) for quite awhile so it was wonderful to see them and introduce them to Ellinor. We spent the Fourth of July weekend at their home. It was beautiful. Reminded me of WA but with Cali heat. They live in a private community on the lake. Everyone living their has to keep their yards as natural as possible as their is wildlife roaming the community constantly. It was a fun sight to watch a few deer play tag one morning when I had to run out to the car. You just don't get to see that up close very often, that's for sure. We spent the majority of the trip hanging out, playing scrabble and just enjoying quality family time. We went over to Leona's friends house on the 4th to watch the annual fireworks show over the lake. It was a fantastic show and we had the best seats in the house, I'm pretty sure. Lexi, Bry's sister, drove over to Cali with us for the visit. She was a great help in the car as this was Ellinor's first road trip. And she did amazing! We are so blessed to have Ellinor in our lives - she really is an angel. :)
We returned home from Grass Valley on Tuesday night and Ellinor and I flew out that following Thursday morning to Seattle. Yay! We spent two wonderful weeks with my family. We soaked up the time together and Ellinor bonded with her uncles Seth and Caleb. Those boys absolutely loved entertaining Ellinor. Caleb was the best at making random noises that would just send her into fits of giggles. He also had a magic trick set with lights that she would stare at - of course Caleb loved having the audience as well. :) And Seth was so good to her. If he heard her crying and I was busy at the moment he would run to her rescue everytime. Ellinor definitely had them wrapped around her cute little finger. I loved watching it - I love those boys oh so much and seeing them with my baby girl was just the best thing ever. Of course, it was fabulous to see my parents as well. My dad is just too awesome - he had to work a lot while we were in town so I didn't get to spend quite as much time with him as I would like, but it was still wonderful to see him. Every night he would come home from work and make a beeline for Ellinor. I've never seen Mr. Shane Norris, who thinks he's such a tough guy, turn into such a large pile of mush. :) It was great!
After my stay in Seattle, the plan was for Mom, Me, Elli and the boys to drive down to Panguitch, UT to meet up with family there for the 24th weekend. Well, there was much drama with the whole car situation (funny to think about now, but kind of exasperating at the time) so we ended up leaving a couple days later than planned. We were at the point of thinking we weren't meant to make it to Panguitch at all, but things ended up working in the end. According to the Lord's time table I like to think. :) Those of you who may not know of Panguitch it is a tiny town in southern Utah - dedicated to ranchers/farmers mostly. Needless to say it's not full of crazy excitement but you sure do feel relaxed when you are there. Bryan and I felt it was a needed break to be away from the cell phones and computers for awhile. We spent the days sitting in the yard or on the porch at my Great Grandma Sevy's house, just shooting the breeze with all our Panguitch peeps. We took the whole 1 minute trek down to main street on the morning of July 24th for the parade - let me tell you, that was INTENSE. :) HAHAHA, but really - it was fun to relax and catch up with the family that we hardly ever see. We were able to take a five generation picture while we were there with my Great Grandma Sevy, Grandma Lorraine, Mom, Me and Ellinor. Five generations of first born daughters. Pretty awesome.
That about wraps up our month. I have tons of pictures so I will post some for those who may want to check them out. Now we are back to reality. Hoping to venture on some fun family activities with Bryan and Elli this month.Can't believe how fast summer is flying by!
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