22 hours stuck in the truck with the hubby? Heck ya!

Orrin and I ran away took a little four day trip to Utah a little bit ago.  Thank goodness for an awesome Mom and cousin who came down from Utah to watch our four.. err, energetic children (oh, and Aunt Whit helped out too).  Thanks for sending us pics of you guys!

Orrin and I sat off, pulling OP's friend's truck behind us.  Let's just say it took a long time to get up the canyons pulling that beast.  I entertained myself by browsing Pinterest when we had reception and taking nonsensical pictures when we didn't.

As we drove into the Salt Lake Valley, we beheld what seemed to be millions of peeps (I'm exaggerating for story purposes) paragliding off the Point of the Mountain. 

We spent the extended weekend with our best Utah amigos, Eli and Vanessa (and their sick bambino Peyton).

Thanks for letting us crash when you were in the middle of a move!  You guys rock.

For Merrill and Lopez posterity remembrance, here's what your fathers did when they had down time:

Nerds!  Vanessa and I, of course, sneaked out and did a little Utah-specific shopping.

OP and I did actually spend some time alone.  Mostly at movies.

No judging.  Babysitters are scarce and we rarely get to go to see any new shows.  So yeah, we were really excited to watch a few without the worry of hurrying home to relieve the poor person left with our kiddos.

We did a little bit of site-seeing.  Which means we drove around where we used to live and mumbled over the changes.

The best part for me?  I didn't have to cook once in four days!  Vacations do not get better than that.  We shared a couple of meals with my Dad (whom my mother ditched to watch the kiddos), ate at the famous Five Guys, and yes, we even got breakfast at Chik-Fil-A.

We even let an old friend join us at the movies (lucky you, Jonathon).

Yeah, when you're the third wheel in a bromance, you get stuck standing out in the movie theater parking lot while the boys drool over a motorcycle.

We left in the wee morning hours of the fourth day,

And hey- Orrin even let me drive for two hours (I prefer not driving, however).

Let this be a lesson to you: never fall asleep on a road trip when I'm in the car with you.  You will likely end up with an embarrassing photo of yourself on my blog :)

Getting some Orrin and Courtney time was pretty darn awesome (we had entire conversations without being interrupted by screaming babies!),

But, honestly, getting home to these little nerds was even better.

*these were their rewards for good behavior while we were gone: the older kids got Speedo goggles and the little one got Teddy Grahams.  We're keeping their expectations in gifts low*

Hanging out with the long-lost Lopez Gang

Once upon a time, a long time ago (I'd say about five years ago), we used to gather at Aunt Rhonda's house once a week for Scrumptious Sunday Dinner.  By "we" I mean a bunch of us Merrill cousins and our kiddos.  Yeah, we were total leeches :).  This tradition stopped after we moved ourselves to Utah (duh).  Now we're back and everyone's life is going busily in every direction, so I get stuck making our Sunday dinner every week for our own family (really, it's not as much fun as you'd think). 

Sadly, we rarely get to visit those awesome Lopezes (I have no idea how to pluralize that name).  So when we were invited to a BBQ last Saturday at Ernie and Rhonda's house, I screamed "YES!" and did a happy dance.  I'm still not 100% sure that I didn't invite myself, but let's move past that.

This little party was exceptionally special because we got to meet the newest additions to the Lopez family tree.  First of all, Seth and Emily's tiny new guy Cory.  I was a dork and didn't think to snap a picture of this handsome fella until after we had left.  But I did get one of his proud parents.

Secondly, we got to meet our sweet cousin Leah's fiance.

Nope, I didn't get a pic of them either.  I really am quite pathetic.

We spent a small amount of time eating, and the majority watching the kiddos swim.

Let's be honest here- they didn't do that much swimming.  Mostly, they did a lot of jumping.

And Wyatt did a lot of envious staring.

The Daddies found a fun new sport called "Throw Your Children into the Pool".  And they rocked at it.

Wyatt finally got daring enough to sit on the pool step (he may or may not have already fallen in while chasing a ball).

As you can tell, I once again took all of the pictures on my old-school iPhone.  The sad part: I even had my camera with me.  But it was inside and the action was happening now.

Oh, and the flash is kinda broken, and I'm too afraid to use the camera in case I discover something else on it is also broken...

And I don't want to hear any comments about me and my camera care, got it?

To the Zoo

A couple of weeks ago (has it really been that long?), Orrin's cousins came down here to escape the horrible, horrible cold of Utah... and to spend some time with us, of course.

Since we are having unseasonably-cool weather for Arizona, we all decided to visit our awesome Phoenix Zoo. I love this place. However, it would have been even cooler had we seen some of the big animals, but I guess I don't want to get too greedy.

So here's the gang:



Orrin's cousins Eli and Seth (pushing Sophie and Julia), and of course the Merrill Bunch.


And here's my little fashionista Piper. She even dresses all up for a trip to the Zoo.



These two kiddos were completely smitten with Eli and Nessa's little baby girl Peyton. (She's hiding back there in the stroller).



OP was pretty good about leading with the chillens so I could hang back and play the photographer.





Here's Vanessa and lil' Peyton.




I felt so bad for these guys' momma that was stuck at work, so I wanted to make sure I got plenty of pics for her (I have more, Emily, that I can email you!).




Pipes brought along her Hello Kitty digital camera and her and Adi busied themselves the entire time snapping pics.




And I had to get one of these. I tried to get Porter up here too, but he was busy playing with the gorilla statue's pecs.




I don't think the kids ever found the animal in here...





I think the tortoises were my kids favorite part of the zoo... other than the tractor that is.




The whole group of kids. It's still hard to believe all these kids belong to us, right Lopez Ladies?




The Phoenix Zoo has an awesome Little People play area. Which is where the kiddos probably would have stayed all day if the Dad's hadn't been very hungry and a bit grumpy.




And here's the tractor that they played on for over 30 minutes.

We seriously need to get one of these for our backyard.




And here's proof that Wyatt was actually there:




And, once again, here's Vanessa and Peyton:





Eli and Sophie:




And yes, it actually rained on us. And I mean rained. It was like someone turned on the shower on top of us. You know, for like three minutes.



And here is Sophie after I ran over here with my stroller when it started to rain and we took off running for shelter.



Seriously, I am so sorry for that.