Utah Trip (just a little after the fact...)!

This post is waaaaaay overdue, since we returned from our vacation 6 weeks ago. But life is crazy and we moved the computer downstairs, so it is no longer at my fingertips (this is a blessing and a curse). So, here is an extremely long photo blog of our summer vacation to Utah.

The trip actually started out as a business trip for Glen, he spent the first 3 days visiting Chase branches in Northern Utah and Utah Valley. We drove all the way to Logan the first day and stayed with Glen's sister, Cory, and her family for two nights. (Cory just gave birth to their fourth baby, by the way, a little boy named Adam. Congratulations!!)

Random photos of the kids watching one of many movies on the trip down (seriously don't know why my parents ever went on road trips with 6 kids without portable DVD players):




These are the only pictures we took while in Logan. This is Caleb and his cousin, Kade:



After 2 days in Logan, we drove down and stayed with Glen's parents for the rest of the trip. Here is Glen and kids on the 4-wheeler (standard form of transportation in Genola):



Caleb and Grace, having a bath with Aunt Aliceson (Glen's youngest sister, who is five days younger than Caleb):



It was hard for me to decide which one of these gems to post:







For some reason we didn't take any pictures of the following events, but the first few days in Utah Valley were spent welcoming Glen's cousin home from a mission, Family Home Evening up Payson Canyon, dinner with Glen's best friends, and swimming at the Payson Pool with Glen's family. My parents, two sisters and brother from Arizona, and one sister from Michigan started to arrive at this point. We met up with my sisters, Liz and Becca, and their families in South Jordan for the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house.

My sisters with their families:


Our family:


Me, Becca (Ella), and Liz (photo courtesy of "Pizza in a Cup"):

Becca lives in Arizona, and Liz lives in Michigan. Needless to say, we don't see each other very much :(


We also had a birthday party for Glen's sister Brittney, and brother Brent, who both have birthdays in July. The venue was Glen's brother and sis-in-law's house, Cody and Heather.

The birthday kids, having a great time singing happy birthday to themselves:


Cody (with Brent, Shawn and Cheryl - Glen's birth mom and her husband - in the background):


Caleb with cousins, Gideon and Vin - Cody and Heather's boys:


Grace had a great time getting mighty dirty:


This is Glen's grandpa with his super awesome head and neck cover, perfect for those hot sunny days working on the farm:


The Fourth of July was my favorite day of the whole trip. We began the morning running the Freedom Run 10K. Glen was the winner of our group, running in at 41 minutes! The runners were Glen, Me, John (brother), Becca, and Melissa (sister). Brother-in-law Jared also ran, but he was MIA when we took the picture:


The previous picture was just a facade; this is how we really felt:


Then we headed down to watch the parade with Glen's family. Here is Caleb with his uncles, Nathan and DJ (Glen's brothers):


They saved the best float for last! This is Glen's awesome sister Brittney (white dress), who won the "Miss Genola" crown this year:


Go Brittney! Here is Glen and the kids enjoying the parade:


Okay, this is getting too long. Here are some pictures from other family get-togethers.

My sisters and me at Grandma Pete's (me, Becca, Melissa, Liz):


Me and my man (with cousin Peter and Grandma in background):


Glen and Me with our super happy kids (we were all apparently sleep deprived):


Us with Cheryl, Glen's birth mom:


Family photo at the Payson Pool (Caleb really did have a good time, I promise):


Caleb and cousin Quinn at my uncle Brent's house:



Grace with cousins Lauren, Rachel, and Jacob:


Grace and Ella (Grace's onesie is on backwards. I don't know who dressed her that day):


Caleb insisted on having his picture taken with Ella, too (let's see how tiny I can make my eyes):


Caleb roasting marshmallows:


Lot's of cousins roasting 'mallows:


Five of six siblings. We really missed Candice, who wasn't able to come :(:(:(



And last, but not least, all those in favor of a shorter vacation next time, say "aaaahhhhhh":



THE END.

Traffic

When I drive around with the kids, I try to teach Caleb about basic traffic rules, like green lights mean go, and red lights mean stop. Today while running errands with the kids, I was approaching a red light and Caleb started this really annoying whine over and over. Here is a transcript of our short conversation-

Me: "Caleb, what's wrong?"
Caleb (in super whiny voice): "Nothing, I'm just whining."
Me: "Well, why are you whining?"
Caleb: "Because the lights are red!"

Hmmmmm. Isn't that interesting? Apparently he's picked up on the fact that red lights not only mean stop, but whine annoyingly and continuously as well. I wonder whose behavior he's imitating here. Something to think about....

House Update....or, Why I never clean my house anymore

*Sigh*

I know I said in a previous post that everything was supposed to be finished before we went to Utah. Finished? No. Close? Yes! If you don't care about any of this, feel free to avoid this post. This is mostly so I can look back on this experience with fond memories. Here's the latest...

Two Saturdays ago I left the house in the morning with the children for a rehearsal and my kitchen window looked like this:





Four hours later, we returned, and it looked like this:




Yes, that is a HUGE gaping hole in my house! Glen knocked out all the windows to replace them with one smaller window (cabinets to take the place of windows).

Here is Glen working on the window:



(is it me, or does he look a leeeettle too happy to be doing all that work?)

More of the mess:



Window and kitchen after a day's work. Well, it's actually just the hole where the window goes. It looked like this for a week before the actual window arrived yesterday:




Then when I came home last Saturday after being gone most of the day, my kitchen looked like this:




I don't think I should leave my house any more.

It's definitely slow-going, but we're making progress! I'll post pictures of the finished kitchen soon, along with the finished basement (which, by the way, we're still working on). For now, here is the current kitchen:

Still Alive

I've been a bad blogger. I'm blaming our 2-week vacation to Utah for that fact. I'm still trying to recover from said vacation, and still working on tracking down a few pictures, so until I find those pictures, here are my adorable children.


Glen snapped this picture of them after baths, and it is quite possibly my favorite picture ever taken of them. It captures their personalities perfectly. Grace is a sassy girl, and Caleb is a goofball :)

Stay tuned for Utah fun, and house updates...

I'm Tired

I'm tired. Do you know what time it is now? It's 9:10 a.m. Caleb has now been awake for four hours and twenty minutes. Yes, you did the math correctly. Caleb woke up at 4:50 a.m. FOUR-FREAKING-FIFTY in the morning!!! Is this some kind of joke? Seriously. It all started a couple of weeks ago when he started waking up between 6 and 6:30. He has a child proof lock on the inside of his door (trust me, it's necessary. And he can actually remove it and come out of his room if he really wants to). Anyway, he would wake up and get out of bed and start playing with his toys, loudly. Then, over the weekend, he woke up at 5:30 a.m. two days in a row. Enough is enough at that point, I honestly didn't think it could get any earlier than that. What am I supposed to do at this point? Drop his nap? I don't think I'm ready for that yet. I need his nap just as much as I think he does. Now I'm starting to think he needs it less than me. I tried skipping his nap about a week ago, and he still woke up at like 6:00 the next morning, and the rest of the day was complete misery for everyone.

So with all this waking up too early, I know he has NOT been getting enough sleep (even with his nap) because he has turned into a creature that I hardly recognize. And as a result, I am turning into a creature that I hardly recognize. I seriously cannot get the child to do anything without MAJOR sirens and waterworks. I'm sure my neighbors think I'm abusing him because the screaming and crying is RI-DI-CU-LOUS. Any suggestions? I'm considering skipping his nap today even though he's going to be a total beast without it.

Glen and I have not been getting enough sleep either because of this dang house. Remember my last post about full speed ahead? I am so done. I. Am. So. Done. Everything is more stressful without adequate sleep, and I'm reaching the end of my rope. We're leaving on vacation in just over a week, and supposedly it will all be finished by the time we leave...

Here's hoping for some serious zzzzzzz's soon, folks!