Idaho, Utah and Wedding

After leaving Las Vegas we drove to Salt Lake and had a fun visit with Blake's Grandma. The kids call her Grandma Great Webb. They love playing with her toys and the decorative geese she had in her yard. They thing those geese are the best toys ever. She enjoys watching them play and of course giving them cookies and treats.

My parents and Eric drove down from Idaho and picked us up in Salt Lake. The plan was to hang out with Tyler and Maren and everyone swim. They had caught some kind of bug though, so my dad was pretty sick. Tyler was also not feeling well and Eric started to get sick by the time we were in Provo too. So, Eric headed home to bed and Tyler and Maren came to the hotel and hung out while my mom and I swam with the kids.

I'm glad my mom had her swimming suit because Parker all of a sudden had NO FEAR of the water. He would just walk off the stairs and jump off the edge, whether someone was there or not. That combined with Alissa's new confidence in the water made for a scary 15 minutes of swimming until my mom got there. After a while Parker got sick of the water and just wandered around so I got to finally chat with Tyler and Maren. It was fun getting to know my future sister in law better. I haven't ever lived close to our family since Tyler and Maren started dating, so I hadn't ever really gotten to know her. She is awesome though and perfect for Tyler. He's a lucky boy, but she is lucky too. Tyler will be an awesome husband. He is so sweet and always cares about how others are feeling.

That night we ate some pizza and chatted until bed time. Tyler and Maren had school work to do too. The next morning we ate breakfast and headed to the dinosaur museum. The director/teacher talked to us for a few minutes and I told him we were visiting from England. He gave us a tour and even let Remi and Broden actually use a real drill and drill away the rock to find dinosaur bones. It was really neat. Grandma and Grandpa hung out with Alissa and Parker and let them run around. Then we headed to Idaho!

In Idaho we had fun hanging out with all our family there. We fed ducks, jumped on trampolines, went to the visitor center at the temple, and I got to go to the temple a few times. It was so nice to be close to a temple and staying with my parents so they could babysit. I went really early while the kids were still asleep a few mornings and it was perfect!

Jenny and Parker swimming at the hotel

Remi, Broden, Jenny, Parker Alissa and a little bit of Grandma

Remi digging for dinosaur bones

Parker "feeding" my parents van cheetos.

feeding the ducks at the greenbelt

Remi at the visitors center

Cindy, Jenny and Remi dressed as twinners

It was entertaining to me that people get Cindy and I confused so often. I was coming out my parents front door one day and there were some little girls walking by. The yelled, "Hi Cindy!" I just smiled and waved back. Then another time I was driving down the road and there was this high school age boy in his driveway. He waved like he knew me, so I just waved back. Everyone jokes that he was probably so excited because Cindy Davis had waved to him!

Ready for Remi's birthday party at Southwick's house

 Kristi and Stan were kind enough to let us have Remi's birthday party at their house. My mom, Julie and Kristi planned the whole thing. All we had to do was show up. Perfect!!! The did such a fun job. My mom took Remi to the store and let her pick out cakes(she was so excited because she hasn't ever had a store bought cake) decorations, party favors and even a pinata! Julie and Kristi planned all the games and food. Remi was so spoiled! There were so many people there. Kristi, Stan and their boys, Grand, Carson, Travis, Bennett and their baby(in my mind she is still a baby:)) Maci, Stan's parents Rodney and Penny, Stan's brother Jeff and his boys, Julie, Nate, Nikosha, Katelyn, Kenzi and Kyler, My parents, Robby and even Tyler and his baby, Garrett and Kaydi and Gibson were there for a while. Chris also brought Tayson, Brecken, and Giryan! It was a housefull, but Remi had so much fun and felt so loved!

One of the cakes

Remi, the birthday girl

playing with the parachute

back: Dallin Grant, Kyler, Brecken, Broden, Alissa, Brecken hiding maybe?
front: Carson, Gibson, Nikosha, Remi, Katelyn, Kenzi, Danny and Travis refusing to be in the picture on the right

Chris, Garrett, Kaydi, Jenny and baby Gibson

 The Southwick's had an army parachute and it is the perfect toy for windy Idaho days. Not very safe, but tons of fun. After the kids were done playing and the wind picked up we got the adults holding on to it. We would all hold on and wait for the wind to pick up and it would drag 5 men and 2-3 women across the grass. It usually pulled me down and either drug me on my belly or I would dig my feet in to the ground and it would pull me like I had water skis on. One time I went out just to take a video. They were trying to get everyone situated with sleds and even a snowboard without the parachute blowing. So I laid on it to keep it from filling with air. It didn't work, it filled with air and flipped me around a few times before I flew out on the other side. It was lots of fun, but I decided to quit before I got a serious injury!

Jumping on Grandma and Grandpa's trampoline

Parker entertaining himself with Grandma's toothbrush and lid to her moose

We went with Christ and Tyler's boys to the Museum of Idaho to see their dinosaur display. I think the kids enjoyed the play area more. There were dress up clothes a cabin and little caves. They had so much fun together.

Chris, Tayson, Brecken, Broden, Giryan, Alissa and Remi

Brecken

Alissa, Giryan and Remi

Giryan and Alissa

The day before Tyler and Maren's wedding we loaded everyone and all our stuff and wedding stuff in the van and truck and headed to Utah. My dad and I met Eric and Tyler and helped move their bed in and get it set up. Then they went and got couches while I stayed at the apartment with Parker and Alissa. They had fun hiding behind all the boxes.

After that we went back to Salt Lake and swam for a while and ate dinner. The girls stayed at the hotel while the boys went out for dinner, then dad and Tyler came back and stayed with the sleeping kiddos while the girls went and set up for the luncheon.

It was really fast to set up! We had fun too chewing bubble gum and blowing bubbles!

Cindy, Jenny and Kristi

Tyler and Maren were married in the Salt Lake temple. I love going to temple weddings. I was sad that Blake couldn't be there, but so glad I got to go. Everyone was so much help with my kiddos too. 

Maren and Tyler, the whole reason we came!

 I had fun following the photographer and pretending be be a photographer. Thanks Ashley MacKay!!!

Remi and Katelyn

Alissa, Kenzi, Bennett, Remi and Katelyb

Maren and Tyler

Back:Broden, Travis, Carson, Katelyn, Grant, Nikosha
Front: Remi, Maci(hiding), Bennett, Kyler,  Alissa and Kenzi
and in front of eveyrone, Parker

Kyler and Nate

Maci and Kyler

Maci, Kenzi and Alissa

Nate and Kyler "helping" clean up. They were getting the balloons off the ceiling

Parker and Tyler

After the luncheon we cleaned up then went to the reception down by Provo. That night we were all exhausted from decorating, cleaning, running, chasing kids and everything else that goes with a wedding. We went to bed and woke up the next day and headed to a party at Eric's work. What a fun place! They have food and games everywhere and they brought in some bouncy castles, snow cone maker and a balloon animal person. The weather was perfect and we had fun eating and just talking while the kids played. Cindy and mom had to head back for Cindy's track meet, but my dad, the kids and I got to go see Eric's apartment. Then we went swimming one last time before packing up and preparing to leave the next day.

When I was packing that night I got a huge scare! I realized that I didn't have all our bags. One of our bags had been behind all the wedding stuff in my mom's van that she took back to Idaho. Throughout our trip I had an envelope in that bag that contained all of our passports! It was 10:30 at night and my mom had just gotten back to Idaho. PANIC!!! I hurried and called Blake's mom to see when she was coming back to Utah. She wasn't going to until the next day, but some of our good family friends were  coming really early in the morning. She called them while I continued looking through all our bags. I had moved the passports to a different bag. Huge relief. But I still needed the other bag, so we had our good friends bring them down to the hotel. It was so nice of them to go out of their way to do that for us. 


The flight home wasn't as smooth as the flight over, but we survived. On the first flight we sat behind some college boys and they weren't very understanding of my restless kiddos who didn't understand they couldn't kick the seat. Parker was so tired, but wouldn't sleep, instead he just screamed, and screamed, and screamed! The Stewardess even held him and walked for a while. It was so nice to get off the plane and be met by Blake. I missed him, so did the kids.

Something that never ceases to amaze me when I take all the kids places alone is how willing people are to help us. Yes there are the people that look at me like I am crazy and some people aren't very nice, but there are still decent people out there. People who will play with Parker when he is sad, or hold him while I take others to the bathroom, there are people willing to carry car seats and bags, or just hold someone's hand. Some people share their snacks, or their games. These people make me happy. They remind me that there are still decent people in the world who like to do nice things for other people. I hope that I am one of these people. I hope I can help others along my way.