Utah Trip week 3

Our final week in Utah was a bittersweet week. Anxious to be going back home soon and back to normal life, but sad to be leaving our families and friends again. We were lucky enough to be in Utah the same time that one of the missionaries from our area was coming home. We were able to attend his homecoming and visit with him and his family. Living outside of Utah has had its perks. We've been able to have the missionaries over for dinner and Milan has been able to go on splits with them. I think it's great for our boys to see the missionaries in action and hopefully it gets them excited to go on a mission one day.

Park City is always our favorite part of the vacation because that's when Milan is with us and the fun stuff really begins. We love going to the resort and riding the alpine slide, the mountain roller coaster, and the zip line. My favorite part of coarse is shopping at the outlet stores. I get to go without kids and have a little quiet time.

Milan's family was able to come up a few times to spend some time with us. Grandma is always so wonderful to help with Payton so we can go and enjoy the rides and to swim without her. Maybe by next year she will be a little easier to handle.

Another fun thing we love to do is go to the Jordanelle Reservoir. Milan's brother brought his boat up and we were able to spend some time with his family and have fun. The boys can't seem to get enough of each other.

To end the trip we drove home over 2 days which seemed to take forever, and we only had one incident. My brand new laptop, which is only a month old, got run over and ruined. No warranty, no insurance. I guess it wouldn't be a memorable trip unless something went wrong, and we definitely will remember this one.

Utah trip week 2

Week 2 was more about spending time with friends and seeing Milan's side of the family. I was able to get some shopping in and lunch dates with friends while the kids spent time with grandpa and grandma. The kids love spending time with them. Grandma is always teaching them something new, like playing the piano or crocheting. Carson really eats it up.

I got to spend an entire day with my sister, and for those of you who know my sister, know that this happens very rarely. She usually has so many things going on and is hardly ever home that even when I did live 5 minutes away from her I never saw her. So to actually spend an entire day with her was so amazing and so much fun. I wish we could do it all the time. I really miss my sister. This is a picture(from last summer) of me and my two sisters, Alesha(on the left) is a year older than me, and Annie (on the right) is 20 years younger than me(Yes, I am old enough to be her mother)
I am amazed at how lucky I am to have so many wonderful people in my life. It's hard to feel like I am on vacation when I am constantly running from place to place, but to be able to see these wonderful people in my life, it's well worth it. My cousin Brooke drove all way up from Vegas to see me, it was good to catch up on life and see her, but what a sacrifice to come just to spend a few hours with me.

Its always hard going back to Utah for visits. Part of me feels like I'm home again and I love being there and part of me feels like I don't belong anymore. Its always a mix of emotions and it really makes it hard to go visit. It also seems like no matter how long I am there, I never have enough time to see everyone I want to see or to do everything I want to do, so I am really sorry to those of you that we didn't get a chance to see or visit with. We really do have the best intentions in mind.


I had to say goodbye to my family this week and it's always hard to say goodbye to them. I only get to see them 2 times a year and its really hard because we are close. My dad has had some health problems this year and it's been hard not being close by to be there for him. The one thing that has helped me through those tough times is something he told me. Give service to someone who needs it, do it as if you were doing it for me. That has been some of the best advice he has ever given me. It has helped me grow is so many ways and has given me peace of mind when I couldn't be there with him.

The best part of this week, was Milan coming to be with us. He flew in Saturday morning and then we headed up to Park City for the rest of our vacation. Which is to come in week 3.......

Utah Trip week 1

To avoid a very long post I'm going to do this in parts. This post will be about our first week in Utah.

We spent our first week with Grandpa Craig and Grandma Lydia. Grandma Lydia always has fun things planned for the kids. She likes to do "Boot Camp" with all the grand kids. They all come the night before it starts and they sleep on cots in the basement and then she blows her whistle early in the morning to get them going. They have breakfast, do chores (grandma really benefits from this one), learning time, games, activities, and of coarse lots of fun. It's usually 2 days long, which is plenty.

The first day was Mexican Fiesta day, they learned Spanish words, ate Mexican food, played Mexican games, did Mexicans dances, you get the picture.

The second day was Circus day, they played games, practiced for their circus and then performed for my moms neighbors kids, and then my brother did a magic show for them. My kids could have done boot camp all week long.

My mom planned a little birthday party for Payton, since she wouldn't be able to celebrate her real birthday with her next month. Payton loved it, especially the cupcake.

Other than the two days of boot camp, my moms house is pretty quiet and relaxing. They don't have TV reception and I don't usually get cell phone reception so it makes it a great place to get away from all the hustle and bustle of everyday life. It helps that my mom loves to help with the kids and play with them so I can have a break.

At the end of the week, we of coarse had to fit in some friend time. Carson and Ethan love to see Colton and Kassidee every time we go to Utah and were anxious to spend as much time as they could together. They are so cute, every time they see each other its as if no time has passed and they just pick up where they left off.

After seeing friends, the Evans family got together for some fun at Pirate Island. Ethan loves pirates so this was heaven for him. They have games to play, a gift shop, and of coarse food. The waiters were dressed as pirates.

Friends of ours invited us to go to the Riverton fireworks and they were awesome. We don't really do things like that very often because its such a pain to drag the kids and then fight the crowds, but it was alot of fun.

That was alot longer than I thought it was going to be(it was even the condensed version), imagine if I had done the whole trip in one post, you'd be reading this for a while.

Stay tuned for week 2.....

Grandpa and Annie come to town

I was so excited to have my Dad and my little sister Annie come visit us in Texas. The flew in to help me drive back to Utah to visit for a few weeks. We had so much fun, but the best part was the expressions on my kids faces when they got here. They had no idea they were coming. I had Ethan with me when I picked them up at the airport and he was watching out the window and saw them walk by and turned to me and said, "that was weird". (meaning I think I just saw someone who looks like Annie and grandpa). Then they opened the back of the car and put their stuff in the back. He was was so confused, but so excited. Carson was at camp so when he got home and knocked at the door, I let Annie open it and he stood there just staring at her. Payton just stared at them for about 5 minutes not sure who these people were and why they were in the car with her, she has since warmed up to them.

I loved being able to show them around Dallas, I got to show my dad southfork (it was my moms favorite show back in the day) and take pictures to bring back to her. Here are some of the hightlights from our daytrips around town. Here are some random pictures of our sightseeing adventures to the wax museum, South Fork Ranch, the Holocaust Museum, and Dealy Plaza.






























Driving to Utah wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I was worried that Payton would cry the whole time or the boys would argue, but they were all really good. 3 days of being in the car, we are glad to be out of the car and visiting with family and friends.