The Day We Remembered Some Utah "Trip Bits"

So there were lots of great and crazy moments from our Utah trip this summer that I still wanted to document. For starters, this picture that Megan took of my dad at Dane and Jacque's wedding... Megan titled it as "Chuck with that crazy look in his eye." Brooke and Katelyn thought that was so funny - my dad always knows how to make us all laugh.

As I mentioned in the post about the wedding, Katelyn was very sick by the end of the reception and ended up spending the first few days of our trip trying to get better. Brooke loved taking care of her and Katelyn didn't mind her very attentive nurse. The only problem was that Katelyn gave her "bug" to me so then I was sick a few days later. There aren't any photos of that though... thank goodness.

During the time that Katelyn and I were both feeling well, we had a chance to meet up with my good friend Sherri and her boys at "Kangaroo Zoo." It's one of those places invented by evil geniuses that realized they could fill a warehouse with inflatable jumping toys and over-priced food and admission prices that parents would WILLINGLY pay for because the kids are blissfully happy and the adults can visit in peace. I love it but I wish I'd thought of it first! We had the place almost to ourselves, so Katelyn had a chance to play with Cameron and Parker, while Sherri, Bobby and I got to catch up. It was so fun to see them and the kids are looking forward to our next get together.

We also got to see our good friends the Hoppers - the kids had a blast and Chip, Monika, Matt, Kacie and I played a fun game of Settlers of Catan after the kids were all in bed. They made some killer popcorn and their was plenty of trash talking - it was perfect!

I also had another chance after the wedding to see my niece Jaleese who lives in Orem. We got to hang out and play Settlers - do you see a theme here? I love that game and I love that so many of my favorite people will play it with me. It was so much fun to see her and it gave me another chance to get to know her boyfriend Aaron better.

One of the crazy events that happened occurred when my seemingly allergy-free 5 year old had a horrific reaction to Uncle Russell's cat. She never even saw the cat, but curled up in a blanket that belonged to the cat, unbeknownst to her. The next thing I saw was Katelyn rubbing her eye and then within a few minutes it was swollen almost completely shut and very puffy, red and bruised looking. It seriously looked like I had punched her in the eye... several times. It was awful. It resulted in a trip to the InstaCare and days and days of medicine and eye drops and her looking all red and swollen and being very itchy. I felt so bad that I couldn't fix it for her, but she was a trooper about it all. On the bright side, now we have a real reason not to get a cat.

The downside to the trip was that no matter when we go, or how long we stay, we NEVER get a chance to see all the people that we want to... it kills me that there were so many very important friends and family members that I didn't see while I was there. I hope you know that we miss you and maybe one of these days I will figure out how to see everyone and still do all the things we "have" to do and "need" to do while we are there. It is a tough balance to strike and I had no idea how hard it would be.

On a happy note, the girls were able to make themselves right at home and had so much fun just playing at Gram and Pop's house. Brooke loved playing outside but we discovered she has pet allergies too - after hardly touching Dixie, her face, arms and hands had welts and hives all over them. Hmmm, I guess no dogs for us either.

Katelyn loved playing outside too, including her attempts to be a human fountain. She loved hanging out with Gram and golfing with Pop. She is now the official golf cart driver! We had such a wonderful trip and even though one of us was either sick or suffering from severe allergies for most of our visit, it was great being there. Thanks for another great visit Gram and Pop!