Week Twenty-Six

After a LONG night of almost no sleep at our house in Canton (we all slept on ONE air mattress with TWO blankets), we woke up early to leave for the airport.  Our good friend, Gina Moss, came by the house and drove us to the Detroit airport.  The flight was pretty uneventful.  The kids are all so good at flying.  This was Kaiton's first flight, which is crazy, since the rest of our kids flew when they were only a few months old.

We arrived in Utah at about noon.  It was over 100 degrees in Utah.  We sat around for a while, and then we headed over to the pool.  They had a cute little slide that the girls warmed up to and eventually came to love.  Kaiton spent most of the time walking around the pool and Brooklen swam laps with Rob.  We had a great time.  After the pool, we headed back to Rob's parents' house for a family dinner.  Stacy and Dave came with their cute one-week old baby, and Matt, Mike, and Jennifer were there too.  Amanda was sick, so Melissa didn't bring her family over.  We also got to see Rob's grandma and his aunt.  Rob tried to pick up his grandpa from the hospice center, but he was too tired to come for dinner.  I think Rob was pretty shocked at how poor his grandpa's condition was.

On Tuesday, we went to the Hogle Zoo.  Melissa and her kids came, as well as Matt and his kids.  It was hot, but the kids had a blast.  Rob's parent have a membership, so the kids were especially excited to ride the train and the carousel.  They cooled off in the splash pad and we watched the bird show.  Kaiton liked the animals, but he was afraid of all of the dinosaurs they had put up throughout the zoo.  After we got home from the zoo, Rob took the kids swimming while Kaiton napped.  Around 5pm, we headed down to Pleasant Grove to see Teryn and Rob.  We were able to see their brand new house (it is huge and amazing) and then they took us to Blue Lemon to eat.  They paid for everything, included the dessert that I offered to buy.  It always amazes me how gracious and kind they are to us.  We really appreciate them.  Hadley and Hurley hit it off and within minutes at the house, they had run off to play together.  After dinner, we had to hurry back to Salt Lake.  Rob played in a softball game on the team that Jennifer organized.  The kids had fun playing and watching Rob play.  Afterwards, we headed to the cabin.  We arrived at about midnight.

On Wednesday morning, we ate breakfast and then we headed to Whitney to go fishing.  Rob and Hurley fished in the canoe and the rest of us rode in the fishing boat.  After a couple of hours, Kaiton was bored, and so they let me off with him.  We sat around and played in the dirt and water for a couple of hours.  Later, Zaya decided she was done fishing, so she and Annette joined Kaiton and I.  We played for another hour or two.  Finally, at about 5 or 6, the others decided to come ashore.  Hurley had caught like 15 fish (she only kept a few).  Brooklen caught the second most at like 7, and I think Zaya caught 2 or 3.  We went back to the cabin and cooked up the fish.  It was so delicious!

The next day, we had breakfast and then packed up all of our stuff.  It was Hurley's birthday, so I brought streamers and she woke up to a birthday chair.  We gave her gift, which was an ipod shuffle.  She was so excited and we currently LOVE to watch her listen and sing along to the songs that I put on the shuffle.  Brooklen got Hurley a bunch of decorative duct tape from the dollar store and Zaya got her a paper doll.  We stopped to fish (without boats) on the way home, but didn't catch much.  Hurley decided to keep one fish.   While we were fishing, Kaiton threw up.  He ended up having a fever for several more days, but he never threw up again.   We also stopped at a waterfall.  Hurley had a blast playing in the water.  She and I took off our shoes and walked all through it.  At the end of playing, she was soaked, but so happy!  I love the zest for life that that little girl has.  Next, we stopped in Evanston for lunch.  The food at the burger place was awesome.  They served their burgers on brioche buns and Brooklen fell in love with onion rings there.

We got home Thursday afternoon.  We took the kids swimming again and then we went back to Rob's parent's house for dinner.  We stopped on our way home to pick up a birthday cake for Hurley from Smiths.  After dinner, we sang to her and had cake and ice cream.  I think she felt special having her birthday celebrated with such a big group.

On Friday morning, we woke up early and packed up.  Rob went downtown and rented a minivan and we began our drive to Steamboat Springs, Colorado.  The kids were stoked that the van that we rented had 2 tvs in it.  We reminded them that we will NEVER own a mini van :)

We arrived in Colorado on Friday night.  We checked out the house, got settled, and my parents ran to pick up dinner at Jimmy Johns.  After dinner, we swam in the indoor pool.

Saturday was the fourth of July.  We headed out early to the parade downtown.  We ended up at the end of the parade route, however, so the everyone was out of candy.  The kids were a little bummed, but we tried to help them not notice.  After the parade, we found a party downtown and got some free hot dogs.  Then, we went and watched a ski jump competition.  We went home for a few hours to play and later, we headed out to dinner at a really great restaurant.  Most everyone got really cool burgers;  I got a delicious salad.  After dinner, we went to the rodeo.  I have been telling Rob for years that I want to take my kids to a rodeo, so I'm glad we finally got the chance too.  During the rodeo, the kids got to do a calf scramble and a ram scramble.  I think they liked the rodeo, but it was a bit long.  At the end, we stayed in our seats to watch fireworks.

On Sunday, we woke up and went to church.  The ward building was in the neighborhood, so we all walked together.  In the afternoon, we tried to go to a waterfall, but it was super busy and there wasn't any parking.  Instead, we ended up eating lunch at a really cool park.  It started raining, but we toughed it out for a while.  Later that evening, my mom made a delicious dinner and we played outside.