Utah Day 3 & 4 {Temple Square, Brother's, Zoo & Friends}

On Sunday we went to Sacrament meeting at my brother's Ward and then headed off to Temple square to meet up with Hubs' sisters. 

Mac for most of his life has been very resistant to anything church or gospel related up until about two or three months ago. So all of a sudden he has a thirst for gospel truths and reading scriptures and he seems to be grasping a lot of what we have been teaching him. It has been amazing to watch and to be able to teach him and help him recognize the spirit. And our visit to Temple square was amazing because of this. Mac really seemed to feel the spirit and the importance of where we were at. He loved the flowers and ooh-ed and aah-ed over all of them. We were at one fountain and he asked for a coin to throw in to make a wish. We didn't have one but daddy asked Mac what he would wish for if he did have one. Mac, without hesitation said, "I wish I could see Jesus." And daddy explained to him that he didn't have to wish for that, that if he followed the commandments and lived righteously that he would most definitely get to see Jesus someday. Through out all of our walking around he was fairly calm and very respectful which seems to be hard for him sometimes because he has a lot of energy and gets overly excited sometimes. He really loved the Visitor Center and when we went and saw the Christus and daddy asked him what it looked like when he looked up a Jesus, Mac said, "It looks like we are going in to heaven." Oh man I love this boy! He also really loved all the scripture videos and all the displays. Usually he is eager to jump from one thing to another without much thought, but not here. It was a very sweet experience to witness as his parents. Since Mac has been more receptive we have been trying to be much more vigilant with our family prayers and our family scripture reading and also teaching him how to apply gospel principles in our everyday life. 

After Temple Square we headed over with my brother Ryan and his family to my other brother's house. We had dinner and the guys played Bocci ball. While there, Oak got a bocci ball dropped on her head. Thankfully she was in a lacrosse net when it fell on her and the net seemed to take most of the blow. Other wise we would have been getting her stitches or staples. It left an nice red welt and lump. 

The next day we went to the zoo with my very-pregnant-with-twins-sister-in-law and her twin two year olds. (yes, they will have two sets of twins...under the age of three :)). It was a hot day and it was crazy busy at the zoo, but my kids loved it. 

Rhinos

They had some lego displays of animals. Mac really loved that!

Of course we had to get some ice cream.

My rockstar husband pushing our twin nephews with Mac on his shoulders and Oak's helping push the stroller! Talk about super-dad!

Later that night we went to visit our really good friends (from when we lived in Portland). They took us to dinner with their family for their daughter's ninth birthday. It was so fun to visit them and we so wish we were next door neighbors. 

Then we headed to Hubs' sister's house to stay the night because his sister and her one month old baby were coming home with us to spend a week in Oregon. We got up at 4 am and made pretty good time getting home by 7:30 that night. The kids were great, especially for not being able to get out and stretch their legs much because the whole trip it was cold and VERY windy. 

It was a great trip and we packed in a lot for our short four day visit. We can't wait to go back in June for a reunion/anniversary celebration with my siblings and parents. 

Utah Day 2 {Blessing}

So the whole reason for our trip was to be there for our new nephews baby blessing. It was Saturday afternoon and was beautiful and we were so glad that we were able to be there for it. 

Afterwards we went back to my sister-in-law's house and we spent the rest of the afternoon just hanging out with family. It was a really awesome day!

My beautiful sister-in-law. Sometimes it is hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that she is married with a baby because she was just barely ten when Hubs and I got married. She is an amazing mother and it really is a joy to see her taking care of her sweet baby boy.

Oak getting to hold baby C for the first time. My kids were so excited to finally meet him!

The weather was so beautiful! And of course the kids had to play Bocci ball with Uncle L. They love Uncle L!

Oak really enjoyed all the yummy food!

Pouting about something. Could that face be any cuter?!

All I got from Mac were silly faces when ever I pointed the camera at him. But look at those freckles and those EYES! Love him. This boy was too adorable for words while there. He loved Uncle L's family and sat on the couch with Uncle L's grandpa for hours just talking and drawing pictures for him and also did a bit of wrestling and taekwondo with Uncle L's dad. He also had all of Uncle L's friends in stitches with his jokes. This boy knows how to make friends!

Hubs lives for baby snuggles. He could sit on the couch for hours holding sleeping babies.

So precious!

This is part of Hubs' family that came. 

Later in the afternoon this little guys parents were taking a nap and every one else was trying to get him to smile and coo and we were all snapping pictures and taking videos like we were the paparazzi. He was just being too cute with his smiling and coos, we couldn't help ourselves. 

I was also able to take some family photos for them. I will have to post them as soon as I get them edited. 

Utah Day 1 {Manti}

We just got back from a some what quick trip to Utah. We went to be able to see our new nephew be blessed. But we ended up adding a couple more days to add a few more things into our trip. So we were there for four very full and fun days. And the weather was amazing!!

We decided to make the drive there in one day again. We left at 3 am and drove the whole day. We packed enough food that we didn't need to stop and eat breakfast and lunch and stopped enough to let the kids run and stretch their legs. We even stopped and had a picnic lunch at a rest stop. We did end up stopping to have dinner at a McDonald's about two hours from my brothers house. We did that so that the kids could play there and to hopefully get through the last two hours of our driving without much crying. It worked!

The next morning we woke up and headed to Manti to visit Hubs' Mission President. But before that we went to walk around the Manti Temple grounds. It is such a beautiful Temple. 

My new favorite picture! I think I might need to print this and frame it for each of their rooms.

Tried to get a picture with my kids and neither of them wanted to sit next to me. 

So it worked out so great to go see President Gillespie because Hubs was able to visit with a few guys from his mission who were coming over also to work on stuff for the mission reunion in Mexico (which sadly we won't be able to go to).  The kids and I stayed for a bit then we left Hubs there and we went back to my brother's house to eat dinner with them. And one of the guys (from his mission) brought him back to West Jordan. While we were there Hubs was able to help him take some debri to the compost place and then they stopped by the cemetery to visit his wife's grave. (She passed away last August). And the kids played in his yard and watered his flowers for him. President also made some amazing Lebonese food. And some super yum hummus, that he kindly gave me the recipe for. Also while we were there the kids found a bowl full of key chains from all over the world. And they loved looking at all of them and asking me where they are from. This has made Mac want to start his own key chain collection. I am so glad that we were able to make the time to visit him and that Hubs has kept in contact with him over the years.

As the kids and I were making the two hour trip back to my brother's house. The kids fell asleep and half way home, once we got back on the freeway, Oak woke up and her special bear (that she has to have to suck her thumb and sleep) had fallen and she woke up MAD. She screamed and cried and I couldn't reach it and I was on the freeway so I couldn't just stop and get it. She screamed and cried for about 30 minutes until we got off the freeway and were stopped at a light where I could jump out of my seat to grab it. It was crazy how upset she was about it. 

Getaway...

So I was totally lame and didn't take very many pictures. I took four on the whole trip, my bad!

Anyway...

A while ago, Hubs knew he would be attending a work related conference in Park City, Utah. He suggested I go with him as a little getaway. I have been looking forward to this for months. So for six whole days we left our kiddos in good hands (with my parents) and drove to Utah for a getaway with my cute man. I had been anxious for many weeks leading up to this vacation. I just don't like the idea of leaving my kids. At first I worried about them, then it turned into worrying about if something happened to us and our kids would be left without their parents. I just was finding alot to worry about. It was stressful, but once on the road I made myself stop worrying.

We left at 5:45 am Monday morning. We woke the kids up to say goodbye and give them a little goodbye gift as well as tell them that they had a little gift and note to open everyday while we were gone.

On the drive to Utah we stopped in Le Grande, Oregon where Hubs lived for 5 years as a child. We stopped by the house he lived in and I MADE him get out and stand in front of the house for a picture. 

We drove the whole freaking day and didn't get to Park City until 10:30pm. It was a long day, yikes!

We were lucky enough to stay at the Stein Erickson Lodge where the conference was at. Boy was it fancy! We drove up to Valet parking and they insisted on getting all our luggage out of the car and taking it to our room. We stayed in a nice, little room with a personal hot tub on our patio which we did take advantage of. It was so relaxing! 

When we woke up in the morning we went to find some breakfast and found this beautiful view at the lodge. The picture obviously does not due any justice to what we actually saw. It was breathtaking!!

When we found the lodge restaurant they sat us outside and this was the view from our table while we ate a delicious breakfast. Pretty sure you couldn't wipe the smile off my face at this moment. 

Just to the left out of the picture was the ski lifts taking mountain bikers to the top of the mountain. And we watched mountain bikers go down the trails which you can barely see in the middle of the picture.

This is what the balcony looked like where we were eating breakfast.

This place was so amazing. The only downfall was the altitude and dry air. Both Hubs and I were getting over head colds and add altitude and dry air, we both could hardly breath. 

But we really enjoyed our stay!

The rest of the trip included visiting one of my best friends in Layton and then staying with my brother and his family and getting to play with my adorable twin nephews who are just four months younger than Oak. We also went out to eat with my other brother and his family (the ones who were just in Oregon the week before) for my niece MaKenna's 14th birthday. And also we went to Provo to visit Hub's sister and her husband and had a nice visit with them. We ended up coming home a day earlier than originally planned, which we are so glad we did. Although we woke up at 3am (Utah time) to make it so we would get home at a decent time. 

I am so glad I went with Hubs and we got talk each other's head off and just enjoy each other's company. It was much needed and so worth every penny spent to make it happen.

Our kids were so happy to see us when we got home and they haven't punished us too much for being gone for so long. My favorite was Mac's never ending hugs and Oak telling me, "I so happy to see you Mama!"

I am so grateful to my awesome parents who sacrificed a whole week to take care of my kids at our house. They did an amazing job and I really didn't worry about them at all. Mac even got to go with his other grandparents to the lake house for a night and he had a blast.

HOME!

We are finally HOME! It feels so good to be out of the car!

Mac was great both driving to Utah and back home. He is now staying the night at Grandpa and Grandma's so that we can go to Portland in the morning, more driving ugh, but for a VERY good reason.

Details and pictures of everything coming some time this week. Along with catch up of all our trips before this.

Now for the unpacking, laundry and cleaning!