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.

Three Months Old!

Granted, it was a month ago, but here's my three-month-old baby.

Three-Year-Old

Our little spot of sunshine turned three in May! This girl is something else. She lives up to her name with her ever-present sunny disposition. It is the hardest thing to discipline her. "That's okay! I love you!" "Aww, I forgive you!" Those are the phrases I hear when I try to scold her. She has the cutest grin, infectious laugh, and squeeky high-pitched voice when she's excited. Her favorite color is orange. She loves to squish Samson's cheeks, jump, ride her "motorcycle" (trike), play with her babies, watch Strawberry Shortcake, and cuddle her "Cokey." She's not a drug addict, she decided that the white polka dots on her blanket are coconuts, thus it is named Cokey. She is the most fearful child I've ever known--even afraid of ladybugs and roly polies. But at least she's not afraid of the sound of flushing toilets. (Okay, so in elementary school, I was in a combined K,1,2 class. When I was in 1st or 2nd grade, there was a girl in kindergarten who was afraid of the sound of flushing toilets. Because we were both Mormon, I got assigned as her bathroom buddy so that when she was finished, I'd have to flush the toilet for her after she left the bathroom and plugged her ears. Ridiculous!) Anyway, we love this girl to no end, even when she poops in her underwear and smiles back at me and says, "That's okay, Mom. I forgive you!" 

On her birthday, she wanted to wash dishes. I've actually been doing a good job keeping up on those lately, and she was disappointed in how few dishes I had for her to wash.

We had the sister missionaries over for dinner because Dancy typically isn't friends with kids. They're either too big and scare her, or small enough for her to be comfortable, but then she gets frustrated that they can't match her level of communication. (Dancy, 11-month-old Wyatt doesn't understand when you try to negotiate toys with him.)

Sister Atkins is English, and accustomed to eating everything (even french fries!) with a fork and knife. Dancy scolded her and told her to eat her chicken nuggets with her fingers. Also, her name is DAN-cy, not DAWN-cy!

Thora loved the nuggets and fries, too.

Tom and Katie love visiting with Sister Draney. Tommy challenged her to a thumb war.

Dancy requested orange cupcakes. I made orange creamsicle cupcakes, but apparently that wasn't quite right because the frosting wasn't orange. Sorry, Supergirl. Next year we'll do something awesome when I'm not breastfeeding.

Toddler quiz:

What's your name? Dancy
How old are you? 3
What's your favorite color? Orange. Mine favorite color is orange, Mommy Buh Bommy!
What's your favorite food? Strawberry
Who's your best friend? Levi
What's your favorite movie? The dinosaur one. (The Good Dinosaur)
What's your favorite song? I Am Like a Star
What's your favorite animal? Ummmm...in the dinosaur one, I love the best green dinosaur named...I don't know!
What are you scared of? I'm scared of animals.
What makes you happy? My cokienut

What do you want to be when you grow up? I want to be a missionary when I grow up.

What do you love to learn? I love to learn Calendar Songs!

What's your favorite book? My favorite book is Strawberry Shortcake book. But do we have Strawberry Shortcake book, Mom?

Firefighters

Oh, you know, just a normal night after dinner...

I don't know if any of these will work, but it was a feature on my phone to take a picture with the background sound. I'm testing it out to see how to use it.

 

They saved all the animals, took them to the hospital for stitches and band-aids, and all survived.

Baby Loves and Red Dresses

Thora can't get enough of her baby brother. Here they are a month ago, 19 months and 3 months old.

Kisses!

"Mom, little girls in red dresses like to spin."

I love having little girls in red dresses :) 

Josh and Addie

**I started writing this on June 8. That's how my month has been.**

Josh Hammond was one of our missionaries 2 years ago. Pretty much one of our favorites. I love this kid! I told his mom I adopted him.

He got married a few weeks ago and drove through here to visit after honeymooning in Nauvoo, Illinois. So we got to meet his new wife Addie. She's wonderful and I love her too. Shad missed out because he was at work and they couldn't stay longer because they had to get back to Omaha.

Katie and Sunny D decorated the three of us with stickers.

(Side note here: Observe the stack of bulk diaper boxes. Did you know that Sam's Club and Costco both ship diapers and wipes for free? Yep, it's pretty much the best.)

Eight-Legged Terrors

Wouldn't this just give you nightmares for weeks? I don't think I had nightmares, but I definitely shivered for weeks after seeing this spider on my three-year-old's face. And screamed when I walked up the stairs and caught sight of it.