Utah Trip

Shad's grandma Shirley died the morning of Sunday, May 29. We got the text from Shad's mom around 7:30, and we were out the door 3 hours later to drive the 11.5 hours straight to Utah. The trip went surprisingly smooth and fast, considering it being a spontaneous all-day road trip with 5 kids under the age of 6.

We stopped at a pan-asian restaurant in Rock Springs, Wyoming, and they had egg tarts on the menu! I haven't been able to find them since I was in China! Shad and the kids all tried some, but didn't like them. More for me, and my mouth was in heaven!

Don't you just love it when babies fall asleep flipping the world off? I do.

Most of the family got together to go out for breakfast Tuesday morning. I stole these pictures from Aunt Teresa's facebook page. It's nice to have pictures and not be solely responsible for taking them :)

Teresa's little buddy. These two love each other so much!

Pris (Shad's mom) and her brother Brad holding Samson and Thora, respectively. 

We went to Wheeler Historic Farm in Salt Lake City. That was a fun, free activity! We got to see loads of animals: horses, cows, goats, chickens, roosters--we're familiar with those--and ducks and sheep--not so familiar to those. Our kids always love feeding ducks when we go other places. Tommy asked someone with a bag of bread if they might share with us, and they kindly did. This activity was a spontaneous thing, otherwise we'd have come prepared.

We took a tractor ride tour of the farm.

Samson eats man-flesh.

Dancy told the tractor driver, "Thanks! You're nicer than I am!" Shad and I died laughing.

Thursday Shad, Dan, cousins, Pris and her brothers spent the whole day going through stuff in the house. They spent several days that week cleaning the house out. Grandma never got rid of anything after Grandpa died 4 years ago, and those two lived in the house for 50 years. And they're from the Depression Era. So there was A LOT...I'm an editor, surely I can find better words to use...there were walls lined with bookshelves and filing cabinets; tool boxes stacked on tool boxes stacked on tool boxes; floor to ceiling, wall to wall wood boxes in the garage packed with yarn--countless blues, yellows, greens, purples, all labelled on the door of the cabinet; Grandma's sewing room; Grandpa's workshop; etc, etc, etc. But the amazing thing was that this home was not some creepy be-careful-where-you-walk-watch-out-for-the-stack-of-1962-newspapers house. Everything was meticulously kept and organized, the home was clean and clear. It was all just tucked away in every nook and cranny.

After an entire day of that (where was I? On my own at Temple Square with 5 kids. That's its own post...), we had a barbeque in a park near the house. Pictures are, again, stolen from Aunt Teresa.

Shad and Samson

Ryan and Tommy, Greg, Pris, Thora

Thora

Left to right: Stacey holding Braxton, Ken (Aimme's husband), Katie, me, Pris, Thora, Tommy, Katie, Ryan, Dan, Dennis, Aimme, Deena's legs.

Tommy, Shad and Ryan

Shad and Samson, Stacey and Braxton, Ken, me, Pris

Greg, Pris, Arielle, Stacey, Thora, Samson, me, Katie, Aimme

Dancy

Samson and Dan

Katie rolling down the hill...because she loves that this year.

We stayed at my aunt Suzanne's house in American Fork. She was amazing for letting us stay so last minute and while she was preparing to go to NYC with her oldest daughter two days after we left her house. But I pretty much never took pictures. Except for these two kids. My 8? 9? year old cousin Drew was best buddies with Thora. He'd carry her around the house (yep, didn't get a picture of that one), and fed her dinner one night when she wasn't feeling like it herself. That right there is just amazing because Thora was (and is) in the "Don't you try to feed me, I can do it myself!" stage of one-year-old-ness. But for Drew, anything.

And he taught her finger guns! Such enthusiasm and fun!

We returned home Sunday morning...or rather, we left Utah Sunday morning, arrived home at 1 am. Ick. We spent the whole week recovering. Anyway, this post should serve as a broad overview of the trip. See further posts for more details of activities. This trip was highly stressful and not so much vacation as business. But we enjoyed as much as we could and survived the rest.