Camera-Shy Trip to Utah

Well, we took a trip to Utah in August, so I guess it's about time I wrote about it!

The problem with the post for this little trip is that I am pregnant... Therefore, I avoid having my picture taken at all costs, therefore, I hardly ever have my camera out, therefore there are hardly any pictures of this particular adventure! Of the 10 pictures in existence, 5 of them are on the airplane. I know... super exciting. I guess I fail the awesome mom test on this one. Even worse... I totally fail the awesome aunt/sister-in-law/daughter-in-law test, because I didn't take any pictures of Julia with any of her cousins or many other wonderful relatives we saw. I seriously blame it all on being pregnant. And that is the catch-all excuse, and I only get to use it for a few more weeks, so I am cashing in!! :)

So here's what we've got:

This picture has a story that needs telling. We scheduled a late flight (I think we left Texas at 9:30pm) so that Devin could work on Tuesday, and we assumed Julia would sleep on the plane. Well, we assumed wrong. She was as wide awake as she could possibly be for the entire flight. We tried everything we could think of to get her to sleep. She was actually pretty good, and had the flight been at 4:00 in the afternoon we wouldn't have thought anything of it. But, it was super late for her and we really wanted her to sleep, because the whole time we were thinking about how her going to bed at midnight would ruin the rest of the week for everyone. Anyway... alas, no sleeping for the entire flight. And then we started our final descent. We handed her a coloring book and crayon for the descent, and 30 seconds later the above picture was taken! She fell asleep during the bumpy, loud descent, and stayed asleep through the landing and everyone noisily deplaning. There are no words for the non-understanding of how children work... :)

Devin and I got to escape for a couple of days to Salt Lake for a belated anniversary celebration. We stayed in a really nice Marriott downtown. (Thank you Deloitte, for making my husband spend a ridiculous number of weeks in Philadelphia, thereby buying our vacation with Marriott points and American Airlines miles!) We got to stay on the concierge level (again, thank you Gold status) which means free hot breakfast in the morning and dessert at night. We were ok with that. We went to the Salt Lake Temple (I had never done a session there) and went to the church history museum. We also got to see a movie in the theater, and enjoy dinner at a restaurant by ourselves! The simplest things seem so luxurious once you have a child! :) Finally, this picture is at "The Roof" restaurant in Temple Square. I had never been, and the view was amazing. We got there just before sunset and got to watch the lights come on on the temple, all from the best table in the whole restaurant. It was really quite beautiful, and the dessert buffet was a pregnant woman's dream!!

4-Wheeling with Grandpa Don, Grandma Tonya, Uncle Ross and all the cousins! I obviously was in no condition to participate, but Devin and Julia had a good time.

Perfect Fit!

Look! I'm in a picture! (the shadow, if you can't tell...) Let's be honest though... I really hate being super dirty, but the view up there was beautiful.

We learned that Julia is definitely my daughter. She really wanted to ride with Daddy, but once she got on and started going, she said, "I don't like it! I don't like the bumps!" I'm ok with her not being a daredevil!

This picture was cute enough of Julia and Devin to be worth cropping even though the corner of my face is still present. My 4 chins were not allowed to make an appearance.

Safety First!

Julia was fascinated by the safety precautions for the airplane. She seriously spent 30 minutes studying the emergency plans. Hopefully she would have been able to explain what to do if we had had an emergency landing!

Overall we had a wonderful trip. We stayed at Linda's house with Russ and his family, and Julia loved being around her cousins. We got to see great friends and family, and let Julia visit BYU for the first time. In the bookstore she shouted, "I'm a BYU girl!" at the top of her lungs. Everyone who heard (which was a lot of people... we made the mistake of visiting the bookstore during Education Week) thought that was pretty cute. We were sad to leave, because we had such a great time, but we are just grateful we could get one last trip in before November. Next time we are in Utah it will be with 2 children... Weird!!! :)

Julia's Two Year Pictures!

I am really, really happy with how her pictures turned out. Not too shabby for JCPenney!! I love her curls, and I love her scrunch-nose smile. This child of mine, however, was having WAY too much fun at her photo shoot! She was working the camera like you wouldn't believe. And don't even worry... the one where her hand is under her chin... she posed like that all by her little self! No help needed there to strike a pose! My mom and I were dying, as well as cracking up. Not only is she already a little model-diva, but at the end, the photographer said "Ok, one last pose," and Julia replied... "No... I'm done." I am SO going to have my hands full! :)

Fun with Grandma, Grandpa and Michael!

We had a great time these past two weeks with Grandma, Grandpa and Michael here in Texas! Mom and Michael got to be here for a full two weeks and Grandpa joined us for the second week. We mostly just got to relax and enjoy having people here to dote on (and help take care of) Julia. But we did a bunch of really fun things as well.

We went to the Forth Worth Stockyards again with Michael and Dad. We're pretty sure this is what people think our neighborhood is like here in Texas, but I promise we have to drive for an hour to see cowboys and longhorns!

Uncle Michael was a big help with little miss Julia. We tried not to let him get too bored out of his mind while he was here. I think the Wii, the DS, the iPod touch and texting are pretty universal forms of teenage summer entertainment, and thank goodness they all travel to Texas pretty easily! I know Julia really loved having him here though, so I'm glad he suffered through a couple of days with nothing to do for the chance for us to spend some time with him!

Grandmas are wonderful for many, many reasons, but I think one of Julia's favorite things about Grandma was the fact that we often returned home from shopping with a "special surprise." It got to the point where she would meet us at the door and ask "did you bring me a surprise?" The most exciting surprise of the week was the Disney Princess tent. These tents apparently come in two sizes... too small for a two-year-old to fit in, and gigantic. Between those two options, grandma of course selected gigantic! :) Ok, ok... I voted for gigantic as well. It is big enough for us to play in with her, which is of course wonderful and terrible all at the same time! haha. But no, I'm teasing... Julia is in LOVE with her Princess tent, and we have put it up every single day since it was purchased. The other day we both had to get our purses and shoes on and go grocery shopping inside of it. She has a great imagination, and anything that will help support and encourage that is ok by me! (Even if I have to take it down and put it back up every single day because it takes up half of my living room!! :))

Julia sleeps with many friends in her bed. (Her "girl-girl bed" as she calls it, which means "big-girl bed.") I'm pretty sure this photo has been staged for grandma, however, because she doesn't usually sleep in her Cinderella dress... nor does she ever look that happy to be put to bed!!

Grandma and Julia at Storytime at the Library. I have to admit... it was pretty nice to have Grandma sit on the floor while I sat on the bench in the back!!

Grandpa's here!!

We went out for some real Texas Barbecue. Good stuff!

We spent a day at Hawaiian Falls Waterpark. There's nothing like having visitors come to town to help you discover the fun things to do that are only 10 minutes from your house! I'm pretty sure a season pass is in the cards for next summer, because Julia was in heaven!

This child is completely fearless. I'm pretty sure she went on this water slide at least 30 times in a row.

I hate to say that she is cutest when she's sleeping (because she has plenty of wonderful times when she is awake too) but this was a pretty sweet half hour of my life! She asked to go on the "river" again, and she promptly fell asleep in my lap. So we went around a few more times and this is where Julia took her nap that day!

And here is one of the differences between women and men: The boys went and did some fun things as well, but of course there are no pictures to show for them!! :) But they did get to go to a Ranger's baseball game, and Dad and Devin got to golf at Shady Oaks CC and The Colonial, which are two of the nicest golf courses in all of DFW. Devin will probably never have the chance to golf on them again (I guess until Dad comes back...) and Dad had never played them either, so I think they were both soaking that up. Why they would volunteer to stand outside in 95 degrees with humidity for 4 hours is completely beyond me, but they had a good time, and that's what matters!! :)

Thank you Mom and Dad and Michael for coming all the way to Texas to hang out with us for a couple of weeks! We loved having you here, and can't wait until you come back!