Our Annual Trek Out West

We missed our annual trek to Utah this past summer because we had a new baby.  So we decided to head out west for Thanksgiving.  We took a TON of photos and had a great time!  This is a little overview of our trip...

Leading up to our trip the twirls would pray "and thank you mom go to Utah, and dad go to Utah, and Siena go to Utah, and Jaide go to Utah, and Scarlett go to Utah, and baby Skye go to Utah... "  The flight went pretty well.  Thankfully Aunt Jami was still in town so we had plenty of adults to deal with potty breaks and bored kids.  Jake and I got new phones this summer, so I put a bunch of games on our old phones for the girls to play.

We spent most of our trip dealing with illness.  The girls had Hand Foot and Mouth.  Poor things.  They ate a lot of fruit squeezies.  There were lots of fevers, throw up, blisters on tongues, and sad little girls.  We had to cancel a lot of our plans and didn't get to see a lot of friends.  I got sick too, but I never needed my nebulizer - which is great for me during the Utah inversion.

We went to the Museum of Natural Curiosity with a few of the Bodens and Mom & Dad Glauser.

Grammy took the girls to Build-a-Bear for a Utah Souvenir.

Dad G came down for our adventure to the Bean Museum and eating at BYU.  We met James and Hailey on campus, Berlyn had never been to BYU before (that she could remember).  As we were going though the Bean Museum Jaide said "I want to go where the animals move."  haha!  We rode in the big elevator and Scarlett said "it's as big as a bedroom in here" so the girls proceeded to show me by lying down and pretending to sleep!

We went to Top Golf with the Wildes.  I'm terrible at golf!  But it was fun to hang out with Jenny and McClaine.

Temple trip with Mom & Dad Glauser.  So peaceful!  Then we went to an Escape Room called Leonardo’s Loot in Orem.  It was so fun!  We all have different specialties, we all contributed in different ways and had a blast!  

One of the best parts of our vacation was Carolyn and Matt's wedding!  We went to their wedding dinner in Ogden.  Then we threw Carolyn a bridal shower.

The girls had a blast playing at the Bodens!  It was so nice to have them go hang out with all their 

cousins and not have to help them with everything!  

We took the girls to visit Great-Grandma Seaver.  The played with dress-ups that I remember using as a kid!

Jake found a rocket kit at my parent's house, so he and the girls put it together and we launched it.  It landed over a fence and we never found it again.  Fun while it lasted I guess!  We launched it the last day, but Jake had my dad put the fuel in the rocket - didn't want to go through TSA with rocket fuel on his hands!

We went and fed ducks for a family outing.  Jake asked Scarlett "do you know why ducks don't get wet?"  She replied "cause their feathers are oily!"  We asked her how she knew that "cause you told me a long time ago."

Jake got to go on an adventure to Moab.  Dad Seaver and Dad Glauser went with him.  Just Jake and his two dads (hahaha!)  They had a blast rock crawling in the red desert.  While they were gone I got a two hour massage!  Afterwards the lady was like "your back is a lot worse than I thought it was."  Uhh, thanks?  haha!

Jake went on several other adventures in the mountains.  Several hikes by himself and some with the girls.  The mountains are so beautiful and majestic.  I can't explain it, but for the first few days we were back in town they kind of freaked me out!  I guess I forgot what it was like to live at the base of the rocky mountains.

We were lucky enough to eat Thanksgiving dinner twice.  The Seaver's had Thanksgiving dinner a week early.  Courtney was on her way to Boise and stayed with us for a few nights on her way.  I can't believe we haven't seen each other since the twirls were babies!  Our kids had so much fun hanging out - almost as much fun as their mamas!

After we all went to church Courtney asked Scarlett what Christmas songs they sang in primary.  Scarlett told us "we sang Angels We Have Heard On High and my eyes got water in them like I was going to cry."  She felt the spirit!  What a cutie!

We had Thanksgiving at Kandy's clubhouse.  It was a fun day of crafts, movies, great food, and family.  Look at Skye's squishy cheeks and lips when she fell asleep on me.

We had our second Thanksgiving up in Draper.  All my girls have "color names" and Mary's last name is White.  Mary said it was a wonderful holiday with the "Whites and the colored kids" haha!  Scarlett asked Heber "Have you seen Dr Who?"  haha!  How does she even know that show?

After dinner Mom and Dad Glauser planned a bunch of events.  Since we don't get to celebrate a lot of holidays with them we had and Easter Egg Hunt, a Cino De Mayo pinata, and a little Christmas celebrating.  Such a clever and cute idea!!!

Jake and I were driving back to my folk's and we were wondering if Kassidy lived close to my parents since she's at UVU.  Literally seconds later we saw a blond girl riding her bike towards us, it was Kassidy!!!!!  We rolled down the window and waved.  What are the chances that we would see her and right after talking about her!?!?

While we were in UT my mom had her friend Kelly take family pictures for us.  I loved the way they turned out!  I bought new shoes for this photo shoot at Shoe Carnival.  When I was there they asked a trivia question over the loud speaker (I guess that's the "carnival" part of the store).  They said "How many dots on a pair of dice?"  I just said 42!  I was right!  A pair of dice.  Whoo hoo.  They let me spin the wheel and I got a few extra bucks off.  Not a bad deal.

We had a ton of fun just hanging out.  

We played hard - and crashed hard too!

Skye became a pro at sitting up on her own while we were there.  She cried it out for naps.  She stopped napping in a swing.  She got her first tooth (Nov 22 bottom middle left) and second tooth (Nov 29 bottom middle right).  I guess all she wanted for Christmas was two front teeth!  Skye drank water from a sippy cup and even tried rice cereal for the first time.  As you can see from the photo, she didn't care for it and made herself throw up!  My dad had a really short hair cut and we discovered he and Skye have matching stork bites.  Skye had a blow out one day, and I didn't find out about til after Jake gave her a bath and cleaned her up.  He's a pro dad!

Skye likes hitting the bed with her arms when she lays down, even when she's falling asleep:

We were watching drone races on TV, Skye LOVED it:

Scarlett told Grammy "Michigan has a lot of moisture.  It's kind of dry here."

Jaide about Siena: "We are friends cause we are sisters."

Scarlett about twirls: "They have different faces so I can tell them apart."
Siena: "Baby Skye grabbed my rotor off my Blaze."

I was impressed with all the sentences and pictures that Scarlett wrote.  Those girls just LOVED the white board!  (Scarlett's Menu for Food - spelled phonetically)

My dad started his new job while we were out there.  He asked me to come by the office one day and discuss a new feature they were thinking of integrating.  I doubt they really needed my feedback, but it was fun to play grown up for a few hours, wear nice pants, and sit in a conference room.  Plus it was fun to see my dad in his new element.

I woke up in the middle of the night to nurse Skye.  Jake kind of sat up and asked me "Hey, did you already give your blood away?"  "What blood?"  "From last week."  Haha!!!   Sleepy boy!  It's funny how awake he seemed!

There were workers in my parent's backyard installing their new splash pad.  Scarlett told the guy in the white hat "you are handsome."  Then she told Berlyn "I want to marry that price."  haha!  Luckily the guy has a daughter her age, so he was very kind to her.  But so funny!  Since we've been back in Michigan I've heard her talk about him!  I wonder why she was so smitten with him!?  hahahaha!

Before we flew out to UT Siena told Jami - several times - that "Aunt Hailey has a baby in her tummy."  We told her no, and I was worried that she was going to say something and make Hailey feel bad.  But we found out when we got there that she really does have a baby in her tummy!!!!  YAY!!!  Baby Girl Seaver coming around Skye's first bday!

Random: It was fun to watch the election results come in and have the news cover our home county so much!  We live in Wayne County!

The flight home was great.  The girls were awesome.  Just a little bored toward the end, but really they did great.  We were back to 2 kids:1 adult ratio, so I'm glad it went well.  We're starting to see the light at the end of the loooong tunnel!  :-)

We miss all our UT peeps!  We can't wait to see you next year.  And this time I'm hoping we'll be well enough to see everyone on my list!  Too many wonderful people I want to hang out with!  There's never enough time.