Trip to Utah

All of our family is in Utah. As in, everyone but us. Understandably, we’d love to get back to Utah someday so we didn’t feel so left out all the time. But I stopped feeling as bad when I realized that we spent TEN PERCENT of our time in Utah last year. Yep. One out of every ten days, give or take a few days. So I guess I can’t whine too much. The day after Christmas we had planned to drive up to Utah. What we didn’t plan on was how long it would take us to play with all our toys/eat all our leftovers/clean the house/pack. So at about four in the afternoon we moseyed on out the door and drove to Moab where we stayed the night in a hotel, courtesy of my dad’s Hilton points. Thank you, Amex. The kids loved it and voted that we do it every drive. Our vacation goal this trip was “Do Nothing.” And we did. Mostly. It was fabulous after running around the entire month of December. We watched no less than ten movies during our trip, four of them at the theaters (The Muppets, The Adventures of Tin Tin, Mission Impossible III, and Sherlock Holmes: all fantastic!!). We spent a night up at my parents’ gorgeous new townhome in Park City and became extremely jealous of how fantastic it was. If anyone’s looking for a place to stay in the Park City area, check it out. You will definitely not be sorry. For New Year’s Eve we broke our tradition of doing nothing and went with my family to the Hale Center Theatre. The play began at 10 in the evening, and at intermission they served a great buffet of hors d’oeuvres. They were in the middle of the play when the countdown began, and all the action stopped while we rang in the New Year. For the rest of the play, the actors had to act with dozens of balloons floating around the stage. It was a great evening. On New Year’s Day we blessed our sweet Bridget Elayne and our nephew Zae was blessed by his father. Bridget was rather old for a baby being blessed and looked massive next to little Zae, who was only a month old at the time (and had been born three weeks early). We had lots of family join us, and we had a wonderful afternoon. It was a bittersweet moment, knowing that this was going to be our last baby blessing. Bridget looked darling in the blessing gown that all three girls have been blessed in. I’ve spoken before about how I love cloth diapers, and one of the reasons that I love them so much is that we never have blowouts. Until her blessing day. The first blowout she’s ever had (quite an achievement at five months old) was in her blessing gown BEFORE pictures were taken. I tried to get it washed and dried in time, but it just wasn’t happening. But she’s still super cute. The Jorgensen clan. Somehow the Barnes family got out of getting a family shot, but they were there too. A just-for-fun shot showing how red my hair was. I love it this color, but it doesn’t last very long. The Church History Library has a special children’s exhibit going on right now that focuses on the church in Latino cultures. The price was right (can’t beat free!), so we took a trip downtown to check things out. It was definitely worth spending a few hours there. The kids had a blast; we boring adults tired long before they did. Designing their own quilt blocks. The kids got to dress up in traditional costumes and imitate dancers on the screen. Paul was surprisingly good at it. We were lucky to have my Grandma Davis with us. We love her so much! Ashley had work off so she got to play with us too. These wraps are the best things ever. Bridget was able to sleep nearly the entire time we were at the museum, and I was able to have both hands free to have fun. Paul fished off “Nephi’s Boat” nearly the entire time we were there. He would not leave that thing. And they CRASHED on the way home. Always a sign of a good trip. Final picture that I took from our trip: the girls in pink! Cousins Bridget and Emily hanging with Auntie Ashley. Emily looks exactly like her mom. It kills me every time I see her. While we were there we had many game nights, a second Christmas with my family, sleepovers at Hawksridge, fun tubing with Grandma and Grandpa (which resulted in a trip to the first aid tent—can an outing get any cooler than that?), sleepovers with Grandma J, many yummy dinners, and lots of fun just being together. We had so much fun on our trip with all of our family. We miss you all and want you to come and visit us soon!!