From MS to WA, via UT

Saturday afternoon we got home from Trek and then we had less than 24 hours to unpack, do laundry, pack up, get some sleep, take Grandma Dixie to the airport, go to church and start driving out to Utah. We left around 3:00pm on Sunday and made the 29 hour drive in good time, stopping for food a few times, and once at a rest stop somewhere in Kansas for 3 hours to sleep. The big kids did pretty good and Freddy is just at the tough car-driving age.  He whined for most of the time during the 5:00-9:00pm hours and woke up crying once or twice during the night but luckily by the time we stopped to sleep at the rest stop at 2:30am, he was too exhausted to be bothered by stopping.  We arrived around 9:30 pm in Provo and enjoyed seeing Grandma and Grandpa Dixie's renovated house - its beautiful!! We also got to meet Edward and Kayla's puppy Darla for the first time. The kids were excited to see her, but could hardly stand to be within 6 feet of her. Silly kids.

The next afternoon, after some play time with Jess and her kids and a lovely visit with my Grandma Hardy, we loaded up to drive to Herriman and stay with my brother Jared and his wife, Ashley and their kids for 2 nights.  I love talking with my family and hanging out. We've done this often enough that their homes feel like home. I wished I would've remembered to take pictures of my Grandma Hardy when we saw her but alas, I didn't think of it at the time....so I made it a point to remember to take pictures when we visited our next great grandma on Wednesday. We drove up to Ogden to visit Chris' Grandma Archibald. She fed us lunch and made sure we picked and ate some fresh raspberries "razzies" from her garden.

That Wednesday night, all of my other UT siblings came over for dinner and we talked, ate, and played Spikeball until late. Its so hard to make sleep a priority when theres so much fun possible! But early the next morning, Chris and I slipped out with Frederick and Gwen to drive 14 hours to Washington.  Alec and Charlie were getting the lucky chance to stay with my brother Jared and my angel sister-in-law, Ashley.

The drive to WA was like a dream. Gwen was so happy and content and Freddy did really well too. I mean, it was only 14 hours! When Gwen realized she could pick the movie by herself since Alec and Charlie weren't there, she started hypothesizing about all the benefits of having a mom a dad and only 1 kid and a baby... then she dropped 'the baby' out of her aloud day dream and explored the concept of an only child. Her voice was mixed with awe and perplexity...like such lives couldn't actually exist. By 7:00 pm we made it to our final destination: University Place, Washington. Home sweet home in the beautiful Northwest.