Summer of the Monkeys--Simons Monkeys

I know this is a late, but life has just flown by since we returned from our vacation to Utah.  It was a spectacular summer vacation!  Probably one of the best ever.  All of the family on both sides were together for the first time in a long time (minus a couple brothers in law--but everyone important was there :).

On the Simons side there are 28, soon to be 29, cousins.  It is noisy, crazy and wild fun all of the time.  My children are in heaven when they are surrounded by their cousins.  This was the first time in three years that all the cousins have been together.

We spent almost every single day hanging out with cousins at the park, at Seven Peaks Water Park, in the mountains, on Grandma's trampoline or on special family getaways (those pictures will be in a separate post).

The oldest cousins all went to the temple together bright and early on the day we left for the cabin in Southern Utah.  It was so fun to see what incredible kids these teenagers are turning out to be.

While the kids play outside in Grandma's backyard, the adults generally sit in the living room and talk.  One time, Diamond walked into the middle of our conversation and started doing some Chip-n-Dales type dance moves, pulled his shirt off and while swinging it over his head said, "I'm HOT in both ways!"  He may have a promising career ahead of him!

One of our favorite traditions is dinner with the adults.  Once again we went for Thai food (since it's all of our favorite).  I love these people!  Okay, I admit over the years we've had our family drama. . . but at the end of the day there is no one I would rather spend my time with than family.  Always lots of laughter, teasing, good conversation and complaining about the Simons' boys' problem with selective hearing.

Oh, yeah, the other thing about those Simons' boys (besides being incredible fathers and willing to serve others), they are just kids at heart.  Notice Uncle Mike couldn't let the kids have all the fun?

Giselle and Izzy look so much alike.  Both of them look exactly like their dad and their dads look exactly alike, so it stands to reason that these two would also look like sisters.

We love traveling around the world as a family--and Thailand, Taiwan, Cambodia, they're all spectacular places to visit--but there is nothing like coming home to family.