Adventures in Utah

The end of July and beginning of August found us back in Utah, traversing the state and catching up with family.

We began in Lake Powell with Jeffrey's family.



Maggie stayed with my parents, since I don't feel that houseboats are great destinations for precocious children who cannot obey rules. But, Mia was finally old enough to come along and really enjoyed it there. She spent the day in and out of the water, hiking, catching lizards, and tubing behind the boat.



Since she only has three cousins (my sister Erin's children), she was amazed to realize she has so many second-cousins (Jeffrey's cousins' children) with whom she loved playing.


Sarah, who is 12, was Mia's favorite cousin (note the matching hair-do's -- Mia was convinced that people may mistake them for twins!); in fact, Mia was trying to convince us yesterday that our new baby should be named Sarah after her "cousin."


It was fun to be in Lake Powell with the family.




Although I am looking forward to a trip when I am not pregnant, which somehow over the last 6 years have been the only summers when our schedules worked for us to join the family there. Some year, I will go AND feel good. Besides, then I will not spend the whole time being reminded by Jeffrey of all the things I should not do in my "condition." Honestly, I am surprised he let me hike up to the native american ruins with him this day!


We then spent some time with Jeffrey's family and visiting friends in Salt Lake. The kids loved going to some of their old play places, like Discovery Gateway, the Alpine Coaster in Park City, and, of course, Build-A-Bear with "Gama Joy."






Then, we took off to the other end of the state for a few days at Bear Lake with my family.



It seems increasingly rare that we get to visit with all of my family at once, so it was fun to be together for a few days. Mia and Maggie loved playing in the sand and water, but mostly being with their cousins, Jackson and Annie. Not seeing them regularly has been one of the hardest parts of moving for the girls!







My favorite moment at Bear Lake was watching Maggie try to catch a "big fish" with the Barbie fishing pole that Gama Joy had bought her. She put the float and line in the water by her feet and then walked around with it next to her calling, "Here fishies. Come here fishies. I gonna catch you and eat you for dinner. Come here big fishies." Needless to say, this technique was not very successful!

We also celebrated my mom's birthday at Bear Lake, spent time in the hot tub at night, and stayed up way to late playing games.


After Bear Lake, Jeffrey flew back home and Mia, Maggie and I stayed for another week at my parents. We enjoyed more visits with cousins, including swimming and Thanksgiving Point farm. (How hard is it to get four kids to hold still and all look at the camera for one picture? Clearly it is impossible.) Maggie loved jumping on the tramp, dancing to her Uncle Bobby's music, and having Auntie Ellie paint her nails. Mia loved doing all the things she has missed with her Nama, like buying beanie babies at Kohler's (because we have a shortage of stuffed animals at our home already!), singing in Primary, and drawing pictures. She also loved watching the Olympics every evening with her Papa. She learned to cheer from him, "Go Americans, go Americans!" whether or not the USA was participating in the sport she was watching. We also enjoyed the "Alpine Days" parade and activities at the park.





After several visits, Maggie decided she really liked her Great-grandma Tuttle.


In all, being with family for so long made it rather hard to come home for every one. Not to mention that too many late nights and constant activities left Mia and Maggie positively frazzled for the flight home (after I had forced Jeffrey to do the solo-parent gig on the flight here and they were two little angels!). Maggie cried through security, and Mia cried on the first flight because they did not want to leave their family. This scene has been repeated multiple times since arriving at home when it has been time to go to bed.

We are now in grandparent detox mode and trying to get back onto any resemblance of a regular schedule before school starts next week. Let's just say we have had a lot of tough bedtimes recently. All in all, it is nice to be home and returning to a routine. We are grateful for so many fun times and memories with friends and family in Utah. Until the next visit....