Utah trip 2012 part 7: other pictures

Here are some other pictures Ryan took while we were in Utah. (Ryan took all the pictures, by the way.)

This is one of my grandma's roses:

Oh, and I think I need to see a psychologist, because we had everything unpacked and put away the day after we got back. This is definitely not normal behavior.

Utah trip 2012 part 6: Ellen's baptism and everything else

One of the most special events of our trip was getting to attend my sister Ellen's baptism and confirmation on Saturday. Our family is so blessed to be members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and to have a father who has always been worthy to use the priesthood to baptize each of us when we turned eight years old.

Ryan made a batch of cinnamon rolls for us to eat for breakfast that morning. They were very yummy and sugary, which is just how Ryan likes them.

Here's Ellen with a bracelet Aunt Colleen gave her. She wore the same dress that I wore after my baptism. (Mom had a cute white dress for her, but she didn't want to wear it.)

There was a very special feeling at the baptism. Dad baptized Ellen, and Ryan and Grandpa were the witnesses. Kevin sat down close to the font to see. After the baptism I was a little surprised when he turned around and started crying and saying, "Car? Car?" I guess it was a little scary to see Ellen immersed in the water like that.

After the baptism we all went to the Relief Society room to wait for Ellen and my dad to get into dry clothes.  Kevin seemed to feel a little better about it all after Ellen came in. He saw her come in and exclaimed, "Ellen! All wet! Your hair all wet!"

(By the way, Kevin really liked Ellen. He quickly learned her name, and every time we drove up to my parents' house he would get excited and start saying, "Ellen! Ellen's coming!")

We have a family tradition of telling the story from The Friend (our church's magazine for children) called The Comforter before someone is confirmed, so Melissa shared the story and wrapped a quilt around Ellen to tell her about how the Holy Ghost is a comforter and helps us to feel warm and safe. Then my dad confirmed Ellen a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and she was given the gift of the Holy Ghost. In the confirmation Dad gave her a nice blessing and gave her some counsel about how the Holy Ghost will guide and help her throughout her life. It was so special to be able to be there with Ellen on this special day. The gift of the Holy Ghost has been a great blessing in my life and I'm excited that now Ellen has been given that gift too.

(Unfortunately, Heidi had about had it by the time Saturday rolled around, and she had a meltdown at about the time Ellen was confirmed, so I didn't get to listen to that as closely as I would have liked to. Hopefully it was special for Ellen.)

Next we all took some pictures. Why oh why was I not more vocal about my opinion that we shouldn't take the pictures facing straight into the sun? But oh well.

These ones under the tree turned out pretty nice, though.

Jeanette, Sue, Colleen, and my mom:

After the baptism we went back to my grandparents' house for a while so that Heidi could get a little nap before the luncheon at my parents' ward building. That was somewhat helpful, but she still ended up screaming for a good portion of the luncheon too, which was frustrating. But there was good food and it was nice to get to spend some time with family. It was exciting to meet my cousin Drew's fiancee, Kayla. Heidi took a three-hour nap when we got back to my grandparents' house, and Kevin took a four-hour nap. They were very happy after getting some good sleep.

I ended up coming down with a yucky stomach bug that night and didn't go to church the next day. I was feeling much better by dinnertime, just fatigued. We had Sunday dinner at my grandparents' house, and in addition to my family and Jeanette and Larry, several of my aunts and uncles on my dad's side came. I hope I didn't get anyone sick, but I haven't seen any of them since before we moved to North Carolina, and since I was feeling better I thought it would probably be okay.

And then on Monday we flew home. Our first plane arrived late in Chicago Midway and we had to run to our connecting flight. We were the last people on the plane. The flight wasn't completely full, so Heidi and I got a row to ourselves, but Ryan and Kevin were all the way in back instead of right behind us. When the flight attendant asked me what I wanted to drink and I told him I wanted Sprite, he got a concerned look on his face and asked what was wrong. I said, "What's wrong with Sprite? and he said I just looked a little down. I guess I was pretty tired. And plane flights tend to give me headaches. (Fortunately, this time I was prepared and brought a film case half full of ibuprofin.) Anyway, I told him I was just tired after a long trip, and he said maybe I should get a vodka instead of Sprite. I said Sprite was fine. It was late at night by this point, so they turned off the lights, which was great because both of the kids were able to get to sleep much more easily. Our plane landed in Raleigh around 11:35 at night, and we got home around midnight. Kevin was famished. I was glad our house smelled clean (because I always worry that it might have a bad smell that I don't notice because I'm used to it). And I was glad to have my own pillows. But we were also sad that it will be a long time before we get to see my family again.

Utah trip 2012 part 5

On Friday the house got really full. Aunt Sue and Uncle Spence, and then Aunt Colleen and Aubrey, arrived and we spent the day hanging out at my parents' house. It was pretty packed but it was so fun to see everyone.

I got to spend some time helping Melissa work on her puff quilts (this should give you an idea of what those are). She pinned and stuffed squares and I sewed. I also got into my mom's ribbons and made some cute bows for one of Ellen's friends who had invited her to a birthday party (sorry, no pictures, but they really were darling). And I brought quite a bit of ribbon home with me too. Ribbon bows aren't quite as fun to make as hair flowers, by the way. Ribbon is too slippery and finicky.

At one point during the day Kevin went out the front door without anyone realizing it. It was pretty scary. I already wrote about it in my journal, so I'll just copy and paste that here:

Today we lost Kevin for a little while. It was a scary experience. My parents have a fenced yard and we locked the gates using karabiners, so we’ve been able to just let Kevin go play in the backyard without having to follow him everywhere like we do at home. As long as he’s downstairs or in the backyard I don’t really have to worry too hard about him. Well, this afternoon he was playing in the backyard, and then he came inside and I thought he had gone downstairs where Ryan was to watch a movie. So I was doing other things and assuming that he was just fine, whatever he was doing. But then I decided to check on him and that was when I found out he wasn’t with Ryan and he wasn’t in the backyard. I looked in the front yard and he wasn’t there either. I didn’t quite feel panicked yet, but at the same time I was really nervous because I didn’t even know where to start looking. I had no idea how long he had been gone or which direction he had gone. I was afraid that we had lost him forever, and I knew that life without Kevin would be empty. I was in the front yard and couldn't see him, so I said a quick prayer that we would be able to find him, and I looked once more inside the house and then went back out the front door. And there he was, running back towards the house along the sidewalk carrying Ian’s toy drill, barefoot. I was so relieved and grateful. He hurried to me, and as I looked at his face I could tell that he had been frightened and that he was near tears. I picked him up and hugged him. We will probably never know where he had been or how far he got, but I am so grateful and I know that it was an answer to my prayer from my loving Heavenly Father who watches over every one of his children. I am grateful that he was in the neighborhood and that he hadn’t run into a busy road and gotten hurt.

Utah trip 2012 part 4: Wednesday/Michelle's graduation

We spent most of the days with my family at my parents' house. They have a fenced yard with a nice playground and a sandbox, so once Ryan rigged the gates so that Kevin couldn't open them, we would just send Kevin out back to play without worrying about him. I must have a fenced yard someday! Kevin was really in his element.

I'm really glad Jeanette and Larry could come. I've only been able to meet Aunt Jeanette a couple of times, and I had never met Uncle Larry, so it was nice to spend time with them.

Wednesday evening was Michelle's high school graduation.

Here is the senior choir singing Thou Gracious God Whose Mercy Lends. They did a lovely job.

Ryan did a panorama of the basketball arena where the graduation was held.

Here is Michelle walking out to line up for the commencement ceremony. She's right in the center of the picture with the long brown hair.

Switching the tassle:

The kid with the big hair:

Here's a picture focused in on Michelle. I'll give you a hint: She's wearing a white robe. Okay, I'll give you another: She doesn't have her hat on and she has long brown hair. (This was after the "baby toss"--i.e. they let the kids toss their hats but not very high.)

Melissa, Grandpa, and Uncle Larry:

Michelle after the graduation:

Utah trip 2012 part 3

My Aunt Jeanette and Uncle Larry also came to visit and were staying with my parents. We knew it would be a little crowded and decided to ask my grandparents if we could sleep at their house, thinking our kids would sleep better without so many people around. It was nice to get to visit with my grandparents a lot while we were there. My grandma and I looked through her large collection of fabric and she sent a lot home with me--I'm excited to work on some new sewing projects!

On Tuesday my parents were both at work and the kids were at school, so we walked from my grandparents' house to a nearby park.

I think if I'd realized we were going to take pictures I would have put contacts in, but these pictures actually turned out okay. We used the timer and a tripod that Ryan found while cleaning his office at school. So here's proof that our family does exist in the same place at once. Maybe someday I'll get around to having family pictures taken.

On the way home we noticed that somebody had this petrified wood displayed in front of their yard.

Utah trip 2012 part 2

We are very excited that Brigham City is getting a temple. It is a beautiful temple and there is a great feeling about it.

Heidi loved my dad. When they picked us up at the airport I was taking her out of the Ergo to put her in the car and out of the blue she reached for my dad. It made me so happy. She has a lot of stranger anxiety lately, but she wasn't afraid of him at all. She just snuggled right up to him.

Heidi playing with Michelle, Elizabeth, and Ellen in the backyard:

2012 trip to Utah: the plane ride

Knowing Kevin's general temperament, I was very apprehensive of taking him on a plane. But I really wanted him to get to see my family, and I also really wanted to get to be there for Ellen's baptism and Michelle's graduation, so we decided to go anyway. Much to my surprise, Kevin was great on the plane ride to Utah! (I think he had a bit harder time on the way home and Ryan ended up being pinched and having his arm hair yanked on.) We bought seats for both kids, and car seats have to be by the window, so that meant Ryan was in a row with Kevin and I was in the row in front of them with Heidi. (We did that so that it wouldn't matter if Kevin kicked the seat in front of him. And yes, it was absolutely worth the money to have a place to put Heidi so she would actually go to sleep.) Kevin was a little scared for the first part of the plane ride and kept asking to go get in the car. But he also was excited to be riding in an airplane and had a good time once he got used to it. We brought my laptop and some movies, and that kept him pretty well entertained. I didn't ever have to pull out the coloring book or the magna doodle or the books that I had bought to surprise him with if we needed something new to entertain him.

On our first plane we stopped in Tennessee to pick up more people before going on to Denver, so we had some time to wander on the plane a little. My friend Annie's parents, who had been visiting her the previous weekend, were actually flying home on our same flight, so Annie's mom took a picture of Kevin on the plane and texted it to Annie so that Joseph (Kevin's best friend) could see a picture of Kevin on the airplane. Then we let Kevin get out of his seat and look around for a while, and the pilot invited Kevin to come into the cockpit. He let Kevin pretend to steer and push buttons. Kevin thought it was pretty interesting and acted like he already knew what he was doing.

Here's Provo:

And here's Mount Timpanogos:

I do like all the trees in the East, but I still love the feeling of having mountains looking down on you and being able to see so much of the sky.