Utah or Bust!

A few months back, my little brother informed me that he would be blessing his new daughter on August 11th, and he wanted us to come. The flight to UT for a family of 4 is pretty expensive, but with a little luck and 2 "almost free" tickets from Southwest, we decided that we would be able to send myself and one of our children. Since Brooklyn still had a lot to do to get ready to start school, we opted to send Lily out with me and have Brooklyn stay with friends during the day and with Daddy at night. It was a hard decision, but it ended up being a pretty neat experience!

But before we could head to UT, there was work to be done! I was about to see, for the first time, 3 of the 4 new babies born into our family this year, and I had some nephews with birthdays to celebrate! So I got to work making gifts for all my sweet nieces and nephews before we made the flight into family land!

But that's not all I was doing, between the 1st and the 6th of August, I crafted, babysat, performed at some crazy luaus, had a few awesome play dates, taught the Gospel Principles class at church, took Brooklyn to some Kindergarten dental appointments and eye appointments, and crafted some more! And on the day of my flight out, I was able to teach hula and babysit the cutest little boy in our ward named Mason. Brooklyn is obsessed with him and helped out a ton! She even told me that if we ever have  another kid, she wants to name him Mason :)

After hula practice, we packed up the car and headed to the airport. Lily was ecstatic (since this was the first time SHE could remember going on an airplane.) She told everyone at the airport that she was going to see her grandmas and grandpas, and made many friends in the process! And once we were on the plane, she cheered and squeeled with delight through the whole take off and landing!

Random-est moment at the airport: a woman kept staring at me and finally said "OK, I'm just gonna take a gamble...do you know Becca Rigg?" I had to laugh since this has been happening to me my whole life! Then I told her that I not only knew Becca, but I was her sister. It turns out that she was at the girls camp that Becca and I danced at the month before and had seen us both! Small world!

When we arrived in UT, Grandma and Grandpa Hanks picked us up at the airport and took us home to get some sleep. Then, the next morning, we were up and ready to play play play! First on the list of things to do, a trip to the local trampoline park with auntie Janna and Cousin Audrey. IT WAS AWESOME!

Later that day Grandpa took the girls for a ride in his bike trailer. Lily still tells everyone (including random strangers at the grocery store) about riding with grandpa on his stroller bike!

That afternoon, we were even privileged to watch Uncle Craig brush up on his bow staff skills with one of his old friends. It was very special :)

I wasn't able to get pictures of everything we did in Kaysville since I accidentally left my camera at HOME! but we were also able to watch the Lorax at the Kaysville theater, take a trip to the mall where grandma bought the girls some pretty awesome toys from the Disney store, and Uncle Tyler treated me to an amazing dinner at Red Lobster where we laughed a ton and took turns bantering with our poor waiter. And the next morning Tyler even made us stuffed french toast before we headed down to Pleasant Grove to see my family.

We had so much fun in Kaysville, despite the short visit, and the fact that Lily managed to puke on her poor Grandma before we left. My favorite part was watching Lily play with her cousin Audrey, who is about 3 weeks older than Lily. They both have such huge personalities and it was fun to see them interact!

Lily's favorite part was getting snuggles from her amazing grandparents and having some time with Mommy all to herself!