Sun Valley, ID

Our annual Smith trip this year was out to Sun Valley, ID to celebrate Becca's parent's 40th wedding anniversary.  Sun Valley holds a fond place in Becca's dad's heart as he grew up not too far from the area and spent time working there when he was young.  It is, also, where most of the kids in the family learned to ski.  In short, it was fun to go back and the trip was AWESOME for everyone.  We are so grateful to Becca's parents for their generosity in making it all possible.  

It's rare that we all meet together in one location, so, when we do, it is a blast.  We loved watching G interact with her cousins.  We stayed in a beautiful condo with Becca's oldest sister and her little family.  We know G loves her cousins when the first thing we hear in the morning upon her waking up is, "Sarah, Sarah", ready to play with her roommate and cousin Sarah.

Our trip out, unexpectedly, became a road trip when the weather turned ugly in the mountains and our flight from home was cancelled.  Sometimes it isn't worth playing the rebooking & waiting game; by hopping in the car we knew with certainty that we would arrive safely as well as before the trip was scheduled to end.  The upside of driving out was that we were able to eat dinner at the coolest McDonalds in Vernal, UT and listen to "Signing Time" play on the DVD player a few times.

Before heading all the way up to Sun Valley, we were able to see Dave's oldest sister the day after she turned 42.  (She must dye her hair, because there is no way that at that age she doesn't have a few gray hairs!)  A few of her kids were playing in soccer tournaments that day and we were able to catch part of a game.  While Dave & Becca cheered, Genevieve practiced her soccer dribbling skills and was finally able to go down a tube slide for her first time; Mommy and Daddy don't usually fit well inside of them, but going down with her cousin Bradley was perfect!  She had a blast!

After a fun morning at the park, we caravanned with two of Becca's sisters the rest of the way to Sun Valley.  We learned that two of our brother's-in-law have zero hesitation about going 105 mph through the no-mans-land that is southern Idaho and that going that fast will always result in Becca lecturing Dave about the danger of going over 55 in 75 zone.

The weekend involved lots of play time for all of us, including plenty of time in the pool.  How could you not want to spend all day in the water when it is heated to 95 degrees?

The weather was, also, perfect for bike rides in and around Sun Valley.  There is nothing like the sight of 10 bikes and three trailers cruising around town.

The annual Smith men golf scramble also took place. Team Dave proved to team Mike that you can dress like a yuppie in all of the fanciest golf clothes, but it still doesn't mean that you are a good golfer.  Special thanks go out to Jon and Michael for leading our team to victory.   What a great vacation!  Thanks everyone!

Becca's sister has way more pictures on her blog from the trip that you might enjoy, click here to see them.