The Heinholds left Tuesday morning, and then I did laundry all day Wednesday and packed for our trip to Utah. We broke the trip up into 2 days and got to Laramie Wednesday night and then into Bear Lake Thursday around 1pm. Hayden has always been a good little traveler. Reid and Beckett....not so much! Neither slept much and both cried and yelled A LOT! It was not fun. I had to take a picture and document the one nap Reid finally took for a brief moment in time...Paul and I kept looking at each other with an expression that meant, "why are we doing this?" It really was worth it once we arrived at Bear Lake! We wish we could have stayed longer it was so beautiful and the kids had such a great time.
Reid was pretty cautious about the kayaks and only went out once with me. He must not have trusted anyone else. He did love staying in the little sand bar are and playing with his "sharky," whale, and other sea creatures.
Owen building sand castles
Hayden LOVED being in the kayaks and spent most of her time in one. Here she is with Uncle Marcus.
Pure joy!
It was a little windy the first day we went to the beach and the kids got a cold.
My other kids did not like the feel of sand or grass, but Beckett does not seem to mind one bit. Because our Condo was right across from the beach he still got to take naps and enjoy the beach.
Some of these pics above may be from the next afternoon playing at the lake. In the morning we went and played mini golf. Hayden and Reid also went and did crafts. Reid painted a wooden snake and Hayden made a fancy necklace. Friday we also rented paddle boards and even Hayden tried them out. At first she stood up in her kayak and then got even braver and tried it on the big paddle board!
Reid got company the 2nd day with his sea creatures! Reid refused to walk through this little tide pool, he kept saying "it's dirty!" But then he played in it the whole day! Silly boy.
That night we went out to eat at La Beau's and got burgers and delicious raspberry milkshakes.
Afterwards we went outside and took lots of pictures with my family and played around. The weather was PERFECT and so was the company.
This picture reminded me how obsessed Reid was that we all stay on the sidewalk! If one of us tried to cut across the huge grass field he would yell for us to return to the sidewalk. It was hilarious.
Me and my sweet kids
Our first attempt at a kids picture
Siblings
Ian has been waiting to reenact a childhood photo that has been hanging in my moms house forever. We were pretty happy with the result!
The whole gang
I know we are biased, but seriously, how cute is this kid?!?
Family pictures by the water: Oldham Family
Pratt Family with Reid being a stinker
Cousins are the best!
We left first thing Saturday morning because everyone in Paul's family was home for one day in Tooele and we were taking family pictures. His oldest brother Russ ended up not making it, so it was sad to only have one person missing!!! Anne and Steve smoked a pork and rented a big inflatable water slide. The kids played all day and we ate. It was also very special because it was the last time we were all together with Grandma Joye. She was very happy that day and enjoyed visiting with everyone. Paul got to ride in to Salt Lake with his dad and Grandma and have a nice talk with her. Around 5 we got ready for family pictures.
Me and my sister in-laws
Family picture with Grandma Joye. Sad I have my eyes closed and Beckett was napping.
Love this one of Grandma and Hayden. Grandma always liked Hayden and definitely spoiled her from time to time!
One of Hayden's favorite cousins. Tess and Hayden are two pees in a pod!
It was so windy during pictures. Hope they turned out ok...
All of our cousins. 18 total and one on the way!
The next day we were planning on heading back to Salt Lake because Michelle and her family were at my parents house for a few more days. But Beckett became inconsolable and I took him to urgent care and found out he had an ear infection! So we waited until Monday morning and met my family at the aquarium to celebrate Owen's birthday. Owen is obsessed with Jelly Fish and knows about everything there is to know about them. His knowledge was very impressive! So the aquarium was the perfect place to celebrate.
Afterwards he chose to eat lunch at McDonald's for his special day. Hayden was delighted. I was not, so Paul went and picked up Pizzeria Limon for all the adults and I have to say it was delicious! It lives up the the hype. Michelle was awesome and even made Owen a jelly fish cake! The fruit by the foot tentacles were a hit.
It was so fun watching Owen open presents and being with him on his special day.
During our time in Murray, Hayden and Reid slept on an air mattress in the family room downstairs. They were so cute sleeping next to each other and really did a great job sleeping through the night every night. I had to snap a picture of this moment. It's these moments that seem to make motherhood worth it!
The next day we headed out to Wheeler Farm and looked at all the farm animals, fed the ducks, sat in cow carts pulled by a tractor and played at the playground.
Wednesday morning the Oldham family headed out. We were sad to see them go. We stayed another day and Grandma Kathy took Hayden birthday shopping. We thought the American Girl Doll store was still at Fashion Place Mall, but they didn't even keep it a year. Hayden was pretty disappointed but happy to pick out a Lego Friends birthday gift. Aunt Shannon came with us and then also came to the Murray pool while we swam. That night we got together with my friend Kim Smith. She has always visited me wherever I have lived so I'm glad I got to go to her this time! Hayden and her daughter Katelyn always have a great time together.
We stayed all of Thursday morning. Shannon came over before she headed to work and we went to Kneaders for the delicious all you can eat French Toast Breakfast. Ian and my dad were at work when we left but at least we got to say goodbye to these guys.
We were going to meet Paul's parents in SLC to ride the "choo-choo" other wise known as "tracks" but on the way in they got a call that Paul's grandma wasn't doing well and went in to be with her. While we waiting for more news we went to lunch at the Red Iguana and rode the "choo-choo" to Temple Square. We gave the kids a tour of the grounds and talked about our wedding day. We got a hold of Anne and Steve and they said she was stable and we could come visit with Grandma Joye.
We didn't know at the time but it was our last time seeing Grandma Joye. I'm glad we were home so Paul could have that time with her. He lived down the street from her his entire childhood, not many kids get to have that experience. Grandma Joye died right around midnight on Friday night. We had planned to leave on Monday or Tuesday but stayed until the funeral on Thursday. There was lots to do with funeral preparations but we still managed to have a nice time in Tooele. The kids love playing in Grandma Anne and Papa Steve's backyard and riding the 4-wheelers to feed the horses and llamas.
Beckett loved the swing
Trent and Mark's families were awesome to come out to Tooele to hang out with us. We had lots of fun cousin time.
We got to meet Frankie this trip as well. Frankie and Beckett will be best of buds someday!
Sunday night was Paul's extended families reunion at his Uncle Paul's house in Taylorsville. It was fun to see everyone gathered together and kind of perfect timing to reflect on the life of Grandma Joye and share memories. Poor Hayden had a high fever and we found out after that she had strep throat!
All the girls
All the boys, so many little ones!
Most of Paul's cousins
Cousins and spouses
Everybody all together
Steve's siblings and their spouses
Tuesday Paul and the boys and I went to Nordstrom Rack to do some back to school shopping and Anne and Steve met us a little later for lunch at the Blue Lemon. Then we did some birthday shopping for Hayden at the Nordstrom sell.
Wednesday night was the viewing and Thursday was the funeral. It was a beautiful service and nice to hear about her life through the eyes of her closest friend and children. It is always bitter sweet when a grandparent passes on. Of course we are happy that she is reunited with her sweetheart who she has been separated by 32 years, but it's also hard to say goodbye. Her funeral made me reflect back on the life of my grandparents and how I miss them too.
We left Friday morning and drove to Sydney, NE. This is a RARE photo of Hayden taking a nap in the car. We must have worn them out! We made the rest of the drive Saturday morning. It was bitter sweet arriving back home. It is always nice to be home, but we miss being surrounded by family. It was also a sad day because we realized that our brand new freezer stopped cooling and I lost most all of my 4 months of pumped breastmilk...I cried for the whole day, part of the next day and now I feel like I have accepted what happened. I was going to quit the beginning of August, but now have quite a ways to go. I was so angry, sad, frustrated, devastated, have I covered every emotion I felt? There are worse things in life for sure, but man, what a waste!
One last memory I don't want to forget was that Reid sang "Ba Ba Black Sheep" over and over again for our ENTIRE trip! He was totally obsessed, we could hear him singing it from the moment he woke up in the morning to when he was laying down at night, it was ridiculous!
