Utah=Fail (crazy long post)

Well it wasn't all bad but it certainly wasn't the trip we were planning on. My mom and dad and sister were going to attend my brother Ben's concert in the Tabernacle in Salt Lake. I really wanted to go but Jesús wasn't able because of work and rafting. I really wanted to go and for my kids to experience the summers that I used to enjoy as a kid so I decided I would go with my mom. We drove to St. George on Sunday after church. Patrick had been telling me that he didn't want to go to Utah and I'm sure its because he didn't want to be in a car for so long. They did alright and they were both asleep by the time we got there at 10:30. Of course they both woke up when we got there so they could play with Ben who had waited up for us. Ben and Janae drove from Long Beach with Janae's grandma.
They left the next morning but we hung out in St. George for the day because we heard that the Memorial Day traffic would be a little stressful and we didn't want to force the kids to ride in the car for another 4 and a half to 5 hours. We planned out the day with fun stuff, like chocolate pudding.

We wanted to take the kids to do stuff they would enjoy so we went to Dinosaur Discovery at Johnson Farm. It was really cool to see all the dinosaur tracks but I think the kids got bored quickly.

This was my favorite part, they had this really long path of tracks that you could see where the dinosaur had walked.

Outside they had a large sandbox where the kids could dig to find their own dinosaur tracks.

Patrick wasn't able to focus on one spot long enough to find a track so I got in there and found one myself.

We had some Del Taco and the kids played on the toys

We went back to Moms for naps and Patrick and Elena got to play with their new dinosaurs

Then when it was dinner time we fed the kids at the house then Mom and I got Cafe Rio and we went to a park near the St. George temple and waited for it to get dark so we could see it all lit up.

We ended up swinging at the park until around 10pm! I felt like a bad mom keeping my kids up so late but it was so fun.

Tuesday we drove up to Provo and when we got there my cousin McKay and Uncle Matt were there to be with Grandpa so the kids got to play with McKay and her friend outside while they ate McDonalds. Then McKay left and Sara came by.We decided to go for a walk, the same walk that Sara and I used to take as kids when we would stay at Grandma and Grandpas house for a week. We would walk through "The maze" as we called it, which is just a little path along the back of Days Market along a few houses. Then we walked past Days where we used to buy fruit pies.

Then we walked to the park where used to play all the time. I remember it had 3 playgrounds and we would play at one then move on to the next one. There are only two now and they are extremely boring but the kids seemed to have fun.

On the walk home we passed my cousin Kims house and her son Connor was playing catch in the front yard with a friend so we sat and talked and the kids played with the football. I tried to get a picture of Patrick and Elena holding hands as we walked home but they let go as soon as I snapped the picture.

Later Whitney came and we walked to Days market with the kids to get some groceries and we ran into Aunt Helen. Then when we got back to Grandpas McKay was there so we got sit and chat and she tried to teach Patrick the old school clapping game.

That night Elena got really sick and couldnt keep anything down, not even water or juice. We barely got any sleep and she was so tired. Grandpa had gotten worse over the last few weeks so he was in a wheel chair and needed help getting up and down. Mom and I were pretty tired and I felt really bad for Patrick because we needed to stay with Grandpa and Elena but I wanted him to have fun.

He played with the old toys in the toy drawer that we used to play with all the time, but eventually that got really old.

My cousin Jessica came from Jackson Hole (I think thats where she lives) and Patrick had popcicles with her little girl Daisy and then they went next door and played and he was there all day having a blast. When I told him it was time to come home for dinner he cried and the rest of the time there he wanted to go over to Uncle Dougs house to play with Daisy and Cortland and Connor.

Elena just wanted to sleep in this chair the whole time wrapped up in a towel.

I did get this picture of she and Grandpa having a nap together. Its on my phone because I didn't want the flash of my camera to wake either of them up.

Wednesday night she slept much better after my Uncle Doug came over to give her a blessing.

And Thursday morning she was so much better, she got up before me and was running around and talking and laughing. So we decided to get out and we went with Ben and Janae and Sara to BYU campus to walk around and check out Sara's old haunts.
She took us to a science building with fish in it.

Ben took a turn pushing the stroller so he could get some practice for when they finally get the baby they have been waiting for. If you know of anyone putting a baby up for adoption, please think of them.

Patrick and Janae and Patricks red balloon. Patrick walked right into BYU and found balloons for sale and tried to blow one up so I ended up having to buy it. Both kids got a balloon and both lost their balloon the same way. Even though they cried it was still funny.

We found two pairs of Mallard ducks walking on campus, each pair had a male and a female. I told Patrick that our duck would someday look like one them depending on what ours was.

We spent a lot of time in this science building with all these cool experiments.

I of course had to get a picture of the "Y"

Elena was up sick again that night so I decided to take her to urgent care and while I waited for them to open I got this picture of Patrick and Grandpa having breakfast together.

The doctor at the urgent care said it was probably some type of food poisoning or stomach irritation and that it was most likely not contagious. I was worried about that because that night was Bens concert and I really wanted to go but I was afraid to leave her with anyone if she was going to get them sick. My awesome amazing beautiful stupendous cousin McKay offered to watch her even though she was sick and I was so relieved. So we drove the kids over to Uncle Matts so the kids, especially Patrick, could have the most amazing night of their lives.
We drove to get Sara and by the time we got to her apartment Mom was too sick to go. We had no choice but to leave her there and go get Dad in Salt lake.

We walked from Dads hotel up to temple square and met up with the Standifirds to watch the conference. We had amazing seats for watching the performance but they were wooden and tough on the bum for such a long concert. It was worth it though. Walking into the Tabernacle was an amazing experience. The sound in that room was amazing and during the performance we would hear a solo and it sounded like it was coming from someone right behind us.

The incredible Salt Lake temple

We went and picked up Mom and then went to pick up the kids. Patrick and an amazing time throwing water balloons out of the second story window and roasting marshmallows and going to get an Icee? He told me he and Max went but I'm not sure if he made that part up. And all the toys they had were old toys and Patrick was in heaven.

The next morning we got up and Dad and I made biscuits and gravy for everyone and then we played a dice game for all of Grandmas old things. It was hilarious.

Patrick got help from Max and scored this awesome hammer

I grabbed some jewelry for Elena

McKay got this Kimono and the package had a small one in it so she gave it to Patrick. He calls it his Ninja costume.

There were these weird stand things that we couldn't figure out what they were for but it turns out Grandma used to use them in church because her legs were short and she could put her feet on them so McKay and I tried them out.

Saturday night Mom was feeling a little better so we went over to Aunt Patty's to have a BBQ and for the kids to play with their second cousins. I used so love these chairs in Patty's kitchen, we would swing back and forth in them while we ate.

Sunday Mom and I decided it was time to go because we were so tired and it had been a long week. The kids loved playing on Grandmas organ which we used to love to do also. Patrick loved pushing all the knobs and buttons and he said it was his jet and he was getting ready to blast off.

We drove to St. George and the kids slept all the way so we didn't need to stop. Ben, Janae and Grandma Lynn had gotten there right before us so we played with them for a while. Ben and Patrick had a contest to see who could put the puzzle together fastest and Ben had to do it with his eyes closed.

Then we went to the store and back to Cafe Rio for some yummy food. And we watched Tangled because Grandma Lynn had never seen it. I caught a picture of the St. George sunset from Moms backyard.

The next morning we packed up and stopped a few places like downeast and the distribution center and we had a quick lunch at Jack in the box then we were on our way. The kids slept a while but when they woke up they were ready to be home. Even though it wasn't the week we expected, we did have fun but we missed Daddy and it was great to be home in our own beds.