The Road Trip - Utah

Living thousands of miles from all of my immediate family and Nate's older sister, it's a big deal deciding who and where to visit for our yearly vacation, especially since the yearly vacation only comes once every two years. This year, we decided to visit them all, well not quite, but close.

We rented a van, packed it full and headed off for 16 days and 5,000+ miles of driving. We feared that it would be endless crying and sleepless nights. And though there were those moments, they were not every night nor every drive. In fact, I'm very proud of how well the kids did.

We pulled out of Des Moines at 11:30 PM on Friday June 9th, turned around once for a forgotten item and then left for real. We made stops in Nebraska and Wyoming and made it to Grandma Evans's house in Springville, UT just around dinnertime Saturday night and just in time to eat the lasagna she had prepared. Evander, who loves Garfield by the way, decided it was his favorite food and ate it for every meal he had at Grandma's house.

While in Utah: lots of time hanging out with Grandma talking, Evander and Nate went camping up Hobble Creek Canyon right by a very swollen and noisy river, visited Grandpa Blaine in Payson and got to meet Bob the goat, roasted hot dogs and marshmallows at Erin and Brent's.

I was happy with how well Jayne took to Grandma. It was really helpful the first night when Caleb was having a hard time calming down to fall asleep. Jayne was absolutely content hanging out with Grandma, leaning up against her leg and "talking" to her.

Caleb loved Grandpa Blaine, though more than anything he loved stealing his cane. Best stick ever. He was so mad at us when we took it away.

On our way out of the state we got to see friends from our single days, Jill and Corey, see their home and meet their son Noah. So much fun.