Should We Go or Should We Stay?

After Brian headed back to Connecticut, the boys and I did pretty much anything we wanted. We sure love Dad for letting us play while he works!

SLEEPOVERS:

FRIENDS:

We always have to make a trip to Logan to see these lovelies.
And it was so fun to make a day trip over to Bear Lake with them.
Kind of a long drive for a short trip, but as you can see, totally worth it!

I’ll have to admit, I was a little shocked when Breanne was letting her baby, who is a month younger than Wes, gnaw on one of these.
I couldn’t say no after the smaller baby was doing it, right!?
As you can see, he was totally in love with it!

Too bad these two aren’t close to be better buddies.

Love me some Bre.
Seriously one of the best gals I know. I can’t say it enough.
Thanks for doing anything and everything for us, Bre. We love you!

We sure miss the Gustaffssons back here on the east coast, but so glad we cross over every now and then in Utah.
Nicole was the third person I told I was pregnant with Wes. She was 8 months pregnant with Bo when I found out, and it was fun to share a month of pregnancy together.
We met up at City Creek and it was her first time meeting Wes, so super fun to get together.

I am very interested to see Thad with Wes as the years continue to pass. He is so silly!

BOYS, Boys, BOYS!

Always fun to be with these gals.
I had not seen Emily since Rachel’s wedding 2 years previous, so it was so fun to be together and catch up!

The group got bigger as the day went on, and we had a blast…How could we not?
Look how stinking cute our kids are!

Connor(11/30).Harper(12/5).Millie(1/13).Riley(1/30).Wes(1/22)
Almost oldest to youngest.
This line up is never going to get old.
I hope to have many more throughout the years!

These three chilled out on the couch for a while after the photo shoot.
I love Millie’s fingers in her mouth and I love Riley and Wes’ pacis attached. As long as they have something, it is a beautiful thing!

After Thad’s insanely long nap at Angie’s, he finally got to hang out with Cohen. Lucky.

We always have to make the dinner trip to Haley’s, of course!

I could hang out with these gals every night for the rest of my life.
Best.Friends.Ever.

SWIMMING:

Although this girl will show Thad up in the pool for forever, she was a good sport to hang out with him.
She is a crazy water bug and I hope Thad can learn a thing or two from her throughout the years.

Although Thad looks quite content in the above picture, he brought me to tears at our attempted swimming lessons.
After we decided to stay an extra week on top of the second one, I thought I would put him in 5 days of lessons for $35…about $165 cheaper than back home.
Yes, that’s all fine and good IF your child will get in the water.
The instructor was bad, Thad was HORRIFIED, uncontrollable and inconsolable.
We both left in tears with a refund. I don’t know what I’m going to do about this kid and water.
Probably end up spending a lot of money.
Don’t worry, I still love you, Thad.

Wes and Jo make a perfect pair, although I’m pretty sad that this is the only picture we got of them together.
Come on moms, we don’t see each other enough to not get a 100 pictures when we are together!

Aunt Jen’s pool was also a huge hit and we were able to go a couple of times while we were there. :)

Wes was a good sport to just sit and observe. This kid could not get any more awesome.

FUN AT GRANDMA’S

D
Thad just star gazing on Grandma’s lawn on a beautiful summer night.

Wes just sneaking a tomato from Grandma’s garden.
We looked away and when we turned back, realized he had bent far enough to snag one of those sweet, baby tomatoes.

I think he liked it.

COUSINS, COUSINS AND MORE COUSINS!

I’d have to say from this picture that the Doyles sure love my kids!
We love them too!


It was so funny when Grandma Cindy was around and they each wanted her attention.
This is each of them trying to show off the best somersault.
So stinking cute!

My boys sure love this Leah Shay!

How could you not?-

Fun at the aquarium:

It’s impossible to hold this child and not smother him!

Thanks for the fun afternoon, Grandma Cindy!

Wes loved when Aunt Jenny held him.
Even more so when she read to him.
Babies sure look good on that lady!

And Ty teaching my kid to do spit wads.
Yes, we were letting our kids do this in Chik-Fil-A

Gross.

Humorous, very humorous. :)

And these Boise Wilson kids are the main reason for our decision to stay the third week.
Grandma Cindy planned for a family outing, and we just couldn’t pass it up with these sweets coming into town.
So we got to spend an awesome day with all of the cousins at
LAGOON!!

After the swimming lesson fiasco, I was pretty nervous about Thad at Lagoon.
He was a serious trooper and went on more rides than any of the cousins younger than 8.
He was awesome!

These two rode as many rides together as they could. So cute!

We almost didn’t bring this stroller. What would we have done?

This was such a fun day, and as you can see by this last picture, we were truly EXHAUSTED!
We were there for about 10 hours and it was pure fun the whole time.
Grandma Cindy and Aunt Haley were kind enough to keep an eye on Thad for a while so I could hit up some of the big kid rides.
I couldn’t be more happy that we stuck around a little longer for this. It was so worth it to spend such an awesome day with family.
Seriously, so fun.
We cannot wait to go again!

We ended the weekend with a family dinner. Before the Wilsons headed back to Boise.

I sure love these people.

And although it seems like the remainder of the trip was spent with my family (cameras tend to come out more when kids are around), there was some Monsen/Whitehouse visiting in between:

But after all the fun, and too much of this (or maybe too little according to Brian):

It was time to bid the Beehive State farewell after our 1-week, turned into 2-week, ending up 3-week impromptu summer trip to our favorite place.
We even cut the trip a day shorter than planned because we were ready to get back.

Yes, this is my nervous face pre-flight:

But who am I kidding?
My kids are awesome, and Thad even learned some patience along the way. :)

And when all was said and done, they truly earned their wings.

To say this trip was amazing is truly an understatement. Everything about it was absolutely perfect.
These trips home can cost lots, throw us off schedule, throw other people off schedule and be exhausting, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
If we’re going to live back here, trips like these are absolutely necessary. Our kids need to know their family and be in the midst of their everyday lives.
These trips never end up making me more homesick, but more grateful for the awesome family we have and that we get to make special trips to see these special people.

Thanks for welcoming our surprise with open arms, Utah.
Thanks for letting us stay as long as we wanted, Bre.
Thanks for all the awesome memories, Everyone.

We love you.