Nifty Fifty

Last month, the boys and I headed to Utah for a week to celebrate my mom's 50th birthday. Everyone not on a mission managed to be there, so it was a lot of fun.

I've talked before about how awesome my mom is, and my sister did a fun tribute to her as well, so this post will be more of a recap of what we did while we were together.

Here are some highlights:

• Not being on an airplane anymore.
  

  

  This was such a lovely, welcome sight . . . for the last 20 minutes.
• Sitting on soft Kentucky bluegrass. Seriously the stuff feels like velvet compared to the poky grass in the Midwest.
  

  

  
  

• Joseph surviving this slide.

  

  
  

• Meeting my 9-day-old nephew G., who is pictured here, but only sort of.

  

  
  

• Enjoying the lovely Logan River trail at its loveliest.

  

  
  

• Hanging with my niece (and soul sista) K., who mistook me for her mom enough to not be scared of me.

  

  
  

• Seeing Kaylie laugh at this sign.

  

  
  

• Going to a splash pad and running into our friends the Tanners there! (not pictured. oops.)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Taking pictures of beautiful baby G.
  
  
  
  

  

  There are about 40 other pictures but I figured you couldn't handle the cuteness overload.

• Heading up to Utah State with my dad and sons. Kevin's train is still in safe hands.

  

  
  

• Watching my talented brother-in-law Matt win a few matches of tennis. He's pretty much famous.
• Sending Joseph to the backyard to go camping for two nights. (The other nights he slept diagonally in my bed, so this was really nice!)

  

  
  

• Dealing with Joseph going to bed at 10 pm Mountain Time and waking up . . . too early. (Actually, this was not a highlight . . . it was part of most every day. My poor child.)
• Seeing all my family members sleep-deprived, stressed, not feeling well, etc. and still trying oh so hard to be polite and patient with each other. And mostly succeeding.
• Attending the temple when my brother received his endowment. Spain is going to get an awesome missionary!
  

  

  
  

• Vacuuming a lot.
• Reaping the blessings of having a sister on the mission such as being able to borrow her swimsuit. (And lots of her other clothes made it home with me.)

  

  
  

• Enjoying a beautiful day at Bear Lake, complete with some sugar-coma shakes.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  This girl had no fear.

  
  
  
• Having my mom give my boys haircuts because it always looks better when she does it.
• Driving very fast on I-15 down to Orem and still getting tailed. It was crazy land! (But I was never scared, which was a blessing.)
• Getting to see most of Kevin's family!!! They were so kind to all meet up with us, even for just a few hours. I don't think I have enough good things to say about them.
• Watching Matthew love on Craig's shirt.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Watching Joseph play with his cousins.
• Watching Joseph play with second cousins.

  

  At one point, the three big boys all had their legs out and Matthew crawled through, but by the time I grabbed my camera they were just doing this.

• Seeing my grandma. She even fed us dinner!
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Attending my sister's stake play. I think this was one of my favorite versions of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat." Just the right amount of silliness. And it is the perfect musical to take a toddler to, even when it's way past his/her bedtime. (Especially with a child named Joseph.) And of course, Leslie was the most fun to watch of all the cast members.
• Talking with Spencer on the ride home about dating and whatnot.
• Not getting the gum and sunglasses stolen from my car.
• Not hiking the Wind Caves.
• Still vacuuming a lot.
• Not brushing my teeth with tap water from Mexico.
• Not buying my mom a tree because it was a rainy day. (We really did consider, it Mom!)
• Hanging out with Leslie.



The rain hadn't started by the time this picture was taken, but it started pretty soon after.

• Eating at Elements for my mom's birthday meal. (It wasn't actually her birthday, but we counted it.)
• Playing the "Person Game" with my family. We are hilarious.

  

  And cute.

• Celebrating K.'s first birthday with cherry chip cake. She ate a lot of it, and what she didn't Matthew ate off the floor for her.

  

  Happy cousin story time.

• Only being in the room for the cool parts of "Independence Day" when my dad was watching it.
• Being introduced multiple times at my parents' ward as Kyra Moon Moon (never by my parents, I might add). This never happens when I go to Duchesne.
• Losing a wipes box I had just found/claimed as my own/received as a gift from a friend who said she didn't need it anymore even though it probably wasn't the one I had lost. (I had been pretty excited to have it back, so it was funny that I lost it so fast.)
  

  

  Bright side is, I got to see him that day, too. He's cuter than a wipes box.

• Watching people make boats to sail down a nearby irrigation ditch.

  

  

  Joseph might have been cheating.

• Watching people extricate the boats from a long tunnel in the ditch using sticks and poles of all varieties.

  

  I think the milk jug was the main culprit, but there were others.

• Going on a walk with my parents again on the Logan River Trail, and having a picture taken by the Logan City mayor who was walking by.

  

  
  

  
  
  
  

• Watching the end of a really cool lightning storm.
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• Going through TSA Pre Check. It's been a while!
• Not being on an airplane anymore, and most importantly . . . seeing Kevin again!

It was a great trip, and at least 70% of the time it made me want to live in Cache Valley. (The other 30% of the time was probably when I was sleep-deprived and grumpy and trying to get Joseph to eat foods he didn't want to, so those probably shouldn't be factored into the statistics that much.)

Happy birthday mom! Thanks for letting us celebrate with you!