First Week in Utah

I have three siblings and their families who live in Utah.  I was so lucky to get to see them earlier this month.  Andy's family had a family reunion at Aspen Grove, so the boys and I flew out a week before to visit my family.

As always, I get really nervous to fly with my boys without Andy, but we decided to go for it.  Everything went really smoothly on our way to Utah.  We debated whether or not to check a bag and in the end decided it would be worth it to pay the fee and have an easier time getting through the airports for me.  We had to check the car seats anyways, so we got to the airport nice and early.

The first great thing about the trip to Utah was we flew from the Toledo airport, which is way closer to us than Detroit, which is our usual airport to fly from because tickets are generally so much cheaper.  One downside to flying from Toledo is it is a much smaller airport, so when we showed up around 6 am to check bags/car seats, nobody was at the counter yet!  We waited about 15 minutes, which wasn't too bad, until somebody came to the counter and started helping people out.  When it was our turn to check our bags I was pleasantly surprised that there was no charge on the bag!  Wahoo!!  It really made my day!  Apparently using the credit card miles to purchase the ticket gave us an upgraded status to eliminate charges to check bags.  Good to know!

We moved on to security, and everyone was kind and helpful with me and the boys.  I was so happy to hear that the boys didn't have to remove their shoes to go through security.  (Not that it's a huge thing, but the baby and I are getting bigger, so bending over to help Eli with his shoes is getting harder.)

After security we found our gate, and the next great thing we discovered was a play area to keep the boys occupied while we waited to board the plane.

It wasn't a big area, but it kept them happy, so I was grateful.  We boarded the plane, and it was little.  It had been a long time since I had been on such a tiny plane.  It had rows with one seat all alone on the right, and two seats on the left.  It worked perfectly for us to take up a row and each boy had a window seat.

I was glad we thought to have sweat shirts handy because it was cold on that airplane!  It was a quick flight, and the boys did great.  The last time we flew Abe screamed his head off during take-off.  This time he just reached across the aisle to hold my hand.  Eli held my other hand, and that was it.  No screaming.  How nice.

We connected in Chicago, and there wasn't much time between flights, so we walked as fast as Abe could go through the airport to our next gate.  Fortunately the gate wasn't that far away, and the flight before ours must have been a little late because we got to the gate and it should have been time to board, but people were still coming off the plane.  Perfect!

This plane was slightly larger with two seats per row in the main cabin, but I noticed that first class was two seats on one side and only one seat on the other side.  It was a pretty little plane.  We found our seats and I could tell Eli was getting tired.  It had been an early morning, so I wasn't surprised.  He fell asleep shortly after take-off.  Abe was sweet enough to let Eli put his head in his lap.  It was really cute.  Abe watched The Emperor's New Groove, and I noticed that he kept giving Eli kisses on his forehead.  What a sweet boy!!

So the flights really went as smooth as they possibly could have.  We got the the baggage claim and within minutes we had all of our stuff.  Libby was kind enough to come pick us up.  (Thanks again Libby!!)

It was so fun to see Libby and meet her new baby, Vincent!  What a cutie!  I also met Ruth's youngest, Ian, for the first time.  He's one year old already!  So big!  Ruth's husband, Dan, was working from home for the afternoon, so it was great to get to see him right away.  Libby's husband Paul came over when he was done at work, so it was wonderful to see him again.  And after dinner my brother Ben, his wife Becca and their cute little boy, Trevor stopped by too.  It was also my first time to meet Trevor.  (So in one day I met three nephews for the first time!  So cool!)  It was so awesome to get to see the Utah crowd.  It had been over a year since I'd seen most of them, so it was a happy reunion.  Everyone seems like they are doing really well.

There are no spouses pictured, but here are the siblings and cousins that were in Utah that week.

Abe and Eli were nervous to be around so many unfamiliar faces, but in no time they warmed up to everyone.  We played in the kiddie pool and with the slip and slide a couple times, and Eli loved it!  Abe tried to keep mostly dry, but enjoyed himself.

Allie and Eli were the only kids willing to try the slip and slide.  They both slipped a lot.

One afternoon we played a game that I often play with Eli where I give him an emotion and he makes a facial expression to match.  We took pictures and the kids had a blast:

Thoughtful.

Happy!

Happy!

Surprised!

Fish Face!

Suspicious.

Happy!

Angry!

Angry?

Happy!

(Wow, for some reason, I am finding it impossible to place these pictures exactly where I want them so this will have to do.)

Ruth and Dan live close to a park, so we walked there a few times to let the kids run around and get out some energy.

He made it up to the top without any help!

There is this great little dinosaur museum not too far away that we visited that the kids loved.

Oh, here's one of the few pictures of me for proof that I was there too:

Andy came into town Friday afternoon, and we were all so thrilled to see him!  The boys went crazy!  We went to our favorite restaurant in the world: Cafe Rio.  Libby was thoughtful and took a family photo for us.
 

Abe and Eli playing around while waiting at Cafe Rio.

Our little family.

Oh, silly boys!

I wish I had taken more pictures of our week together.  We read lots of books and baked bread and muffins and I learned how to make tortillas too.  (I'd love to get a tortilla press!)  Ruth even humored me and we exercised almost every day and I was able to fit in several hours of data entry work too.  It was a wonderful week and it went by very fast.

For the most part the kids played together really well.  After a few days they had a harder time and Eli bit Grady a few times and Allie too...  What is with that boy?  I was so frustrated with him.

I am grateful that Ruth and Dan were willing to have us over for so long, and that Libby, Paul, Ben and Becca (and their babies) were able to visit us as much as they did.

I love visiting Utah, and I look forward to the next chance that I get to go out there.  We had fun with my family and it led really well into our family reunion with Andy's family the following week.  But it's past my bedtime, so I'll have to write about that later.