Utah Trip!

We went to Utah in July for the first time in 5 years!!! We had a family reunion with Sean's dad's family. It was great to see the family and all the old sites in Utah. We spent a couple days in Hyrum doing the family reunion thing, then a couple days in Salt Lake. I was able to visit with my step-sister Dia who I hadn't seen in about 3 1/2 years. I was also finally able to meet her husband who was a really great guy. Dia and I are both pregnant at the same time. She is about a month ahead of me with her first baby. I'm really excited for her. I also got to see some of my old college roommates. It was so fun getting together and meeting everyone's babies. Of course I didn't take a picture of everyone at this little reunion. Then we spent a couple days in Provo. We showed Sara and Matthew our old stomping grounds at BYU and saw all the new changes to the campus. It was great.


We started the trip out with a bang. We were traveling with Sean's sister and cousin who both have special needs. Our flight was delayed which would cause us to miss our connection so they put us on another flight that was connecting in another city, but the problem was that all they had were exit row seats available. Sean and I had 2 small children and 2 special needs adults traveling with us...exit row was not really an option. So after a very flustered employee found seats for us we boarded the plane. About 10 minutes later they asked everyone to deboard because that flight was going to be delayed as well. They then proceeded to tell us that we would still miss our connecting flight, but that they would find us a flight out of the connecting city the next morning. I asked them where we might stay in the connecting city and they said the airline wouuld offer no compensation because the delay was not their fault. I told them there was no way our party could spend the night in a connecting city in the airport and they needed to find a better solution. They gave us a number to call and after a while Sean worked out with them that we would fly out of Boston the next morning on a direct flight to Salt Lake. (we were flying out of Providence, RI at the time). So basically we spent a day at the airport, only to go home and fly out the next day. The good part was that we could sleep in our own beds and we arrived in Salt Lake about 7 hours before we would have if we would have gotten on one of those delayed flights.

blurry, but I think you can see our fun waiting faces
Matthew at the airport












Some cute pictures:
Matthew and his cousin Bria eating watermelon
Sara on a swing
Sara and her cousin Ellianna walking
Sara and her cousins Elli and Joey playing on the top bunk
Matthew
Sara
Sara
Waiting feet
hitchin' a ride on the luggage express












Visiting with people:
Sara playing Dia's harp
Dia taught the kids a little bit about playing the harp
Dia, Sarah, I (I'm sure we have a picture like this from high school somewhere)
Sean, his cousin Joe and their friend Ben
Our kids with Ben's kids
At the Salt Lake Temple. We watched the new Joseph Smith movie...very good...bring tissues
Heather and me. We're both pregnant. She's just a couple weeks ahead of me.
















Dinosnores!!!! We spent the night in the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. If any one is in the area you should definately do this. We started the night by watching the 3D movie they had playing about a safari. Then we split into groups and had a private tour of the museum and played with all the activities. Then we put our sleeping bags and pillows on the the floor right beneath the dinosaurs. We slept below the T-Rex's. In the morning we were awakened with lights and dinosaur noises. They provided breakfast and then we went on a class rotation where they did activities like origami, 3D puzzles, treasure hunt, and uncovering your own real fossil (which we got to take home). It was SO much fun. Sara still talks about it and we're in October. Sean spent the night in a hotel with Matthew next to the museum because we didn't think he'd do well there, but then he joined us in the morning.
DINOSNORES!!!!
putting together a 3D puzzle
The coolest water/sand table ever
Escavating
posing and climbing
dressing up
Sara and Joey making a dinosaur










Bike Trip
Sean, his dad, Joey, and Robbie all went on a bike trip in the mountains. They had a great time, although John crashed...he still kept going.
Joe and Robbie on the trail
John after his crash
Going up on the lift












Oquirh Mountain Temple Open House
We were also able to go to the Oquirh Mountain temple open house. My step-sister Dia came with us. It was really great to see her and I was really excited for the opportunity Sara had to go inside the temple.
Us with my step-sister Dia
Whole family outside temple
in the car waiting to go in











One evening was spent at Kiwanis Park at the Hingham Ward reunion. It was fun seeing everyone in the area who used to live in Hingham.
Hingham Ward reunion












Marybeth took some family pictures with her awesome camera. Here are some that I liked.
Whole family
Our family
About the best grandkid shot
Most ended up like this...
or this
Daddy and the kids
Me and Catie