Over the River

And through the woods, To Grandmother's house we go!

When we realized that the kids had the whole week off at Thanksgiving, we thought it would be fun to spend the holiday in Utah with family and friends.

And fun it was! We shopped, saw friends, hung out with all our Utah family, ate great food, and played lots of games.

We were able to squeeze in the Museum of Curiosity at Thanksgiving Point with friends one afternoon. We'd been there once a few years ago and the kids were excited to go back.

It's a fun place, with so much to experience and do. (Hang like a sloth, anyone?)

(I can't believe Bug was able to build this without anyone destroying it. Of course, right when he was about to wreck it while we filmed in slow motion, a kid DID come through and destroy it, but I was surprised that didn't happen every minute or two as he tried to build it.)

Thanksgiving day meant lots of food prep. I had come down with a pretty bad cold on the drive out (it was as if my body knew that I was slowing down and ready for a week of no responsibilities and no stress, so perfect time to be out of commission), so I stayed out of the way and let me kids step in. 

And they did a great job! It was fun watching them work with my mom and brother (and Daddy-o did all the pies, of course).

Peanut even helped with setting the table.

We had a great afternoon with my whole family--they all have Thanksgiving together every year, but I don't think we have been around for it since the year we got engaged.

Codenames is the perfect game for a big group with a big age span.

We had a lot of fun with some of the "connections" people were trying to make.  

This sweet little baby was teething and not having as much fun as most of us, poor thing. But we had a few happy moments playing together.

Friday was our last day and we were able to fit in visits with more friends (some of our favorite neighbors from Charlotte!)

and another round of cousins at their new house. We now have my whole family and two of Daddy-o's siblings who live in Utah.

And then Saturday morning, we woke to this! Not what we were hoping to drive home in. I started having flashbacks to February when the same thing happened as I was trying to leave with the kids and we had a very miserable first part of our trip.

But this time, the roads weren't quite as bad, and Daddy-o did the driving so I didn't have to panic :) 

All in all, it was a great week. I keep saying it, but we are so glad we get to see our families more often--we're pretty lucky with the people we are related to!

Life as a College Student

D and I took 8 kids to BYU for a day. Bean keeps telling me how much she loves walking around college campuses so she can imagine what it will be like to go off to school (and while I'm glad she's excited about it, I'm also screaming in my head--SLOW DOWN! YOU ARE NEVER LEAVING ME! These next 5 years are going to go way too fast.)

We made this kid's day with a stop at the Paleontology Museum. It amazes me how many things I never knew about, or explored, while I was at school. Some of it was due to having to actually go to school and study, I'm sure, and some because they weren't in areas of strong interest for me, but I do love how having kids has opened up my world in all types of ways.

The kids enjoyed seeing people actually working on some of the fossils. I think this is where Bug can imagine himself someday. 

Bug was in heaven, answering questions, explaining things. He loves to talk about the things he's passionate about. And he seemed to have a willing and grateful audience.

 

Can't forget the youngest one. D's baby was amazingly chill and happy being dragged around all day with the big kids.

Next stop--the Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum. We've been here before, but it has been COMPLETELY remodeled. It is huge now and has some amazing stuff to see.

Love this quote. It fits how we try to homeschool and how I try to live my life. Sometimes it's a hard fight against laziness. But the world really is a fantastic place.

Our tour continued with lunch in the WILK and a stop at the bookstore.

We tried to find the most expensive book we could and this one won. I think the kids are properly terrified of how much college textbooks cost.

We visited the new science building.

This part of campus was pretty much my home for 4 years, and now it all looks so different that I can barely figure out where I am.

We went into one of (maybe THE) biggest lecture halls on campus. Gotta love those GE required courses where you sit in a lecture with 800 students 3 times a week.

And the Eyring Science Building.

Girls in science.

(I can't decide if I love this kid's shaggy hair, or just really need to get him to a barber. He isn't tossing his head like he usually does when it gets this long and it's kind of cute.)

We had to stop in the library, of course. It makes me giddy to think of how happy this kid will be to study in a place surrounded by so many books.

This is what I got when I asked him to stand by the flowers so I could get a picture. Non-posed pictures are always better, haha.

Quick stop at the art museum. I love this display.

It was dinner time by this point and some of the kids were done (some didn't make it to this point of the tour, but went straight back to the car). We called it a day for the BYU tour and then dropped the kids at their respective grandma's and D and I (joined by her husband a little later) met up for an couple hours of dinner and uninterrupted conversation which was pretty awesome. Love seeing my kids with my friends' kids, but also love getting to actually talk. Old friends are fabulous.

The sculpture garden. We'll leave that as an adieu.

Short Stop in UT

I guess the lack of pictures reflects the shortness of this stop.  We made it to Uncle J's house in time for bed Thursday night, had a long day of playing with the cousins Friday--trampoline, collecting eggs from the chickens, putting on a circus (which I do have videos from, but Blogger isn't letting me put any of them on right now), riding bikes, an early morning run for me, and lots of catching up.  Then, Daddy-o and I snuck off for his MBA reunion.  Can't believe it's been 5 years!  We all got together for dinner and while Daddy-o caught up with his classmates, I got to hang out with the MBASA (Spouse Association) ladies who I did book group and playgroups with.  It was fun to see everyone again, even if it was only for a couple hours.  Saturday morning, we were off, bright and early, for another LONG travel day.  California, here we come!

Congratulations, Graduate!

It's official now--Daddy-o is a 2008 Master of Business Administration (MBA). He's worked so hard these last 2 years--we're really proud of him. The graduation itself was fairly uneventful--minus Bugaboo's head-bonk and a couple bathroom trips, we made it through the 2.25 hours pretty happily, thanks to LOTS of snacks. Daddy-o's parents and 2 brothers made it to the ceremony,along with my mom, and then we were joined by another brother and the wives and kids of the 2 Utah brothers which made for a fun get together at our house afterwards. Grandma got her cousin line-up, except for the two babies who she took seperately. Doesn't this look like a fun group of kids?
And my little man who is learning to be silly with the best of them, and the baby cousin.