off to utah!

somehow, the stars perfectly aligned for this trip to utah to come together.  so wednesday was a busy day of watching abigail's friend all morning, sending abigail to elle's house for a bit (because heaven forbid should you spend less than six hours in a day playing together), running errands to the library and frantically dropping off notes for all of my young women, and then arriving home at exactly 4:20, when honey requested we leave ("will you have everything packed and ready to go?"  ummm yessir.  i'll even have the kids in their carseats already!) and really, it couldn't have been more perfect.  it is so much easier to pack for a three day trip than a three week trip with the same luggage restrictions.

abigail was sooooo tired after playing with elle all day.  she fell asleep in her carseat while we were dropping off notes to young women and she didn't wake up til we got to the airport.

my christopher had a flight to south dakota that took off an hour or two after our flight.  so even though he couldn't come with us to utah, it was nice to see him a bit.  he was in wyoming early monday morning until late tuesday night.  he only got a couple hours of sleep before he woke up and left for colorado springs at 4am wednesday morning.  and he came home at 4:15, just in time for us to all leave for the airport, so he could catch a flight to south dakota.  he works so hard for our family and we really appreciate him.  we also miss him a lot while he's gone and plan trips to utah to console ourselves.

we had a whole lot of stuff.  luckily someone left behind one of those luggage carts in the parking lot.  kids come with a whole lot of baggage.

that was quite possibly the easiest time i've ever had going through the airport with kids.  we were flying southwest so i checked the stroller, both carseats, the kids' duffle bag, and my rolling carry-on suitcase.  so i just had a purse, two kids, and a husband to help!  and we were flying on a wednesday evening which is not a busy time to make your way through the airport.  christopher explored the terminal with abigail while i hung out with brady and then we said our goodbyes, waved to my christopher, and got on our plane.  then he went to his gate and waited for a few hours because his flight was delayed.  he's got the worst luck ever with flights.  at least he had his computer and could get work stuff done while he waited.

both kids were awake the whole flight because they'd both slept on the way to the airport... but really it wasn't bad.  and the flight is so short.  only 1h 15 or something.  getting off and to baggage claim was a piece of cake until i had to figure out a way to single-handedly get my kids and all of our stuff to the curb to meet my mom.  i came up with a genius system and eventually made my way out.  hallelujah!  we got in and out on our way to my cousin's house (and of course both kids fell asleep in the car) and then visited for a bit before it was time for bed.  brady was exhausted but wide awake and was frustrating to no end because he cried every time i put him down or was out of sight and it's hard to keep that quiet when other kids in the house are sleeping.  abigail stirred around forever but eventually fell asleep.  brady eventually fell asleep with me in my bed sometime after midnight and luckily i was able to transfer him to the pack in play around 1:30 or so.  and then we were all up by 7.  awesome.

ginny is awesome.  she called a few days ahead to see what kind of set up we wanted.  i told her i wanted my kids in the same room as me and that abigail actually still sleeps in a crib.  so bed for me, pack n play for brady, and crib like toddler bed for abigail.  perfect.

the girls

fail.  all of the kids were waaaay more interested in the train than the camera.

and done.  we'll just call it good now.

her exact words were "i'm riding a real train!!!"  it was battery operated and went on its own.  she was positively gleeful.

 

and brady stands all the time now.  in case i haven't mentioned that before.

 then i called and confirmed the day's plans with my friends and we were off!