Goodbye Utah

After the 4th of July came and went, it was cram time before we headed back to Texas to finish out our summer and get ready for this baby to come. Everyone kept asking me if I was ready to be back in my own home and my own space, and honestly, I could have stayed longer. I didn't have to cook, grocery shop, clean or do my regular day to day stuff AND I got to hang out with the people I love most! I was totally ok being in Utah for so long, but with only 9 weeks until baby girl, there was lots to be done in Texas. So we just did the best we could to soak up every minute with our Utahns.

The day after the 4th, we headed to Tooele to attend the annual Whitehouse BBQ. 

Scott and Margaret live right on Stansbury Lake and our boys had tons of fun swimming and paddle boating with dad.

Straight from there we headed to Hailey Hood's home for a mini WJ reunion.

Kristen.Kim.Hailey.Shelley.Shelissa.Kristina.Cassidy

I love these gals so much and have so many fond memories from high school with all of them!

And from there, I can't keep straight what we did when, but we sure had a lot of fun!

Swimming and BBQ with the Wilsons

Birthday Celebration for Brig

We went to dinner at Cheese Cake factory then to the movies and had such a fun girl's night out to celebrate the big 3-0 for Brig.

I sure love these sisters of mine, and am so glad we could spend some quality time together.

Hair

We had to have Brig beautify all of us before we headed back, so she cut all the boys' hair and colored mine. She is a gem and I just wish she could do my hair ALL the time.

Herriman Reservoir with Cousins and Friends 

 It's always fun to have Heidi come join in the family fun. She is so easy to be with and I can't get enough of her. Later that night I went to her place and she loaded me up with tons of baby girl clothes. I am so grateful for the wonderful people in my life. Thanks, Heid!

Christensen Girls

I didn't have a chance to see Brian's cousins because we weren't going to be there for the 24th, so we decided to meet in American Fork and have fun pool day at Whitney's mom's house.

Thad had this life jacket on and had the time of his life in the pool! I was finally able to see that he is so much better in the water if he just feels secure. I know it's a silly thing to not have realized sooner, but I have several friends with 5 year olds that can swim well and I just thought he should be swimming better. He went down the slide and was doing cannon balls in the deep end and just had a blast. So I finally got over it and bought a life jacket first thing when we got back to Texas. He has loved keeping up and playing in the deep with all his friends!

Hanging with Grandpa

These boys love their Grandpa Russ and help out in the back yard whenever they can. We sure miss that back yard!

Our Last Night

We didn't get a chance to celebrate Father's Day for Grandpa Kent, so we had a get together at the park and it worked out perfect because we were able to say goodbye to all of my family.

 

At the end of the night Haley ran around taking selfies with everyone and I loved it!

Wes loved it too!!

 They were all pumped to get to ride in the back of Brig's truck one more time.

After an awesome evening with my family we did some packing and Bre came down to see me off. We seriously have some of the best people in our life and I am so glad we got to spend so much time with them. Utah is a good place and I really hope we make it back there one day.

The next morning we were off at about 8am, and it was goodbye to Utah for reals. I cried as we waved goodbye and until we got on the freeway. I get emotional when I think about my kids missing out on getting to know their cousins, and also their cousins and aunts and uncles, not knowing them. It was so fun to see everyone experience what a hoot Wes is, and with another baby on the way it sometimes makes me sad to think about. But we are really so blessed to be able to come for long periods of time and when we are away, it is ok and we love being on our own too. Life is funny and Utah is awesome.

I honestly thought the ride would be a whole lot worse than it was, but the boys did great and even though my ankles got ginormous, it was not too bad!

This was Wes about an hour into the drive. I think he had been in the car so much while we were in Utah, that he was just used to it and had a much easier time sleeping this time around.

We lunched in Moab and the boys were pumped about the play place.

Ha! But they really did love it.

 The Grover's were kind enough to host us in ABQ again, and we really couldn't be more grateful for that. It was so nice to show up and have some beds ready and waiting and enjoy a little time with the wonderful hosts.

The boys were zonked and expressed it in twinning fashion, so I had to document! 

Man they make my heart so happy.

It doesn't get much better than that.

The second day was a little more stressful as our transmission started to act up in Lubbock. We knew it was a possibility as the check engine light had come on a couple days before we left. We were able to get it checked out and the dealership was pretty confident we could drive the 1,300 miles with no problems, so we upgraded our AAA membership and prayed our little hearts out that we would not get stranded in the New Mexican desert in the middle of July. We tried not to stop too much because it was the shifting gears that was bad, but between 7 months pregnant, an excessive water drinker and a 5 year old, we still had to stop a lot for bathroom breaks. Well, our prayers were answered and we pulled into Round Rock on the evening of July 11. It was good to be back home and luckily we only found one dead scorpion in the boys' garbage can. 

What an awesome trip we had. Goodbye Utah, until next time.