Annual Utah Trip!

The end of January we got a new minivan. Yes, we've upgraded to a larger family vehicle with another baby on the way and absolutely love it. I wasn't so sure about it when we first started looking, but know we made a great choice and even better...got a great deal! With the new purchase Matt thought we needed to take a roadtrip. We generally go to Utah in the spring, but he had a cousin leaving on a mission, so we headed up in February (too cold) to attend his farewell. As usual, it was a quick trip, but we had a great time.

Carson gets an A+ for travel. He was great! He got to test out the DVD player for the first time and I think he's a big fan. He watched Star Wars the entire way there and back. I brought prizes for him, so every couple hours he'd get to open a bag with a little Star Wars action figure or a new Bakugan. He loved it. Since we've been home we have been successful in not turning the DVD player on again. He doesn't even ask. I told him it only works when we go on long trips. After our eleven hour drive he knows a trip to Target does not count as a long trip.
Blake gets a C for traveling. I love this little guy, but he was not as happy as I thought he'd be and for the most part refused to sleep on the way to Utah. We planned on staying in Kanab to break up the trip, but the kids were asleep at 8:30 p.m. when we drove through town, so we decided to just keep driving. Blake woke up twenty mintues later and would only be happy if I sat next to him. He finally fell asleep at 12:30 a.m. We arrived at 12:45 a.m. Perfect timing! Blake thought throwing his blanket down on the floor for me to retrieve was a really fun game. On the way home he would fake cry and then bang his hand on his armrest and say, "No!". We couldn't stop laughing.
My pictures are not wanting to upload, so this one picture wil have to do for now. He went down to BYU on Friday afternoon. It was funny to be back on campus after eight years. Am I really that old? Yes, I am.

While we were there we got to see my sister, Natalie, and her family in Pleasant Grove. We went to the Dinosaur Museam at Thanksgiving Point with Brian and Gavin. We stayed with Matt's grandparents in Bountiful. Carson just loves his Grandma Renie! We took Matt's sister, Natalie, with us from Provo to Bountiful. It was fun to spend time with her and to have an extra two hands to help with our kids. She even watched the kids while we got some lunch at my favorite restaurant for Valentine's Day! We got to see lots of Matt's side of the family at the farewell and the gathering afterwards. Most of our trip consisted of seeing family, but luckily we got to see some friends too. Thanks Joe and Marci for letting us stop by to say hi! Thanks Mike and Jamie for meeting up with us for dinner. We always feel bad when we don't get to see everyone, but these trips are always a whirlwind and we try to cram as much in as we possibly can!


I'm already really looking forward to our Utah trip next year. Traveling eleven hours with three kids sounds like even more fun!! Can you sense the sarcasm?