Utah

I have a super spontaneous husband.  Last weekend, Saturday to be exact, I got a call from my sister, Jennifer.  She lives in Maine but had come out to Utah to visit a friend and was staying for a few weeks.  She was so close!  I was desperate to figure a way out to visit with her, my brother who lives in Utah and another brother who lives in Idaho.  I thought I could make the (almost 11 hour) drive all by myself...with all of the children.  But then my husband said: "Why don't we all just leave right now?"  It was 1:00pm Saturday afternoon.  By 2:30 pm we were in the car and on the road.  

It ended up taking us 12 hours to make the drive...traffic, potty breaks, food...the usual way-lays along the road.  We were pooped.  Chris and Annette opened their home up to our little brood and made us so comfortable.  The kids got to run a muck in the morning while Will and I slept in a little bit.  

"Uncle Chris is awesome!"  "Yhea, he has everything!"  Those were the words of my middle daughters when Will and I woke up.  Uncle Chris had built this super cool fort:

Uncle Chris restores WWII vehicles.  He has a garage full of tools and car parts.  Colter has just started falling in love with cars and he was in heaven in Uncle Chris's garage.  Uncle Chris even let Colter operate the lift.

Uncle Chris's house also had all the electronics a 10 year-old-boy could ever dream of.  Wyatt even had boy cousins to plug in with.

Utah, despite being a desert state, is not under any drought conditions.  So Uncle Chris (and all of his neighbors and the parks and the schools and, and, and...) had sprinklers running every day.  All this water made my children happy.  They ran in the sprinklers just about every night--and I sat there watching the extra water run down the sidewalk wondering: "Would it be weird if I got a bunch of empty milk jugs, filled them with the run-off and took them home to California?"

Uncle Caleb and all of his boys came down from Idaho on Monday and we spent the day visiting and playing with all the cousins.  We ate and talked and sat in the sun.  It was so beautiful and crazy and fun.  I loved every second of it...even the seconds where Colter only ate Oreo cream for dinner.

We took lots of obligatory group photos.  Not very many of them came out on my phone.  There were boatloads of cousins from all over the USA and siblings who don't see each other as often as they ought.  

So, that was going to be our weekend--short but oh so sweet.  After Uncle Caleb and Aunt Jenn left Monday night I worked on packing up our family for the drive home the next morning.  Clare and Adell kept asking why we couldn't stay at Uncle Chris's house for "a little bit longer".  "It could be our summer vacation!" they reasoned.  Chris and Annette assured us we would be welcome to stay--after all the 4th of July was at the end of the week.  Alas, we had to leave.  I stayed up way to late making sure we had all of our gear and we would be ready to leave in the morning.  Will was working while we were in Utah and as I crawled into bed he was still making phone calls and working on his computer.  After a couple of minutes Will said: "I think I am going to have to go down to San Diego tomorrow for the rest of the week."  Well, if he had to go I figured I might as well stay in Utah and spend a couple more days with my brother and his family.  

The next morning we got to tell our generous hosts we were sticking around.  They hid their disappointment well.  Clare and Adell were over the moon--their prayers had been answered!  I took Will to the airport (after having to pick up some emergency work clothes up at the Mall) and the kids and I spent the rest of the day doing laundry and enjoying the idea of sticking around for the rest of the week. 

Turns out front-load washing machines are just as entertaining as television.

The added time to our stay did take a toll on one of our children.  Colter found it difficult to get naps (read: he refused to sleep in a pack n' play as long as the sun was up).  So, by our fourth day in Utah he had a galactic level melt down.  He was throwing stuff around our room, tipping over chairs, pulling apart my purse.  He was in total destruction mode.  

He finally calmed down and ate a sleeve of crackers from kind, sweet, Aunt Annette who was organizing her pantry.  He just sat at her feet holding his hands out and she kept on dropping crackers in his hands.  Things were looking up.

After he ate all of those crackers he disappeared.  I went down to our room to check on him and I found him face down...fast asleep.  He just needed a little food and love from Aunt Annette.  

One day a thunder storm rolled it.  It was awesome.  We never get thunder storms in California--and we never get rain in the summer.  In fact, after running around in the afternoon shower, Clare said in total amazement: "It's raining, in summer!?!"

And then there was the 4th of July.  Will got back from San Diego the day before and we were all happy to have him "home".  Uncle Chris drives his WWII jeep in the town parade with some Veterans.  Lorien, Wyatt, Colter and I got to ride in the parade and throw out candy.  

After the parade we met up with Will's Dad and his new wife and walked around temple square.  

It was hot...and beautiful.

In Utah (I didn't know this...) you can basically set fire to just about anything that will explode right in your drive way.  We sat in the front yard and watched the neighbor's blow stuff up.  I put the little kids to bed and Will took the big kids over to another neighbor's house where they were blowing up really big stuff.  By then we had been in Utah for a week.  It was definitely time to go home.  

It really was such a nice trip.  When I was talking to Will on Saturday afternoon, trying to figure out if I would be crazy to drive across Nevada with all five kids or not one of the reasons I really wanted to go was for my kids to know a bit of my side of the family better.  We are so lucky to have some of Will's siblings living right here in California.  We see them frequently and my kids love them.  On my side of the family we don't have any one who lives near by.  And I am terrible at getting us all out to Maine for visits.  I always wish we saw more of my family.  And I do have a couple of brothers just on the other side of Nevada.  It isn't too far but we don't make the trip often enough.  Anyway, this trip was every thing I wanted it to be.  The kids had so much fun.  They got to know a couple of Aunts and Uncles on my side of the family (and totally fall in love with them).  My kids were loved and supported and shown a fabulous time.  I cried tears of joy leaving Utah after the week.  Not because I was leaving and wanted to be home (although that was nice) because I was so happy for the opportunity my kids got to get to know my siblings.

Thanks you Chris and Annette--for being amazing hosts.  Thank you Jennifer for making the trip west and giving me the kick in the pants I needed to get out to Utah.  And thank you Caleb for coming on down from Idaho to see us--with all of your kids too.  It was beyond lovely.