Utah: hanging around Grandma and Grandpa Herbert's house

Our vacations ended up being back to back this summer.  We went on our camping trip and then 2 days later left for a 2 week trip to Utah.  It wasn't supposed to be that way, we were supposed to have like 5 days.  But we moved things up.

About a month before our trip we found out that Jason's dad has cancer.  He hadn't been feeling well for over a year, and to root cause was finally discovered.  Everyone in the family is processing it their own way.  One way many of them show love is by showing up.  So when the news was announced Kasey and John flew to Utah the next day to help with home projects.  Matt and his family were moving back from South Korea and had already planned on staying there for 2 weeks.  We decided to go out 3 days early so that our trip overlapped for about 15 hours with Jon's so that Jason and his brother's could give their dad a Priesthood blessing.

We got to stay in Mapleton with Matt, Janina, Aaron and Liliana.  This is the first time we had met Liliana (who is just a few months younger than Dane).  It was so fun to have new cousins to play with.

Things around the house were pretty tense and stressful, so unless I was taking the kids on an outing we mostly kept them downstairs playing video games, not really what I wanted for them, but it was what was best for everyone else, and THEY LOVED IT.  So it was a win, win.

Every evening I sent them on a walk with some ice cream and a few nights they played night games in the front yard.  Brock also went running in the mornings with Aaron and Janina and Jason and I took evening walks.  

There were a lot of house projects that Randy and Debby were working on when they got the news of Randy's cancer.  Jason and the boys helped load wood in to the truck to take to the dump.

I got up and studied my scriptures in the morning as usual and it led to some wonderful discussions with Matt and Janina.  I often feel like all my studying doesn't benefit anyone but me and my little family - so it is nice every once in a while to use it to help/bless other people.

We had a great time hanging out with the Herbert's.  It was a sweet and tender vacation that we will always remember.