Our Visitors From The Windy City

My brother, David and his family are vacationing in Utah right now.  They live in the Chicago area, so we don't get to see them very often.  It's been about 18 months since we were last together.  I was wishing I could be in Utah, but didn't know how to swing it with all that we've got going on here.  You can imagine how excited I was to hear that they would be going up to Yellowstone for a couple of days with my parents and would stop by our house on the way.  Hooray!

They came on Friday around lunch time.  We decided to meet them at Big Jud's Burgers.  It's an experience everyone should have at least once.  Seriously - what a hole!!  But, did you know it was featured on a Food Network show called "Diners and Dives"?  David was following directions on his GPS.  When they were almost at the restaurant, he was like, "Uh, I think my GPS is broken.  There's not a restaurant around here, right?" 

Ashley, Alison, Paige, Nicole, and Joshua enjoying the ambiance of Big Jud's.

But lo - what light through greasy diner breaks!  They make a mean burger!  Jenny, Dave and I all ordered behemoth burgers.When we saw them coming out of the kitchen Jenny said, "Ha!  Kelley!  Look at your burger!  It's huge!"  But  the waitress set it in front of her - it turned out to be her beast.  hee hee!  We also ate fries galore and pop, so we were stuffed by the time we left. 

Dig in, Jen!  Grandpa Smith's gotta get a picture of this!

A few minutes later, Josh started running on the benches and he knocked that poster hanging above Ashley on her head.

My burger.  The Mother Lode.  Ham, bacon, pastrami, mushrooms, onion rings.  It commands respect.

It was so fun to see Dave's family.  They are the most fun, laid back and loving people!  Jen just loved Bronson to death, even though he tried to poop all over her.  She wanted to sit by him at the restaurant and play with him all afternoon.  David and Josh are currently best friends.  Josh is pretty shy, but he latched on to Dave and they played dinosaurs for a long time together.  Dave is a good dinosaur player - way more fun than me!  Just ask Josh.  Ashley is getting so old!  She was the first grandchild in our family and I'd never loved anyone like I loved her when she was a baby! It was the closest thing I'd experienced to mother-love until I actually became a mother myself.  She's still adorable to me in every way!  Paige is about one month younger than Alison.  She had a blast playing with both of my little girls.  They were out in the yard and running through the house playing various make-believe games.  I tried to get a picture of them a couple of times, but they were either in the playhouse or too far back in the pasture.   You'll just have to believe me when I say they were cute. 

Meeting the animals. 

Josh and his new best friend, Uncle Dave.

Grandpa Smith was totally excited...

Ashley and Bronson.

They only stayed a few hours, but we had a lot of fun visiting with them.  It was fun to show them our animals, garden, and share our country life for a while.  Maybe some day we'll show our kids the big city where they live.