Utah

This post is long overdue. In an attempt to get more sleep, I've put off blogging and now my trip is a week and a half in the past and still no pictures! So, here's a bit of a photo barrage.

I took the kids to Utah for a week long trip to visit friends and family. It was so much fun! We stayed at my mom's house, which meant lots of time with "Mimi" which they loved,




picking lots of apples from the apple trees,



and playing my old school original Nintendo.


We also got out my old toys and dolls and Christian fell in love with the doll which was my favorite as a little child. He carried her around everywhere, no matter how cumbersome it was. So cute!



We also got to spend some great time with Kelly's family playing in the swimming pool, playing in the backyard, and going out to dinner. We were so busy I hardly remembered to take any pictures! It is so much fun having grandparents and cousins around! Benjamin's prayer on the last day was, "Please help me not miss my cousins too much."





I also couldn't pass up the opportunity to take the kids to temple square. In fact, Benjamin asked to go there before I'd even suggested it. Sadly, Bella didn't want to go, so she stayed home and played tea party with Mimi and I took the boys to the temple. The thing Benjamin most wanted to do was see the Christus. It's been two years since he's seen it, but he remembered it vividly and asked the we please, please, please go there! So went there, and downstairs to the displays on the prophets, which he loved looking at, and then we had a picnic on the lawn overlooking the temple. We also got to see a family taking pictures after their sealing and Benjamin was so interested in them - all the family members in white, even the little kids in white shoes, and what they were doing. It was a great time all throughout that afternoon together to talk about Jesus and how wonderful it is to have temples so that we can be together forever as a family thanks to Him. We finished off the trip with a visit to Deseret Book to buy a couple quiet books for sacrament meeting because that's what it's all about right now really. :) I used to have such high ideals about sacrament meeting but being alone with three little kids every Sunday has lowered my expectations a great deal. Haven't stooped to bribery with candy yet, though. I do have some small standards left. :)





I also wanted to see the aquarium while we were there, since we don't have one in this area. It was a small place, but just right for kids and we got to go with my best friend and her daughter so it really doesn't get much better than that. I hate that the picture of them on the frog is a bit blurry because it was so cute - I was facing away and I hear, "Mom, take a picture of us!" and they'd all piled on the frog to pose. They had some really cool stuff there, such as penguins, a sting ray tank in which you could pet the sting ray and a pretend motor boat which you could "drive" while watching a video of local areas as if you were going through them. They also had a lady holding a tarantula who spent a long time showing the kids and answering their questions. That fascinated Benjamin. Seeing a woman hold one of those and not freak out was new to him. :)





All in all, it was a great trip and it flew by in a flash. Now we're back at school and back in the swing of things and the kids are already asking, "When are we going to go live with Mimi again?"