Robins Reunion

Friday, August 7, the Robins Reunion began.  In the afternoon.

That morning, we took Rex and my sister-in-law Jess back to school shopping.  Jess is actually cool and knows what to buy  kids and how to convince them to buy cool stuff so I'm glad she came along.  My parents took Henry, Alice and Jess's daughter Korey to the Thanksgiving Point Farm.  My parents said Henry was crazy and tried to get into all the enclosures.  I said, yes he is.

Then the Reunion started.  It was at a Maple Dell Boy Scout Camp in Payson Canyon, about 45 minutes south of my parents.  We decided to rent a tent for $15 rather than pack one and $15 is cheaper than the gas to American Fork and back.  The Reunion was fun.  And too short.  I have probably mentioned this before, but I LOVE family reunions.  My family is pretty amazing.  They are funny, gossipy, and easy to be around.  And if you get sick of talking to one person, there's like a million other people to choose from.

Once we arrived, Greg and Alice took off to fish at a nearby pond.  Rex and Grandpa Brian left us too to go on a hike.  I thought about going on the hike, but did't think Henry could hack it.  Turns out the hike was pretty easy but Henry had fun climbing rocks and getting dirty with Korey.

Then we had dinner.  It was not good.  And I remembered why I always lost weight at Girls' Camp.  Than another hike, this time I stuck Henry in the Ergo and he screamed if I stopped moving but Rex and Alice had fun with whichever cousin was closest.  Alice formed a group with some older girls--my cousin's daughter Sophia (she's 9 or 10), and my other cousin's girls.  They gave themselves a name but I forget.  Rex hung out with Sophia's brothers Jacob and Jonas and my actual cousin Tyler, who is 7.   Then a family gathering to hear some stories, followed by a rain storm and s'mores, a few card games and finally a late bedtime.

The next morning, my uncle Moreno rented out the lake for swimming, canoeing, or row boats.  We had to pass the Boy Scout swim test to get in a boat and the water was green so I skipped that.  We all tried the rock wall; Rex, Alice and Greg did some archery; and when I went to try out the ropes course I saw my 80-something year-old Grandpa at the top about to do the zipline.  I didn't get to try because they weren't letting anyone else on by the time I got there.

Rex was a little nervous--even after jumping off the cliff at the Provo Rec Center

That's about as high as he got.

Alice being adorable.

That's about as high as she got.

Me--I'm actually pretty good at doing rock walls despite my newly-announced fear of heights.

Greg cheated and went even though he didn't have closed toed shoes on--he had Chaccos on and I had Toms.  Which one is really safer?

Korey being adorable.

Alice being adorable.

Greg showing off

Rex being a boy.

Alice and Grandma Pattie being adorable

Alice swimming in the nasty pond water.

In the red shirt: that's Grandpa Sune.  He's 80 something.

Then a disgusting lunch and some more chit chat and then time to go.  Really, I didn't get to see half the people I knew and didn't get to meet any of the people I didn't (this reunion is from my great-grandparents down so there are five-generations represented at the Reunion.  That's a lot of people).

Most people went home, but not us.  I dropped Greg and Henry off in American Fork for naps, and picked up Amber and Autumn to head down to Moreno's ranch in Provo to ride horses.  Only us, Glen, Laurie, Tyler, Noah, Leigh and Rudy were there so we got plenty of riding time.  And here's the thing about Moreno's horses: they're work horses so they don't do follow this trail without the rider doing anything. He just opens up a coral and you ride where ever you want.  It was fun.

Alice and Autumn not wanting to wait their turn.

Rex loved telling the horses what to do.

Uncle Glen led Alice around for a while.

These little girls did a good job sharing.

After that, we hit up J-Dawgs for dinner and home for an early bedtime.

Part 2

Me and my cheesecake on my birthday

Since the drive was such a large part of our trip (nearly 1/3 of the time we were gone) and such a long post, it was part 1.

Now onto part 2.

Part 2 was the few days we spent in Utah just our family.  We like to get in a few days before the rest of the family to allow our kids time to adjust to the time change, recover from the odd sleeping habits of driving for four days, and to do a few things that the rest of the family may or may not want to do.

Monday, we did the dinosaur museum in Vernal.

My grandparents dog-sat my aunt's dog for a few days while we were there.  Henry was in LOVE.  All he wanted to do was play fetch.  Too bad Henry can't really throw a ball yet.

Tuesday, we went to Salt Lake.  My kids love Salt Lake, especially the temple.  It's their favorite.  This year we decided to ride the FrontRunner train from American Fork to Salt Lake.  Alice put this on our bucket list.  And check this out: FrontRunner has a 4 people/$10 all day deal and babies (Henry) are free.  I saw lots of groups of four adolescents on the train.  Good job FrontRunner.

Alice on the train.

Those mountains--triple heart eyes.

A rare moment of not fighting on the train

Family photo at the JSMB

Their favorite temple.  Just after this, we got kicked off the stairs by a wedding.  So many weddings.

Once we arrived, we ate at the Nauvoo house (delicious) and did a tour of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building (Hotel Utah).  Did you know that they hold church meetings there?  Mostly just senior missionary couples, but still, two wards meet in that building.  It's so beautiful.  Then we did a lap around the temple.  Then Henry went crazy for a nap so Greg took him for a walk while the older two and I sat in the last few minutes of an organ concert in the Tabernacle.  With Henry asleep, Greg stayed with him and wrote a few emails (the hazards of running your own business) while the big kids and I checked out the visitor center.  Then we rode the train back to American Fork.

Rex discovered Grandma's Super Nintendo and Alice and Henry didn't leave the closet under the stairs.  And I didn't care.  It's vacation for all of us.

Wednesday Greg said he wanted to try something different--something that we hadn't done before.  I spent Tuesday night looking for something new and discovered a hot pot (hot spring) on the north end of Utah Lake in Saratoga Springs.  The "Utah Lake" part should have been a give away.  It was a trash hole.  A hot trash hole.  I got in because, dang it, we drove all the way out there then walked the quarter mile to the hot pot we were going to have fun.  I put Henry in but he just screamed and then Alice held her feet next to her ears.  It was pretty hot.  After about 10 minutes, we decided to just go to the Provo Rec Center.  Rex went down slide after slide and then surprised Greg and me by jumping off the high dive without any prodding from us.  We just looked up and there he was about to jump.  Of course, Greg and I had to do it.  Rex had to prode me quite a bit before I finally jumped--I really hate falling.

We again finished the night with Super Nintendo and toys in the closet.  Greg took my grandpa and sister's finance (now husband) shooting that night and Hannah came down to hang out for a while.

Thursday, we headed to Provo again.  We went to the BYU Palentology Museum, which Greg had never been to before.  Rex and I used to go every few weeks when we lived in Provo.  Rex and Greg did the nerdy thing and read every card to every dinosaur.  Alice, Henry and I took pictures and compared our sizes to dinosaurs'.  For such a small museum, we had a really good time.  Then we went to the BYU Museum of Art, most of which was closed for renovations.  We got to see two exhibits, which was plenty for us.  I wanted to show the kids what a real art museum looks like after we made our own this summer.  We finished the day with ice from the Creamery on Ninth and a brief walk around campus.

Finally, more Super Nintendo and toys in the closet when we got back to American Fork.  My parents arrived with Jess and Korey (my sister-in-law and neice) past bedtime.

So ended part 2 of our month-long vacation.

Alice really loved drinking the milk out of her cereal with Grandma's straw bowls.

BYU Palentology Museum--this is why dinosaurs are bigger than people--Alice

Alice got the Pink Sparkle ice cream--as suggested by the server--all little girls like the Pink Sparkle she said.

Rex got a double scoop.  He still owes me $2 for not finishing it.

All my favorite things in one picture.

I went on a long, dry beautiful run all over American Fork.  It was glorious.

Oh look, it's the boys playing Super Nintendo.

How to Survive a 30 hour (one way) Road Trip with 3 Kids

I really have nothing to say to this.  The title of the post that is.  A 30-hour road trip is pretty miserable.  And then to have to do it again to get home?  And then to have to repeat the next summer?

It's like having a baby.  The first time you're really excited and have no idea what's in store.  Then labor starts and keeps going for 30 hours.  You survive and claim "It wasn't that bad!"  But then the next one comes around.  And you know it's not that bad because you've done it before without dying, but you also know that it is bad.  So you try not think about it or plan anything for a long time because you know no matter how much planning you do, it's 30 hours.  It's not fun.  And then your sister invites you to Yellowstone for next summer and your oldest child insists that you have to go to Utah every summer because that's what you've done since he can remember.  But I just don't think I can handle another road trip next summer.

In all seriousness, I did prepare a bit.  You can go a head and Pin this if you want.

First, I borrowed a bunch of DVDs of movies that I like.  If I'm going to be in the car and listening to this stuff, I might as well enjoy it too.  I recommend most Pixar movies.  Except Up.  That is the saddest movie in the world.  I can't watch it.  Also, let's be honest, my kids were sitting on the butts for 30 hours, just let them watch movies.

Next, I downloaded a few audio books for myself (I typed books on tape the first time.  Haha).  Nothing like a man droning on about who-knows-what you lull you to sleep despite the baby shrieking next to you.

My kids do get bored of movies after the third or fourth of the day.  I bought them each a new toy they could play with in the car.  Rex got maze balls and Alice got a latch board.  I also loaded up a box with crayons, dry erase boards, coloring books, regular books, cars, clippy girls, My Little Ponies, and any other toy that didn't have a ton of small pieces.  Rex and Alice didn't touch any of them.  I take that back: Rex played with his maze balls a bit and Alice got the clippy girls out one day, but mostly we watched movies or looked out the window.  Driving, even if it is through Kansas, just makes you feel weird and it' hard to play while feeling wierd.

For Henry, I tried cut up pipe cleaners in an old spice jar, an electronic tooth brush, crayons, finger puppets, cars, animals, books.  All of which entertained him for a bit.  But let's face it, we drove to Utah and then to Idaho and then home again.  With toddlers, it's just best to pray that they sleep a lot.  We also sang silly songs and Greg let Henry play with the Go-Pro for a while.  And then we just fed him lots and lots of M&Ms one at a time.

#3: Break the trip up.  My kids can handle 9 hours of driving time a day, which takes about 11 hours to complete between gas/pee/food stops.  I also like to leave around 6 am so we arrive around 3 and have time to play and don't feel like we've been in the car all day.  This becomes difficult as the days progress and we get sick of waking up at 5 and like to chat with the family we're staying with past 6 am, but it's nice when it happens.

Lastly, eat breakfast before leaving.  I used to try to sneak the kids in the car in the morning to get a few mores hours of sleep out of them.  Yeah right.  Just wake them up, get them dressed, and feed them.  That's one less meal at McDonald's (barf).

Now really lastly, pack one "driving" bag for the family.  This way you only have to unpack one bag each night as you drive.

Here's how we did it:

We left Friday, July 31st at 6am and arrived in Princeton, Kentucky around 2:30.  Then we hung out with Nana for a while and put the kids to bed early (another plus of waking them up at 5:30).

Day 2 was my birthday and started with a birthday cake from Greg's aunt and grandma.  We left around 7:30, made a wrong turn at some point and arrived to cheesecake in Wichita, Kansas sometime around 6pm.

Ahh, a screaming baby.  Henry last half way through the first day rear-facing like a good little 17-month old should be.  We turned him around at lunch to keep from killing him.

With cousin Randall in Kansas

We went to 9am Sacrament on the Sunday the 2nd, then left for the 12-hour drive to Vernal, Utah.  We arrived in at our hotel around 2 am, got the kids settled, then I walked Henry up and down the hallway of the hotel while reading Conference talks for an hour.  He finally fell asleep only to wake up when I tried to put him in his crib, so we walked some more.  He didn't fall back to sleep.  Eventually, I decided hotel rooms are pretty baby proof so I went to sleep while he walked around a pitch dark hotel room.  I found him asleep on the floor with Greg's phone in his hand around 5 am.  He woke up at 7 am.

Coloring for about 15 minutes.

Never such a beautiful site as this.

Somewhere in Kansas--our entire country is really beautiful.  Even Kansas.

But mostly those glorious mountains we are about to enter.

The next morning, we ate a leisurely yet mostly disgusting hotel breakfast followed by a dip in the freezing pool.  Then we got dressed and headed to Dinosaur National Monument.  That was #15 on our bucket list.  It wasn't as great as Greg remembered it being when he was 8.  It was about the same as I remembered from when I was 14.  So I'm sure the kids thought it was amazing.  We stopped by the Vernal temple on our way out and arrived in American Fork around 5.

Vernal Temple

We then spent two weeks (ish) all over Utah and Idaho

We were going to leave on Monday, August 17th and drive straight through to Kansas, but that's 14 hours, and when it came down to it, we just couldn't do it.  While at church on the 16th, we decided to leave that day.  So I left my kids with my parents in Primary and went home to pack.  We left around 2 and arrived in Cheyenne, Wyoming around 10 that night.

Monday we drove to Kansas, leaving and arriving late again, just to repeat the next day in Kentucky to finally arrive home to Charlotte on Wednesday the 19th around 8pm, 3 weeks to the day after we left.

People often comment on how  lucky we are to take such a long vacation.  Really the vacation only 2 weeks.  We spent 8 days driving!  And while I'd really like to go to Yellowstone with my sister next summer, I think a National Park a little closer to home might win.  It's just so much driving.

But we had a blast.  Those posts next.