For over a month I got a long, dreamy hiatus from real life!! Since the house we were renting in California was sold, we had to work out a temporary living arrangement for the last month of our time in California. We decided that I would stay in Utah with my mom for the month while Ryan stayed with friends in Cali and finished up his residency. This option saved us money as well as allowed me a much needed visit to home :)
Saying goodbye to Ry for so long is never easy...but we were all very excited to spend time with family and friends and to enjoy beautiful Utah...so leaving wasn't so bad.
Luckily, my dad came out to drive home with us. We drove the whole 12 hour drive in 1 day...so I was immensely grateful to have my dad there with me. But when we got to Utah we had the royal welcome. We walked into my moms house to see welcome signs and balloons :) and Ryan's dad was super sweet and stopped by to see if we needed anything. He ended up buying us dinner and a few groceries!! I have been so blessed with such great family members who do so much for us!!
While there in Utah, we really lived it up and had a large list of Utah fun we checked off!! I am super mad at myself for not getting more pictures of all the amazing Utah adventures we had:( But I was just busy having too much fun I guess. Luckily, I took at least a few pictures...
Of course I spent as much time up beautiful Provo canyon as much as I could- I just have so many wonderful memories of Provo canyon!! We had to visit Bridal Veil Falls :) the kiddos had so much fun climbing up rocks and playing in the water...
I was so so excited when my favorite person ever, my sis :) said she was coming to Utah as well!! We tried to spend every moment we could together while we had the chance!! I just love that gal and don't see her enough :( Again, I am so angry at myself for not getting a picture of me and my beautiful sis together...
One day we went up Provo canyon again to Sundance to ride the lift around the beautiful mountains!! The kids spotted a butterfly in the parking lot and just had to give it some love :)
Here are the kiddos (minus Harper) at Sundance!!
Ryan's mom was so so sweet and took us all to the amazing kids museum at Thanksgiving Point!! All the Kids had a blast and didn't want to leave :)
the water section was a clear favorite...
We came a second time to the Kids museum with Ryan's sister and her darling boys!! The kids had a blast feeding the fish!
We were able to celebrate my niece's 6th birthday with them. She has a My Little Pony party so that was right up our alley. It was so neat to be all finally together to celebrate a birthday. It has been a long time since we could do that!
These cute cousins played and played and played so well together!
Elsie became very interested in dress ups while we stayed there at my mom's house!! It was so cute and made her seem so grown up.
Elsie and her cousin, Harper seemed to be pretty good buddies!! Elsie love Harper and tried to hug her every time she saw her :)
Jane and I got to have a mommy, daughter date. This little gal is growing up so fast so I love when we can have special moments together like this. Jane wanted to get a pedicure and then get a treat!! The girl knows how to plan a great date...
One of the highlights of our Utah trip was being able to go to the Stadium of Fire with Ryan;s family and hear Journey!! It really was an amazing show and we all LOVED it!!
It was really special for me to spend some special time with my awesome parents!! And clearly my kids loved it too!! I got to go to several movies with my dad and he was so sweet and even came with the kids and I to Park City one weekend to ride the Alpine Coaster- which the kids loved!!! I loved having special adventures with my dad.
My mom was the most gracious hostess to us and went out of her way to make our stay so nice!! My kids wouldn't leave her alone, they loved her so much! She allowed them to watch her get ready for work in the mornings and lay with her in bed at night. They were able to really spend some special moments with her :)
On one of our many trips to Costco Jane and Elsie got some matching My Little Pony dresses!
The kids spent a TON of time in the yard at my moms house playing in the sand and water!! What a delightful mess we made:)
We definitely had to try out the new splash pad by my moms house!
Once Ryan finally joined us in Utah we spent a lot of time with his wonderful family. One Saturday, a large part of Ryan's dad's family as well as all his sisters and their families got together for a picnic at a park in Logan! The main reason we did this was so that Ryan's grandma who lives in Idaho could see everyone. We haven't been able to see her in a very long time- so it was so neat to see her!!
Everyone helped me out a ton with Elsie!!
This little daddy's girl got pretty close to mama while daddy was away :)
We were able to recreate a favorite Utah outing that we used to have all the time when we lived there- and go to the new and improved Bean Museum and then get lunch and ice cream from the BYU creamery!! Fun!!
The kids were so lucky to get so much love and attention from Ryan's sweet sisters who we don't see enough of!! Here is Jillyn playing a game with Beckham! the kids absolutely spending time at Grandma Dick's house with all their cousins and aunts!! What a special time!!
And sweet Elsie got so much love from everyone!!
We did so much more fun stuff and I didn't get near enough pictures...I will always regret that :( And I couldn't get all the pictures that I do have on the computer to put on the blog. I was lucky to get the ones that I have. However, my stay in Utah was just so dreamy :) I LOVED every second of it and was so so sad to see it end. I am pretty sure I could have stayed for a while other month...But, needless to say, I was very excited to get to Missouri and start life in our beautiful new house:)
The drive to Missouri was quite eventful...and a bit crazy...but that is a story for another time!! Here is a sneak peak into that crazy tale... I'll explain later...
Luckily, we arrived in MO safely, Our house was still in tact and beautiful, we have gotten all settled and are loving it here so far!! Let the mid west adventures begin!!!
