We were lucky enough to bring Grandma Larsen with us on our Utah part of the trip! The drive was uneventful across Wyoming. Our first stop in Utah was Uncle Lance's house in Lehi to meet Andrew's Uncle Dennis! We'd talked before over Skype, but never met in person. He was leaving Utah the next day, so it was now or never!
The girls loved him and had a blast running around Uncle Lance's new house with Maren and Zoey.
The house is quite nice and large and it was fun to spend some time with Uncle Lance and Uncle Dennis!
After a quick visit, we got back in the car and finished our drive to Aunt Kelly's house. The next week was basically a fight over who got to hold Blade, with a few fun outings mixed in :)
Getting a non-blurry picture of Maddie and Cora was basically impossible. They had a love/hate relationship going, including several "Mine!", "No! Mine", "No! Mine!" or "Me", "No! Me!", "No! Me!" shouting matches throughout the week.
Church at Kelly and Lance's ward was basically a disaster. Abigail wouldn't go to class and they had to bring Cora out of nursery screaming. Cora was a bad influence on Maddie, who wouldn't stay in nursery either. So we ended up with half the kids not in class, just crying or being too loud and disruptive for the adult classes. A lot of time in the hallways. Until by 1:45, I already had Abigail and Cora buckled in their car seats crying, just waiting for Eve and Halle to finish primary.
But at least we got this cute picture from Sunday school! (Ignore pregnant belly in the back.)
Things picked up that evening, though, when the Calls came for dinner! We have such fun every time we see Katie and Danny and this was no exception! The hours passed quickly. And I forgot to get a good picture of Katie, Kelly, and I :(
I mentioned fighting over Blade, right?
Anytime she sees him (still) or anyone mentions his name, Cora says, "Baby Blade is so coot!"
With all the girls clamoring for him, it seems like I barely had any time at all! And he is incredibly cute :)
And you thought I was joking. Seriously, half my pictures from Utah are of someone holding Blade. "Take my picture, Mom!"
On Monday, we played around the house in the morning. And Abigail showed me her tricks outside!
(Even Grandma got an occasional turn!)
That afternoon, we tried the park and the library. It was so hot. It felt hotter to me than Lubbock, although the temperature was lower in Utah.
7 girls on for a ride and no one got hurt!
The library was nuts. It was a 'make musical crafts' activity. 3 crafts per girl. 7 girls. 2 moms. (Grandma waited in the hall with Blade.) I'll let you guess how it went.
But everyone came away with all their fingers and toes, plus 3 instruments each! I guess that's a success?
Off to Sam's Club for some major shopping. And by major, I mean major. Kelly filled 3 carts!
The girls got lots of samples (and even a piece of candy each from the nice man at the meat counter!). Eve tried sushi for the first time, but decided she didn't like it.
Everyone was moderately well behaved, so we paused for ice cream before heading home. We got a lot of looks (mostly nice) and some comments too. That's a lot of hyper girls!
On Tuesday, we decided to brave Thanksgiving Point, since my Lubbock Science Spectrum membership allowed me to get in for free. Genevieve and the kids met us there, so it was quite a party! We spent our time at the Museum of Natural Curiosity.
Mini doors started things off right!
The museum had different hubs. No pictures from the first one (it was sciency and we didn't spend much time there). The second was a kid-sized city with stores, a theater, bank, library, etc. The kids had a lot of fun building with the giant legos!
Cora and I in the library.
Switching hubs, just waiting for the others to catch up. It was a miracle we didn't lose anyone.
Especially with this as our next hub:
I stayed at the kiddie area with Cora and Maddie and just let the older kids explore. It worked better than anticipated!
Our final stop was the water hub. The girls loved playing at the earthquake table.
And with this huge pipe thing:
Making tornadoes!
The younger cousins quite enjoyed this water table. That's Lucas, Cora, (Halle), and Maddie.
Abigail even had a go! Cora stayed in the longest and was soaked.
Eve built some cool structures and enjoyed lots of water pouring!
When we were wrapping up in this section, we told the kids we were heading outside to play at the playground. Eve asked if that thing was the playground and I told her no, it was the bike rack. She replied, "Oh, I thought it was monkey bars for babies." :) Ingenious!
The playground did not last long. So, so, so hot. So most of the kids sat in the shade.
While Eve and Reagan had a quick go at the zip line.
We all needed to cool off, so we went to the Thanksgiving Point ice cream shop for some cones. They ran out of vanilla soft serve, but forgot to tell people, so we ended up with lots of chocolate cones. Not the most experienced workers manning the place, so they just kept handing us cones. Several of the kids got two each. Eve says they are the best ice cream people ever :)
At that point, Genevieve and her kids (plus her sister and her son) headed out, as did Kelly with most of hers. She had an appointment, then gymnastics for Reagan and Daryn, so Maddie stayed with us and Grandma and we tried the Thanksgiving Point Farm.
Again, super hot, so we didn't stay too long, but it was fun. Lots of animals to see!
And some we could touch!
The girls got to do a pony ride - it was a huge hit and super adorable!
They had a small indoor play area and I desperately needed to cool off, so we sat for a few minutes and let the ac work its magic.
We skipped the hay ride since the wait was too long (and the horses had been retired at that point - just being pulled by a tractor), but we did finish seeing the rest of the animals!
And even saw a cow being milked!
We were totally exhausted by the end, but it had been a fun day! It was also Chick-fil-A's Cow Appreciation Day, so we attempted to stop on the way home but lines were out of control, so we just picked up some fries at McDonalds and headed back to Kelly's.
Still a few days left of our trip, so I'll split it into another post - this one's getting long!
No comments:
Post a Comment