The traveler has returned

Excuse the lengthiness of this post. I'm catching up from being gone for a while.

School ended on June 11th, and I picked up the kids and we hit the road. We drove that night to Boise where we stayed at Mark's brother's house. The kids love David and Michelle's fun house and backyard.

We made it to Salt Lake the next afternoon. It was so fun to see my family again. I especially loved to see my dad all healthy and hairy again. The last time I saw him was in November in the middle of his chemo. The kids loved listening to his stories and playing around outside with Grandpa.

Saturday I went to a baby shower for a cousin and saw many cousins and aunts that I rarely get to see. Such a fun family. My Grandmpa B is the cutest, though. I love her and want to be her when I grow up. Sunday we went to my parent's church. It is strange that while my parents are all young and hip-looking, most of the other people whom I knew as a child look ancient--seriously senior citizens. A few of my parent's friends still look the same, but I was stunned with how OLD many of them looked. I haven't aged a day.........

Monday we went to visit grandparents. First it was the Bradleys, where the kids headed to the basement to play while I visited with them. Joel made the rounds through their house to count all 148 of their paintings, and 18 candle sticks. Then we all squished into my van for lunch at McDonald's. I hadn't eaten at that McDonald's in 20 years--since sneaking away from Skyline during Journalism for french fries with Elaina. After lunch we went to visit my G&G Breinholt. The kids love their yard, and played Jarts--yes, those fun and dangerous lawn darts from 30 years ago. Nobody got hurt--at least with the lawn darts. The fun came when the little kids got out the croquet set. Savanna and her cousin Truman were innocently playing croquet, when Truman lifted the mallet for his backswing and popped Savanna right in the mouth. When she pulled her hands away from her face, there was a lot of blood--and a missing tooth. Truman was horrified and ran to hide under the picnic table. Savanna calmed down quickly when we found her tooth in the grass. It was very loose and would have come out in a couple of weeks. I told Truman that I owed him money for the extraction. Then it was swimming time at Grandma Jean's. We were all shaking our heads in amazement when we were leaving Jean's to go back to my mom's house and Zack said, "No. First I need a Rice Krispie treat." He was ONE YEAR OLD last summer when were last there. Jean always has Rice Krispie treats in her pantry for the kids. I said, "OK, Zack, where are they?" He walked right over and opened the cupboard that had the treats in it. I knew he was a smart boy, but this was unbelievable that he remembered this from a year ago when he was one!!!

Monday evening Noah became very lethargic. He didn't want to eat or move or talk. His fever suddenly spiked, and by the time I got him to the urgent care, it was nearing 104! His oxygen was way down, and he was one sick boy. It ended up that he had strep throat (despite not having a sore throat). Amoxacillin and albuterol helped him to a quick recovery by Wednesday, but Tuesday we just hung around my mom's with the sickie.

Wednesday we went to Lagoon--the kids very favorite thing to do in Utah. It was a very rainy morning, which didn't phase us at all. But it did scare most other people from braving Lagoon that day. By 12:30, the rain had stopped and the park was pretty much empty. The kids spent all day running onto rides over and over. No lines at all--ever! It was a great day.

Thursday we went to lunch at Hires, then Lyon and Healy for harp music, and then back to grandma's to swim and play outside. Friday morning I took the kids to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house. It was fun to take them inside a temple. They have always wanted to see inside, and they loved it. Afterward, there were cookies for everyone, and I was relieved when the kids all told me as they choked down their cookies that my cookies were WAAAAAAAAAAAAY better than the temple cookies. But we were all starving, so we ate them anyway.

Friday night my whole family met up Millcreek Canyon for a cookout. It was fun to see everyone all together. We stayed as long as we could until we were all freezing, and then we headed home smelling like a campfire.

Saturday morning I spent packing up all our stuff and getting ready to hit the road. But first I gave haircuts to 2 nieces, one nephew and Zack. And then the traditional lunch at Artic Circle with my family before we headed back to town. It's always sad to say goodbye to them.

And as always, it was great to walk in the door of our house. We all missed Mark so much, and after driving 800 miles with 7 kids, I was very glad to be home.