Utah

While Eric was away in Ohio working hard, I took the kids out to Utah to pass the time. We had so much fun, I still can't believe three weeks is already over.

I was very nervous about flying. Lily can entertain herself fine, but Finn can't sit still for five minutes in church so why would he be able to sit for three hours on a plane? Luckily the plane was half empty, I mean half full, so Southwest let me bring on his car seat and we got a whole row to ourselves--on every flight going and coming. So lucky! So Finn slept almost the whole way because he inherited my motion=sleep disorder and was out until we landed. Lily took a pretty good nap too and so I actually got to relax and watch a movie for a little while. The only hiccup we had was right before take-off he threw up all over so I had to quickly clean it up and change his clothes before the flight attendants noticed that he was out of his seat.

The flight back Finn reqiured more maintenance. He didn't throw up, but stunk up his diaper right before take-off and so again I was frantically trying to complete a task before getting reprimanded for not having him in his seat. It is not easy to change a diaper on your lap. He didn't fall sleep until there was just an hour until landing, but entertained himself by climbing around his car seat and walking around the plane. Lily was just easy as usual.

                 

     

We first met up with my family to celebrate my brother Brett's graduation.

He finished his masters in accounting and is heading to London to work with Deloitte in a few months. I am so proud of him, when I think of Brett I normally picture him like this:

(Yes, we dressed Brett up in our Teddy Ruxpin's Santa costume...)

Who knew he would turn out so well?! Just kidding Brett, I always knew you were awesome!

We also got to hang out with my sister Melissa and her son Cooper. Cooper is a year younger than Lily, but already bigger than her. He is super cute and I know my kids had fun hanging out with him. I just wish they could play together more than once a year---we will have to do something about that Melissa.

After my family left, we headed down to the Stettler's and spent the rest of the time with them. Sherry had a whole week off from work, which was awesome. Lily really got attached to her Grandma Sherry. Which was great for me because Lily's favorite person at the time usually ends up being her personal servant as well. Now if I could just get Finn to favor her, then this trip could turn out to be a vacation for me.

Lily was also obsessed with her Aunt Candi and her cousin Meg. Once Meg came home from school, I wouldn't see Lily until bedtime. One night she didn't want to come home and had her first sleepover at their house.

Finn and Grandpa Gary were best buddies right off. Gary entertained Finn with turning on the fans and the lights, walking around the yard and of course the quickest way to Finn's heart--feeding him whatever he wants to eat. Finn learned a new word here, "Wow" and said it all the time.

The whole Stettler family sans Eric met up at the zoo. The kids loved it. Lily's favorite was the giraffe's. Finn's favorite was getting out of the stroller.

On Sunday, we celebrated Finn's birthday. His birthday wasn't until the next week, but Sherry was going to be out of town that week and my nephew Zeke would be having a birthday soon and was up visiting, so we just celebrated both of them together.

The next week was his real birthday. Even though we had celebrated it twice before, I still felt guilty not doing anything at all on his real birthday. So we all went to get ice cream and of course he loved it.

The next day we went down to my sister-in-law Holly's house. We were getting pictures of the kids taken near her house, so we just made a trip out of it. Lily kept up pretty well with the boys. Max and Zeke were so cute with her. My favorite was when Max was standing at the bottom of the slide trying to coax Lily in to sliding down with promises of catching her. So cute.

On the way back up to the Stettler's I got to have lunch with some of my old WCF friends. Lily didn't remember that I worked and I could see she was fascinated by the idea, so I took her to see inside the building. I think she was impressed, not so much with where I worked, but with a rock she found in the front landscaping. Finn just enjoyed the lunch because my friend Brenda just let him steal food off her plate. He usually enjoys other people's food much more than his own.

After lunch with WCF, we stopped by the Dicksons and had some yummy crêpes, made by Melinda. We got to meet the adorable little Charlie, who really is not so little. The girls hit it off and we had a lovely time. I miss those days we lived up the street from them.  Pools and parks all summer with them really spoiled us.

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Time just flew and here we are, back in Virginia. We had a great time, but as always, it's never long enough and there never is enough time to see everyone.