OtterPops: Utah or Bust!

We were so excited to be able to take some side stops all along our trip to visit siblings, friends, etc. Since we were taking a long trip we had the luxury of being flexible but I still found myself not having time to see everyone I had on my list (partly due to a flu that made us stay quarantined for several days)! We'll just have to take another long trip next summer or talk more family and friends into visiting us out this direction, I guess. Here are a few cousins, old roomies and friends we got to meet up with. They were so generous to host us for play dates and meals and it just re-affirmed how fortunate I am to have these wonderful women in my life!

Me with old roomate and cousin

With a friend I grew up with

Visiting an old roommate

With my cousins from my mom's side

Meeting up with our good friends that used to live in CA

All the kiddos hanging out

We started out the Utah Journey by staying with my brother Brian and his wife Katie in their cottage that they opened up to us. They had all sorts of fun outings planned including XL snow cones, playing in the creek in their back yard, movie night, s'mores, liberty park and the Salt Lake City Aviary. Katie is working her internship there and hooked us up with a personal tour and pelican feeding. The kids were a little shocked when they were handed a bowl of cold, dead, raw fish and told to throw them into the birds!! LOL They did great and sighting the peacock as well as the feathers was fun as well. Katie's sister joined us for a lot of the festivities which was fun since the girls felt like they had gained another cousin!

Eating S'mores

Feeding Pelicans

Whole crew at the aviary

Splash pad at liberty park

Snow cone adventure

The next day we met up with all of the Otterstrom Clan at the airport to welcome Jeff home from his mission! We spent several days being fed well and catching up with all of Jared's family. Jared was able to fly in the night before his brother so he could be there for all the festivities. Lillian, Emma and I got our "baby fix" with their little cousins born this past spring.

Otterstrom clan at the airport

Girl cousins at the homecoming dinner

Holding babies!

Emma taking care of the babies

Whole Otterstrom Clan

Jonas with his Otterstrom boy cousins

We got to experience "country life" enjoyed by many of our cousins. Boating, pet dogs, riding horses, collecting eggs, log cabins, you name it. We also made it to water parks and theme parks, amazing neighborhood parks. The fun didn't stop...Until we got the flu that is...