Family time in Utah and Idaho!!

After we left Glacier, we drove down through Rexburg (Neil drove, I graded midterms the entire 8 hours) and spent a blissful night at a local hotel (showers!!!). A huge shoutout to Neil because both of our hotel nights (in Helena and Rexburg) were scheduled partially so we could shower & resupply, but mostly so that I had lengthy access to Wifi for work, and he was pretty darn amazing about fielding the kids in one room while I worked nonstop in the other. He is such a good support to me and I was so appreciative of it on this trip, as always (today he made a fantastic dinner of seared chicken with mushrooms and artichokes served with a creamy dijon sauce on angel hair pasta--it was something we made all the time in college when we were first married and haven't made in at least a decade, so it was so nostalgic to eat it!!--while I worked on final grades. He also used every dish in the kitchen so now we know they're all clean!!)


We got the awesome treat of spending time with Neil's brother Caleb, his wife Juli, and five of their seven kids. It was so, so, so fun. I know I had pictures from it but I can't find them and I'm really bummed because I was careful to record exactly how much my kids all look like their doppelganger cousins! (Seriously--it's uncanny.) We spent the evening with them, had to tear the kids away to go back to our hotel, then had to double-check twice to make sure we had the right kids (I'm telling you--twins!). They are just the greatest and it was so fun to see them!The next morning I got up bright and early to go run a loop around the BYU-Idaho campus and the Rexburg temple (holy cow, the temple hill is LEGIT and my legs were trashed after hiking Sperry Chalet!)

The temple pictured above is Mt. Timpanogos, where we were married 18 years ago. It's closed due to COVID, but we were able to get a pretty good view and had a great time talking about it with the kids.

Anyway, after we left Rexburg we drove down into Utah and stopped in Ogden to have lunch with Neil's sister Tina, her husband Tim, and a couple of their kids and their new daughter-in-law. We had a fantastic time catching up with them and Matthew drank all the soda his little heart could ever desire!! It's been really fun to see the pictures of their cute new granddaughter especially after having had the chance to meet their daughter-in-law, and my kids were totally fascinated to hear Tim's discussion of the historically accurate musical instruments he's built (they always do the most amazing costumes every year too!). Tim has been a great resource to me in dealing with depression and anxiety and it was so so good to have the chance to see them on this trip. 

Then it was on to my sister Elise's house, where I was greeted by these two little faces and Pierce saying as I opened the door, "Hey Rachael, can I see your cut off finger?" I was laughing so hard! (Years and years ago an argument with one of my sisters ended in a partial pinkie amputation and this story is in family lore ending with AND THAT'S WHY YOU DON'T SLAM DOORS.)

Note Elise in the background laughing like crazy. 


We had such a good time with them soaking up new baby Hope and just enjoying regular life together. We grabbed sushi one day and met Paxton at his office to eat it, Elise & I took the kids on walks to different playgrounds around their neighborhood (basically it was like "hey kids let's go to the playground enjoy for five minutes because if someone else comes we are out of here!"), and Elise introduced me to the Wondrous Glory of the Peloton Bike. 

Fortunately lil Hoperkins didn't mind cuddling if I was sweaty! 

Pierce had a great time attacking "Emperor Abigail" (he is super super into Star Wars and somehow Abigail became Palpatine--she was such a good sport!). 

Matthew and Iris totally hit it off--this is a snippet from basically the cutest video ever. 

Iris wasn't sure about Neil at first but she gradually warmed up to him. I love this picture so much--Neil is pulling a classic Dad (like my dad) in standing behind the couch watching the movie but here's the thing, you can't talk to them or acknowledge their presence or they'll be like "oh I need to get on with whatever I'm supposed to be doing" but if you say nothing they will stand there FOREVER. Anyway...Iris was just gradually inching closer and closer to Neil and imitating him. Elise and I were sitting at the kitchen table watching the whole thing trying not to laugh. 

There was LOTS of worshipping at the altar of baby Hope. 

Luke in particular was really taken with Hope. He didn't want to hold her, but he always migrated over to where she was and would just sit in amazement looking at her. Occasionally he would retrieve a dropped toy or exclaim quietly under his breath, "look at her toes they are just so so tiny!!" 

Hard to believe she's crawling now! 

And Iris, queen of cuddling, made the most of having extra people around to hold her. I think I was doing crunches here and she just knew that the world would be better with Iris in my lap. 

Or on Abigail's back while Abs was catching up on her summer gym class. 

We left on the morning of the 4th of July (why do I not have a picture of the DELICIOUS trifle that we had for breakfast that morning?!) but Paxton, Lord of the Fireworks Forever and Ever Amen (my kids have seen a number of Paxton-curated fireworks shows and consider him the grandmaster thereof) gave us a fantastic sendoff the night before. 

And then it was time to leave and go back to Indiana so that Elise and I could continue our regular daily schedule of hours-long phone calls every single day. Woohoo!