Loaded up and ready to go!
We had to readjust Lauren's straps several times on our trip. She kept wriggling her way out of them--annoying!
We left Thursday, March 10th around 1pm. The kids get out of school just after 11am, and our goal was to eat lunch and leave by noon. I spent most of the week in preparation for the trip--running errands, packing, cleaning, etc. I felt a bit neurotic as I took the 5 minutes to vacuum our TV room after the time we were supposed to go, but it felt really nice knowing we would be coming home to a clean house.
We borrowed a portable DVD player with 2 screens from a friend and checked out several movies and books from the library. I also downloaded a few children's audiobooks that we never ended up listening to. We also had workbooks, coloring books and sticker books to keep the kids occupied. They each brought a few small toys as well (My Little Ponys and Star Wars action figures).
Our plan for the first day was to drive the 430 miles (approximately seven hours) to North Platte, Nebraska. We only stopped twice--the second time at charming state campground with a windmill and a small lake. The kids and Anthony ran around while I fed Elliott.
We were all pretty excited that the hotel we stayed at had fresh chocolate chip cookies waiting for us in the lobby when we arrived. We were also pretty excited to be out of the car.
Elliott didn't get a cookie, but he there was a small toy pig (and baby toiletries) waiting for him in his pack and play. I think Elliott was the most excited to be out of his carseat.
Will was pretty pumped there was a Book of Mormon AND a Holy Bible in the bedside table.
Our room had a sleeping area and very small living room with pull out bed in the couch. Once the bed was pulled out it was hard to walk through the room. We watched an old episode of Full House to relax and then got ready for bed. Anthony and I chuckled when Lauren unpacked her backpack of bedtime stuff. She packed a special blanket and 2 stuffed animals like I told her she could, but she also brought her small yellow cup--filled with water! Doggie got a little wet and had to sleep on the other side of the bed.
We slept relatively well that night. Lauren woke up scared around 5am and I spent the last few hours of the morning with her on the hide-a-bed. In the morning we got up, ate breakfast, loaded up the van and hit the road. Our plan on the second day was to drive the remaining 700 miles to the Nielson's house in American Fork (approximately 10.5 hours).
Elliott always looked forward to the stops
The drive went very smoothly and we made good time. Anthony and I listened to several "Stuff You Missed in History Class" podcasts an the kids read, colored and watched movies.
We stopped at a McDonalds in Rawlins, Wyoming that had a great play place. The kids climbed around and played for awhile while Anthony and I bickered about the virtues of McDonald's food.
We finally convinced Will that the time passes much more quickly if you sleep.
Both Lauren and Will were really great about trying to keep Elliott entertained. He got (understandably) grumpy during the last few hours of our drive.
We reached Utah just as the sun was starting to set. It was so beautiful! We watched the sun go down behind the gorgeous snow-covered mountains as we pulled into town. We got to the Nielsons around 7pm that night. The kids were very excited to see their cousins and ran around the house and played for about an hour. The Nielsons graciously let us stay in their finished basement. There was a lot of room to leave our stuff and comfortable beds for us to sleep in. Anthony and I shared a room, Will and Lauren shared a room and Elliott had his own little room too.
We spent Saturday morning relaxing and visiting with the Nielson family. The kids played and the adults talked. The kids had spent a few days playing together in Wisconsin this summer at the John Family Reunion and seemed to pick up where they left off very quickly.
"Teaching" Sadie all he knows about Angry Birds Star Wars.
It wouldn't be a John get together without the kids piling on top of Uncle Tony.
That afternoon we drove to West Jordan to spend the rest of the day with some of our Crane family members. Emily and Matt recently bought a condo in West Jordan and graciously hosted the group.
Elliott liked hanging out with Uncle Matt.
Lauren showed Tyler how to play with Legos. Even though they are 2.5 years apart in age, they had a lot of fun together.
We spent the afternoon chatting, playing, making cookies, watching the Big 12 Tournament, taking pictures, eating pizza and playing games.
Laura and Trevor brought a few treats for the kids, including bubbles. Laura used her height advantage to pop some of the bubbles will couldn't quite reach.
Beanboozled. Will first played this game with his friend Boyce's family, and when we saw a box at Hy-Vee he insisted we bring a box with us to Utah. The premise of the game is pretty simple. In each box of jelly beans are a bunch of beans that look similar, but taste very different. You spin the wheel and get green--it could be lime, it could be lawn clippings. But it gets worse than that. You could end up with stinky socks, skunk spray, canned dog food or moldy cheese. Thankfully Laura and Trevor also brought Cadbury mini-eggs to help cleanse the palate. Will and Lauren find this game absolutely hilarious. The Utah adults were good sports to play with them.
A little puzzling.
The adults played the Awkward Family Photos game while the kids watched a movie. Its kind of like Balderdash, but with awkward family photos.
A sister pic for the road.
After a great night of hanging out we woke up and got ready for church. I was a little worried about dealing with the beginning of daylight savings, but if we had to lose an hour, at least we did it when we were in a timezone one hour BEHIND our internal clocks.
Will and Lauren were very excited to go to primary with Sadie and Elise. The Nielsons ward seems very nice and we all had a good time.
Beanboozling the cousins now. Sadie and Elise loved it just as much as Will and Lauren.
After church the kids played in the back yard for a bit. Will told me he wanted to movie to Utah because there are cousins, mountains and a zoo. It made me happy to hear that he was having such a great time with his cousins.
It was Uncle Daniel's birthday and Carly made some delicious honey lime enchiladas and peach cobbler.
Uncle Matt came up from Provo to hang out with our crew.
After dinner we drove up to Anthony's Aunt Peggy and Uncle Mike's home in Salt Lake for family gathering. It was great to reconnect with family members we hadn't seen in ages. Our kids were the only ones under 18, and were so, so good. Uncle Mike's Star Wars collection helped distract them, but we ended up staying quite a bit later than planned and they continued to be good, despite how tired and bored they were.
Eating breakfast before heading out for the day.
Monday was probably the busiest day of our trip. We headed up to Salt Lake to meet with Anthony's grandparents. We first stopped and visited Anthony's Grandpa Fletcher, affectionately known as Bobpa.
The kids liked seeing all of the family pictures displayed throughout the house and identifying the people they knew. After family gathering the night before they recognized a few more than before. The kids got a bit restless after a bit, so they went and played foosball in the basement. Bobpa is a wise and thoughtful man and we enjoyed our visit.
Next we visited Anthony's Grandma John. She was patient with us when we parked on the wrong side of her building and ended up taking quite a bit longer than we thought to get to her place than we anticipated. Whe she saw Elliott she said he looks just like baby Doug (her son, Anthony's father).
Elliott seems to manifest his John genes the strongest of our kids so far. He was in a great mood and happy to sit with his great-grandmother for a few minutes. We caught up with Grandma John for a bit, then Anthony's Aunt Jeanette stopped by to say hello too. We had a good visit and I was relieved neither of the big kids broke anything because they were starting to get a bit restless.
Jeanette was able to take a picture of our family with Grandma John before we left.
It was time to get lunch, so we headed to City Creek to meet Jill and Jake. They had gone camping in Moab over the weekend and we unable to hang out with us at the Wilson's on Saturday.
Matching blue eyes and red shirts
We grabbed lunch and the kids played in the play area. It was good for them to get out and move.
After about an hour Jill and Jake had to head back to work. We headed down to Provo. As we left City Creek and were entering the parking garage a familiar looking man held the door open for us. I looked at Anthony and he nodded that it was Elder Anderson. I'm glad I wasn't yelling at my kids or nagging Anthony as we walked through the door.
We left Salt Lake and headed straight to Provo. Daniel is an assistant coach on the BYU Women's Basketball team and it was "Selection Monday." The team was going to find out who they were going to play and where on TV that evening.
Daniel gave us a quick tour of the Marriott Center and we caught a few members of the men's team shooting around after practice. The Marriott Center has had a few upgrades since our student days. Truthfully, all of campus has had some upgrades since our student days. My dorm is gone. It's always a little strange visiting places that were once so familiar. A part of me wants them to stay the way they were in my memory forever, but I know that's not realistic. Change is a part of life.
We found out that BYU would be playing Mizzou in Austin Saturday night!
After the watch party we made a quick visit to the Bean Museum. The Bean was totally rebuilt and this was a change I was okay with. The museum is pretty cool and my animal loving kids had a blast.
They have a cool play area with slides, a cave and a Chuck E Cheese style puppet owl. In the cave is a pair of eyes that look like a panther. In the first picture Will had just maneuvered past the panther. In the second I asked the girls what a lion says before taking their picture.
The only shot I got of all 6 John/Nielson cousins during the entire trip (plus one)
Lauren was captivated by the fight scenes. Uncle Mike had told the kids a few things about bears in the mountains the night before that made an impact because she had a few concerns.
Monday was a fun but very full day. We were all tired that night, but then the adults stayed up late talking. When you rarely get to be in the same space as your siblings and their spouses you take all the opportunities you can to spent time together. Unfortunately, Elliott threw up several times in the night and Lauren had one of her worst night terror episodes ever. When we were still awake dealing with kids at 3am we knew we needed to take things very easy on Tuesday.
We had a slow morning. When Sadie got out of school a bit early and we headed to the Museum of Curiosity at Thanksgiving Point. It has been years for me and the Thanksgiving Point area. Maybe a decade? There is so much more stuff there than there was at the Homecoming Dance I attended in the barn there way back in 2001. Carly and I took the kids while Anthony stayed home with Elliott. We had stopped throwing up, but we wanted to let him rest and keep him from spreading his potential illness with others. (We think it was most likely linked to an allergic reaction he had to medication he was taking for an ear infection, but we were around a lot of new people with a lot of new germs so it could have been anything.) There are lots of neat exhibits that I am too lazy to describe. Both Will and Lauren had a great time and were able to find things to do that captured their interest for a long time.
Shooting hoops with lenses that affect your vision and your accuracy
Lauren is quite certain she's going to be a veterinarian and had fun taking care of the doggies in the clinic.
Floating heads are pretty crazy!
There are two floors in the museum with a climbing structure that starts on the bottom and goes up to the ceiling. The only non-staff entrances are on the bottom floor (Elise managed to find her way out one of the staff entrances). It was a bit of a maze and sometimes you had to weave around quite a bit to get where you wanted to go. We did a lot of climbing and I was pretty sweaty by the time we told the kids it was time to try another area.
The kids played together pretty well in the market area. They played some version of the same pretend game the entire time we were there. I'm glad my kids have active imaginations.
Working together to get the water to move
Wind tunnel fun. It was less fun brushing Lauren's hair that night.
The kids were pretty spent that night and Uncle Daniel read them a story before we sent them to bed.
Elliott was much happier in the evening. Even though he clearly wasn't feeling his best, he was still so alert and happy throughout most of our trip. After the kids were in bed Ben Gaines (Belmont friend) came over and the adults again stayed up too late visiting. It's hard to stop when you are having so much fun! Lots of reminiscing about high school, BYU sports and the culture of sports in general. Carly and I left for a bit to pick up some ice cream, but when we got back the sports talk was still going strong. It's fun visiting with friends you don't see often, but can pick right up when you are able to get together again. Unfortunately Lauren had another rough night. Anthony was amazing and stayed with her for hours during the night, rubbing her back and helping her relax.
Wednesday we headed to Provo/Orem!
As you might have guessed, Lauren's mood was really starting to reflect the abysmal sleep she was getting. We stopped at my Aunt Ginger's and visited with her and Uncle Wayne for a bit. She gave us some yummy bunny shaped rice kripies even though our kids were borderline rude. The Swensons have always been good to us and made me feel at home when I was so far away from home as a new undergraduate at BYU. It was great to see them again.
Next stop: campus! Grabbed a table in the Terrace (where Anthony and I crossed paths for the first time in the fall of 2004) and hung out with some of our favorite people. Not surprisingly I documented my peeps better than TJ. His good friend Darren works at BYU and is pursuing an MPA and took a break to hang out with us. His brother Matt also joined us for a bit.
Laura took a break from studying for a test and said hello. My kids love Aunt Laura. Among the many things they love about her, Will shares a passion for the Royals and Lauren shares a knack for style. I hope visiting us didn't affect her test score for the negative.
Candace (who was with me the first time I interacted with Anthony) was able to say hi between meetings. I love Candace. She is a great friend who always makes me feel safe. She's seen me do embarrassing things and loves me anyway.
It was great to see both my sister and friend. The kids got tired of sitting while the grown ups talked (they did do a lot of that on this trip), so we visited the BYU
We then took a brief lap around campus. We reminisced about the "old days." How they didn't feel that long ago, even though it has been almost 10 years since either of us took a class on campus. I overheard two girls talking about how not worried they were about not being married and it made me smile to myself. They can tear down old buildings, build new ones and alter traffic routes, but life and people stay the same.
We have photos of both Will and Lauren perched on this sign at approximately 6 months old, so we had to get one for Elliott too.
Will got very into family history on this trip (yay! one of our goals!) and wanted to take a picture by the other building named after one of his great-great-great grandfathers. Unfortunately, the memories at this building (the testing center) were not purely positive. I have felt a lot of stress and anxiety on these grounds. And relief, but for some reasons those memories don't come back as strongly. :)
The kids passed out as we headed back to the Nielsons. This was awesome, no one napped well on this trip so every second of sleep was very valuable.
That night we drove to Salt Lake to have dinner at Jill's apartment. My dad had flown in to town that afternoon and was spending the night with Emily before driving up to Idaho the next morning. He was able to join us too!
Not sure what Lauren was doing here
When we arrived at Jill's place I felt so tired. The poor sleep of the past week was starting to catch up with me. Luckily my sisters had prepared most of the food and their significant others entertained my children for me. Being around everyone energized me and I had a great time visiting with everyone.
Jill has a lovesac-like beanbag that the kids loved jumping on and battling over. They played some combat related game with Trevor that ended with him tickling them. We left in time to watch/listen to the BYU basketball game.
Group shot!
When we got back to American Fork Anthony met with the son of a former Belmont Ward member who had just received his mission call to Finland. Through the magic that is facebook the connection was made that Anthony served in Finland AND would love to talk to him about Finland AND would be out in Utah AND available to meet. His close friend and former mission companion Bryan Innes came over and they talked all things Finland for hours. Seriously, hours. Eventually I went to bed because if I haven't made it abundantly clear yet, we were not getting enough sleep.
We spent Thursday at the Nielson's house. We took things slow, packed and prepared for our drive back to Kansas, and bought Café Rio for lunch. My good friend and former roommate Melissa stopped by for a quick visit. Fun fact--she lives near Carly and her daughter is in the same class as Sadie in school! As with all quick visits with close friends, we barely scratched the surface of what we could talk about. Sadie was at school and the remaining three big kids played together pretty well in the morning. By lunchtime however, Lauren was the odd woman out. There was more bickering amongst the kids Thursday than there had been during the previous days of the trip combined. Carly, Daniel and Millie left for Texas with the Women's BB team and we watched Sadie and Elise that night.
Maybe my favorite photo from the trip. These two were such good buddies and got along so well while we were visiting. I'm pretty sure Sadie is a big part of why Will thinks living in Utah would be cool. Strengthening friendships with cousins was another goal for this trip and we did!
Friday was a long day. This is the only picture I took of the drive. It had snowed since we last passed through and was much colder. The kids watched more movies and slept on the return trip than they did on the way out. Anthony and I continued to listen to Stuff You Missed in History Class podcasts and I worked on my cross-stitch when I wasn't driving or handing the kids snacks.
We lost an hour as we reentered the Central Time Zone, so though we made decent time, it was almost 8pm when we arrived. We grabbed a small dinner in North Platte and retired for the evening. Anthony had a fantasy baseball draft. No one slept well and Lauren and Anthony both woke up feeling queasy. We all were ready to be home, but not excited about getting back in the van.
The final 6.5 hours felt longer than the previous days 10. We saw bright sunshine, rain and snow.
Uncle Matt came up from Provo to have dinner with us and say hi one last time.
Maybe my favorite photo from the trip. These two were such good buddies and got along so well while we were visiting. I'm pretty sure Sadie is a big part of why Will thinks living in Utah would be cool. Strengthening friendships with cousins was another goal for this trip and we did!
John genes run strong in these two
We got up and loaded our van. The Nielson's friend that watched the girls for the rest of the weekend came by to pick them up at 8:30am, and we left shortly thereafter.
Friday was a long day. This is the only picture I took of the drive. It had snowed since we last passed through and was much colder. The kids watched more movies and slept on the return trip than they did on the way out. Anthony and I continued to listen to Stuff You Missed in History Class podcasts and I worked on my cross-stitch when I wasn't driving or handing the kids snacks.
We lost an hour as we reentered the Central Time Zone, so though we made decent time, it was almost 8pm when we arrived. We grabbed a small dinner in North Platte and retired for the evening. Anthony had a fantasy baseball draft. No one slept well and Lauren and Anthony both woke up feeling queasy. We all were ready to be home, but not excited about getting back in the van.
The final 6.5 hours felt longer than the previous days 10. We saw bright sunshine, rain and snow.
When we exited the freeway and drove on local roads to our home (around 5pm) I couldn't help but notice how beautiful everything looked. It was more than just an absence-makes-the-heart-grow-fonder kind of thing. The grass was greener than when we left. The trees were covered in blossoms and many flowers were blooming. We arrived home to a clean house and my thoughtful mom had picked up a few groceries for us so we didn't have to go out that night. It was good to be back.
Rereading this, it's clear that the poor sleep has left on impact on me. :) But bad sleep notwithstanding, I'm looking forward to making similar trips in the future. We had a great time reconnecting with family and friends. We loved introducing our kids to things that were once a big part of our lives. Our trip wouldn't have gone as well as it did without Carly and Daniel being such gracious hosts. Having a comfortable home base with room to spread out and sleep allowed us to function even when our kids were having a hard time at night. I think the biggest lesson that we learned on this trip is that when you let your kids get overtired there is always a price to be paid. I think the real measure that we had a good time is that I've caught all of us talking about our next trip to Utah. Thanks to all our family members and friends that made time to see us this week!
Rereading this, it's clear that the poor sleep has left on impact on me. :) But bad sleep notwithstanding, I'm looking forward to making similar trips in the future. We had a great time reconnecting with family and friends. We loved introducing our kids to things that were once a big part of our lives. Our trip wouldn't have gone as well as it did without Carly and Daniel being such gracious hosts. Having a comfortable home base with room to spread out and sleep allowed us to function even when our kids were having a hard time at night. I think the biggest lesson that we learned on this trip is that when you let your kids get overtired there is always a price to be paid. I think the real measure that we had a good time is that I've caught all of us talking about our next trip to Utah. Thanks to all our family members and friends that made time to see us this week!
