Monday
This morning was a little bumpy, not having your own space is challenging at times! But the girls recovered and the sister sandwich was proof that the love had returned. Today was EFY drop off day. We went to Provo and met up with Michelle, Marcus, Seth and Lovey on campus at BYU. Marcus and Joey got checked in to EFY, and we went to have lunch on campus, I tried Chick-fil-A - the frosted lemonade was really yummy. Joey and Marcus were officially dropped off after lunch. Then we spent a ridiculous amount of time in the BYU bookstore. We had ice cream at the creamery, and then we said goodbye to Thomas, Seth and Michelle and we took Lovey with us back to South Jordan. I drove past the Provo City Center Temple, but sadly being Monday, it was closed. I took a pic in front of the locked fence anyway.
Alice and Fiona picked out pictures of Jesus that they can keep in their rooms. Fiona is in love with the Salt Lake temple so she picked out a picture of that too. Kate got a Hello Kitty sporting a BYU shirt. And Alice got a BYU water bottle. It has a mist spray which I may or may not fully regret!
Tuesday Suzanne being the rockstar that she is granted me a shopping morning. I bought a new dress, a book and some other things. I enjoyed my morning out. After lunch I took the girls swimming again at the awesome pool in Herriman. It wasn't quite as awesome this visit. The pool really ripped up my feet so that isn't cool. The bigger pool was closed for routine maintenance so the smaller pool was more crowded, and because of crowding I noticed the obnoxious teenagers more. We definitely still had fun, but it wasn't quite as awesome as last time!
After dinner we were going to drive to the Canyon for our mountain play attempt number two. We were to meet Sally and her kids, and Jeremy and Autumn and their kids. But Jeremy and Autumn are going away on Thursday, and with so much to do asked if we could meet up at a park. And then poor Chelsea had a cough so Sally didn't come. As well that ends well, and even though none of the girls was happy about going to a park, everyone ended up having a really fun time.
Jeremy and Autumn's oldest kids - Saylor and Michael didn't come, but we had fun meeting and playing with Eowyn, Layla, and Avery.
Wednesday Salt Lake City day - yay! But first cute Ben!
The girls were a little obnoxious about going back up to Salt Lake. They figured, been there, done that. Suzanne and I informed them that they had hardly seen anything and that we were going to do fun stuff, so they reluctantly agreed to go - such stinkers! Our first stop was lunch at the Garden Restaurant in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. The food was so good, the buns, my drink, fried pickles, I shouldn't have ordered a main course!
We were going to go up to the observation deck at the Church Headquarters building, but Kate was really dizzy through most of lunch, so we thought perhaps we'd had enough heights. Instead we went to temple square to see the one visitor center that we hadn't seen.
The ramp up to the Christus statue, the whole thing, it is really powerful, it is sacred ground. Just thinking about it right now makes me all weepy again. When we came up around the corner and you see Jesus standing there, it just hits you. Fiona actually kind of crumpled to her knees and just stared up at the statue - she whispered "oh Jesus" as she went to her knees. We sat in the space and tried to soak it all in, and then we took some pictures.
Next we went to the basement area to look at the displays about prophets and the Book of Mormon. The girls really enjoyed looking at all of the displays.
Then we were off to the Church History building. When we came in the building Fiona was not happy, "Can't we go somewhere that's not about Jesus?!". She calmed down and we went to the gift shop first - the girls were drawn, like moths to a flame. I actually purchased the new Mormon Tabernacle Choir full Messiah. I had wanted to order it for Christmas, but I was late and shipping was so much!
After tearing the girls away, we went to the second floor - first stop, the area about the prophets - with a life size Moroni temple statue that the kids could touch wearing special gloves.
The girls all had a turn typing their name on an old type writer, and then writing their name with a calligraphy pen.
Fiona really likes Brigham Young, and the pioneers. She has really been impacted by the temple, and the stories she's heard.
We found the kids area and the girls all played. Alice might have had a bit of a melt down because of an imperfect oragami bird, and Kate might have had a really hard time with that...
After the kids area Suzanne took Ben, Anna, and Lovey home and I stayed a little longer with the girls. I really wanted to see a little bit of the first floor of the history building. It took you through the grove, Kirtland, Missouri, and Nauvoo. Alice and Kate were really moved sitting in the replica of the Liberty Jail.
Kate picked out a necklace, Fiona a little ceramic replica of downtown Salt Lake featuring temple square and Alice picked out a magnetic book of tangrams.
We walked through the visitor center that we'd been to last week so that we could get another copy of the map of temple square, and then picked up some snacks and drove back to Suzanne's.
Thursday - Thanksgiving Point. I've heard so much about Thanksgiving Point, but I've never been. It was one of the places that offered a reciprocal deal with my Ontario Science Centre pass so I was totally up for some fun. We met Sally - her two youngest, and Mary and her three at the Museum of Natural Curiosity. It was a lot of fun. Suzanne had work to do, and Ben needed to have his long nap, so I brought the five girls.
I was no relaxed when we first got there. The girls ability to get along had been deteriorating, and I was feeling a little frazzled. Mary and Sally were great and I calmed down as the morning progressed and the kids all figured out how to have fun.
Fiona and KitKat were the cutest. Kate is almost 3 and Fiona is of course 5. Fiona took KitKat on as her sidekick and the two did just about everything together.
The set up of the place was really awesome. There were four or five areas that were self contained - only one way in and one way out. I liked that. It was clearly designed with safety, and managing a big group of kids in mind. The girls all had lots of fun. After a quick stop outside to the park and the koi pond Sally invited us over to play and have pizza.
Suzanne and Ben were able to come join us, and we had a really nice visit. We think Lovey is allergic to cats! She was snuggling one of Sally's cats and started sneezing, sniffling and getting itchy, watery eyes - it was kind of crazy how quickly it came on. We messaged Michelle, and she had never seen a reaction. When I asked Lovey if she'd been around cats before she said only a lion! So funny - I guess she petted a lion when they were in Mexico. I thought it was so cute. Michelle even texted me a photo in case I didn't believe Lovey!
The girls liked the cats, but I really enjoyed cuddling Johnny. He's two months old, and so sweet. He was smiling and cooing at me - we had a real little chat! It was so fun. I didn't get a photo of me holding Johnny, but I took one of Suzanne. Ben got to say hello too!
Being in Sally's home was so nice. It was so fun to just sit and talk and hang out. I don't like being so far from family I love! After our fun visit, we picked up dinner and then made our way back to South Jordan.
Zeus lost his mind when we got back ahead of Suzanne. I took him out for a little walk, and Suzanne drove up as we were walking, man oh man, I thought the doggy lost his mind when we got in. That little pup sure loves his Mama!
Friday The girls insisted they were tired and that they wanted a boring day, but then when they got a boring day, it was kind of awful. We thought about doing a few things, but the day just got away from us. I ran to the grocery store, and came home and made quiche, Michelle arrived with Thomas, Seth and Copper. We had fun getting dog cousin pictures!
Anna and Kate decided again, that they do like each other!
We quickly shoved food in our faces, and then it was time to go get Ken. We made it to the airport when Ken was landing, we waited for him outside and before we knew it he was walking out and the girls were so excited! We were all so excited. The girls missed their Dad so much. I missed Ken so much. It was long. We do not like being away from our Ken/Dad for long. Do. Not. We drove back to South Jordan and picked up In'n'Out Burger on the way - one of the things on Ken's food list. And then we all just hung out until it was time for bed. Michelle, Suzanne and I hung out in the backyard - it was a beautiful night. I said goodnight and goodbye to Michelle and Seth - but sadly didn't say goodbye to Lovey.
Saturday - Early in the morning Suzanne, Michelle and all the kids set off for Provo to pick up Marcus and Joey. They went out for breakfast and then each family headed to their respective homes. Today was talk to Isaac day - Suzanne was so excited. Suzanne is missing Isaac so much. I just can't even imagine it yet, it's still so far away.
We didn't really do much for most of the day. The girls enjoyed being with their Dad watching TV. Suzanne went out and picked up Cafe Rio for lunch, and this time I was smart and only ate half. Matthew arrived at some point and the talking to Isaac continued. Oh and Ben fell asleep in Thomas's arms. It was so sweet. Oh and Joey modeled his football gear. That was another thing Suzanne had to do today - pick up the boy's football equipment. It was a busy day - lots of comings and goings.
Tonight also marked the Provo Canyon, take three, for real mountain adventure with the Miller family. We brought Anna with us, and left Matthew and Suzanne still talking to Isaac. We were already late, and I wasn't sure exactly when Suzanne and Matthew would be coming, and Suzanne had a party she'd wanted to go to north of Salt Lake. (Insert ominous foreshadowing music...)
We were late, but we made it up to the mountain, and after Kate's initial upset about bugs and being outside, and Fiona getting stung by a wasp, we did manage to settle in and have a lovely time.
So remember that ominous music... Suzanne's GPS took them the wrong way and they made it up to the parking lot just as we were all leaving because of the huge crazy black clouds rolling in. I was sad, she was sad, it was sad. And it was way too late for her to go to her friend's birthday party. It was just all kinds of sad.
But then Suzanne decided what we should do to save the night. So after all the kids were mostly in bed, Suzanne and I went to the movies. It was so fun to actually just hang out with my sister. Without husband's around for most of this trip we were running around on empty after seven kids and a dog. It was a lot. We went to see Mama Mia 2, and it was so good. SO GOOD! I love it when I know nothing about a movie and it ends up being awesome. We even drove past the Oquirrah Mountain temple - her temple on the way home.
Cute Zeus. He would come lie beside me on the couch and a few times he stuck his nose under my arm and begged for love. It made Suzanne laugh.
Sunday - And just like that it was Sunday again and everything was coming to a close. Suzanne's ward is really lovely. Alice's primary teachers - the Youngs were so lovely. They were so sweet to Alice, I asked to take a picture! Oh and fun fact about Suzanne's ward - the second counselor in the general primary presidency - Cristina B. Franco, and her husband are in Suzanne's ward. Her husband taught the Sunday School lesson and I spoke to them very briefly at the end of church. Oh and Ben fell asleep on me during the partaking of the sacrament and slept on me the whole of the sacrament meeting. He woke up during the closing him. It was a sweet cuddle. I was feeling annoyed at Fiona and Alice, and just sad generally, so the sweet cuddle was really extra special.
I spent most of the day getting organized, getting ready and feeling a little blue. I mostly finished packing, and of course hanging out with Ben.
The girls all made peace again, and had a big slumber party in the awesome toy/hang out room on the top floor. Yay for Ken telling them a story and putting them to sleep.
It's amazing how long you plan something and anticipate it's happening and then before you know it, it's all over. We had an amazing trip. There were lots of ups and downs an there were moments with the girls that made me completely nuts, but it was awesome, and I'd do it all again in a heart beat. I love my sister, I love her family, and I'm so grateful to have had this experience with her. They are going to have a great life in Utah - even if it is way too far away from me. But we'll see each other, because we always make it a priority. I'm so thankful for my family. I'm so thankful for my sister.
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