Utah trip 2018

 After surprising grandma last year we decided that we better do another Utah trip this summer. The kids loved it so much and realizing that I could do it by myself was a game changer. Shad is usually pretty busy in August trying to get ready for the school year, so that was a good time for us to go. We didn't get to spend as much time as last year as we had swimming lessons we had to stay for and school starting mid-August. However, we did get 10 days which was packed with lots of fun.

The drive out was pretty easy. We stopped in Omaha again and stayed with the Applegarth's. It only took about 8 hours off, but that made all of the difference. The next day was about 13 hours, but it was doable.

Of course we had to stop by Little America and see the dinosaur and get some ice cream...

Benny is still not a fan of heights. He didn't like being on top of that bison very much. 

 One morning we went to an awesome new park in Bountiful and met up with some of my high school friends and their kids. I love that we still stay in touch even after 15 years. I love all of these girls. It has been fun watching them all become moms. I have learned so much from them. This is only a handful of the kids that were there. I didn't count how many kids we have between us but I think it's at least over 20. Pretty crazy to think about!

Jack insisted on wearing his favorite cowboy hat from Grandma's house. I think he pretty much wore it for an entire week straight. 

One night we went and did some school shopping at Station Park in Farmington. The shopping wasn't the most exciting part though. I think they really liked being with their cousins Annie and Aliyah and hanging out with the princesses. However, we did get all of our school shopping done in one trip so that was a win!

We spent one afternoon at Grandma's house having a "Pinkalicious" tea party with all of the cousins. My cousin Liz was also in town from Seattle with her kids so her daughter Molly was there. She is close to Ruby's age. My mom, aunt Cheri, and Grandma planned it and it had so many fun details! Gracie now talks about having a tea party all of the time.

We also spent an afternoon at a splash pad in Salt Lake with some of our cousins. It was a super hot day.

We spent one day at Lagoon with Annie and Aliyah. We left Ruby with my aunt Cheri as I didn't think it would be worth it to take her. She probably wouldn't have wanted to ride anything anyway.
I debated about taking Benny, but I was so glad that I did. It was so fun to watch him enjoy all of the kiddie rides. I was glad that Jack was still short enough to ride all of the kiddie rides. It was so fun to watch them ride them together and call each other "best buddies". I think they are really going to like sharing a room together.

I couldn't really ride any rides except for the log flume, sky ride, and the carousel so I became the designated stroller watcher and photographer. This was part of our group going on rattlesnake rapids. It was a super hot day so I was a little jealous I couldn't go and get wet with them.

By far Benny, Jack, and Gracie's favorite ride was the little bumper cars. I think they rode them 10 times over and over again at one point. The ride operator got to know them pretty well. 

Gracie loved the ladybug drop. I was glad that Grandma still likes to ride the rides with the kids since I couldn't go on any with them.

We went and had lunch with Ruthie, Taylor, and Riley at Arctic Circle and then went to their neighborhood pool in Saratoga Springs. I didn't get any pictures at the pool as we didn't last very long. Ruby was super tired from the fun events of the week and threw a major tantrum so we had to leave a little earlier than we were planning. I think the kids still got a little bit of swimming in though. 

We spent an entire day up in Cache Valley. Aunt Cheri had arranged for us to learn more about our ancestors that lived up there. She compiled some history for us to read before we went up there and arranged for us to go see the home that the Smurthwaite (my Grandma Miller's side) lived in in a small town called Wellsville.

First we stopped by the cemetery in Wellsville and found the graves of the Smurthwaites and Browns.

We found the grave of one of my great grandma's, Mary Ann Wood Watt Brown who was the first woman baptized in the British Isles.

Sarah and Joshua Brown are my great, great grandparents who built the house in Wellsville. It started out as a log cabin and then was added onto by their daughter Maggie and son-in-law Alfred.

This is the Brown/Smurthwaite house and we got to go visit and have lunch in the backyard. It has had a lot of changes since it was first built. It started as a small log cabin and was built on by it's many owners. Now it is owned by the neighbors across the street who are renovating it to be a bed and breakfast. They were nice enough to let us use the kitchen and have a picnic in the backyard. It was fun to see a little piece of history and be there together as a family.

Grandma entertained the kids and blew big bubbles outside on the lawn.

While renovating the house the owners found the original log cabin underneath the walls. It was pretty cool to see. They said that they will try to keep at least a part of it exposed so that others can view it.

 Haken's absolute favorite part of this trip was being able to spend so much time with my cousin Grady. He slept over at his house and they spent a solid 2 days together playing baseball pretty much the whole time. My aunt Cristina said that when they weren't playing baseball they were making up logos for their imaginary baseball teams. I'm so glad to see them getting along so well. So many of his friends here are girls so I think he really likes having a guy that he can share his love for baseball. They really are best friends and are only a month apart.

They were being a little awkward in this picture as I told them that they needed to put their arms around each other and act like they liked each other. 11 year old boys are so funny.

While in Cache Valley we had to go check out our old house in "the circle" in Providence. We only lived there for 18 months but my kids loved that house and I did too. It had such an ideal set up for kids with the track in the backyard with lots of kids to play with all of the time.

I couldn't believe how much the trees we had planed grew up. When we planted them they were just barely taller than me. Now they tower over the kids. It's amazing what 3.5 years will do.

I was sad to see that the new owners had ripped out the flower beds along the patio that we put in and replaced it with grass. It made it a nice little secluded patio but maybe they didn't the up keep of the flowerbeds.

Shad flew in for our last weekend there to help me drive home. We spent our last day on the beach of Willard Bay with our friends the Burnhams and Mickelsons. They were our Alturus Lake buddies so it was fun to relive the good times and hang out at the beach with them all day. The Burnhams brought a floating island and two paddle boards so there was plenty of stuff for us to do.

Haken loved hanging out with Bodee again and Jack with Ian. I didn't even get pictures of them together because they were out in the lake playing together the entire day. It was so perfect. I miss hanging out with them.

Ruby has been one tired girl all week. She slept a bunch on the way home as I think we really wore her out, especially skipping naps so many of the days to do fun things.

The drive home was fast and great. I was so glad that Shad flew in so that we could do it all in one shot. However, I did end up having a little bit of swelling from sitting so long in the car. It's a good thing we aren't doing any more big trips this pregnancy. It really was a great trip though. I'm always glad when we can go and spend lots of time with family that we don't get to see often. 

Surprising Grandma

At the beginning of July my friend Monica had her sister come out to visit her from Utah. She drove across the country, by herself, with her 5 kids that are similar ages to to my kids. It got me thinking if I would ever dare do that on my own. I was feeling a longing to see my family in Utah but Shad didn't have any time left for vacations this summer. We hadn't seen my mom or grandparents since Thanksgiving in November and all of my other family since spring break in 2016. I was feeling really sad that their cousins were starting to forget who my kids were and most of them hadn't even met Ruby. So, I decided to play around with the idea and see if it would work to go to Utah for the first two weeks in August. We really had nothing going on and Shad was going to be so busy getting ready for the school year that he wouldn't be home very much anyway.

So, I decided we would surprise my mom and just show up on her doorstep. It was a crazy idea, but it actually ended up being, what I think will be, one of the most memorable experiences for my kids.

We left after sacrament meeting at the YSA branch because it was earlier than our own ward. We decided to make it to Omaha on Sunday night and stay with the Applegarth's who are the coordinators there. We drove about 8.5 hours got there about 9:00pm that night. The kids actually did really great. I decided from the very beginning that we would stop every few hours and everyone would run around. I tried to find rest stops that had playgrounds or lots of grass. I would set a timer and let them run around until it went off and then we would pile back into the car (after going potty of course). I also had surprises I would pull out every few hours when I could tell they needed something new. They were small things like a movie to watch, a treat, or a little toy. I was most surprised at how well Ruby did. She had her moments, but for the most part she was very pleasant and we only had a few suckers end up stuck all over her blanket by the end.

A nice lady at Arby's gave us kids meal toys even though we didn't buy kids meals.

It made my kids night and gave them something to play with for a while.

When we were eating dinner in Iowa on Sunday night I was worried that we had given away our location. My mom tried to facetime us and I thought it was because she had seen our location on friend finder. Turns out she doesn't even know what that is, she just wanted to talk to us. I didn't answer but I text her back and told her we would be at a friends house that night so we couldn't talk, but we could talk for FHE the next night.

She tried to call us again when we were about 30 minutes away from her house but I didn't answer. As we were getting off the freeway Haken said that this was the most excited he has ever been in his whole life! We got there at about 9:30pm. She had no idea we were coming and she was in complete shock.

We did a facebook live video of us surprising her, and so far it has 2,800 views! It turned out perfectly. She didn't suspect a thing and was shocked to see us. I was worried she was going to think something was fishy.

We stayed for two weeks. I had arranged for my mom to have some time off from the bridal store and on the days that she worked we went and hung out with some friends and the Anderson cousins.

I'm not very good at remembered the order of the events but here are some of the things that we did on our trip:

I had my cousin Amy's daughter Hallie watch the kids and I had a girls night out doing a painting class with my mom, Jenni, Megan, and Lisa. It was a little out of my comfort zone, but a lot of fun. Afterwards we got cheesecake at Cheesecake factory and ate it at Megan's house.

Finished product. I love how every one is just a little bit different.

Painting buddies! I kept comparing mine to hers.

I was dying when I saw Megan's face on this picture!

We went up to Grandma G.G.'s house and hung out after dinner. We hung out and had popscicles and rootbeer floats, which also resulted in a needed bath in Grandma's sink. After Benny saw Ruby in there, he starting taking his shirt off saying he needed a bath too.

We did school shopping with Grandma at Station Park in Farmington and had lunch.

We took Megan's dogs and her girls (Annie and Alia) to the Tanner dog park in Salt Lake city. It was fun to be with cousins again that we hadn't seen in a long time. The kids got really dirty and sweaty and loved every minute of it. It was actually quite the hike up afterwards. The downhill wasn't too bad. 

We also stayed the night at Brandon and Megan's new house in Murray and went to Wheeler Farm with them. Grandma even treated the kids to a ride in the "cow train." Afterwards we went and had lunch at a great burger and shake place (now I can't remember the name.) We hung out at their house afterwards and the kids played in the sprinklers....with a box. Not sure whose bright idea that was. It was a really hot day so it was nice to cool off.

Checking out Annie's bird Sammy

We had an afternoon with the Anderson cousins that were close. This was really only 3 families together (+Annie). I can't imagine what next summer is going to be like when we get all 6 of the Anderson families together. 25 cousins together is going to be madness! I'm always suprised at how well they get along and pick up right where they left off even when they don't see eachother for a year at a time.

We spent a day at Cam and Lisa's new house in Saratoga Springs. They have a neighborhood pool. The kids had a blast there. This is the first time that Ruby has met Ruthie. 

Lisa was the baby whisperer and put Ruby to sleep in the pool

Grandma was the best in the pool with all of kids.

We went up to North Ogden and met up with our northern Utah friends. I couldn't believe how many showed up! We had friends that we haven't seen in years! The Burnhams, Mickelsons, Hardy's, Norton's, Anderson's, and Redden's were all there. It was a great day and I think we made up half of the kids at the pool that day!

The Tremonton 8th ward crew.

Savannah became Gracie's best friend. 

Bodee and Haken. They haven't changed a bit.

Chloe and Haken. Awkward...

Janese and Emilee. Missed these girls.

We went to Lagoon with Grandma and all of the Evans cousins. They all have season passes, so they showed us which rides they like the best. We left Ruby and Benny with my cousin Amy so we didn't have to worry about them. We also brought our cousin Annie along who is living in Utah county for a while. She had never been to lagoon before! I was grateful she came because she hung out with Haken and Taylor riding all of the big rides while we took the little kids around. I rode on a few rides but I couldn't believe how sick I got after each one even after I had some motion sickness medicine! I'm not as young as I used to be! It was a long but really fun day. The kids did not want to leave.

Gracie hid during the entire ride of dracula's castle.
It's a good thing Grandma was there.

Gracie met a boy on her 20th ride on the bumper cars.
She chose to ride with him over Jack and Jack was so mad. Ha Ha!

Annie and Jack. Two peas in a pod.

One of Gracie's favorite rides. The ladybug drop.

Poor Alia was freezing after rattlesnack rapids.
It was a hot day so I was grateful to get wet.

Uncle B with his girls riding the Log flume.

Riding the screamer with Annie. This used to be
one of my favorite rides growing up. Now it just
makes me sick!

Annie's first time on the Rocket!

We went to a concert at the Brigham Young Park in Salt Lake City with Grandma and Grandpa GG. The group was Octapella.

We met up with my cousin Haylee at the park who lives in Bountiful. She just had her 4th baby. It was really fun to catch up with her and let the kids play.

Of course we did have a lot of down time at Grandma's house which meant lots of popscicles and games of monopoly!

It was an absolutely perfect (and exhausting) trip. I even enjoyed the drive out there with the 5 kids all by myself! I would do it all over again. I think the look on these kids faces and their grandparents say it all!

One of the best parts is that we kidnapped Grandma and took her home with us! She helped me drive through the night and make it back home with the kids! What a trooper! I think she is now a believer too in that being the right way to travel with kids as they sleep through the night. She stayed for the weekend and then headed home on an airplane. It was fun to get a few extra days with her, even though Benny ended up getting sick and throwing up when we got home. I was really grateful to have her there so that I could take care of him while she helped with the other kids. At least he didn't get sick on the way home!