Our Comings and Goings of Late

I haven't updated much this month, but in my own defense, it's been a very busy one.

Shortly after Mother's Day, I packed up the kids and flew to Utah. The kids did better than expected during the 3.5 hour drive to the airport and 5 hour flight. We got to Salt Lake around 6:00 pm, where my sister picked us up and we headed to Provo for a "Darling Daughters Retreat" with my four grown-up sisters and my mom. I have three sisters living in Provo right now, and one sister who came down from Idaho, and my mom flew out from Virginia. It was so fun to see them all without the chaos of a wedding or something! We ate great food, had fun activities, and really enjoyed one another's company. I loved seeing my niece, Daisy! She is 7 weeks older than Katelyn, so with the three of them, it was a house full of babies! The weekend went way too fast, and I wish it could have been longer. I hope next time that I can do it without my kids! That sounds nice and relaxing.

My mother-in-law came to Provo to pick us up and cart us to their house for the next week. We played with the bunnies and dogs, relaxed, and had fun. The only downside was that we had picked up a cold in Provo, so we weren't feeling the best, but it wasn't too bad. Usually colds get into Jeffy's lungs and he requires medical attention, but not this time, so yay! We took a small trip up to Idaho, to see Jeff's oldest sister and her family. I got to meet another niece, Lily, for the first time. So cute!! It was great to have the four cousins together! Clara will be three in June, Jeffy is 2 1/2, Katelyn is 9 months, and Lily is 7 months. They were so cute together! I wish we lived nearer to all our cousins. We then stopped in Logan, UT on our way back to visit another of Jeff's sisters, and it was great to see her too!

It was a really fun, but quite exhausting trip! We flew home Saturday night on a redeye. The kids slept for a lot of it, which was great, but Jeffy kept rolling off his seat, which he did not like one bit! Everyone was pretty cranky for the long drive home, and slept most of that day! But it was great to see everyone and I hope we get to again before too long!

We've had a fun Memorial Day weekend. We thought about going camping, but it was too late--we couldn't find an open campsite anywhere. We'll have to do that later. So we had an at-home campout. On Friday night, we roasted hot dogs over the grill and ate them along with baked beans and corn on the cob on a blanket in the family room. We then roasted s'mores over the grill too. Yum. Jeffy was funny. He pulled his s'more apart, and ate the chocolate and discarded the rest. Pretty big mess, but lots of fun! We watched a movie and had treats after that.

Saturday we went out to eat a lot, and took some naps. Also good! :) Church was on Sunday, then today we went to the Albany Stake Memorial Day BBQ! It was really fun. They had a lot of good food and some fun activities. They had a bunch of races, which were really fun to watch. The first one was a 25-yard dash for the nursery-age kids. There were probably about 10-12 kids, and it was funny to see how different the kids acted. The girl who won the race must have practiced! As soon as they yelled go she took off as fast as she could go, and ran right through the ribbon, and all way down to the end of the field. She was still running when all the rest of the kids had finished. She was cute! Jeffy participated, and kind of just ambled along with the rest of the toddlers, but was very happy to receive a lollipop at the end! I thought maybe if I offered him candy at the finish line, it would encourage him, but I guess he was too distracted for it to work. Cute little guy.

We hung out with some friends, and while I was pushing Katelyn and a friend's baby in the swings while she went to the bathroom, Jeffy escaped the playground and went to join the adult softball game! I couldn't leave the babies in the swings, so I just tried to watch him and make sure no one ran off with him. Luckily, a nice lady kind of took him under her wing and watched out for him. She even had him throw the ball when it came to him! He really enjoyed that. And big Jeff had a good time playing Ultimate Frisbee. It was HOT in the sun, but we had a good time, and came exhausted.

So that's what we've been up to lately. I wish I had pictures to post, but we ran over our camera on a not-so-fun trip to NYC last month. Oh well. I guess we need to get a new one.

Happy Memorial Day and thanks to everyone who has served or is serving our country right now. God bless the USA!