Utah: Visiting Ammon

One evening we went up to Syracuse to visit Ammon.  Ammon was our bonus hockey kid in 2016-2017.  He came and lived with us for 8 months while he played hockey.  It was wonderful and we were so happy we took him in.  He was such a blessing to us.  He is serving a mission in September so we went to visit him and let him meet Dane.  They also have a great indoor pool.  So we did a little swimming.

Megan wasn't feeling well so she stayed at grandma's 

I just love Ammon.  I loved that I learned I can love someone else's child like my own - and pretty instantly.  I learned that having older kids is cool and I didn't need to mourn my kids growing up.  And he also helped me visualize what having older and younger kids at the same time would be like.  

He is going to do great things for the Lord in Oregon.

Utah: Swimming at Cottonwood Heights

There is a pool by my parents house that I went to all growing up.  It is called Cottonwood Heights Recreation Center.  We went and took all the grand kids and it was so fun.  This is the moment that Brock decided he DOES like swimming and he has been swimming ever since.  So this pool is a miracle.

Dane is always good to nap on our outings

They have these great water slides and platforms.  The platforms were the best.  there is nothing like standing on the edge of a cliff and convincing yourself to jump. 

They started by jumping off the diving boards and high dives.

Then they went for the platforms.  When all was said and done Brock and Megan jumped off all of them.  Noah did the lower one - but spent about an hour and a half on the top one - but never jumped.  There is always next summer! 

I was SUPER proud of them for jumping.  I jumped off the lower one.  It was fun, I felt like I was 16 again the moment my whole body went under the water.

Brock on the lower and Noah on the upper.

Cute cute cousins.  Brock, Megan, Madison, Sam, Noah, Brad, Eddie, and Caroline (Mikey was crying and wouldn't get in the picture)

Utah: Temple Square

As I said in an earlier post we took a vote on all the things we wanted to do.  There were only 2 things that got all 4 votes.  One was just hanging out at grandma Hanna's.  The other was a trip to Temple Square.  That may have been my proudest parenting moment EVER!   My heart lives at temple square and I have always wanted my kids to feel the same way.  Brock had been planning ALL year to do baptisms at the Salt Lake Temple when we came.  Sadly it was closed for maintenance.  We were lucky enough to get Brooke and Micheal and the kids to come with us.

Dane is already falling in love with temple square.

My boys.  Sometimes I can't believe I have 3 boys.  Right now if still feels like I have 2 boys and a baby.  But one day I will have 3 big grown up men.  That's weird.

We went up to see the Christus and all the kids wanted to be the one to take Dane to Jesus.  I felt that was rightly a mother's job.  But then I realized this is important to them.  Nothing brings me greater joy than seeing my older kids "mother" Dane.  especially watching them teach him things - and what better than to teach him about Jesus?

Eventually I got my turn

We ended the night with some pie from The Lion House Pantry!

It was a good night.

Utah: Fun at the Hanna's

We went to my parents house for the first few days. It was so fun to get to spend time with all of our cousins.  Travis had just had his last round of Chemo treatment and wasn't doing well so Katie had to be home and take care of him.  That meant we got her kids with us all week!  It was so fun.  Before we left for Utah I made a list of all the things we could do and made all the kids vote.  There were VERY few things that all 4 voted on (not very many that even 3 voted on).  But one thing they all agreed on was "lazy day at Grandma Hanna's".  That is code for hanging out with cousins, jumping on the tramp, taking Milo for walks, etc.  We definitely did all those things!

One day I took all the kids to nickle-cade and Eddie won the jack-pot!  300 tickets!

My mom and Brooke took all the kids one afternoon to Toy Story 4.

We played a lot of dominoes.

And ate a lot of yummy food in my mom's awesome new kitchen!

The girls even had a girl sleep over with Caroline one night.  She was on cloud nine!

Daniel drove up from St George for 2 days with his girls.  Isn't that so nice?  One of the reasons he came was to take this cute boy golfing.  Noah has been wanting to learn to golf and since Jason and I don't golf we thought my brothers would be a great resource.  Michael took him to the driving range one night and then Michael and Daniel took him and Brock to a par 3 one afternoon.  Noah really enjoyed it.  He said, "it is just so satisfying to hit the ball."

Brock mowed grandpa's lawn to earn some money for loosing his baseball mit at my grandparents house.

I got to see my best friend.  Karli lives in Boise and we always try to get our summer vacations to overlap.  Sadly this year she wasn't going to Utah for a vacation.  Then on Sunday night she sent a text that said, "We are driving back to boise from California right now and will be in Sandy for 3 hours - are you there?  Wanna hang out?"  YES!  I am so glad.  My heart needs a Karli fix often.

And of course... smores!

I am so grateful to may parents for always dropping everything for a week and doing all sorts of fun things with us and for us.  They work hard to make sure my kids have great memories with their grandparents and cousins.  I am so grateful for them.