The Griffin Gang: Utah

Joe's older brother and wife just had their first baby in October and chose to bless her in Utah over Thanksgiving break. So we were able to drive out there (there is little chance we will ever be able to fly anywhere again with 6 of us) and be out there for over a week. The day we were supposed to leave was the day after going to see Twilight late and the day of the Thanksgiving parties and I was way too overwhelmed by all the packing I had to get done. I kept doing a little here and there but halfway through the day I was burnt out on trying to get ready for this trip. So after Joe got home, he helped me pack everything up, we went out to eat to keep the house clean and we were out the door on our way just after 10pm. The kids went to bed. I closed my eyes and was in and out of it every 10 minutes or so when I would jerk up to make sure Joe was doing ok still. (I used to be able to sleep the whole way to Utah, from what I remember, back in the day when I was a kid. But now, I'm always too nervous. Anyway, Joe drove until noon the next day, needless to say, he did most of the driving. Almost 1500 miles later, after mostly just stopping for gas, and meals, we made it to Provo around 7 pm, which happened to be the same time Joe's oldest brother got there from California, so we stopped at Brick Oven (one of our old favorites) and had dinner with 2 of his brothers and their families. We walked in and first thing I went to go change Audrey...as soon as I walked in the bathroom, one of my good friends here, walked out of the bathroom...funny how we ended up at the same place at the same time so far away from home. The kids were so excited to see their friends all the way in Utah who they had seen a couple days before...

Anyway we stayed in Salt Lake with my gramma the first 4 nights and enjoyed spending time with her. My kids found the laundry shoot first thing, that me and my brothers always played in as a kid. They had so much fun being in a new place, seeing mountains, in the cold. Although the snow was pretty much gone when we got there, there was a big patch in my gramma's backyard still. I wanted my kids to be able to play in the snow while they were there. Well that little patch was all they needed. They played and played every day. And every day it melted away more and more. They still have no idea what it's like to be in the snow, but they were happy with the little bit they got to play with for a few days. We went to Hire's Big H, my family's all time favorite place in SLC, and it didn't disappoint. It was so weird to be back in Utah. It has been so long and we realized how much we loved it there.

We decided to go see my other gramma's grave site since I am the only one out of my entire extended family who didn't get to go to her funeral, so I thought we should go visit. And then we realized it was her birthday that day, so it made it even more special.

And then Joe's parents rented a house in Lehi, right across from Thanksgiving Point, for the whole family to stay in the rest of the time we were there. It was awesome! The kids LOVED it and loved being with their cousins, aunts/uncles, grandparents, etc. It even had a little nursery for Audrey with a video monitor and all. We mostly hung out, when we got home, I told Joe that that was the most relaxing stress-free vacation I have ever been on with kids. It was wonderful!

We went to BYU one day, which was so surreal. We haven't been back there since we graduated. It was so fun to see how much it had changed, and all the things that were the same on campus.

I'm pretty sure the bookstore loved us as we took it over...

This exact spot in the ballroom is where we took the Stilovich Christmas pictures when Abby was a couple months old in 2005... If you zoom in and see a little sleigh on the right under the Christmas tree...we took a picture of her in there. Weird to see how little it is now and how big she is now. Sadly, I can't find the picture, but it's right behind me in this picture

We also drove by the football stadium to show the kids and one of the gates happened to be open a little so Joe pulled in and we ran out into the empty stadium.

Then we drove by 6 out of the 7 places we lived and that was so weird for us too, but brought back so many fun memories. This is the house Joe's dad bought for the boys to all live in while they were at BYU, also the house he lived in the majority of the time we dated, got engaged, etc. Many memories from that house. It's definitely not as well kept anymore now that it's not theirs' anymore though.

Thanksgiving Day...We were invited to go have Thanksgiving dinner at my sister in law's parents' house with her family. We used to have dinner over there all the time when we lived there and they know how to make food and a lot of it! And like they don't have a big enough family to feed themselves...but they generously invited us anyway...I think there were almost 40 people there, and it was so nice and festive and kid friendly. It was perfect!

Audrey got thirsty after eating such a great meal

oldest, older middle, youngest

Blythe and Hannah (Hannah is 3 weeks older than Blythe) doing Thanksgiving crafts

Fun pictures from the house...
making popcorn in the movie room before going over to have turkey dinner

Weston and Ezra (Ezra and Weston are 6 weeks apart) watching football together

jumping on the in ground trampoline...my kids had never seen one before

holding sweet little Nell, the newest cousin in the Griffin family

making crafts

the boys playing cards

Ez and Wes waiting for breakfast

Funny thing about the house that we stayed in is that I was planning on trying to see an old friend from Plano that I grew up with, and looked up her address when we got there and we were in the same neighborhood about 2 minutes from her house. We ended up running into each other at the brand new outlets right there and only got to chat for a few minutes, but it was so nice to see her since it's been over 6 years since I saw her last when we went to Vegas and she babysat Abby for us when Abby was less than a year old. So it had been a while.

Me and Jenae

Aunt Ally and Abby...Abby was kind of attached at the hip to her...they even matched this day

Aunt Ally was going to visit her family for the day and Abby just wanted to be with her, so she drove with her and Uncle Chris out the her family's house, visited for a little bit and came back with Uncle Chris.

I was told she loved the chickens

Weston and Hannah got to go to the Dinosaur Museum with everyone and had a blast

City Center Mall...it's beautiful there and the kids loved playing at the play area

not sure where Abby went in this picture...I swear she was still there

And of course we went to Temple Square to see the Christmas lights and I made sure to bring my camera and then left it in the car. And my sister in law brought hers' and then it died. Although, not that it really matter anyway, our kids had fallen asleep on the way there and were not so happy to be getting out of the car and into the freezing cold and having to walk around...so not sure it made for any good pictures anyway. I was so frustrated at one point and needed to get new shoes to go to the baby blessing, that Joe just had me walk to the mall and go shop while he finished looking at the lights with the kids. It worked out well, and we both made it back to the car at the same time, with a new pair of shoes.