We just got back from a week with my family at my brother's house in Utah. All the Cali family flew together and descended upon Ken & Cassie last Saturday. It was so nice to have extra adults to help Dave and I through the airport and on the plane with 4 kids. All the kids were good with traveling (yes!) which means I would love to get away from home a little more. We really haven't traveled because Dave was tied down with school for so many years and we weren't making any money during that time. ;) I pray we can fit in more visits with our family now, especially because my kids are getting older and miss their cousins.
Here's some highlights in pictures, of course;
It was the kids first time on an airplane and they were all fabulous. Toby was the most excited and talked Aunt Lauren's ear off about every aspect of the plane ride and stuff he saw outside. Mr. Cooper kept asking me how high up we were- every 10 minutes. Sydney was good on the plane except the last 20 minutes both ways. She was sick of staring at the same 5 ft radius. I don't blame her- I was too! Jess was cool as a cucumber and listened to her new MP3 player or read the whole time.
Visiting Temple Square after flying in to SLC. The kids were SO excited to play in the snow that that's all they wanted to do on the temple grounds. They weren't dressed for it and got cold pretty quickly. Dave got a stomach bug that morning too (me too but not that bad), so he wasn't up for staying too long. We saw the nativity, walked around inside, and did a quick walk around outside to see the lights. They were amazing!
We had a little time to kill until it was dark to see the lights so we drove around a little and got Jamba Juice for Dave and my queasy stomachs. This is the Cathedral of the Madeline in SLC. I sang in this church every year at Christmas with the Salt Lake Children's choir. It brought back a lot of memories just driving by at this time of year. I remember it being a dark, cold, kinda scary place as an 8-11 year-old. My cousin Cyndi and I would walk around and "watch" the prayer candles before it was time to practice. There was one time I remember vividly having to scratch my nose SO badly during our performance. Our choir director would give the worst evil eye if you so much as moved an arm upwards so I was petrified to scratch my nose. Memorizing song lyrics while I did the dishes at home, singing in a processional past hundreds of concert goers, and the beautiful songs that I remember to this day all came back to me as I snapped this picture. It was a fun trip down memory lane. 
Dad took us past this building that he built while we were in the neighborhood, too.
Sunday was a low-key church day. We slept in and got ready for church at 1 o'clock. All the siblings, Cassie and Mom sang in church, and cousin J was ordained a Deacon right after with both sides of the family there. It was nice to see Cassie's family and Jason & Shelley who were visiting. We had a delicious dinner at the church afterwards.Monday was Dave's Birthday!!! He went swimming and had a huge snowball fight with all the kids and Lauren in the backyard. It had snowed right before we got there and Ken's backyard was about 12 inches of untouched powder for the kids to play in. It didn't take them long to trample over every inch of the yard and use up some snow on this cute snowman. Cassie and I went shopping for food for the week while the babies were sleeping, and I picked up Dave's present at Costco while we were out.
We took family pictures on Tuesday and went to let off some steam with the littles at Kangaroo Zoo while the big kids went to Jump On It. Cassie has a great picture of all the cousins lying all over each other on the floor after the jumpfest. They were exhausted (plan worked!) and everone was hungry. Ken took us to JCW's for gourmet burgers, fries and shakes. We're talking Hickory Bacon, Bacon Blue Cheese, and my pick, the Hawaiian Burger. The shakes were fabulous as well, Grasshopper, Peppermint and EggNog . We had a quiet meal because the kids were busy eating all they could. When we walked out of there Dave said he wanted to come back before we left. It was delicious. Go there and partake if you are ever in American Fork or Lehi, Utah.The big kids played Settlers of Catan, Mao and Crazy Rummy until the wee hours almost every night, including New Years. We put on Kung Fu Panda for the kids to watch before midnight on New Years and they were all asleep before it ended. Jessie was the only one awake because she had a nap, but even she didn't make it until midnight. The one night all the cousins could stay up together and they crashed.
We fit in lunch at Tucano's which was a must on our list. Dave kind of spur of the moment dropped some major dough on 3 fabulous suits after lunch. Jos. A Banks was having a killer sale of buy 1 suit get 2 free. Dave hasn't worn or owned a suit since his mission 12 years ago, and he has been talking about buying one lately. This deal was too good to pass up so suit shopping we went.
A trip to visit Grandma Payne was also a must on our list for this trip. My sweet Toby has been asking for the last year about his "Grandma that lives in Utah." The kids showed her their tricks, played songs on the piano, talked her ear off about all they have been doing at school and home, and they now think she is a super cool Grammy for handing them an empty clothes basket to slide down the stairs in. They loved it! Thanks for fixing us a delicious dinner Gramma even though we were still waddling around like stuffed turkeys from lunch.
It seems our vacation went by wonderfully slow and too quickly all at the same time. Thank you so much Ken & Cass for opening up your home to us! Thank you Ashlynn and Rylen for letting us take over your room for a week. And thanks Mr. Moose and Breven for sharing your room with J and Toby for the week. We all had such a good time and are thankful no one got 'puke sick' like last time! :)Happy New Year to all!
