Our Trip to Utah

Todd found out a while ago that he had to go to Utah in January to do an inventory observation as part of an audit. He had to do that on Monday, January 3rd, so we decided to make a weekend of it. We wanted to surprise Todd's family and just show up at his parent's house on New Years Eve. I told Todd's sister Julianne that we were coming so that one, we would have a place to stay and two, so she could plan a New Years Eve party for us to crash. Julianne and I worked together to plan the party and Todd and I got things ready to go on our end. We left on Friday morning and headed towards Las Vegas in hopes of avoiding snow. The drive to Utah wasn't too bad. I drove first so I wouldn't have to drive in snow if we ran into any. We arrived at Todd's parent's house a little after 8pm. We parked in front of the neighbor's house so that no one would see us. We walked up and opened the door. When we walked inside we all yelled "Happy New Year." Carolee, Kim, Julianne, and Care's kids came running to see who it was. It was pretty funny, and our surprise visit went well. We had a delicious fondue dinner, played some games, and just hung out. I don't know how, but after a very long day in the car our kids were still awake when the ball dropped at midnight. Then we headed to Julianne's. The kids were asleep about two minutes after we got on the road.

We decided to head up to Logan on Saturday to visit my dad and grandma. We got up to Logan around lunchtime and went to the Golden Corral for lunch. It was great to be able to talk with my dad and have the kids be able to spend time with their grandpa again. After lunch we drove over to my grandma's house and visited with her for a little while. The kids loved playing on her stairs. Rory kept saying, "Daddy, you see me?" It was cute.

Both Spencer and Kristina were going to be down at Todd's parent's house and we hadn't seen them on Friday, so we decided to go over there again so that we could visit with them also. The kids had a lot of playing with their cousins and Andrew loved holding baby Rachel. He was so cute with her.

On Sunday we decided to stay at Julianne's house to give the kids good naps. In the morning we took the kids outside to play in the snow. I played with the kids while Todd took pictures. We had a lot of fun.Rory is such a cute little marshmallow.Andrew was trying to throw snowballs or iceballs at Todd. Me and the kids were pretending to be puppies in the snow.

Andrew has wanted to go ice skating for some time, so Todd took the kids ice skating. It was pretty funny!

After they woke up from their naps we headed south. We had plans to go to my aunt's house for dinner, but we decided to visit Todd's grandparents on the way to Orem.

We visited them for a little bit and then headed to my aunt's. My cousin Suzie also came down for dinner. It was really good to be able to visit with my aunt and Suzie.

On Monday Todd finally had to go to work. His audit was up in Murray at 9am. I wasn't feeling very well so I just stayed around my aunt's house until Todd got back. I got to go to lunch with my friend Dani. I don't know when I will see her again because she is moving back up to Washington this week. It was really good to spend some time with her and reminisce about old times.

After the kids woke up from their naps we went over to the Diaz's so Andrew could play with Danica. It was really great to be able to talk to Dess again. I talked her ear off. After that we went over to Joe and Allie's for awhile.

We had plans to go to dinner with Nici and Danny and their boys at a pizza buffet restaurant in Provo. Dinner was good. Afterwards we took the kids to University mall to play at the dinosaur. Andrew has wanted to go play there ever since we left Utah. All the kids had fun. It was amazing to see little Aaron. He is walking now, or maybe running would be more appropriate. That little guy can move. After playing at the dinosaur for awhile the kids all wanted to go to the Disney Store. Rory was so cute--all she wanted to do was hold Jacob's hand while they were walking.It's Todd's dream come true--he has been talking about Rory marrying one of the Adams boys so we can be in-laws. He is so funny! We spent a little while at the Disney Store, then went to Game Stop. It was time to call it a night. It was very difficult to say goodbye. Andrew was so sad. When we moved away from Utah, he didn't really get to say goodbye to Jacob. I think it was better that way. It was very hard for him, and for Todd I think. We got back to my aunt's house and got the kids to bed.

On Tuesday we headed back home. The drive home was not as good as the drive to Utah. Nicole was feeling pretty sick, so I decided to drive the whole trip. Rory was also having a rough day and was quite grumpy. We made it home in pretty good time, said hi to Meemaw and Trish and got to bed. All in all it was a pretty good trip.