Wow! There is so much that happened while we were in Utah! It was a really fun trip and I'm glad that we got to see so much family while we were there and spend some time with everyone!
Here are some pictures of our drive up to Utah. Rick is a great driver and can stay awake for loooong periods of time. Me? I drive for barely an hour and get tired. I just can't do it very well... especially when I'm pregnant. So Rick popped in an audio book and drove his heart out all day long!
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| Apparently she got bored and started playing with her snacks... |
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| View just after passing the Hoover Dam. |
As we were driving in to South Utah County, we saw the Payson Temple and I knew I wanted to go to the open house before it was over in just two days. I randomly checked Facebook during that last 20 minutes till we got to my parents' house and someone from a previous ward had just posted that they had extra tickets reserved for Saturday morning that weren't going to get used and to ask if you wanted them. So he gave us 4 of them so we could go! Wahoo! And we could've always done the standby line but it's always nice to have a reservation.
We went at 8am Saturday morning, on the last day of the open house, and I am SO glad we went that early because on our way out it was CrAzY and the traffic trying to get to the temple was insane. But we had basically no line at all and I think the kids thought it was pretty cool to walk through and see the inside of the temple. Let me tell you though, there were SO many stairs to climb and being almost 30 weeks pregnant, it was hard to climb all the stairs! Here are some pictures we took after we walked through:
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It was actually pretty chilly that morning.
Especially for these Arizona kids! |
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| The sun was super bright! |
Right after the temple open house, Rick took the kids to Salem to visit his family so I could go out with my mom and sister and go birthday shopping with Olivia. It was her birthday that Monday so we all went out shopping together and had a blast! We got some way good steals at Old Navy! And then we went to Zupas in Provo to eat lunch afterward. It was so fun!
Below are a couple pictures Rick took while in Salem. He said that Garrett put on the red tutu dress thing and came in and said, "I Spiderman"... hahahaha! Apparently since it's red and black like spiderman he thought he was the real deal. Too funny! And in the other picture, while they were playing outside Garrett found that party hat and put it on and said, "I want cake". I guess that's what he associates party hats with ;)
Later that evening, Rick decided to just stay with the kids in Salem since they were having such a good time while I went to Enoch's Karate Performance where he was receiving his black belt. It was so neat to watch all the things he could do! I've never really known much about karate but it was fun to get to see my little brother do his thing.
The next day on Sunday we went to church at my parents ward in Mapleton. Olivia received her Young Women Recognition during Sacrament Meeting and then that evening was Wyatt's Eagle Court of Honor.
Monday was Olivia's sweet 16 birthday! We celebrated and my mom made Punch Bowl Cake and I made Tuxedo Brownies and my dad made a yummy Mexican feast including my favorite, taquitos. Yum!
These pictures are from the day of Wyatt's High School Graduation. We all met up at Los Hermanos with our family and Wyatt's girlfriend, Sydney, and her family. After dinner we had some time to kill before needing to go up to Orem for the actual graduation later in the evening so Rick and I drove the kids to the old park we used to go to alllll the time when we lived in Provo. Kimbri used to play here a lot but I guess Garrett never really did since he was so little when we moved away from Provo. But it brought back tons of memories for us and the kids had fun.
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| At Los Hermanos |
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| At Joaquin Park in Provo |
At Wyatt's Graduation. The kids actually did really well through the whole thing. We took lots of "quiet time" activities and stickers and it was a success! And congratulations to Wyatt! After the graduation we drove across the freeway from UVU and saw Zach's new house that he had just bought. It was so nice and it's awesome that he bought a house!
Zach entertained Kimbri with this cool app on his phone during part of the graduation. It's a pretty fun app and I think Kimbri was enjoying seeing herself dressed up like different Disney characters. Haha :)
Rick's brother, Mitch, also had his High School Graduation that first week we were there, the next morning after Wyatt's. It rained and got everyone and thing soaked for the first 15 or so minutes of the graduation ceremony, as the graduates were walking onto the football field at Salem High School. We went down and hid beneath the bleachers until the rain stopped and after it stopped it was actually very nice and even got a little hot towards the end of it! After the ceremony we all went and ate at The Pizza Factory in Spanish Fork. Congrats to Mitch on graduating! He also opened his mission call while we were in Utah and got called to Japan and leaves this August! So cool! And he received his Eagle at his Eagle Court of Honor. So many exciting things happening for Mitch!
After spending a week going to several different events... graduations, karate ceremonies, a wedding (that I'm going to post separately about), eagle court of honors, etc... we packed up our luggage and spent a week in Salem while my parents and family were gone to California.
We had, had such a crazy and busy week the past week that it was so nice to just relax and let the kids play with their aunts and uncles and run around and have fun. Although my allergies were killing me! But it was still fun :)
The Sunday that we were in Salem for, we had originally planned on going to Rick's cousin's baby blessing but Rick got to feeling really sick and couldn't even go to church so I got the kids ready and we went to Mapleton to my parents ward while he stayed in Salem and slept all day so he could feel better!
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At Mitch's Eagle Court of Honor, Kimbri stood
by this tree and asked if I'd take a picture of her. |
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Kimbri wanted a picture with mom and grandma Sundee,
so Rick took one. |
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| So tired that he fell asleep on the couch. |
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Kimbri and Cody ran around in the sprinklers
and then she was freezing!
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Preston is awesome with Garrett! And Garrett
always has the time of his life with Uncle Preston! |
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| Garrett with his Uncle Cody |
One of the mornings that Rick had to study while we were in Salem we decided to go to North Park in Spanish Fork. Nicole, Megan, and Cody came with us and we had so much fun. We were there for almost 2 hours! And afterward we drove over to the new Walmart that was built in SF and got ice cream to take back to Salem and eat :)
The night of the Temple Cultural Celebration... it rained like crazy! More like POURED! The roads were like rivers and caused the celebration to almost be canceled. They waited it out and eventually were able to start it and it turned out fine in the end but wow. I didn't know Utah could have rain like that! We watched it online at my parents house but snapped this picture when we were out and about just before it was supposed to start.
Some pictures from Mapleton:
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| They love riding with Olivia on her four wheeler! |
Slipp 'n Slide at Grandma and Grandpa Haycock's house. They had a blast!
One of the mornings we were in Utah we went to a place called Kangaroo Zoo. It was so fun to see Kimbri and Garrett be so excited and to have such a good time. They were the perfect ages, just tall and big enough to do just about everything in the whole place. Garrett even surprised us a little by doing the HUGE slides all by himself!
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| Worn out from all the jumping and sliding! |
On our way back from the Kangaroo Zoo we decided to drive the kids up to the base of the Y Mountain trail. Ever since arriving in Utah, Kimbri had been begging to "go mountain climbing" as she put it. So to get her fill of mountain climbing in, Rick walked with the kids up just a little ways on the trail and showed them how high up on the mountain they were and took a picture. They were more than satisfied and thought it was really cool. Maybe next summer when I'm not pregnant we could hike the whole way up, haha.
Then we stopped at the BYU Creamery and picked up some ice cream. We have to take advantage and get some BYU ice cream whenever we are in Utah since we don't live there anymore. Mint Cookies and Cream is my all time favorite! I think we also got Graham Canyon, Chocolate Devastation and Cookie Dough.
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| Rick, Kimbri & Garrett |
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We saw a snake with its guts hanging out on
the drive back down Y mountain... gross. |
After a week in Salem we went back to Mapleton and spent another week there. Rick had to start up studying again in preparation for boards so he wouldn't get behind but we were still able to do some fun things!
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| Enjoying Uncle Enoch's HUGE bean bag. |
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They spent SO much time on the trampoline
and loved it! |
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| And on the tennis court. |
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| Baby Ava |
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On our way back to my parents from church
we saw this deer. |
Kimbri and Garrett love to play dress ups! And Grandma Tammy had TONS of dress ups. They were lovin it!
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| Kimbri in my old dance outfit. |
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| Garrett wanted to wear my old dance outfit too.... haha |
Swimming in the pool was a huge hit too! Kimbri is fearless in the water and went off the diving board and the slide all by herself. She is like a little fish! Garrett loved the water too but for some reason I didn't have any pictures of him in the water :(
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| Grandpa Haycock and Kimbri |
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| Kimbri and Garrett watching "Rio" |
At Chuckarama with the family, kind of in celebration for mine and Dawson's birthday. Garrett sure loved the idea of "all you can eat" food.
The last Sunday we were in town, June 14, we drove up to Smithfield to Dawson and Stacie's ward for Ava's baby blessing.
This was pretty much how the drive was going for the first hour (it takes about 2.5 hours):
Then Garrett threw up... and you would know I didn't bring any spare clothes. So we stripped him down to his diaper and he was not super happy and I'm sure not feeling the greatest. Throwing up always makes you feel icky. I think he just got car sickness because he had been looking down, playing the iPad for quite a while so I'm thinking that triggered it? I don't know. But luckily, Luke and Garrett are very close in age and Dawson and Stacie let us borrow some of Luke's church clothes for church!
It was such a pretty drive up to Smithfield (besides the Garrett throwing up part). And then on the way home both of the kids slept nearly the whole way!
After getting home from Smithfield that night, we packed up most everything in the car and then played a game of Settlers (My dad, Olivia, Rick and me). My dad is the reigning champion... until next time at least ;) Then the next morning we woke up at about 6am and finished up loading the last few things into our car and took off back to Arizona. The kids did AMAZING in the car! Because we had been up late the night before and got up early, they slept quite a bit on the drive. We only had to stop 4 times for gas and potty breaks.
And this is what greeted us as we drove into Phoenix. Yeah. Not my idea of a very nice welcome gift. Ha.
And this is what our yard looked like when we got back. Our wonderful neighbors had taken care of our front lawn without us even asking which was SO thoughtful of them! But our backyard was like a jungle!! Here's a before and after pic:
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I guess Garrett forgot how to sleep in his own bed.
Haha! But he is in love with the shark blanket
Olivia made for him!! |
It is good to make it back to home sweet home but we sure had a blast while we were in Utah! It was a fun summer vacation and we are so grateful that we got to visit our family!
