Our Summer Utah Trip

Our summer trip to Utah happily coincided with the birth of baby Nadia! We got lots of new baby snuggles, more than expected because Jeremy's family headed up to stay with mom due to water damage in their apartment. I can imagine the stress of not being able to be home with a new baby and two other babies...add in the chaos of moving?! My head hurts. I am happy to report Jeremy found a larger home within 1/2 mile for the same rental amount. 

Before we left to Utah Everett spent two days making a comic style storybook for Charity to cheer her up. His story is titled Foot Wars, a cute story about a scientist who animates several socks who go on to fight each other. Imagine lots of socks, sound effects, little boy spelling, etc...I was so proud of him for working on his book until the end. We left for Utah on Tuesday morning. Our first stop was to spend a few hours with Charity. They are renovating the floor and painting walls! Josie said she loved the bare, stripped floors. Josie was insistent I install vertical toilet paper holders in the bathrooms because that was just soooooo cool. Phillip made us laugh so hard we cried as he contorted a poor Barbie doll, Charity gave it to him for an iMovie prop. Charity got her customary make over thanks to Evelyn and Josie. Mom had a garden fresh dinner ready for us all at her home. We stayed with mom for the rest of that day and part of Wednesday. I have to say that Dad's bed... mmmmmhum...was very comfortable. 

I got up early (for me) at 7 am to spend time with Jana, Rudy, and the girls. Family photo time *squeal!* Jana wanted a new location but not an excess of time. I suggested we try the walking trail next to her house. I remembered it was quite pretty with a canal and trees lining the pathway. Jana was hesitant but trusted me enough to try it out. Her photos were so cute and updated in a place they use on a daily basis. I love that the girls think I'm silly so had extra cuteness for me. After photos I stayed to play for an hour with the girls while Jana was on several phone calls to fix the water leak under the kitchen floor. We read some books, played with play dough, had a dance party, and a snack. I caught snatches of Jon and Jan Lance at my mom's house. The kids and I packed the van back up and moved southward. Our first stop was at the nursing facility for a visit with Grandma Jean. Amelia made her a pair of earrings that Grandma immediately wore. Evelyn was quite reticent, she remembers Grandma Baerwaldt at the respite care center before she passed away. Jana treated the kids to ice cream at Dairy Queen. We went swimming for 40 minutes before the pool closed due to poop in the water. There is enough chlorine to kill poop germs, just fish the nugget out and let us swim. We ended our cousin fun an hour earlier than expected. We stopped again to shop at Walmart for cute baby clothes for Nadia, Ksenia, and Pasha...plus some back to school clothes for the boys. Seth celebrated his 18th birthday with gumbo and gifts. Happy birthday to Seth. 

The next few days we had cousin fun! Some highlights:

*making friendship bracelets, Pioneer dolls, and "Bros Before Dinos" shirts

*thrift shopping with the older girls

*watching the Olympics (hating the swimming competitions announcer's voice)

*lots of snacks

*several gas station visits

*dance party in John's basement

*having Uncle John home

*the boys beat a game called Disney Universe

*tea party hosted at Courtenay's house. Amelia made cute sandwiches, tiny cakes, meat sticks, etc. The boys dressed up as waiters in their Sunday best with mustaches. weaving spangle strands in the girl's hair. Sir Plants-a-lot posed with the girls for princess photos. 

*girls spent an evening playing Little House on the Prairie...in front of my camera.  

Saturday we headed up for a patio visit with Grandma Jean at 9:30 am. She held her 50th Great-Grand Nadia for the duration of the visit. Nadia lured all the little girls right to Grandma Jean, even my shy Evelyn. The kids sang "The Miracle" and melted all our hearts. Grandma exclaimed, "Those are my people!" Since we were visiting with 17 people outside the facility allowed us to stay for more than 15 minutes. John stayed longer after we left, he bent all the rules and wheeled Grandma back to her room. I had the craziest photo session with 16 extra kids wheeling about as Nadia got her newborn session. Mom had a set of Russian Nesting Dolls I used for a fun nod to Yulia's heritage. Poor baby Ksenia was not very happy about my sibling photos. She was the highlight for the other kids trying to play with her. Penny was my little helper, she stayed right by me for most of the time offering a helping hand. We tried swimming once again on our way back to Eagle Mountain. We were pleasantly surprised the pool was not crowded on a Saturday! I efficiently had all the kids showered and ready for Sunday once we finished swimming. Rachel loved pushing her older boy cousins into the pool, they sure hammed it up for her. I quite loved towing my little Rachel and Charlie about. Charlie is so fun to tease...he is so serious and cantankerous! Phillip and Evelyn got to pose at the 7-11 sign before their birthday, Phillip is 11 and Evelyn is 7 for another month. It was free small slurpee month as well so all the kids got a yummy treat...mom got her Diet Coke refill. Sigh. I had Amelia, Lia, Penny, and Evelyn with me while Courtenay took the rest of the kids with her. I needed to return a purchase to Hobby Lobby...girl's shopping! Yay! We enjoyed some time (and spending money) at Target, Bath and Body, and Ross. Amelia scored some cute jeans, artistically shredded with "mom-high waist" as is the current style. I am not complaining about the higher waistlines. Evelyn scored an early birthday present, she chose almost all her gifts this year. Mia and Lia looked so fashionable wearing their new clothes. 

Sunday, thankfully, a lazy day. Church was not until 1 pm so we were able to take our time getting ready. Jana, Jeremy, and Mom came over for Sunday dinner. Seth had Rachel in the swing "knocking" over her cousins while "cousin bowling!" Jacob was a star for the little girls. He let them dress him up in all sorts of silly costumes. The best was when he wore a Princess dress hung on his ears. I snatched a couple minutes before a storm rolled in to take a couple more photos of Nadia outside, once again Penny came with me to help scout out the best locations and lovingly be on binky duty. I might just hire her as my assistant. The hardest part of our visit was cleaning up our messes in the basement(s) of James and John's homes. Evelyn almost lost her cool for a full on tantrum, with so many hands helping we whipped the spaces into shape in less than 45 minutes. 

Monday, we packed up our stuff, ready to head north again. The kids were really concerned about Dog Vader, he somehow popped a blood vessel in his ear so had a puffy ear. Justin waited for 5 hours in the car at an emergency vet since all the other vets were booked weeks out in advance. Vader is fine, no worries there. I wanted to spend some more time with Mom and Jeremy without all the extra chaos. We visited for a couple hours relishing baby snuggles from Nadia and Ksenia. Jeremy took the kids out for rides on Dad's ATV. Pasha gunned the ATV while Jeremy was parking (he was not ready to be done), the vehicle shot backwards and smashed into Hannah's new birthday bike and stuff in the garage. Mom had to take care of the stress of finding a replacement bike and switching over the tires Jana invested with puncture protection. The kids enjoyed another visit with Charity for a couple hours. Evelyn and I went to Bountiful Temple for baptism photos. She requested photos at the same temple Justin and I married at. The grounds were closed but one gate was open for some construction work on the parking lot. We snuck in, not knowing if we were completely legal. The sky was hazy and gray, making for some lovely diffused light. I decided not to unload our stuff again for another night. We made the long drive home around 3:30 pm.