We Went West

We went to Utah for Spring break.

We drove... and that is always an event in and of itself.

And it was a lot of driving in a short amount of time because we only stayed for a week.

But it was worth it because we were all ready to see some family, eat some Utah favorites, and be surrounded by something familiar after feeling a little uprooted for a couple of months. 

Plus there are TWO new babies in my family. Shelley and Lauren both have the sweetest, best smelling, cuddly little boys. 

This is Sawyer. He is an observant little cutie.

I realized when we hit the Iowa border that I had forgotten my camera. So except for some photos shot with Lauren's camera, it was all about the iPhone camera. So the quality... well, not so great. I have decided the iPhone does not do favors to my nose.  Oh well.

This is little teeny tiny Patrick. Walker LOVES babies! He really loves them. He could not get enough.

We went to the dinosaur museum with my brave sister Shelley who had a baby two weeks before, and her boys.

My mom took the kids for an afternoon and I went to downtown Salt Lake City to see the new City Creek Center that Utah was going crazy about. It was nice to have an afternoon alone. It is pretty. It is a mall. Maybe I don't love shopping as much anymore? Who am I kidding, I have just grown a fondness for online shopping. But it was fun to see Salt Lake hip hopping' again like it was when I was in high school. I worked downtown in high school. It was still a place to hang out. Weekends usually meant at least one trip to Salt Lake with friends. So I am glad to see some foot traffic in Salt Lake again. It has been a bit of a ghost town whenever I have visited in the middle of the day for the past decade.

Del worked the entire trip. I wish I were exaggerating. He woke up before the sun was up, and stopped late at night. He had to finish a vital project that ended up being more involved than he had planned. So I was glad when one day after he went out to work with reps and do interviews, he met me for dinner.

We had wood fired pizza at Settabello in Salt Lake.

Oh, and I was able to convince him to take some time to go see "Hunger Games" with my parents and his sister Renee and her husband.

We don't get a chance to visit family in the Spring very often. So we decided that because three of the kids have birthdays within a nine week span during these months, we would throw a big combined birthday get together to celebrate being with those we love.

We reserved space at Classic Skating and opened it up for family and friends to drop in for a spin around the rink.

Thank you, Thank you to all who came! We love you, and loved to see forty plus people that we love cruising around on roller skates!!

It really was so much fun!

Even Del's parents gave it a try. I was impressed.

My favorite part of the night... this PVC pipe "walker" for kids still learning to skate. At first Georgia needed help to steady it. But by the end of the night, she owned the floor with this thing. I loved watching her strong little legs push this thing around the rink. She did not hesitate for a second to get in there with all the teeny boppers and fancy skaters. She would come skating by and lift her hands off the bar to show us that she was getting better by the minute. When she wanted to stop, she would just crash it into the side of the rink and fall down. She had SOOO much fun. She talked about it the entire ride home, and keeps telling me that next time we go to Utah  we HAVE to go roller skating. The boys are pretty good. They skate at school for recess during the Winter.

I will post some video of her skating. Hopefully it will work.

The day before we came home, we visited my ninety one year old grandpa and grandma. I love them. Amazing examples, and admirable lives. Here is my grandpa reading the paper. He was struggling to hear me, so it was easier to just sit with him.

My wonderful sister Shelley does my Grandma's hair every Friday. Shelley will always have memories of hours of good advice from Grandma. I think it is so neat that she has done this for years. My grandma is a sharp, funny, and always observant lady. They are both great women.

Then we went to the new Children's Museum at the Family History Center, and Temple Square with my Mom and sister, and all the cousins. 

Then it was back in the car for the long drive to the Flatlands of Chicago.

Our kids really are troopers in the car. They do amazingly well for the length of the trip. They love to stop for the night at a hotel and swim in the pool. It is funny now, but at the time, it really hurt, when Wally accidentally bit Del on the rear end while pretending to be a shark in the water. Look out for those shark teeth!

Del and I are both incredibly blessed with strong, loving and involved families. We are so grateful for our parents, whose support we can feel from halfway across the country. We love them, and notice all the effort they make to keep in the loop from so far away. Thank you for having us, and for all the fun we had!!

Now we are back home, working on getting settled. We had some work done on our house while we were gone, and came home tired, and frustrated when we couldn't find things that were still in boxes that we needed for Monday morning. 

But... projects are exciting. So I am grateful! I will try to post some decent photos of the house soon. Although I am feeling a little like it is not much to shout about when it comes to inspired decor on my part. 

Trying to get my groove!!!

Home again, home again, jiggly, jig!