West Bound

We traveled out west when Mae was 1-month old and besides her birth it was the highlight of our summer! We knew for 6 months that we were going to vacation with the Monsen-Whitehouse family in Lake Tahoe and we thought we were just going to fly from Ohio to Nevada, but when we looked at flights it was WAY too expensive for that. So we went the less expensive, slightly crazy, but definitely more fulfilling route of flying to Utah, renting a van, staying for three days in West Jordan, driving to Lake Tahoe for five days, driving back to West Jordan and staying for three more days and finally, flying back to Ohio. It was a busy trip, but worth every minute spent with our family and friends who are way too far west for my liking!

Flying with four kids was not too bad! The three older kids are so independent and make it so easy on me. In fact, they put three of our seats together in the middle of the plane and two together in the back and since we couldn't all sit together, the boys took the back two seats and we hardly saw them the entire flight. Big kids really change the game when it comes to having multiple children. 

The flight went really well and Miss Mae, no surprise here, was an angel-

This picture with Brian was one of the few times she was awake during the flight. She would wake up, be super confused, eat a little and then fall right back to sleep to cope with the confusion. No complaints here! 

Eve was pretty pumped about the screens on the back of each seat and had those headphones on for the entirety of the flight!

When we landed I was lucky enough to see Kristen at the airport before she flew back to Texas after her grandpa's funeral. We were going to be able to see each other for about an hour, but we sat on the tarmac for about 40 minutes waiting for a gate to open up for our plane, so it ended up being only about 20 minutes. You better believe we made the best of those 20 minutes, though!

 

 

Eve and I got off the plane first and walked with Kristen straight to her gate while she held Mae and we caught up on as much as we could.

It wasn't nearly long enough, but she got to hold my baby, give Eve a hug and see my boys right before she boarded. I love that lady so much and seeing her any time brings joy to my soul.

After we got our bags and our rental van, we went straight to Grandma Cindy's where Riley and Kache were finishing up mowing the lawn so they were the lucky guys that got to hold her first!

I sure love it when my family gets to hold my babies and this was just the beginning of all the holding that little gal was going to have! Grandma Teresa was the next visitor to stop by because she still hadn't met Mae yet and it was so fun to see Mae in her arms.

After Grandma Teresa left all the cousins and aunts showed up and showered her with love and adoration and I loved every second of it! Mae coped with the noise and passing around the same way she handled the confusion on the plane and just slept. We were a little worried about the night she was going to have, but it was the perfect way for everyone to hold her and adore her.

I didn't get enough pictures with the big kids, but they were running amuck and having a blast being reunited after several months (and an entire year for Thad) of being apart. Cousins are the #1 reason we love Utah!

After the Mae Adoration Party ended Mae laid in this position on her blanket in the quiet basement for 30 solid minutes-

It was adorable. 

And she slept through the night.

She is perfect.

The boys had a sleepover with Caden that first night so Jayci slept at Grandma Cindy's with Eve and we were lucky enough to wake up to these cutest sleepy faces:

Brian was also able to meet up with Mike Hawker for an awesome run in Draper and had some pretty amazing views-

Not too shabby!

That morning I went to Grandma and Grandpa Bulkley's to say hi and they both LOVED seeing Miss Mae!

 Grandma is clearly not in the best health, but it sure lit up her morning to hold that little girl. And, of course, Mae was perfect and just sat there happily. It was really sweet.

 Grandpa Ralph just stared at her in awe and had tears of joy. He also got his picture of his sweet twin baby girls and talked about how he lost one of them to whooping cough when she was a baby. It was a really sweet morning and I'm so glad they got to see and hold Mae.

I spent the bulk of my day doing this at Brigitte's house-

While Brian took Mae to finally meet Grandpa Russ-

And she just passed out the cutest little 1-month old smiles I ever have seen!

After I got my hair done we were able to squeeze in a swim session at Aunt Jen's and Uncle Riley's before heading to dinner at the Hill's.

We sure love these Wilson cousins of ours! My kids are never ready to say goodbye when we leave. Love them all so much!

The Madsens and Millers also met up with us at the Hill's and we had a wonderful night! It's so crazy that we 16 kids between the 4 of us, but I sure love it when they all reunite and pick up right where they left off. It always take a minute, but I remember those times as a kid and I'm so glad we all have such awesome kids that played all night so the adults could talk and talk and talk some more!

 The view from the Hill's backyard wows me EVERY single time!

I love these three ladies so incredibly much and each of their friendships has helped me in so many different ways. I feel so lucky to call them best friends.

It's no secret that Heidi loves babies and she had Mae in her arms for the majority of the night!

 

 I have a pic of her smoochin' on every single one of my babies' cheeks and it makes me so happy!

After our fun (and late) night with friends we spent Saturday checking out Grandma Cindy and Grandpa Kent's house they're flipping up in Sugar house, getting ready to drive to Tahoe the next day and spent the evening at the park with my extended family.

 I probably won't be able to see this house in person when it's all done, but it was so fun to walk through and I can't wait to see pictures of the finished product!

And, not sure how this happened, but this is the only picture I got of our fun night at the park-

I mean, at least it's a fabulous one, but there were a lot of people there! We were just having too much fun!

And you can definitely tell that fun was all that was being had...it wore these kids out!

I kinda love sleeping kids, so I had to take advantage of the situation and capture their sweet dreams faces before heading to Tahoe the next morning!