A Trip to Utah

Life is always fun when Jeff is home and the house is filled with music and playing outside.

Jeff's brilliant idea to bring two chairs to the piano.

We got a pair of too big soccer cleats, but Ryan loves to wear them and his "soccer" shirt and go kick the ball outside. 

My mom's brothers were having a reunion in Utah and I wanted to attend, but wasn't sure I could make the drive by myself. Diana was kind enough to come with us and we had a wonderful time! The kids did amazing on the 8 hour drive. They only watched dvd's the last hour and a half or so. We listened to music (thank you DJ Diana), books on tape, and who knows what else. The first 20 minutes into the trip Diana introduced the kids to the song "Geronimo" by Sheppard and that became their favorite. Along with various Coldplay songs. Diana tried to introduce other ones, but Lily is pretty picky and has a hard time accepting new music into her playlist. 

Within the first hour Lily threw up (no more nilla wafers or fruity snacks for her after that), but Diana and I remained very calm, cleaned it up, and went on our way. 

A beautiful drive

All the kids wanted to sit with Diana at Subway. 

"The good dinosaur" as he became known, at Little America. 

Max had a much needed playground break and he was thrilled.

The kids were so happy to "finally" arrive at a destination and be able to run around! I'm glad we made this stop before going to our hotel, I don't think they would have lasted much longer. 

Loving the fountain outsides of the conference center. 

The conference center. 

The Christus in the Visitor's Center.

A beautiful day for the temple!

Showing the kids where the prophet and apostles will speak in a few days. They were sad to not be able to go down front. But it was wonderful to have them see it "for real life" so they were more familiar with it on tv. 

Upon seeing the Christus, Lily immediately went to touch His feet. 

Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery receiving the Melchizedek Priesthood from Peter, James, and John.  The kids thought it was pretty cool.

Anytime there is a ledge to walk on, you will find Lily or Ryan there. 

So many pretty shots of the temple, the perfect day to see such lovely grounds. 

Did I mention these kids love fountains?

On the roof of the conference center. 

Oh look, another fountain. 

Joseph and Oliver receiving the Aaronic Priesthood from John the Baptist.

Lily and Nana on top of the conference center roof. 

We stayed at Thanksgiving Point in a room joining my parents. Lily slept on their couch fold out bed and Ryan slept in my room. When my mom showed them how the bed folded out of the couch, they were in awe. They were so excited to tell people about the magic couch and how it worked. 

Pap and the kids, and Ryan and his car.

My mom had a bunch of cars that Ryan immediately played with and could not part, even for sleep. So he put them in his bed and lined them up, happily looking at them until he finally fell asleep. 

Friday we went back to Salt Lake to the church museum. Ryan had a bit of a rough go with it, but we still enjoyed it a lot. It had just opened after a renovation and it looks wonderful.

The gold plates!

Lily and Ryan would have been great at making a fire. 

Thank you museums that have a kids section, I love you. 

This depicts the Savior's life starting with the nativity and you can see the thorns at the bottom....a sort of marble run. 

There was a cool art exhibit going on with a lot of really wonderful paintings. Diana took a lot of pictures, but I just chose a few for the blog. But I could have spent a lot longer looking around, there are some very talented people in the world. 

Lily giving a talk at the conference pulpit. 

Lily and Joseph Smith. 

Lily and Angel Moroni.

After the church history museum we met Darin, Rachel, Wesley, my mom and dad, and Christian Hansen at Lora Cook's for lunch. We had a wonderful time visiting and catching up. Lora and Ben have done so much on renovating their home and it's stunning. It was neat to be able to see again all the hard work they have done. 

After that we headed down the street to see Michael (I also stopped in to say hello to Ben Cook since his office is in the Wilk) and get ice cream and pay a visit to the book store. I didn't realize it was parents weekend so it was a bit busy in there. 

Posing with Cosmo on the steps. 

No, Michael is not that hungry, he's holding Diana's ice cream too.  

Book store fun.  

Thank you Lily for always trying to get Ryan to look at the camera. 

Michael kept Ryan occupied by organizing the stuffed animals.

Just strolling around campus. 

The new life science 

Ryan was so excited to finally find a sloped hill to roll his car down. Unfortunately this wasn't very steep, so the car didn't go far.

Michael has a bad habit of collecting glasses. He kept those kids so entertained on our drive from Provo to American Fork. 

This is the view from the front door of Uncle Will's house.

At Uncle Will's home where my mom and all 5 of her brothers shared stories and lessons from Grandma Winder. The previous day they had gone to Leota and Vernal to see where Grandma grew up. It was a long day of driving, but she said they had such a wonderful time. 

One of my favorite stories shared was by Uncle Don. He said that it was so important for Grandma and Grandpa to have all their kids serve missions and graduate from college. While my mom was on her mission and another brother on his, the bishop said perhaps they should wait a little bit before sending a third missionary out since it would be so expensive (this was before the mission prices were equalized). My grandparents said it isn't a matter of money, it's a matter of faith. So they moved forward. Shortly after, my mom's college roommate's family sent money to finish paying off the last 6 months of my mom's mission. Don got really emotional as he shared this and I love hearing how faithful and full of faith my grandparents were. Such amazing examples to me. At the end my dad paid a very nice tribute to my mom and her family and how they may not have been rich as to the world (my mom didn't even have a bathroom in her house until she was 6), but they were rich in all the important things. I was so happy to be there and Diana, Michael, and Sarah played with the kids downstairs so I could enjoy talking with family and enjoying the spirit and memories. I felt very blessed.

Lily listening to stories on Granny Dot's lap. 

Uncle Gene. 

Uncle Will offered for us to watch General Conference at his house and I wasn't sure how much we'd actually get to watch. But Max slept for the first session and Lily and Ryan played most of the time in the play room, it was amazing!

I had to come and check every so often to make sure she hadn't missed any subjects. 

Sarah brought some conference paperwork for Lily and she dutifully colored and checked off each subject when it was mentioned.

Look who got to go to conference!

Uncle Will wanted the kids to pick raspberries. Lily and Ryan like to pick, but not eat. Whereas Max knew just what to do...he picked those raspberries and eagerly stuck them in his mouth. 

Max even ate most of a yellow pepper. He's our little garden fresh boy. 

Still eating with Uncle Will. 

Ryan was so happy when Aunt Linda moved the slide so he could get up on the trampoline by himself. 

Always a highlight when we got to Utah is seeing Darin, Rachel, and Wesley. Max was pretty enthralled with Wesley, especially because he had the same pacifier and we had lost Max's pacifier.  

Ryan loved his special mug he got to use. 

Hugging that Superman bear tight. 

Lily had a hard time saying goodbye to these fuzzy friends, if it's pink she kind of thinks it should belong to her. 

Such a cute little family Darin and Rachel have. They are always so warm and  kind and a pleasure to visit. 

Diana humored me by letting us drive by my old house. I loved growing up here!

The kids got bored waiting for their food. 

But were very happy when they got their ice cream treat. 

Jeff told us you have to get ice cream at Little America, it's tradition. 

This is the face of a boy who loves his ice cream. 

This is how Lily fell asleep. 

We made it home without too much incident and the kids traveled wonderfully again. We were able to listen to the first session of conference, but then the reception wasn't very good and the kids wanted something a little more lively. Jeff made some food for us and was very helpful when we got home. Even though it's great to see other places and the kids really loved going to Utah, there's no place like home. Especially for Max, he pretty much hated sleeping in the crib in the hotel closet, so I think he was most grateful. 

Happy to be with Daddy again. 

Diana is so cute. While waiting to go Monday morning, she drew a picture for the kids and emptied the dishwasher.