Nice Break

Tate and I spent 2 whole weeks in Utah relaxing and doing a lot of playing with family. Glenn was in Utah as well for most of the time, but he was on a field trip with work so we only got to see him a couple of days before he flew back to Texas. We found super cheap tickets so Tate and I totally justified a long trip visiting fam. We were lucky enough to be there at the same time as Aunt Kimber and her kids and they all played so nice with Tate. He was in heaven having so many kids to play with all day long. They spent lots of time outside, which we really can't do here much in the summer unless we're at the pool. They'd go out for long stretches of time and just play on the tramp and wander to the play house and play with the toy food. He was happy and tired at the end of every day.

The first weekend we were there we took a quick road trip to St. George to support Adam in a triathalon. It was really exciting. I've never been able to be at one of his triathalons so we were glad to be in town for this one and give him some support. He was crazy fast and it was so fun to watch. He's a pretty cool guy, my little brother. He even let little Tate try on his swim cap. Tate had mixed feelings about it, but we thought it was hilarious.Uncle Adam was adored on this trip. He had this great game on his phone where Tate could squish ants with his fingers and it made a gross squishing noise. Tate laughed so hard every time he pulled it out and still talks about it often. He was excited to see Uncle Ad every time he came over.

After that weekend we headed back to American Fork and spent the rest of our days playing with cousins, swimming in Nanna's pool, playing outside. I did a little shopping with my sisters, which was splendid.

The marbles were a favorite. My mom has this great little marble ramp thing and I've got to figure out how to make one. He was talking about it on the ride to her house from the airport he was so excited to play with it again. It was well-loved on this trip. So was mom's kitty named Cheyenne. She's very very old and too tired to run too fast or swat at the kids, which is perfect for my very affectionate little guy.

"Hi kitty!"

"She has a nose!"

Tate loves her to pieces.

Tate had a fever for a few days which was a bummer, but we all enjoyed the sick snuggles. He was a little shy on this trip with most of the adults so it was nice to have him willing to snug for a few days. Nanna even got a naptime snug.

Aubs and I took our little ones to the petting zoo at Thanksgiving point one afternoon. It was really hot but we toughed it out! Tate was a bit of a grouch. He was just getting over his fever and was a bit tempermental already and then the first goat he fed was very large and little boy forgot to keep his hand open when he fed the goat so he ended up with his whole fist inside the goat's mouth. He was pretty stressed out and refused to feed any more animals. He spent the afternoon waving at them from a safe distance.Luckily Mya was all over it! She's a pro. I sure love spending time with those little girls. They are so spunky and have such big personalities that are vastly different. It's so fun being their Auntie. Little miss Mya turned 3 while we were in town. It's so hard to believe she's been around for three years! Where did the time go?

Tate and Mya spend some time in the little jail. They had fun getting "stuck" inside the bars and rescuing each other.

This is Tate's new expression...and one of my favorites.

He says "Hmmmmm", pulls his mouth to the side and taps his finger on his cheek like he's thinking really hard. He usually does it when he's sad about something, or even worse, when he's trying hard not to cry. It's darling and so sad watching his little face decide whether or not to let loose and cry. I wonder where he got that from.

Glenn and I celebrated our 6th anniversary while we were out there and we got to go on a date while Nanna watched little Tate! It was SO nice to have a night out without worrying in the least about who we were leaving him with. We had a great time and wonderful conversation about our 6 years. So much has happened. So many wonderful memories and man, we're so happy together. We just spent hours counting our blessings and discussing the years to come.

It was a great trip. So relaxing. So nice. Jogs and workout videos with my sisters, long talks at night, episodes of the Bachelorette (so much better with other people to comment along with), a beautiful afternoon at 7 peaks, great food...basically there are too many highlights of this trip to even mention. It was just what we needed.

We were glad to get home but have so much to do around here. I feel like the settling in will never end. I just got a new calling in the Young Womens so I have a lot of names to learn and things to figure out there but I'm excited about it.

Thanks for a wonderful visit, family. We miss you guys so much!