Visit to UT

As I've mentioned before, I got the very best Christmas present- EVER.  My parents flew me to UT for 5 days kid-free to see my favorite people on the whole planet.  It was so nice to spend time with all my siblings and spoil all my nieces and nephews.  It was also great to sleep in, not change diapers, feed anyone, or break up any squabbles. I could just sit back and bask in the awesomeness that is my family.

The highlight of the trip was, of course, these guys!  Kate, Matt and Mia came from London (which was why I came to UT, too).  My favorite part of the whole trip was bowling with Mia.  We went to the Bowling Alley for a burger and fry sauce (Dear TX- why can't you get on the fry sauce bandwagon- please?) and she was so cute saying "I'd like to have a go at that game."  We cheered each other and generally were goofy. She is a doll!

This girl was another highlight- I have only seen her twice in her whole life and she is so adorable. She also looks like Lu's baby twin. I loved smooshing her cheeks :)

I can't tell you how cool it was to hang out with all the nieces and nephews at once.  Sure, we missed my kids (well, everyone else did) but I loved the opportunity to just be an aunt.  Also, don't you wear mardi gras masks and crowns at all your family parties? No? Sad for you...

I remembered my deep love for sitting in Cyndi's kitchen, eatin' stuff. I plan to spend a solid week this summer parked at her counter while the kids run feral in the cul-de-sac.  That was the thing that made me most homesick (and it wasn't just the awesome chocolate and TJ's cookie butter and toe nail polish- I miss hanging out with Cyndi, too.) Plus, Sis is SO big and cute. We played Strawberry Shortcake together!

I miss Beto's steak and egg breakfast burritos SO much.  A lot of these pics are crappy, because they are from my phone. I took a lot of pics to send to the kids back in TX.  This one was Birdy's favorite of all the ones I sent.

I am eternally grateful to Kim who picked me up from the airport, took me to delish Indian food, put me up for the night and THEN drove me to Heber.  Also, her girl is so adorable, I just want to eat her- look at those lips!  I think I'll have to settle for an arranged marriage between her and Bear.  I think Kim and I would be awesome co-Grandmas.

I can't get over how big and beautiful and smart these girls are. Their Mom's are doing a great job with their newly-minted teens and it give me hope that maybe we'll survive the teen years.  I got to have a sleepover with them and it was fun talking to them about their interests- Muppets (Abby) and 1D (Lauren).  I'm glad my girls have such great cousins to look up to.  Also, I'm super, super bummed that they are too far away to babysit. Maybe this summer?

Last but not least, these two and Grace (and Cyndi's boys, who wouldn't sit still for a picture even when I bribed them) Norah cracked me up with her long, blond fake hair and she played so cute with Mia. Cubby knows the whole Gagnam dance and is energetic and hilarious.  Grace is sweet, and squishy and funny. 

Super big thanks to Mom and Dad for bringing me in for all the fun. I really had the time of my life and it was so, so nice to have a break from being Mom and RS Prez for a bit. I came back energized and ready for the new year! Also, I read TWO long books in 2 days. That is unheard of people!!

Pretty much sums it up....

These pictures pretty much sums up how Bear felt every time we stepped outside on our vacation. Fun!

SPI Part 2

Day 2 started out windy, but not too chilly (considering).  Make that VERY windy- this day had gusts up to 50 mph!  DMP and the girls still braved the beach to look for shells and treasures. The girls even played in the waves a bit.  Bear was still scared of the waves and wind, so he and I went back to the room after a bit.

After playing on the beach it was off to the sea turtle rescue center.  It was really neat!  We learned all about sea turtles and saw a lot of them in real life! The rescue center has some permanent residents- turtles who have lost two or more fins and can't survive in the wild- and some temporary residents.  

This is Birdy and a turtle turtle named "Merry Christmas" because she was found on Christmas day.  She was friendly and kept coming over to check us out and say hi.

The rescue was started by the "turtle lady"- a woman who helped with the rehabilitation of the kemps ridley sea turtles.  This guy's name is "Gerry" and he has been at the center for 30 years. The turtle lady used to dress him up (they thought he was a she, so her name was Gertrude then- apparently you can't tell if a turtle is a boy or a girl for something like 20 years...).  Click here to see some pictures- it is pretty funny. She'd take him/her on TV shows and stuff.

 We got to even see some tiny babies! This little guy was only 2 months old. He'll stay at the center until he is about the size of a dinner plate and then they'll release him.

This is a hawksbill turtle. They are endangered because people use their pretty shells for tortoise-shell combs and other stuff. This guy is obviously a lifer (only one flipper) but that shell is so pretty!

We grabbed some pizza lunch and then drove to find a good spot to fly DMP's "Tigerjet" kite.  It was really fun and we were happy to finally have some use for all that wind!

Birdy's favorite part of the whole trip was probably the 3-4 mermaid statues in our hotel!

By the afternoon of Day 2, we had pretty much exhausted all the things you can do in SPI that DON'T involve being outside or on the beach, so we implemented plan B- go to Walmart and get some games.

For the rest of the day/evening we played domino's and "Would you Rather" and watched movies. Not quite the "building sand castles and collecting shells" kind of vacation we envisioned, but it was still fun together-time anyway!

Here are the girls modelling their new sea turtle shirts.  In spite of the 6 or so t-shirt shops, kids shirts were hard to come by- especially when you added in the fact that they really wanted one with a turtle on it.  We lucked out that our hotel sold these. So what if they are super-big?  They love them anyway!

SPI Part 1

Our long, long drive to South Padre Island was kicked off with a visit to the Czech Stop Bakery- the best Kolaches EVER.  You can see that Birdy is holding on in the picture. Kolaches are a sweet roll dough that is baked with fruit and sometimes frosting in the middle. Yum!  We got a dozen (in addition to their excellent sausage rolls) and most of them were eaten by the time our drive was done.

We made pretty good time to the hotel, considering that TX is a ginormous state.  We had a balcony and you could see the ocean from it!  We had time to eat a little dinner, take a swim and even walk on the beach a bit.  

The next morning was sunny but kind of chilly and very, very windy. We had wind gusts up to 30 mph that day and it was the "good" day on our visit.  The weather was *supposed* to improve later in the day so we decided to spend the morning exploring the bird sanctuary and nature center.  They have a really cool lookout tower 3 stories up, but the outside part was closed because of the wind.

The center had lots and lots of boardwalks through the salt marsh so you could walk around and see all the birds that live there.  We got a cool "scavenger hunt" sheet with some of the more common ones and we had fun checking off each one we saw.  One of my favorites was the little guy above.  He had a looonnngg beak that he stuck into the mud and then he somehow caught something on the very end and ate it! I still have no idea how the food got from the end of his beak to his mouth!

At the end of one of the boardwalks, there was a sheltered butterfly garden. It was really neat (and a good break from the wind!

After the center, the weather did not improve and so we went back to the mainland to explore what there was to do there.  We visited a really neat, small aquarium that had a lot of fish and critters that live in the bay.  We saw octopus, seahorses, hermit crabs and lots of other things. 

Then it was back to the hotel.  After dinner we decided to brave the beach- red flag and giant surf and all!

Bear did NOT like the waves or the wind.  The girls had a lot of fun exploring the beach and gathering shells until it was too dark.  EJ found a coconut!

After the beach, we piled on one of the beds to watch Shrek on the laptop.  Watching a movie with 5 people on a queen bed is an experience I won't forget soon!

Train Day!

One rainy day in Heber we decided to run through a rain shower to wave to the train as it pulled out of the station. We wanted to stay and look at the steam engine and other cars they have around the station, but it was too rainy, so we went to the DK (where else?)

We got ice cream and watched the model Harry Potter train until the rain stopped. Incidentally, Bear rejected his ice cream in favor of my onion rings. That's my boy! Then, we went back to the station to have a look around.

The girls got to explore the steam engine a bit. This pose was their idea :)

I think we can safely pinpoint Bear's new found love for all things train to this very day.  He started out (predictably) terrified when the train honked it's loud horn and pulled out of the station.  He wouldn't let me put him down pretty much the entire time we were exploring the station. Apparently train cars sitting perfectly still are pretty scary.

Eventually, he warmed up (although he wouldn't let me put him down, still.) I took the picture above while I was holding him so that I would have evidence that we were there :)

I think he finally decided that since the scary train hadn't eaten his sister's by now, it was OK to pose for a picture, as long as it was FAR away. 

Finally, a picture all by himself. He's even smiling!  We eventually were able to get pretty close (like 6 feet away) and he had fun making all of the train noises.  As I'm typing this, he is shouting "Train, Train! Choo Choo Hug! Ding Ding Ding! and trying to crawl on my lap so I think it is safe to say that the initial terror has been fully replaced by true love.

Ute-Tah Bucket List

I realized while emailing Cynj that our Utah trip is like a trip to Disneyland, we've been talking about it, planning it and getting excited for all the things we'll do and see for a while now. It deserves it's own bucket list. 

This is in no way a complete list of the things we are dreaming about doing when we are in Ute-Tah (That's how Birdy says it...).  Anyone and everyone is invited to join us in doing any of these things. Also, they are in no particular order (I'm not that crazy yet :>). 
Provo Stuff

• Provo Freedom Festival- kid crafts, Tater Twisters and all the other fun stuff!
• Play with the Baileys- Emmie and Abbie
• Play on the new playground near our old house
• Spend lots of time at Cyndi's house
• on her porch
• running around the cul-de-sac
• eating stuff (there's always eating stuff at Cyndi's!
• Eat Dumplings at Four Seasons
• In-N-Out Burger (I need to confirm my suspicions that the Provo one tastes the best)
• Eat a Regal Burger bacon cheeseburger
• Steak and Egg breakfast burrito at Rancheritos
• Go to Church in our old Ward
• Seven Peaks (or the veteran's pool)
• Play at the Shady Park
• Go to Maceys for an ice cream (and to drool over all the stuff that I can't buy in TX, like peanut butter bars)
• Bean Museum
• Picnic in Provo Canyon multiple times
• Drive the Aspen Loop and go to Cascade Springs

Heber Stuff

• Go to the DK for shakes, and to blow the Boy's train-loving mind
• Go to the HHR Station (see mind-blowing above- actually, it'll probably terrorize him...)
• Bowling Alley Burgers and Fry Sauce. Can't decide what I'm looking forward to more...
• Feed the ducks
• Laze around Grandma and Grandpa's house (and help put stuff away)
• Crabdaddy Fishing
• Watch the Gockenspeil (how do you spell that?)
• Scout the antique stores in Midway for beehive and/or spools
• Go to the cheese factory
• Drive to the top of memorial hill
• Take the kids to play in the lake
• Yard Sale-ing with Mom
• Go to the Thrift Store

SLC Stuff

• Hogle Zoo
• This is the Place Monument (with just the big kids)
• Temple Square
• Church History Museum- BOM Exhibit specifically
• Tour the Lion House & eat Lunch
• Hang out with Kim (lots!) and meet her girl (who will be almost 1! I can't handle it!)
• Tour Welfare Square (I hear it is cool)
• DMP and I do a live session at the SLC Temple

Logan Stuff

• Take our kids to USU campus- show them the quad and Old main. Likely get ice cream
• Get a picture of my kiddos on the "A"
• Eat Tiny Spicy Chicken
• Eat a Logan's Hero
• Visit the Jensen Historical Farm
• Chill with Ed & T and Family until they are sick of us
• Drive up Logan Canyon

Other Misc.

• Philips Family Reunion! Tennille! Kathy! Susanne! Email me and let's pin this down!
• Have a sleepover in Clinton to chill with those cousins one on one and play on their turf!
• Have a birthday party for Bear (the big #2!)
• DMP and MAK get 24 hrs (ish) without kids. We want to go to SLC to the Temple, have dinner and stay overnight kid-free. Any volunteers to take them? Haven't asked Gma and Gpa yet.
• Have Bek take some family pics somewhere mountain-y (please?)

I'm sure there will be more, but this is the list for now!  Dates the kids and I will be in town are abt. July 1- about July 20 (not sure what days we are driving back). DMP will be in town July 14 through whenever we drive home.

Vacation Bonus! Bear Does Cute Things!

Bear decided that he needed to "high-five" all of Big Bird's foot prints. So cute!  Below is a quick video of him playing "Peek-a-boo" while we were waiting for our lunch...

Vacation Bonus! Bear Loves Sesame Street

In an effort to wean Bear off of shows that make me despair for the future of humanity, I've been showing him Sesame Street.  He likes it a lot. Not as much as his first love, but a lot. The fact that I'll voluntarily expose my kid to Elmo should give you an idea about my feelings for Gabba Gabba :)  Actually, I am very happy with Sesame Street and it is my very favorite kid show for all of them to watch. It is actually educational in a way that makes sense. Why do I want my kid to learn what "presto" means (in the musical sense) when they can't even name all the letters and sounds yet? Sesame helps with that!  But I digress....

Sea World's Sesame Street-themed Bay of Play was a perfect reinforcement to my new campaign against Gabba.  Bear wasn't afraid of the big, furry characters at all and was super-excited to see most of them (except poor Telly- more about him later).

This one is for Aunt Kate, who will always have a special place in her heart for Grover...

I'm making a kind of crazy face in this, because dear Rosita's hand is RIGHT on my boob...

Bear was totally fine with everyone, except Telly.  For some reason he scared the heck out of him (Bear's own personal "Grover" perhaps?) so he was kind of squirming in this picture.  He got to meet Big Bird and Elmo, too.  It was in a special "can't-take-your-own-picture-so-you-have-to-buy-ours" place, though. Bear liked to wave and look at Big Bird, but couldn't be persuaded to come closer. 

It was really fun to see him react positively to all of the cool characters, and it was fun for DMP and I to geek out a bit over them (I mean, The Count! in Real Life!).  For the record, the girls were mostly unimpressed. Birdy was pretty unwilling to do anything we seemed to want her to (like be in pictures) and EJ was mostly concerned about taking her OWN camera to be posing!

Vacation Bonus! Mak Gets Pooped On

Our vacation was so jam-packed with awesome, I decided to include some bonus posts in addition to the daily recaps.  I'm a giver like that.  Here is the first:

As promised, here is the video of the first time I got pooped on...  Please just make me feel better by saying you are laughing with me?  At least I didn't get puked on later. DMP and I had a long discussion about which was worse.  He claimed puke was worse because the lorikeet poop was clear, so it just dried (the other bird poop landed in my hair, BTW).  I say it's a draw.

Day 4: San Antonio Zoo, Puke and Home

Since we had a (relatively) short drive home, we decided to have one more adventure, so we checked out the San Antonio Zoo. It was a pretty neat zoo. They claim to have the 3rd most animals of any zoo in the U.S. What they don't tell you is that easily half to 2/3 are birds or snakes. It was still really neat and we enjoyed it in spite of the heat and crowds.

Birdy wasn't feeling well, so we took pity on her and rented a wagon so she wouldn't have to walk as much. It was akward navigating the stroller and wagon through the crowds, but the girls thought it was great. I did have to get after them a bit to actually get OUT of the wagon so they could look at animals. They would have been content to lounge in there all day.

The zoo had a really neat exhibit where you could feed nectar to lorikeets (small birds from Australia.  Here is a video of the girls feeding their first lorikeets (as always, pardon my shrill mom-voice. I don't know why I do it!)

Maybe it's the name, and maybe it is because she was fearless, but Birdy was the bird whisperer and got this one to hop up on to her hand where she was only mildy freaked out to hold it. EJ wanted to hold a bird, but got scared when they came towards her... 

Birdy the bird whisperer in action:

 The birds were very friendly and liked to land on us big people (taller perch, I guess).

 At first I felt special having them be so interested in my nectar. But then one pooped on me and another landed in my hair, and specialness turned to fear (watch the blog for a very special "Mak gets pooped on" video later this week).  Between the lorikeets and another "birds of Australia" exhibit, I got pooped on three times an hour. It was a banner day, I tell you!

DMP and I were giddy, GIDDY I tell you, to see that this zoo had the plastic animal molding machines!  The kids didn't understand the nostalgic joy we felt, but they were really happy to each get their very own animal!

Remember these things? They smelled and are just like the ones from the Hogle Zoo when we were kids!

 After a while, Bear only wanted to ride in the wagon. But it was kind of like that song where the little bear says "Roll over" and pushes everyone else out of the bed... He wanted the wagon all to himself!

 The zoo also had an enclosed butterfly garden. It was really neat- butterflies flying everywhere!

 We even made a few butterfly friends. (I love EJ's face below)

 Forget giant hair bows and flowers, live butterflies are going to be all the rage!

 Even Bear got a little hitchhiker- I think this one was trying to blend in with his puppy backpack and shirt! He didn't notice his friend and we didn't point it out- we were afraid he'd freak out and hurt it.

To top the day off, we took a ride on their awesome zoo train. It goes all around the huge park that is next to the zoo- it was about 20 min and a lot of fun.  

Bear loved seeing and riding on the train the best of all.  We were lucky to be the first ones on so we could pick where we sat- the very back, of course!

After the zoo, we headed home.  Just as we stopped for dinner, Bear puked all over DMP.  That was special, I tell you. At least DMP was holding him at the time. His post-puke shirt change in the parking lot would have been a lot more akward for me! Bear seemed cheerful enough after and even ate a little, so the trip still ended on a (tired) high note :)