Wednesday in Utah

Tuesday was a pretty low-key day.  Shad and I went to the Salt Lake temple, then spent the rest of the day at Suzanne's.  We ventured out to the grocery store, where Tom discovered that grocery carts exist with toddler cars on the front.  He climbed right on in with this girl.

 

 

We also went to a Goodwill.  Tommy started getting a bit fussy while we were there and so I made him sit in the cart.  A minute later I saw droopy eyelids.  I put my hands on his cheeks and he looked up at me and said, "To-y seepy."  What a sweet little thing!  He sure melts my heart.  I picked him up and stroked his forehead until he fell asleep in my arms.

 

 

After picking pears at Grandma Howes' house on Wednesday, we went up the inclines east of Salt Lake City that surround Eagle Ridge Golf Course (nearly killed our van!) to meet up with Shad's uncle Ross and aunt Nancy.  We toured their enormous, lavish home, and they pointed out the houses of Church General Authorities that they could see from their balcony--Uchtdorf, Bednar, Hales, Sheri Dew...Holland is in their ward.  Then we went down the mountain to El Matador for lunch.  Shad and Ross talked about what life was like growing up, and Nancy and I exchanged horror stories of kids leading other adults to believe that their mothers hit them. (On our way to Utah, Tom was covered in bruises and abrasions due to being a two year old who accidentally found a tree and the driveway with his face the day before.  I took him in to a gas station to walk around.  Holding my hand, he went to a corner and started yelling, "Ow! Ow! Ow!")

 

Tom liked standing on the back of Katie's high chair to give her kisses.

Katie loves the attention she gets from her Tom.

 

After lunch, we travelled north to Antelope Island.  It was much further than we had expected, having not done any research beforehand, and Callie was right--it really is an all day thing to do it right.  However, we still enjoyed what bit of it we saw.

 

Driving on the road out to the island.

 

Holy cow!  Okay, it's a buffalo outside the visitor's center.

 

Please click on the picture to see it enlarged, or you won't even see what it's showing!  There was a mass swarm of birds flying above the visitor's center.  A few people exiting advised that we run to better avoid bombings.

 

See that poop splattered window?  Well we did make it in and out unharmed.

 

The road from the island to the state.

 

Katie discovered her reflection.

Set the camera on timer on the top of the van.

 

Buffalo!

 

Buffalo butt.

 

We tried to walk across the beach to the lake, but it was way too much effort when our feet would sink into the sand this much and we were toting two kids with us.  We gave up.

 

After our failed attempt to reach the water.

 

Masonic temple we passed on the way to Primary Childrens' Hospital to see my cousin Marie and her 4 month old son, Walter.

 

Marie was off pumping when we got to her room at the hospital, so this is what the kids did while we waited for her.

 

Tom thinks it's fun to help Katie practice walking.

 

He also likes to give her piggy back rides.

He had so much energy to burn off that it was hard to keep him from running all up and down the halls of the Infant Unit.

We were so happy to get to visit Marie, who has essentially lived in the NICU since her son was born in April.  My NICU experience was miserable, and that was only 4 days alone.  Marie's husband has been away for school, and then moved to Washington to start a job, so she's been alone through much of this ordeal.  Walter was released two days later, so they now get to experience life at home.  In two weeks they'll go back to the hospital to make sure Wally is still doing well, and then be approved to go move to Washington and finally be together as a family again.