Utah Trip

After the last post, you must all think the trip was awful. But really, it was great. Here's a quick run down. We took few pictures and I don't think I have any with her grandparents :(

After our ugly flight, we slept a few hour until Kaela said it was time to be up. Then was when we saw Shannon and Karalee. Karalee drove up from Phoenix, with her HUGE dog Strider. Wow.

We then packed up the whole house to go camping! I had said that I didn't want anyone to be able to work and to keep ourselves busy and together, so this was our way of doing so. We camped up in the Uintas and Mill Hollow (?). I had forgotten how much hooplah goes into camping, but my parents are great sports to do it all for us. We set up our tents, started a fire and felt like we were in the great outdoors. We had a lot of fun - hiking, eating, sitting, talking and just being together. By the end though, we realized we were very near a mosquito nesting ground and were glad to get home out of the bugs.

Thursday we got back, showered and went to the temple open house in South Jordan. We saw a poor dad and toddler covered in throw-up just outside and we were grateful it wasn't us. Lee's parents surprised us that night by flying in.

Friday we invited ourselves to Aunt Susie's for breakfast, where we got to see Grandpa and Grandma Johnson, Dale and Sharon, and Aunt Susie. We had lots of fun. After that we all went back to my parents for a steak bbq fest. Kendall and Marci drove down special to see us and it was fun for all of us (except Kimberly) to be together.

By the end of this, I was thinking that our whole trip revolved around food! We ate and ate and ate. At every turn I saw somebody giving something to Kaela! "What was that?" "Just ice cream; see she loves it!" I think that girl had more cookies, cake, ice cream, jello, fruit, than she had ever had in such a few days. We're normally pretty scant on the treats, but with Aunts and grandmas trying to earn a toddler favor, anything seems to go.

Saturday we spend the day at Susie's with all Lee's family that came into town. Cousins, sister Coral, parents, grandparents. We had quite a crowd and quite a bit of fun. Dale, Sharon, Lee, Coral, Wade and I ditched a bit early and went over to Liberty Park - just to be together as a family for a while. We went on the rides: Kaela didn't get into it much, but Isaac just loved the Merry-Go-Round; the swings made me feel quite sick. And we played in the water area. It was just fun to be together.

Sunday was church and then out to my grandma's where all my family was getting together. We had hamburgers and home made ice cream and got to see family that I haven't seen and won't see for probably a long time again.

Monday came and we opted out of a trip to Provo and just stayed home. It was the first time we actually relaxed on our trip. There was no pressure of get up and go and do and see. We had a lot of fun just playing in my parent's big backyard. That night I got to see my childhood friend Karyn and her three kids and they are so adorable. Lee's parents came over one last time for FHE and we spent the evening talking.

Lee and I stayed up late to pack our stuff to wake up at 4:30 the next day to get on the plane home.

Vacationing is exhausting. In the outline I didn' t mention all the other time spent in shopping, talking, playing, photo shoots, eating again and again. The late nights, filled days and more made me wish we had stayed another week, but the tiredness upon arriving home made me glad to be back!