Utah Trip -- MLK Day weekend

This is long. But I wanted to get in all the details for my "Family History's" sake. Don't feel guilty about skimming...especially if you don't know half of these people.

We took a quick trip down to Utah to visit family and friends over Martin Luther King Day weekend. My kids actually had 3 days off school, not just the regular 1 day, so that made for a 5 day weekend. The kids were sad that we didn't stay the whole 5 days, but Eric and I both had to be back to work for some of those days.
Our main reason for coming down to Provo this time was to spend some time with my grandparents. I have so many fond childhood memories of time spent at my grandparent's house, and I want my children to have as many similar memories as possible. We wanted to come at the holidays, but just couldn't swing it, so this was the next best thing. So our primary purpose was to see my grandparents, but that said, we have so much family and lots of friends in the Provo area, that we were spread pretty thin and kept extremely busy. If you are a friend of mine in the Provo area...and we didn't see you this time...I'm sorry. We'll try to see you next time. It was a jammed back trip with nearly every hour scheduled out. I know that drives my family crazy...but I don't know how else to do it?!?

Friday we arrived in the late afternoon. We made a quick stop at my sister Rachael's house to borrow some sleeping bags and towels. My sister Janelle and her family came by as well. The cousins had a little time to run around...but it was short and they were all sad to part ways so soon.

Friday evening we had dinner at Grandma & Grandpa Jensen's house. It was a relatively small group: our family, my grandparents, my aunt Christine (who is living there for a year), her son Ollie, my cousin Jared (a BYU student), and Roxanna (a Peruvian woman who lives with and helps care for my grandparents). So that may not sound like a small group...but compared to the large parties that often happen, trust me, that is small.

After dinner we had some game time.

 Renae and my Anut Christine playing a new game. Christine is my mom's youngest sister. 

Sidenote: Was anyone else getting sick of hearing me complain about my lack of camera skills? Well I was. So I decided to do something about it. I am taking a Photography Class through the Rexburg Community Education program. At this point I had had only 1 week of class. Not enough to REALLY understand much. But our teacher had told us to TRY to take pictures in the Manual setting. Hard to do when you don't fully grasp the concepts of ISO, aperture, and shutter speed. But i tried....and these are the result. Although I'll admit, sometimes I just got too much blur or too dark of shots so I reverted to automatic mode. But I learned a lot from just trying to do the metering and be fully "in control."

Grandma Jensen is completely blind, so it is hard for her to feel a part of the party, 

but we were glad to have her with us as we sat around and chatted and played games. 

Roxanna was sweet to give her a hand massage.

 My cousin Jared playing a game of checkers with Colby.

SATURDAY: This was our busiest day. Our first "appointment" was at 9 AM and we stayed busy until well past 9 PM.

First off, we met Eric's cousin Lowell and his family for breakfast. We got donuts at the Provo Bakery (YUM!) and then went back to their apartment to eat and chat. They are living in Provo while Lowell gets his MBA at BYU. We enjoyed a nice hour or so together and then we were off to our next appointment. Sadly, no camera was brought out to document our donut indulgence. 

Next stop was to my sister Rachael's. We let the kids play while we adults chatted. Here are some cousin pictures that my sister took.

  

 These 3 were "thick as thieves" this time. Interesting, since often Colby is left out while Sadie plays with the girls. But Sadie was content to play on her own -- she was in animal character -- and these 3 played spies.

 

The Big 3 -- Mason, Sienna & Renae make up our Pre-Teen trio.

 We had a Lunch Date with Rachael and Ismael. For Eric, eating out at least once is a MUST on vacation. Or the vacation doesn't count. We went to a Mexican Restaurant in Orem. The portions were ginormous. Luckily we knew this ahead of time so we split the meals. Rach and I shared the Flautas meal (look at the SIZE of those things!!) and Eric & Ismael shared this huge conglomeration of stuff that you put in tortillas. Even sharing meals, we brought home quite a bit of leftovers!

Our next stop was my sister Janelle's house. Because of her busy Saturday schedule and our busy schedule, it wasn't as long of a visit as we would have liked, but we enjoyed what we had. We ended up just sitting on her couches and chatting. My girls played dress up with her girls while my boys and Eric went to Cabela's for some "guy time" and coat shopping. No pictures. Shame on us.

I had a shopping date planned with a dear friend that afternoon as well. She needed to cancel for family reasons. I was sad to not get to see her, but it probably worked out for the best since, as you can see, I think I may have over-scheduled our Saturday just a tad.

Next up was a dinner with some dear friends. We met this family in Rexburg when we first moved there and we really hit it off. A lot of our kids match up in age, but most importantly Eric and I just really clicked with Zeb & Daisy. The family moved away to Hawaii about 18 months ago, but now they are living in Provo. We were excited to be reunited and catch up on old times. We had a great dinner and then the adults ran to the Creamery on Ninth while the kids watched a show at their house. One of our favorite things to do with them (back in the day) was to get ice cream at G's Dairy in Rexburg, so this was just like old times. 

Again -- kicking myself for not getting any pictures. Next time!

Mason left our dinner party early and went to a BYU Basketball game with Cousin Ollie. 

He is actually my cousin, but he is just 2 months older than Mason. They had a fun time.

Our last stop of the night was back to my grandma & grandpa's house. Straight to bed after our hectic day? Of course not. We went hot tubbing in my grandparent's back yard. It was quite the experience. Walking across the snow in our flip-flops and then jumping in the HOT water. The cold to hot and then back to cold (when you got out) was quite shocking to your system. Some of my kids were even crazy enough to roll in the snow and then come in. But it was a nice way to unwind from the day.

SUNDAY: The day of rest. Well maybe not entirely, but after the previous day's run-around, this was much simpler. We had late church so the kids spent the morning quietly playing with toys from Grandma's house. They also had some quiet time with Grandma. Sadie even crawled in bed with her in the morning and had a "chat." She can talk your ear off if you let her, but I think Grandma enjoyed it.

Playing on the stairs. I have memories of doing the same thing.

We moved our stuff over to Rachael's house around noon. We went to church with her family and had dinner at her house. Then in the early evening we met up at Grandma's house with EVERYONE for "Dessert Night." Everyone brings a baked good treat and Grandma supplies the ice cream. My kids love this and have nicknamed her The Ice Cream Grandma for her never-ending supply of ice cream.

 

Rachael showing the variety of ice creams

 The kids pigging out on yummy treats

I finally got my camera out again and took some shots of everyone:

Sienna and Renae who are BCF (Best Cousins Forever)

 Our pet jaguar -- Sadie

 The 2nd and 3rd Graders -- Colby, Maya, & Camille

 The Kindergarteners and 1st grader -- Tessia, Sadie, & Maddie

 The 7th Grade Boys - Mason & Oliver

 Grandpa riding on his exercise bike. 

Eric spent a good part of Friday night fixing this bike. Way to go Eric! 

Christine felt bad that he spent his whole evening doing that. But Eric actually enjoys that kind of thing...

and it got him out of playing games (he is not a fan of game) so bonus for him!

Janelle & Brad and their 'lil ones Spencer and Becca. Sadly they didn't have a "Cousin Group" to fit into

 Grandpa Jensen & Grandma Jensen relaxing on the couch

We had a little concert. Sienna, Renae, and Ollie all played songs for Grandma. I didn't get a picture of Sienna playing, but here are the other two.

 This is the "Young Mothers Group" -- Janelle, Christine, me, and Rachael

Christine may be our Aunt, but she is still raising a teenager so she is still a Young Mother in my book!

 

 This is one of my favorite pictures of the trip. Sadie really loved talking with and cuddling with Grandma. 

My Aunt Jill arrived soon after these pictures were taken, but my camera was already put away and we were playing games. Next time, I'll be sure to get a picture of her with the kids.

***

Well that is the end of the pictures. But NOT the end of the trip. The dramatic conclusion to the trip was yet to come. And you will be THANKFUL there are no pictures. Colby had been complaining of a stomach ache since dinner. But it didn't seem very major and it didn't stop him from eating a far amount of cookies and ice cream. I'll admit, I was preoccupied and didn't pay it much attention. Until he threw up in the middle of the floor. It was horrid. We cleaned him up and cleaned up the mess and had him lay on the couch. We went home soon after. As we were leaving to go to Rach's house (which is where we were spending the night) Mason began feeling sick. He threw up in the toilet as soon as we got to her home. I was hoping that was the end of it. Some over-eating caused upset stomachs...I can handle that. But oh no. We were in store for a LONG night. I'll spare you the details, but lets just say I quickly lost count of how many times they threw up. Around 2:00 AM Sadie joined them in their misery. So I had three kids laying around me on the floor as I took care of them. It felt like the longest night ever.

We were supposed to join friends in SLC the next day to see Temple Square. But that planned changed to...let's just try to get home as quickly as possible. Rachael packed us a great "In Case Someone Gets Sick in the Car" bag -- complete with zip loc bags, wipees, 7-up, paper towels, etc. It was awesome. I wish I could say we didn't need it. But we did. Twice. It really saved us, having that bag. 

We arrived home in one piece that night. It was an action packed and memorable trip. I'm glad we got to see everyone that we did...but I think I will plan it out a little differently next time.