Family Ties

We really miss living close to our families so when we get a chance to be around so many of them all at one time, we jump on it. We decided to brave the 2 day drive to Utah with our 3 small children this summer so that we could enjoy some serious grandma, grandpa, cousin, aunt and uncle time. It was well worth it.

The driving part was pretty uneventful. There were moments where I'm sure we all just wanted to jump out of the car and run away. Sam even resorted to calling Keith and I fat because of an argument concerning his DS (we could barely contain our laughter over that one). But mostly the kids just watched movies, ate snacks and made a huge mess of the car.

Once we got to Utah we immediately jumped head first into constant family time. As mentioned in the previous post, we had lots of fun celebrating independence day with the Irwin side of the family. We made a quick trip up to Salt Lake to see the Haas side and to reunite Sam and Mary. Seriously, those two love each other so much. I love it.

The rest of our first week there we mostly spent with the Irwin's. The kids had so much fun playing on the big water slide in Grandma and Grandpas backyard. Even though the water felt like it came directly from the snow melting on the tops of the mountains. I loved the four little girls all in their matching tutu bathing suits! We had a little grandchildren talent show one night, during which Audrey performed her 'Happy Tappin With Elmo' routine, Sam made shadow puppets and Ben interrupted almost every act. We went to a water park one day followed by Lagoon the next. It was so fun and so tiring.

We took a drive up to Sundance one day with Grandma and Scott and Cristina's kids. Once there we took a ride on the ski lift but since Ben is obviously to small and wiggly, Grandma stayed at the bottom with him, Simon and Isa while Keith, Sam, Audrey, Isaac and I rode to the top. It was so beautiful and I remembered just how much I love the mountains. The kids had so much fun and Sam managed to drop his glasses too. Thankfully he droped them in the only place where we possibly could have retrieved them, on a trail close to a lift operator. We were able to yell to him and he stopped the lift, got the glasses and brought them to us. Phew!

The kids and I headed up to Salt lake later in the week to spend a day with Sara, Madison and Ally at the zoo. It was a fun afternoon and Ben's most favorite part would definately have to have been riding on the train. He LOVES choo choo's! Ally left for home the next day so it was nice to see her one more time before she left.

We dropped Keith off at the airport on Sunday afternoon so he could head back to San Antonio for a week of work and we headed to Sara's house. It was so much fun to have Ben and Madi together. I wish we could live near them all of the time. They played pretty well and got into plenty of trouble together. We learned not to leave the baby pool filled up, otherwise they would jump in as soon as we weren't paying attention. Mary also slept over every night except for one and she and Sam spent almost every day together too. The kids had fun with their cousins on the trampoline and swimming in the pool every day and stayed up way too late every night. We got to celebrate Katherine's sweet 16 with her while we were there too. It made me feel so old!

We slipped away one day to meet with Grandma at an aquarium for the afternoon. They loved seeing all of the different fish and had fun trying to touch the sting rays. I think that Grandma and I were the only ones brave enough to actually touch them. Sam was thrilled that he got to see a few sharks and they loved the penguins too.

Keith came back on Friday night and Saturday morning we packed up and headed back home. It was sad to say goodbye but I think that we were all ready to sleep in our own beds again. Thanks, everyone, for making it so memorable!