The Drive
We left early Wednesday morning. It is about a 16 hour drive to the Salt Lake Valley, which is just longer than we want to push our family in a day. We decided to break our driving up into two days and spend the night in a hotel that accepts Marriott points. By leaving early Wednesday we were able to put in 10 hours, setting us up for a shorter drive and more time with cousins Thursday. The downside of the this choice was Will had to miss his class field trip to the Louisburg Cider Mill. He was a good sport about it. We arrived in Cheyenne at dinnertime and ordered pizza and a salad from Dominos. We've found that pizza is the generally the cheapest and most filling way to fill our family up when going the fast food route. After dinner we headed down to the pool.
Road trip art. One of the things we hoped to do if we had time was hike the Y in Provo. Will and Lauren were excited to climb a mountain. They are such Midwesterners. I remember moving to Provo for college and feeling awe as I walked back to the dorms and stared at the mountains, so big and close it was hard to comprehend.
It is hard to say which hotel amenity Elliott was most excited about. The two rolls of toilet paper stationed right next to each other or the box of tissues mounted right at his eye level. And the fact that positioning of the bathroom door made it impossible to bar him from both at the same time. Unrolling toilet paper and pulling out tissues (and wipes) are two of his favorite pastimes.
The pool was fun. The kids hadn't been swimming since Labor Day and quickly picked up where they left off. The bubbles in the hot tub were a hit! Anthony and I had high hopes that our swim session would lead to a quick and easy bedtime, but our dreams were not realized. The kids were amped up to be in a hotel room and out of the car and had a hard time settling down. We all went to bed at the same time and the talking finally settled down around 9:30pm. Lauren made some sort of noise or caused a disturbance about once an hour. I'm certain she was bothering us so much because we were all sleeping so close, but man it was annoying. We were all up by 6:30am, but it was the worst night sleep I've ever gotten for being in bed for nine hours. After a quick breakfast we were back on the road.
Our second day of travel was again, fairly uneventful. We stopped for lunch and Elliott was in a VERY good mood. Kisses for everyone! He isn't a huge fan of his carseat, which Anthony and I were very concerned about going into this trip, but he handled it pretty well. That's not to say he wasn't absolutely ecstatic when he got out and fought us pretty hard when we tried to put him in.
Arrival!
We arrived in Utah around 2pm and stopped at the outlets to get Anthony a pair of pants for the wedding. I had ordered him a pair of blue pants online, but neglected to check the arrival date and the pants were not delivered before we left. After we picked up the pants we headed to west West Jordan to visit the Wilsons. The kids were excited to meet their new cousin, Mikey, and play with Ty Guy for a bit.
We had fun visiting, but left to head to the Nielson's before rush hour. The kids were excited to see their Nielson cousins too.
I didn't stick around for long. I headed to Sandy to get my "nails did," as Daniel corrected me when I said I was going to get my nails done. Jill got her fingernails done and I got my toes. It was fun to see Jill and go over the last minute details and to-dos. Weddings are fun but a lot of work!
Friday was our day to indoctrinate our kids on the awesomeness of BYU.
We headed down to Provo in the morning and walked around campus a bit. Because we were last there in March, Will and Lauren both remembered things pretty well. We met up with our friend Darren and checked out the new buildings on the east end of campus. I didn't get a picture that quite captured the beauty that is BYU campus in the fall. Carly pulled her girls out of school at lunchtime and we met up with them and Matt at the Cougareat for lunch. It was very crowded, but we ran into several people we know both from home and our BYU days. We ate at Chick-fil-A, which has replaced Tomasittos in the Wilk. I bought many a pasta dish there freshman year, but feel that Chick-fil-A is good replacement.
After lunch Carly took Millie and Elliott back to her place for naps. We took the four older cousins to hike the Y. It was a cool, slightly overcast day, which made for ideal hiking conditions. There are ten switchbacks to get to the bottom of the Y, and after the first two I was really regretting suggesting this as an option. Will and Sadie had ran up ahead, but the younger girls were having a harder time and I was having a hard time! It had been eight years for me and the Y, not to mention the altitude and the natural aging process. We persevered and by the time we made it to the top I wasn't so winded.
I'm not sure why Lauren always looks annoyed to be with us when I take group shots. This does not bode well for her teen years...
The view is amazing! It was fun trying to locate various landmarks and rest for a few minutes before we headed back down.
We met up with Melanie and Andrew to get our football tickets before heading back to American Fork. The kids were excited to see Leah too. They had seen her last month when she visited my parents and Will and Leah developed a bit of a bond.
We ran a few wedding-related errands throughout the day too.
That evening Anthony, Will and I headed back to P-town for the homecoming football game. Daniel hooked us up with passes to go on the field before the game. We watched the team warm up and then run out on the field for the game. It was pretty cool! It was pretty crowded, but that's to be expected at a homecoming game. Will was excited to see #21 Jamaal Williams, his favorite BYU player, from afar.
What's with dabbing?
High fives for Cosmo!
Getting amped!
These two crack me up!
Will has fallen in love with football this year. He "plays" at recess, afterschool and in our front room. On Saturday he asks if we can turn on football and will watch any team that is playing, though BYU is his favorite. The game ended up going really long. Double overtime long. Which translates to extra late when the game didn't even start until 8:30pm. I was feeling varying amounts of anxiety as the game wound on, knowing that we had to be in Taylorsville for the wedding brunch at 9:45am the next morning and a full day scheduled after that. Poor Will ended up falling asleep! Luckily BYU won so I was feeling much less bitter. Traffic was terrible and we didn't get back to the Nielson's until after 1:30am. I very much took for granted how relatively easy it was to walk to football games in college. It also should be noted that in my six years of attending BYU games as a student or spouse of a student, I never once bought food (I may have bought a water bottle once). That night, because Will kept complaining of hunger I broke down and bought $11 worth of concessions--a water bottle, foot-long hot dog & bag of chips, and mint brownie for me because I love those things and spent 20 minutes waiting in line.
THE WEDDING
The wedding festivities started with a brunch at Jake's family's chapel. The food was amazing! Such a delicious spread. It was my first time meeting members of Jake's extended family and I was really impressed with how down to earth and nice they were. We also got to see some of our extended family and friends for the first time in ages and that was nice too.
After the brunch we had a little downtime and Laura helped me do my hair. Trevor gave our older kids a short ride. Then we headed to the temple for their sealing. It was full house! Jill and Jake have a lot of friends. It was a nice sealing and I was felt very full of joy. As is tradition, after the sealing we took a lot of pictures.
Waiting for our turn to be in an "official" picture. Lojo and the boyz.
Love this guy ^^^ and these three \/\/\/
The reception was in North Salt Lake and it was beautiful. Actually, everything about the day was beautiful. We took some additional group and family photos before the reception.
The kids ran around while waiting for their turn in the pics
Had to snag this pic of the newlyweds walking up the hill because it's their hashtag!
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The reception was great! There was food, dancing, good conversations with friends and family, and the best wedding cake I've ever had in my life. But boy did my feet hurt by the end of the night!
DAY OF REST
We took the Sabbath quite literally and rested on Sunday. We went to church with the Nielson's and spent the rest of the day playing and visiting with them.
Carly graciously made Lauren an early birthday cake for dessert. Lauren was very pleased. We put the kids to bed, packed and then the adults visited. I think we discussed the BYU honor code, parenting styles and the scary stuff kids deal with today that we didn't have to (like easy access to bad stuff via tablets). One of my favorite parts about visiting with family is talking with the adults after the kids are in bed. It's hard to replicate in phone calls and texts, but so fulfilling in person.
THE DRIVE :: PART 2
No one was quite as excited about the trip home. We left when as the Sadie and Elise were heading off to school, which made the goodbyes a bit easier. I love how close our kids are with all of their cousins.
Our final six hours passed a bit slower than our ten did the previous day due to the warning Anthony got for speeding at the start of the day. We made it home with relatively little discord. I was so proud of us, another fun road trip in the books! We've also doubled the miles on our van from when we bought 14 months ago.
We love our house! Lauren was especially pleased to see that a box of birthday presents arrived from Nana and Papa while we were gone. And Anthony's pants in that blue bag. ;)
All in all we had a great trip! It was so great to see so many people we love. Looking forward to traveling out again in a few weeks!
Didn't realize my children took up an ENTIRE PAGE when they signed the guest book. Oops!
The reception was great! There was food, dancing, good conversations with friends and family, and the best wedding cake I've ever had in my life. But boy did my feet hurt by the end of the night!
DAY OF REST
We took the Sabbath quite literally and rested on Sunday. We went to church with the Nielson's and spent the rest of the day playing and visiting with them.
I can't get over how close they live to the temple!
Carly graciously made Lauren an early birthday cake for dessert. Lauren was very pleased. We put the kids to bed, packed and then the adults visited. I think we discussed the BYU honor code, parenting styles and the scary stuff kids deal with today that we didn't have to (like easy access to bad stuff via tablets). One of my favorite parts about visiting with family is talking with the adults after the kids are in bed. It's hard to replicate in phone calls and texts, but so fulfilling in person.
THE DRIVE :: PART 2
No one was quite as excited about the trip home. We left when as the Sadie and Elise were heading off to school, which made the goodbyes a bit easier. I love how close our kids are with all of their cousins.
We again split the trip into two days, with our long day coming first. We spent most of the day in Wyoming, arriving in North Platte, NE, just in time for dinner. It had snowed in the mountains and it part of Wyoming. We saw a lot of snow in the first few hours of our drive. When we stopped to use the restrooms after lunch it was crazy-windy! We saw signs warning of 30-, 40- and 50mph winds. I believe it! I enjoyed watching the landscape slowly change from the mountains of Utah to the plateaus of Wyoming and finally to the fields in Nebraska. We live in on a beautiful planet.
We were too tired for a pool trip this night. We all went straight to bed and fell asleep pretty quickly. We had a relatively uneventful night, got up for breakfast and hit the road again, anxious to arrive home.
Our final six hours passed a bit slower than our ten did the previous day due to the warning Anthony got for speeding at the start of the day. We made it home with relatively little discord. I was so proud of us, another fun road trip in the books! We've also doubled the miles on our van from when we bought 14 months ago.
We love our house! Lauren was especially pleased to see that a box of birthday presents arrived from Nana and Papa while we were gone. And Anthony's pants in that blue bag. ;)
All in all we had a great trip! It was so great to see so many people we love. Looking forward to traveling out again in a few weeks!
Congratulations, Jake and Jill! We love you!
2 comments:
It would be so fun to head back to Utah sometime soon! I'm crossing my fingers for a family wedding there in the next few years.
Sounds like a great trip and wonderful wedding. I think it's so funny that weddings have their own hashtags now. How different things are from when we got married! Our kids don't remember BYU. Hopefully we can get out there to indoctrinate them in the next few years!
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