Vacation 2016 Part 3: Utah fun with family

On Saturday after we picked Neil up from the airport, we headed to the mountains as a family. I was SO happy to have this time--it was seriously one of my favorite bits of the whole trip. We went up our beloved American Fork Canyon and the weather was just beautiful--cool and a tiny bit rainy. The views were heavenly and we were SOOOO happy to be together again!!!

 We managed to walk about 2.5 miles in an hour, which is a pretty quick clip when you're toting along little kids! Half the time the kids were running--we even had some whole-family running down the best steep bits, which was so fun. And I was so, so, so thrilled to see Neil, especially after the whole flight debacle (long story short--he arrived at the airport at about noon ET and got in at 1 PM MT the next day). I was pretty darn exhausted after my week of solo parenting and just so happy to have my partner and best friend back--this was the longest we've ever been apart.

At one point it started to rain and Luke was really upset, so I picked this giant leaf and told him it was an elf hat. He was 100% fine after that and wore the leaf for about 20 minutes until it got limp enough that it kept sliding off his head. 

Beautiful--I love these mountains so much! This is where Neil and I had our second date so it's always a special place for us. 

At one point I said to Neil, "You know, when we're home, I think, 'Oh, these woods are great! We don't need the mountains!' and then it takes about twenty seconds back here before I change my mind..."

Gorgeous snow-melt stream. It was so cold! 

After our hour was up, we drove back down the canyon to Neil's parents' house, where several of his brothers and sisters had gathered with various bits of their families--everyone is getting to the stage where they have lots of commitments, but we were super excited to see everyone who was available that day and really appreciated the effort everyone had made to see us! I was so glad his dad gathered everyone for this photo because I didn't take any pictures during dinner...too busy trying to keep Nathan alive. :-)

I took a couple of sneaky photos in church the next day because these kiddos are just so darn cute together...and I loved Caleb's kicked-back attitude chilling on Neil's lap. 

On Sunday evening we drove down to Nephi to meet up with his extended family at his grandfather's grave. I have no idea what happened to me in this picture--I was standing right next to Neil! All those tall nieces and nephews blocked me out, I guess--that's the problem with marrying into a family where the guys all top 6'5" or so. (Poor Nathan had the WORST time this evening--too many people who looked like clones of his daddy! He walked up to the group, looked around in disbelief at all the tall dark-haired men, and immediately started screaming for his daddy and did not leave Neil's arms for the next two hours. Poor kid had just found Neil again after a week and he was not about to lose his dad again!) But the other kids had an awesome time with cousins and second cousins while the adults caught up--there were a number of people we hadn't seen since our wedding so it was great to have this chance to reconnect!

The next day was Memorial Day--the guys got up at 6 AM and played basketball for a few hours, then we went for another hike in the canyon with Ruth, Jordan, Evelyn, and Caleb. We covered 4 miles over a trail that was pretty intense at times! I was so beat when we were done--my run that afternoon felt like the worst part of a marathon. :-(

But our route was SO gorgeous! Food for the soul. 

It was pretty awesome getting the kids over these "bridges" without getting soaked...

Apparently this was quite a popular riding trail! I think we passed more riders than hikers...and we definitely passed a lot of horse droppings! (My kids got really good on this trip at identifying horse/elk/buffalo droppings. Always good to know we're educating them on the important things.)

Starting to get a little tired...I was really impressed with how well the kids did! We played a few games to keep them going (Ruth and Evelyn had a very involved "You are Mulan! The Huns are coming!" thing going on for quite awhile). 

Cute Evelyn saw me taking photos and ran up to pose. Love this girl!

It was such a beautiful day--I'm so glad we were able to spend those hours in the mountains!

I didn't get any pictures later that evening, but we had a pretty splendiferous night--Jordan grilled up a bunch of yummy things, we made lots of delicious salads, and my cousin Richard, who I haven't seen in about a decade, came down from Salt Lake for the evening. It was SO fun to catch up with him--we were super close friends as teenagers (born six days apart) and I've missed him! We had a great time catching up and laughing over old memories. And then Rosalind and Chris returned from their adventures with Chris's family, so we got to spend the rest of the evening with everyone all together! I love my family SO much and it was such a treat to see so many of them! (Rosalind and Chris live in NC and were just visiting UT that weekend, which was a big motivator for me in coming out at this particular time! They are leaving for a year in Hong Kong next month so they will miss our family reunion in Florida this fall...sad for all of us, so I'm really glad we had this weekend together!)

Staycation 2014, or "let's make the best of things"

As I mentioned in my last post, we decided to take advantage of the fact that Neil took a few days off work & have an impromptu staycation (aka if we all stay in the house we'll go crazy & I am always much much happier when we are making fun memories rather than folding laundry and the like). 

So...we made a big list of things that we wanted to do and tried to cross off as many as we could. Most days we tried to time it so that I could have a couple of hours to rest in the afternoon, since I seemed to be okay for the morning and then abruptly crash about 2 pm with crazy nausea and vertigo. And we also tried to be outside as much as we could since that was another thing that really helped me to feel better (noise in an enclosed space was the worst! instant headaches and extreme nausea). And lots lots lots of physical exercise since that is my #1 way of self-medicating.
We kicked things off by making everyone furiously mad! Wednesday evening I really wanted to go for a walk in the woods, but I also wanted to go for a run. I suggested that we could go get ice cream (thanks again, summer reading program!) and that Neil could drive the kids to the park & I would meet them there, we'd grab ice cream, and then we'd go hit the woods. Except I was still feeling sort of vague/confused and never actually nailed this plan down with Neil, so we didn't have the ice cream coupons. I ran 4 miles to meet them and arrived feeling SO great (mostly because I caught up with and passed the high school men's cross-country team, which may have been one of the greatest moments of my adult life) and the kids were furious because nobody could find the ice cream coupons, and so we literally dragged the girls screaming into the woods (Jules tried to make a run for it and I chased after her and wound up with poison ivy all over my leg for the first time in decades!). Anyway, long story short, everybody cheered up within about five minutes and we had a lovely walk until we realized the mosquitoes were feasting happily, which is why everyone has awful mosquito bites in all the rest of the pictures.


On Thursday we started crossing off our list items. First thing: donuts. Lotsa lotsa donuts. And then the zoo! And then the train at the zoo! (And then home to collapse and I slept most of the rest of the day).

On Friday we headed south to a state park and hiked--it was absolutely glorious weather and so incredibly beautiful and cool and breezy. A bit too breezy, in fact, for Luke, who jumped into the river, completely soaked his little shorts, and ended up running through the woods in his undies the rest of the day (we hung his shorts to dry on the backpack, but...they were still sopping when we got in the car). It was an amazingly wonderful perfect day and I was so happy all day long.

not us swimming...all kinds of "stay-out-of-the-water" signs posted and my kids were pretty mad that I made them obey!

 We did this same hike back in May when we camped here, but this time we remembered to bring a camera AND we packed water sandals for everyone in addition to hiking shoes! (We probably spent half an hour every time we changed all our shoes, but oh well...)

I forgot to get a photo with the kids until we'd been hiking for six hours and we were almost back at the car...they did NOT want to pose! It reminded me of the photos of my family near Stonehenge...my sisters & I all look so miserable and furious at those parents who forced us to come to Europe--lots of folded arms and pouting and one kid (Elise maybe?) who isn't even in the pictures because she just flat-out refused and took off running through some crop circles or something like that (my poor parents--we were so awful on that trip! I remember at one point telling 7-year-old Rosalind that the fly paper hanging from the ceiling was the light pull and laughing when she got stuck to the nasty paper coated in flies. Yeah, I was 17). 

 The next day we went to our favorite Indian restaurant for lunch, stopped by our local children's museum (we were the only ones there! Sweet!) and the kids introduced Neil to the glories of the hurricane simulator (I stayed outside since I was already pretty queasy). We also swung by the fabric store and I got some really gorgeous yarn to knit a pouf ottoman--knitting is really soothing to me and I haven't done much of it lately. 

 Then I slept most of the afternoon and when I woke up we went on an 8-mile bike ride to get blizzards at Dairy Queen. I was so proud of the kids--it was NOT an easy ride (one of the biggest hills in our city is a good 2 miles of the ride!) and they were amazing!! We stopped at the playground afterwards. So fun and I really loved biking along in the twilight with the kiddos on our way back. 

Sunday was a hard day since we were inside for most of the day. I ended up having to leave church early because I was so sick--I spent most of the day in bed and Neil was Superman and made an awesome dinner and took care of everything with the kids.

Monday was the vacation-is-winding-down day...we spent the morning at the pediatrician's office doing physicals & vaccinations for three of the kids (although we have the world's best pediatrician so it's always fun to catch up with her--soooo different from the pediatricians we had in Utah/Michigan!). More resting in the afternoon and then we finally finally finally for the first time this summer went swimming--no photos, but it was absolutely wonderful. We hit the water park pretty late in the day and so most people left about an hour after we got there, and then we had a good two hours where it was practically empty (Abigail rode the water slides upwards of 40 times...there was no line and we just floated around on the lazy river watching her! Jules, Neil, and I rode the slides too but we didn't have quite Abigail's enthusiasm.

All in all it was a really delightful little break from our real lives and such a nice way to ease what could have been an incredibly difficult weekend. (And we even got an extension on our staycation when I had to call Neil to come home from work the next day & take Isaac back to the pediatrician with a crazy reaction to one of his vaccinations! Fortunately steroids and antibiotics restored him after 48 hours).

And I'm kind of in love with this photo...it makes me realize how much our family has grown since we did the same thing on the Brickyard!