We arrived in Utah around 5ish, dropped off our stuff at my brother's, and headed to Provo to meet up with Chris' sister, Lori, and her family. The girls were enamored by cousin Addie, but as Kristen likes to declare, "no more babies at our house." They'll have to be satisfied with visiting babies elsewhere.
We dined at Chez Sizzlers. Chris and I use to eat there frequently when we lived in Utah, but you know, it is never as good as you remember it. Maybe that's because we only had a small baby then and now we have three children tagging along. We had an enjoyable visit with the Burkmans and then headed back to Traverse Mountain, thus beginning the routine of long days, late bedtimes, and infrequent naps--and crabbiness!
We got a slow start on Friday but shopped a little bit with my parents (I still haven't been to IKEA yet). The highlight of the day involved attending the Mt. Timpanogos temple with my family (that is, minus Donna, my sister-in-law, whose recommend had expired. Bummer!) The girls were babysat with their cousins so it was a nice evening out.
Saturday was another slow-starting day. We left for our Family Reunion in Heber City just after a quick lunch. The weather was beautiful, the drive through Provo Canyon picturesque, and the girls slept. Those late nights were catching up to them. In fact, Kristen is not a great car sleeper, especially if you stop and move her out of the car seat. I laid her on the couch at the cabin when we arrived and she slept for a couple more hours. So worn out.
Our girls set off exploring the vacation rental we had to stay in for the next two days. The highlights included a playhouse in the basement, a movie theater, a craft room, a motorized tub (jet tub for the rest of you), and a pond across the street.
Chris and I drove to get groceries for our breakfast on Monday morning and even amid all the noise of cousins, aunts, uncles, grandma, and grandpa, Kristen slept on. I finally woke her up so that she'd go to sleep later. My sister took Kristen and some of her kids over to see the older kids fishing at the fish pond with Grandpa. I'm not sure really what happened, but Kristen came back wet from taking her own little dip. Swim suits were donned and all of a sudden it was three-cousins-in-a-tub. They loved the jets.
We had fun with a Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs play organized by my dad, movies, food, Grandma's fish pond, a white elephant gift exchange and church on Sunday morning. Some left early, but we stayed until checkout time on Monday and enjoyed the beautiful surroundings. It is always fun to get together with family--my girls especially love reconnecting with their cousins. What is a family reunion if you don't take lots of family pictures? The stairs gave us the perfect setting for fitting everyone in.
We filled our evenings with friend get-togethers and yesterday (Tuesday) we tortured our children by making them hike to Timp Cave. Granted it was a pretty strenuous hike for the adults in our group. We were joined by our friend, Deni, and her children, Ryan and Sydney. We were impressed that our girls didn't complain nearly so much or so loudly with other children in hearing range.
We passed a bathroom about 3/4 of the way up to the cave. Some of the rangers were cleaning it and had a huge wheeled bin for throwing garbage in and transporting it down the hill. As Misha and I walked by, she quietly lamented, "I wish I was a piece of garbage."
The cave was pretty cool, but I think we were all glad to get back in to the sunlight and to a bathroom.
