we're going to NYC!

we're leaving on a plane to NYC today!

I surprised taylor on sunday night with tickets to Wicked on Broadway ON his actual birthday!
he's a pretty lucky boy to spend his birthday in NYC.

He's been dying to see Wicked on Broadway for awhile, so I think I "won" on this gift.

I am rushing to get everything done before we leave, but we could NOT be more excited!

our trip is jam packed with fun things.

follow me on instagram to see our adventures!!

peace out, utah!

improptu family pictures

on our last day in colorado, we realized we should probably take a family picture together with all 30+ of us together!

that idea suddenly turned into pictures that lasted for an hour--with every combination of pictures possible:

grandkids, grandkids with grandma, all girls, all boys, great grandkids, everyone with the letter "K," everyone named mark

(okay, I made up the "k" one, but the "mark" one was definitely for real)

the whole group picture wasn't on my camera, so I'll have to snag that one from someone later.

but look! it's my whole little immediate family!

when i'm with these people, i'm my happiest self.

and the wonderful woman and kids who started this whole mess!

and can we stop and look at how beautiful my mom is? geesh.

then I tried really hard to get a picture of me with all of my nephews and niece.

it didn't quite work out.

but man, these kiddos are my heart.

and it's really sad that they don't look happy to be taking this picture with me.

but also, let's talk about how awesome it is to be an aunt.

I get to play with them and then hand them over when they stink or start to cry.

^all of the great-grandkids right now are just from my siblings. but these boys and this girl are just too much.

^sisters! and if chris ever finds someone to marry him, we'll get a SIXTH! does life get more fun?

oh, and then this couple here:

didn't mean to wear the same color pants.

oh well.

i like this picture anyway.

hey family! i love you bunches!

colorado photo dump!

apparently I only blog in airport terminals now!

but oh my, how I wish I was back in beautiful colorado instead of this stinky terminal at the moment! 

look at that view!

the next couple of weeks are going to be CRAZY.

We will be flying to four different cities all before school starts in three weeks!

sacramento was a dream! 

I was actually there for business, but it was a huge perk spending time with my family while I was there.

but I can't tell you how excited I am to be reunited with my best friend tonight.

like i've mentioned before, we had SO much fun in colorado!

it helps when your family is straight incredible.

so here's a giant photo dump of some of our time in colorado!

my heart melted a million times watching taylor with my nieces and nephews.

our littles will have just about the sweetest dad ever.

a majority of the week consisted of us playing games.

we are a HUGE game family.

and my favorite game?

glow-in-the-dark capture the flag...in the middle of the night, in the middle of the forrest.

and I might have peed my pants from being so scared a few times...because how do you know if the noises you hear coming towards you are a bear or a person?

but no one was eaten by a bear during the game, so that was nice.

^oh, and blow darts with pvc pipes is just about the most fun thing you can do with a huge group of people and a huge group of trees^

^we learned this trip that our dad is a master frisbee thrower.  he tried to teach us girls for about an hour. we sucked. actually...marci caught on after awhile. but then I broke the frisbee. so there's that.

^is this not the most beautiful spot on earth? I think it might be where adam and eve's first baby was born. so much love in the air. you could feel it.

on our last night in colorado, all 30 of us headed to boulder.

we walked the cutest streets and then had mediocre pizza.

but hey. there were 30 of us. so the company definitely made up for the less-than-fantastic-pizza.

^almost all of us!

oh colorado, you were beautiful and serene and everything I want in life.

actually, right now, all I want is for my plane to arrive 30 mins early so that I can see my taylorray 30 mins early.

and also, if i'm wishing for things, maybe an in-n-out burger would be nice too?

xoxo

colorado is beautiful!

alright, I know.

It only took me a billion years to blog about colorado.

 but i haven't had a free second! it's been go-go-go.

and right now, I am sitting in an airport terminal on my way to my good ol' sacramento.

two weeks ago, we went to colorado for a masters family reunion (my mom's siblings).

we do it every three years--and holy cow, we are growing so big with all of the cousins getting married and having babies!

but us cousins have SO much fun together, and this trip was no exception!

(except for the small part when taylor got strep. ugh that really sucked. and NOW i'm sitting in the airport with a sore throat that i've had for three days now, and I'm so scared it's strep. it just keeps getting worse and worse--so insta care is on the schedule for today. awesome.)

taylor and I fell in LOVE with colorado.

it is so dang beautiful!

one of the days we were there, we all went horseback riding.

and it was one of the few days I whipped out my camera.

please drool with me over these pictures.

 ^the oldest davis sibling. she is so weird and crazy and beautiful and i just love her.^

^hey look, it's me taking a PEA in a national forest. get it? hahahah i'm dying.^

^my two favorite guys in the world. an incredible height difference, but their hearts are both pure gold!^

we went horseback riding in two separate groups since we had 30+ people.

and see those pretty rain clouds in the picture below?

when our group went out, we got stuck in the smack middle of those rain clouds.

a total downpour while we were riding.

it was so fun/funny/cold/miserable. ha!

oh, and here's me and my cute horse, pancake.

he was a gem.

taylor's horse was HUGE and sooo very naughty. haha!

don't let his cute smile fool you--he was still miserable at this point. it was the first day that he was actually on meds for his strep, but he was a champ the whole week!

ALSO.

I have a layover in pheonix right now.

and when i got off of the first flight, I looked at my watch and thought SHOOT.

I only have 20 minutes to get to the next terminal before my connecting flight leaves!

I BOOKED it to terminal D.

and why is terminal D so dang far!?

but I almost peed my pants because I had to go so bad.

so I stepped into a restroom and peed faster than ever.

then ran the rest of the way to terminal D.

and there was NO ONE at the gate!

and I was sure I missed my plane.

so I pulled out my phone to call taylor and then realized...DUH.

there is an hour difference here.

The flight doesn't leave for another hour.

HA!

but guess what?

that means I had time to blog!

basically I'm really excited to see my family again.

even though my throat kills.

and I'm really hungry--so I think I'm going to go kill more time to find a snack.

happy tuesday, lovelies!

11 days ago was the 4th

oh hey!

i'm finally blogging about the 4th!

the last couple of weeks of summer have been one giant whirlwind of fun and adventure.

and we've still got a few more trips up our sleeve before the school year starts

(oh, p.s. last night marks my first "back to school nightmare" of the season)

taylor's family treats the 4th like christmas.

and taylor gets so giddy for the 4th--it's quite entertaining. ha

the morning starts by going to the balloon festival in provo.

we wake up much too early (5:30am), and go find the perfect spot on the field.

watching the hot air balloons fill up and take off never ceases to amaze me.

^and take a look at this sweet solo picture that our 8 year old neighbor snapped...ha! so attractive, right? I think this adequately expresses my feelings of being awake at 5 in the am.

after the balloons take off, all of the cousins gather together to play games, build human pyramids, and throw children into the air.

the rest of the day consists of the largest pool party known to man.

all of the neighbors, family, and anyone else in a 6 mile radius are at the gilberts for swimming, BBQ, and homemade ice cream.

my favorite part of the holiday was getting to spend it with my cute sister's family from sacramento.

i kind of sucked at getting pictures with her and my adorable nephews, but just know, they were there.

and hoorah for aerial fireworks now being legal in utah!

we got so many great firework shows sitting right on our front lawn, with fireworks just feet away from our faces!

oh, and of course we ended with sparklers and street fireworks--half of them being duds.

thanks, fireworks stand.

becoming a gilbert basically means I get two christmases.

the real christmas.

and then the 4th.

and who can complain about two christmases?

we finally are back from colorado--so I have some more exciting posts to come!

(we seriously fell in love with that state. and we are sooo tempted to move there.)

and hopefuulllly, I can become a regular blogger again ;)

you'd think I would blog more when I don't have a job for three months?

but, nope. sorry.

also, my cutest sister in law who I love with every bone in my body leaves for china today for six months.

i'm going to cry for about the next 10 days.

send me tissues and chocolate chip cookies, please?