Utah 2014: Day 16

It's always a little bittersweet to leave after visiting family. Mostly we're sad to be leaving our family since we don't get to see each other very often, but after being away from home for two weeks we were looking forward to getting back into our normal routines again. Heidi was very tired and weepy from going without naps and going to bed late at night.

We got things packed and said our final goodbyes to Eliza and her family. We always seem to go home with more stuff than we brought, so we had to pack things strategically to get it to fit. (Ryan's pretty good at that after living out of suitcases [the same suitcases we are still using] for a significant portion of his mission.)

We used curbside check-in at the Salt Lake City airport and I waited inside with the kids while Ryan went and checked in the rental car. I was pretty relieved when he got back. The security people let me keep Ann Marie in the Ergo, which was nice because it was kind of a pain to put her in and out while using the infant insert (which she doesn't really use anymore). Once we got to our gate there was just enough time to fill up water bottles. Ann Marie was crying because she was quite hungry by this point, but I had to hold her off until we got onto the plane. It was kind of interesting, because several people tried to give me reassuring comments. I gave them the responses they were hoping for, but honestly I wasn't that concerned since I knew she was just hungry. After we got on the plane and she was eating it was just fine.

Vanessa, the teenage daughter of one of our friends, was riding the same flights as we were, so she sat next to me both times. She has four younger siblings, so she was a big help in a lot of ways. She listened very attentively to Kevin, helped us carry things, and held Ann Marie when I had to take the kids to use the bathroom.

On the plane in Denver, we learned that we would be waiting 25 minutes for a plane from Boise to arrive because this would be the last flight to Raleigh out of Denver. Once those passengers from Boise got onto our plane, we started taxi-ing away from the airport to take off. Unfortunately, while we were waiting for the Boise plane, there had been heavy rain, which is probably why there were 21 planes in front of us in line waiting to take off. So we waited another 45 minutes before we were able to take off. Since we were in the official taxi-ing area and the plane was sometimes moving, that meant that we were supposed to stay in our seats. When we were third in line and pretty close to taking off, I heard this conversation behind me:

Kid: Mom, I have to go to the bathroom really bad.

Mom: Well, you can't, because we're taking off in just a couple of minutes.

Kid: But I have to go really bad!

Mom: Well, I'm sorry, but I told you not to be chugging so much water.

Kid: But now I have to go REALLY bad!

I felt really sorry for both of them.

But we did eventually take off and it was mostly a smooth flight since we were leaving the bad weather. Heidi cried a bit because she was tired and restless, but overall the kids were really good. I got some reading done.

Vanessa's mom had offered to give us a ride home from the airport since she was picking up Vanessa too, so we loaded all of our things into her car and rode home. The plane landed about an hour late, so we didn't get home until about 2:00 a.m.

Ryan checked on our garden the next day, and I was really disappointed to find out that our tomato plants were not doing well. When we left, it was looking like we would have a lot of nice tomatoes about the time we got back, but a tomato blight had swept through the garden, and now the plants were not doing well. Two tiny tomatoes made it, but then some birds pecked them. So that was pretty sad. The fire ants have also been going crazy eating our cantaloupe. They ate an entire cantaloupe in 24 hours.

So that was our trip! What a great time we had!

Utah trip 2014: Day 14 & 15

On the 14th, we decided to go to the Museum of Natural Curiosity at Thanksgiving Point. I thought it was pretty crowded, but Ann and James said it was much better than it had been when they went on the 10th. I'm guessing that it was so crowded because it's summer and it's also pretty new, so a lot of people are excited to come check it out for the first time. The hard thing about children's museums is that when they are crowded it's hard to thoroughly explore some of the exhibits because you have five other kids poking and prodding the same thing, so it's hard to change variables and figure out what's going on. But we still had a great time. It's a very cool museum and I'd love to go back. Ryan took Kevin, and they were so busy having a good time that we didn't see them until it was time to go. Heidi, Ann Marie, and I spent most of the time with Grandpa Tanner. Heidi had a nice time, but she was very tired after being on vacation for so long, so she was a little weepy. James took her on the rope bridges, and he said she had a good time and was fearless.

I finally found Ryan and told him that Heidi was very done, so we decided to leave. Eliza and Becky both have the plastic plates, cups, and bowls from Ikea for kids, and after seeing them we knew we wanted to get some to bring back home, so we decided to stop at Ikea before going to Becky's house. We bought two packages of each (they're really cheap) and we love them.

We went to Becky's house. I had a nap downstairs before dinner. Several of the teenage cousins (Rachel, Carina, Joanna, Alden, and Will) wanted to have a sleepover at Becky's house since some of them would be leaving the next day, so Amy told them they had to sing us a song first. They went and rehearsed it (Nearer My God to Thee) and then came out and sang it for us.

On the 15th, Ryan and I went to the Provo temple and did an endowment session in the morning while Eliza watched the kids. This was the first time we've been able to go to the temple together for several months. I got a lot of new insights during the session and had some time to pray and ponder about some questions I've had while we were in the Celestial room. I love the temple. When we left I felt like my spiritual well had just been filled.

That evening we had dinner at Eliza's house. She made a huge batch of pizza dough. The kids got to put toppings on their own individual pizzas, and then the adult couples made medium sized pizzas to share. It was a really nice evening and we really enjoyed the pizza. Then we said goodbye to Ann and James, Jared and Kristi, and Mindy and Rob because we were leaving the next day.

Kevin started crying hysterically around 11:00 that night. He was still asleep and wouldn't wake up. It took several minutes for us to get him to wake up. Finally he woke up enough to respond to questions and he said his ear hurt. I raided Eliza's medicine cabinet and found some children's pain reliever, so Kevin took that and then devoured a bowl and a half of Honey Nut Cheerios. Then he said he felt much better. He didn't have any other symptoms after that, so we're not sure if he was sick.

Utah 2014: Day 13

Most of us went to church at James and Ann's ward. They both spoke in Sacrament meeting about the scriptures. James told about the time when he climbed Weaver's Needle. When he was climbing back down he realized he was slipping, but the Spirit prompted him to wrap the rope around his leg, and then as the rope spun he saw an iron rod in the rock that he was able to grab. He said that this experience taught him a powerful lesson about the power the scriptures can have in our lives. After Sacrament meeting we had to say goodbye to Alan and Tiffany and their kids.

Kevin and Heidi went to Primary and nursery and did just fine, although I had to sit with Kevin for quite a while. When we got back I asked Kevin if he had a nice time in Primary. He responded, "No, I didn't like it, because they were just putting rocks in the kids' shoes and I told them not to but they wouldn't stop, and I didn't like that." I asked Lucy (his cousin) for clarification since they had been in the same class, but she wouldn't elaborate, so I have no idea what the rocks in the shoes were about.

That evening Ryan gave Ann Marie a name and a blessing at Becky's house. We had a huge crowd. In addition to Ryan's family, my family, my grandparents, and many of my aunts and uncles and their children came. I think there were about 80 people. Ryan, James, my dad, Jared, some of my uncles, and some of our brothers-in-law were able to be in the circle. What a blessing it was to look around the room and feel the love and support of so many people.

Ryan gave Ann Marie a sweet blessing. In particular, he said that she has a special talent to be a calming influence in the lives of people around her.

After the blessing we had hoagie sandwiches and a variety of side dishes and desserts. It was great to have some time to talk to everybody. We don't get to see our family very often because we live so far away. We were especially grateful to Becky for hosting such a huge crowd. It was a very special day.

Utah 2014: Day 12

In the morning we met at the duck pond to have family pictures taken. We had pictures of the individual families, then we had pictures of the entire family. We haven't seen the pictures yet, but hopefully they turned out nice. Heidi was very sad and tired and refused to smile for any of the pictures, but I think she at least looked at the camera.

After pictures we all had yummy doughnuts and we played around the duck pond for a while. Then Ryan and I and the kids went over to Ann and James' house for a while. James digitized a book (The History of Mapleton) for me. It mentions several of my ancestors and has pictures of them in it.

Later in the afternoon we went to Becky's and the kids did water games and then we had dinner. After dinner we had a family home evening and Ryan's dad told about how he and Ann met and got married, and then he told the story about John Tanner. (It's a really incredible story and makes me feel very awed and blessed to have married into the Tanner family.) After family home evening we had a birthday party for all the summer birthdays. Since Kevin's fifth birthday would be in a few days, he got to have the dinosaur on top of the cake. He was very excited. Then we all enjoyed cake and several delicious flavors of homemade ice cream.

Here is a video of us singing happy birthday. I really enjoyed Kevin's little happy dance at the end.

Utah 2014: Day 11

In the morning we went to the Bean Museum.

Then we went to Grandma and Grandpa Tanners' house for lunch.

Some of the cousins were discussing genetic traits, like whether or not it's normal for a person's second toe to be longer than the big toe.

Alan and Paul (and maybe some others?) were installing a central vacuum system in Ann and James' new house.

In the evening we went to Becky's house for dinner, and then the adults talked while the cousins watched home videos that Ryan and his siblings had made years ago.

Utah 2014: Day 9 & 10

On Wednesday, the 9th, we packed up our things and headed south for the family reunion with Ryan's family. We had been debating about whether to stop at Temple Square or not on the way, but Ann Marie made our minds up for us by starting to cry for food just as we were coming to the right exit. So we stopped and found a place to park across from the Conference Center. I fed the baby, and then we took a tour of the conference center, guided by a very nice senior missionary who was very understanding of our active kids.

After the tour, we decided to hurry and see a couple of other things before going back to the car. Just as we were about to cross the street, Ryan heard a "Tch-tch" and turned to see his sister Amy looking out of the window of a van. (Ryan is hard-wired to hear that sound even in a noisy crowd, but I was still impressed that he heard it over all the traffic in Salt Lake.) So we said hi to them and then crossed the street to Temple Square. We took a look in the tabernacle and then decided the kids were more than done. Heidi was really disappointed because she had wanted to touch the temple (and she still keeps talking about how we didn't get to touch the temple--if I had realized how much she had been fixated on that idea maybe we would have made the effort to go touch the temple even though they were tired).

Once we had made it back to the car we headed to Ryan's sister Eliza's house. We stayed downstairs in her basement apartment, which was actually where we lived during the summer right after we got married, so that was cool. Even better, this time we got to sleep on a nice bed instead of leaky air mattresses (after we got married we replaced our air mattresses twice because they got tiny holes in them that liked to start leaking in the middle of the night). We brought things in and chatted for a while and then went to Becky's house for dinner with ice cream sundaes afterwards.

The next morning Ryan went and talked to some former professors at BYU. I had been hoping to go walk around on campus and say hello to the professor who was my supervisor when I TAed for Physical Science 100, but I was really tired and I opted to stay at Eliza's and take a nap instead. Between having a new baby and two active kids and being busy spending time with family, I never did get a chance to go on campus at all. Oh well.

In the afternoon a lot of people went to Thanksgiving Point, but we ended up staying so that Heidi could take a nap. We heard later that it was way too crowded, so it was probably better that we didn't go that day.

We had dinner at Becky's house most nights.