Firstly, a massive apology goes to all our friends in UT whom we did not see this weekend. We went up to Layton for Karie's grandparents' 50th anniversary celebration. It was a whirlwind trip and we only had time for the family activities planned on Saturday and Sunday. So though we love and miss you all, come visit us in Arizona sometime instead! Thought not right now, as it is currently 90 degrees Farenheit outside (at 9 am--it's indecent!) and will be hitting 113 degrees by Thursday. But it's lovely in December!
On to the trip itself:
We left bright and early Friday morning. The children did not sleep as expected, but were remarkably well behaved. Their good behavior was aided by watching some of their favorite DVDS on our recently-purchased refurbished laptop.
We were especially grateful to finally arrive at Jess and John's home after dropping Omay and Uncle Paul off at the Fackrell homestead. There was some construction on the main drag between the two homes and after much maneuvering to get headed in the right direction, Mat let loose a very frustrated "Oh my gosh!" From the back seat, in Afton's tiny voice, we heard an almost perfect imitation "Oh my gosh!" She repeated this a few times as we laughed and laughed.
The next day was spent in pursuit of many celebration-oriented activities, most of which involved better food than I will ever make in my lifetime. Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa looked fabulous and seemed to be having a wonderful time talking to all of their friends. Karie got to catch up with her cousins while Mat ran around the building with the girls, keeping them entertained. They found a set of stairs at one of the building that were nearly as fascinating as the stairs at Jess and John's house. Mat watched them go up and down, up and down, until Afton was wobbly enough to cause concern. Then he handed off child-wrangling duties to Karie.
The next day we went to church with Karie's extended family. Afton caused a minor stir in the middle of the meeting by chucking her stuffed Tigger first at her first cousin once removed Peter's face, then smack in the middle of someone's back in front of her. No toys for her after that! We headed home for naptime, praying that Afton would nap, as both girls hadn't been sleeping well. She did and we were able to spend a pleasant afternoon at the Great-Grandparent Fackrell's home. There was much conversation with the adults (the kind that all children find boring) and playing outside with various degrees of cousins (Peter and Jacob and Uncle Stephen were quite thoughtful, occasionally tossing the frisbee or the football in one of the girls' direction. Mostly Annika and Afton were happy to be running around).
We also consumed vast quantities of fried chicken and other goodies (Aunt Anne, I still want that dressing recipe for the strawberry spinach salad!). Then we took the leftover fried chicken to Jess and John and had it for dinner. That was a lot of fried chicken. I may have eaten my fried chicken allotment for the year. But it was good!
We got up ridiculously early on Monday morning and this time the girls did sleep. It was nothing short of miraculous--we think we may have actually exhausted them! The trip went quickly, due in part to the fact that Mat drove the whole way. He's more courageous than Karie is about speed and passing people. We were especially pleased with Annika's bladder control on this trip. She only had one accident and that wasn't in the car!
It was fabulous to see everyone we did during this very short trip and renew those family ties. But we're also very glad to be home. And now Karie must catch up on all the errand running she missed yesterday. At least we know the van can handle it!
2 comments:
Wow! You guys did great. Long trips scare me, especially in the car. But sounds like you had fun and eventually some sleep too!
Sounds like you had a ton-o-fun. I forgot about John-n-Jess...well, not really, but it's good to see their names mentioned so that I don't forget that John was my "son" in the mish.
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