Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum

One of the activities the kids loved most while in Utah was us visiting the Bean Museum on BYU campus. It is full of animals from all around the world and the best part is it is free. We had a huge group join us. My cousin Janielle brought her 2 kids Luke and Lindsey, my aunt Anna came with her boys Andrew and Nathaniel, and we finished out the group with my mom, Amy, and my cousin’s wife Sierra who I had just met.  It worked out really well because we had 6 kids and 6 adults.

My mom picked up the scavenger hunt papers for the kids to find specific animals while we look through the museum. Brady growled at the Lion and kept saying, “WOW” while he looked at the elephant. Katie made sure to show me the katydid because it had her name.

We headed over to the BYU creamery for some ice cream to close out the day. Unfortunately the place was packed and I didn’t the think the kids would be willing to wait patiently. So, we headed to Macey’s and got each of us soft serve instead. It was a great afternoon and I would recommend anyone with small kids in Utah to go. http://mlbean.byu.edu/

A blurry shot of our whole group.

Here are a few shots of the kids hanging out at my parent’s house. We were all sad to leave but very excited to see Rick. We had all missed him.

Kangaroo Zoo

The kids and I were really lucky to see Rick’s grandparents while we were in Utah. The Hales were super nice and drove to North Salt Lake City to meet us. It had been a year since we last saw them. We had lunch at Brick Oven where Katie and I were able to enjoy some red cream soda and fantastic root beer. Brady thought it was important that I really enjoy my drink and spilled it all over my lap.

After lunch we drove to Kangaroo Zoo. It is full of bounce houses. The kids had a great time jumping around and being crazy. Brady started to get tired but didn’t want to be held by me. He thought Aunt Sarah had a softer shoulder I guess.

It was a really fun afternoon for the kids. Both of them slept on the drive back to my moms.

Quilting

Being here in Utah, I was so excited to find out that my grandma had a quilt she needed help finishing. I grew up quilting. I’m talking the up and down tighter stitching by hand in an intricate pattern and not just tying a quilt. To sit down with needle in hand and thimble on finger was fantastic. It gave me such pleasure to have the chance to sit with my grandma and chat over a quilt. I truly felt at home. It reminded me of good times growing up and left me with a longing for more.

I about started crying when my grandmother patiently sat and taught Katie her first quilting lesson. Katie was beaming. Katie’s stiches were wide and clumsy. She put the thread in every direction. After some persuasion she started to go closer to one of the lines in the design. I was so proud of her. The best thing is that my grandma chose to keep Katie’s chaotic stitches in place. Doing so made it a 4 generation quilt.

Honestly this is going to be something I remember for the rest of my life.

Cousins

We were able to go to my niece BrynLee’s birthday party. This was a big thing for us because it was the first time for us to meet Bryn as well as the first time my brother’s family was able to meet Brady. It was fun to see the cousin’s play together. I was surprised to find out that Brady was the same size as my niece.