Utah – Page 7

Faux Thanksgiving in Utah

November 30, 2015 by Rebecca Whitehead

Our trip to Utah was short and sweet, but we packed a punch.

We played in the leaves in ten minute increments before we got too cold and had to go inside because we are wimps! Then, it was back out again! Rinse and repeat.

The girls’ favorite game was “Bury Mommy!”

Amelia informed me that I was an ice cream cone and she was putting on all the “toppings.”

Nothing beats a hot apple cider picnic!

We braved the wind chill and visited and fed the horses a few times.

The girls practiced their driving skills in the little cars Grammy picked up for them. We broke up more than one fight over who could drive the coveted red car (even though I still maintain the convertible with a trunk is MUCH cooler).

One of the best parts about Grammy’s house is digging out all the toys from childhood yore. Bring on the Polly Pockets!

Vintage Lite Brite? YES PLEASE.

Bring on the childhood memories.

Grammy and Aunt Sarah had a girls’ night with Samantha and Amelia while Jake and I went to Kati’s wedding reception. Love this picture Sarah took of the girls right as we were leaving. Amelia was all smiles while Samantha was moody (i.e. screaming). As we walked out the door, we could hear Grammy serenading the girls with a song, while Samantha screamed, relentlessly, “NO! I DON’T WANT THE SONG!”

Sarah sent me this pic later on to reassure me that Samantha eventually calmed down. Daniel Tiger and cereal never fail.

It was so fun to hang out with the beautiful bride, Kati, at her reception and to meet her new husband. David, who coincidentally served in the same Spain mission as Jake. Kati and David live in DC, but hopefully, we’ll be able to make it out there for a history-themed trip with Samantha and Amelia soon. Congrats to the happy newlyweds!

When I was the editor of our high school newspaper, Kati and I used to jam out to ABBA during our late-night deadline sessions at school, so it was only fitting that she had all the ladies come out to dance to “Dancing Queen.” Since no one needed to see a pregnant lady jamming out on the dance floor, I came out for the ladies’ dance, but definitely toned it down a bit.

My other wedding favorites included Kati’s ice cream and sprinkle bar along with catching up with Erica and all the amazing things she’s doing as director of performing arts at her charter school. We need a book club reunion soon, ladies!

We arrived home from the reception with a good report from Grammy and Aunt Sarah– the girls had fallen fast asleep while Grammy read stories to them. Thanks for the free babysitting!

A few hours before we left for our trip home, we had Faux Thanksgiving, since we wouldn’t be in town on actual Thanksgiving Day. It was nice to have a relaxing dinner and catch up with the Brodeurs, Sarah and Mike, and Mike and Ali, particularly since the girls napped through all but ten minutes of our feast!

Thanks, Sarah, for the yummy food pics, Dad for the turkey and Mom, of course, for the delicious feast! Way too much food, as per the usual. This year we had a stuffing and pie contest, in which the regular pies and stuffings beat out the gluten-free, dairy-free kind. Alas, some recipes are just better left untouched.

Sarah’s Mike brought the very fitting Turkey Butter, which the girls found fascinating.

We woke the girls up from naps so they could enjoy a little bit of Grammy’s Thanksgiving feast before we had to leave to make our flight out. The girls’ favorites were definitely the turkey, sweet potatoes and pie. Lots of pie.

We were so sad to have to eat and run since the best part about Thanksgiving is lounging around after the big meal. The girls were tired for our flight back home and were awesome again on the plane, despite a few hiccups over who got the bigger lollipop. Our arrangement with Amelia and I in the front and Jake and Samantha directly behind us worked out well for the second time.

Bye bye, plane.

Hitching a ride.

The girls fell asleep on the car ride home and awoke the next day, crying that they weren’t at Grammy’s. We can’t win!

Thanks Grammy, Papa, Aunt Sarah, Uncle Mike, other Uncle Mike, and Ali for a Happy Faux Thanksgiving!

Lots of love,

Filed Under: Thanksgiving Tagged With: fall, leaves, Thanksgiving, Utah

Samantha and Amelia’s First Plane Ride

November 30, 2015 by Rebecca Whitehead

The week before Thanksgiving, we took a short trip to Utah to go to my friend, Kati’s, wedding and to have a pre-Thanksgiving dinner with family. Leading up to our trip, we talked all week with the girls about riding on a plane– they could hardly wait, although it was hard to tell if they thought we were just making things up or not.

As these things usually happen, OF COURSE the girls had to get sick with a cold a few days before our trip. The night before take off, Samantha and Amelia were snotty, coughing little sicklings and I went into freak out mode after reading online how sick toddlers’ ear drums could burst by riding on a plane while super congested. Note to self: stop reading anything online– I thought I learned that lesson after reading horror story after horror story about every possible thing that could go wrong when I was pregnant with the twins!

After a night-before-take-off 10 p.m. phone call with the pediatrician (love you, Dr. Young!), I was sufficiently reassured that everything would be fine and we got the go ahead to try a little Benadryl on the plane to help decongest them and knock them out a bit.

Samantha and Amelia were groggy but excited for our early morning flight out of Long Beach.

I figured the girls would be a little bit clingy getting on the plane, but they were total pros! At Long Beach, you walk straight onto the tarmac and up a ramp onto the plane, which the girls thought was the best thing ever. Samantha looked like she had done this all before as she dragged her own little suitcase up the ramp, ahead of us, said hello to the pilots when we boarded and stepped right onto the plane with a gleeful smile!

I didn’t get a picture of Samantha going up the ramp all by herself on our flight to Salt Lake, but here she is getting off the plane on our return trip.

Since this was the girls’ first flight, I wanted to make things as easy as possible and have clear access to the bathrooms, so we fortunately were able to book the first two rows of the plane. I sat in the first row with Amelia, while Samantha and Jake sat directly behind us.

I took a gamble and booked the aisle seat and the window seat, thinking other people wouldn’t want to book a middle seat in between us, and my gamble paid off. Both Jake and I had both rows to ourselves, so each of us could scoot over to sit in the middle seat next to one of the girls, without having anyone next to us in the aisle.

Ready for take off.

Amelia refused to hold my hand at all during take off. MOM, I’M NOT A BABY!

The girls are normally rambunctious and antsy at dinner, church, the library, or any kind of sitting down/quiet situation, so I was nervous they would get cranky quickly, but they totally surprised me! They were awesome and got tons of compliments from the flight attendants and other flyers. Way to go, girls! I was so proud.

Between taking in all the new sights and sounds, getting to pick out their snack and drink from the flight attendant, using the plane bathroom, watching a cartoon, and coloring, they were completely occupied and happy the whole time. The short two hour flight helped too. A huge bonus was that the girls loved sitting directly behind each other. They played peek-a-book between the cracks in the seats and laughed the whole time.

About a half hour before landing, we gave them a half dose of Benadryl. I had heard that Benadryl has the opposite effect on a small percentage of kids, making them hyper, and since the girls have never had it, I didn’t know quite how they would react. As it turned out, it definitely had a sedating effect on them.

Zombie Amelia. Yes, I drugged my child.

While the plane made its descent, the girls were both pretty out of it and zoned out while sucking on lollipops. We probably didn’t even need the meds, to be honest, but with their stuffiness, we didn’t want to take any chances. Most relaxing two hours I’ve had in a long time.

Amelia was still a little out of it when we got to Salt Lake and kept asking why we weren’t at Grammy’s house yet. I think she thought the plane would land directly at our final destination.

What could possibly top a successful first plane ride? Grandma’s house and cake, of course!

Lots of love,

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: first plane ride, Utah

Utah Week Three and Going Home

November 3, 2015 by Rebecca Whitehead

After our refreshing stay in the mountains at Solitude, we packed up, contacted the condo owners about the lamp that Samantha broke (they were really nice about it…I think my inclusion of the phrase “twin toddlers” softened their hearts a bit, because they told me I had my hands full) and met up with Grammy at the Hogle Zoo before heading back to Grammy’s house.

The Hogle Zoo has definitely been upgraded since I used to go there as a little girl. Not too crowded and the enclosures weren’t the tiny cages I remember seeing back in the day.

Our favorite part– the grizzly bears. It was lunch time right as we arrived at the bear enclosure and the zookeepers threw dozens of steaks out for the bears to munch on. Reminds me of two little bears I know.

Mandatory carousel stop.

Two birdies in their nest.

The girls napped on the way back to Grammy’s and they had a renewed interest in exploring Grammy’s house again since we had been in the mountains for half a week.

The next morning, we saw my good high school friends, Crysta and Sarah, and their kids who weren’t in school. Samantha and Amelia loved playing hide and seek and tag with all the kids.

Samantha and Amelia with Crysta’s Lincoln and Liam.

This random cat from the park apparently wanted to come home with us as it jumped in our car.

After the park, Grammy watched the girls while we packed the car to go home. During our stay, Grammy had prepared for “meltdown moments” by stashing away some new crafts and small toys to bust out at opportune times. The girls were totally occupied running around and pretending they were dinosaurs with the masks Grammy gave them. Too bad we couldn’t bring Grammy with us back home!

It felt like a long vacation, and the girls had been having periodic meltdowns for a week or so about wanting to go home, but as soon as we said goodbye to Grammy and Grandpa and drove off, they of course started crying that they wanted to go back to Grammy’s. We can never win.

Miraculously, the girls were great in the car and slept the four hours to Saint George. We made a quick dinner pit stop there before gearing up to head to Vegas. The girls were super cranky and sick of the car by the time we got there, but all in all, it could have been much worse.

We normally would avoid Vegas at all costs, but we knew we’d be so tired from the trip that we’d need to make an overnight pit stop.

Since we had Bandit with us, we had to find a dog friendly hotel for our stay– so annoying (but we love you, Bandit!)

I had to laugh at some of the “Doggie menu” options! Totally overboard, but nice for people who are willing to fork over some dough to pamper their pets. Apparently, we are not those people! Sorry, Bandit, but I would rather spend the money on a nice meal for myself. You know, because I actually chew my food before swallowing.

The next morning, our plan was to tire the girls out before the four-hour car ride back home, so we hung out at the Mandalay Bay pool, which connected to our hotel. The girls were in heaven and I was happy about keeping them occupied without venturing out of our little bubble into downtown Vegas.

Our mission to get the wiggles out was successful. The girls ran around non stop at the beach-entry wading pool, wave pool and lazy river. Since we were out in the morning, we had the place to ourselves, except for a few other families. I’m assuming most people in Vegas were too hung over to leave their rooms in the morning!

The girls don’t even play this much in the sand at home, but for whatever reason, occupied themselves for hours in the imported sand here?

Samantha soaks up the sun.

By far the most relaxing part of the entire Utah trip for me!

Tired out from the sun and sand, the girls slept the whole four hours home to California– truly miraculous! Despite it being 100 degrees when we returned (in the middle of October, ugh!), everyone was happy to be home. Except of course, for the girls, who repeated how much they missed Grammy’s house regularly for the next week.

Thanks for a wonderful stay, Grammy and Grandpa!

Lots of love,

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Grammy, Utah, Vegas

Utah Week Two

October 19, 2015 by Rebecca Whitehead

While Jake was back working in California, the girls and I enjoyed hanging out at Grammy’s and finding things to do around Utah County. And by “enjoyed,” I mean had fun most of the day until bedtime, at which point not having Jake there to take over after a full day of feeding, dressing, bathing, brushing, wrangling, entertaining, refereeing, disciplining, and surviving really started to take a toll.

It was definitely nice not having to cook and clean on top of the girls, but even with all the perks of being on vacation at Grammy and Grandpa’s, I was tired and not in the best of moods by the end of the day.

Just for fun, a flashback to our Utah trip last summer:

By day three of no daddy, we were pretty much done. The girls loved being at Grammy’s house, but there’s just no place like home! Amelia was especially homesick/daddy-sick and didn’t quite know how to deal with everything. She would be playing, perfectly happy one moment, and then bursting into tears screaming “HOME!!!!! I WANT TO GO HOME!!!!” the next. Times that by seven times a day, seven days a week, and that’s pretty much how things went down.

Still, with Grammy there to help out, we survived our Jake-less week and lived to tell about it.

Samantha on a pony at Farm Country, Thanksgiving Point.

Samantha, last year at Farm Country.

2015:

For some reason, they didn’t have straps to tie around the kids (uhhhhh, liability?) and Amelia’s horse was a little bit fidgety. Scared me half to death, but she held on admirably.

Amelia 2014:

Of all the many parks we visited, the wooden Discovery Park was their favorite.

Cute little beehives!

Sister hug!

Poor Amelia is constantly wanting to hug Samantha and hold her hand– usually to her sister’s vehement protests. She’s so sweet!

One morning, Grammy went with us to the BYU dinosaur museum, where we spent most of the time keeping the girls from treating priceless artifacts as a jungle gym.

We loved all the free things there were to do around Provo.

Amelia is still talking about going to the dino museum as if it were yesterday. Apparently, she grew quite attached!

Grammy also went with us to the BYU Bean Museum of Natural History. Hooray for another free museum, although, we definitely paid our “admission fee” by letting the girls pick something out at the gift shop. Surprise of the century– they each picked out yet another stuffed animal.

Contemplating the circle of life at the Bean Museum.

On one of the hotter mornings, the girls bounced around Kangaroo Zoo.

And on one of the colder days, we visited Thanksgiving Point’s Museum of Curiosity.

Samantha is our little builder. She found these blocks which were supposed to be in one of the exhibits to demonstrate what happens to structures in an earthquake. She informed us that she was repurposing them into some train tracks.

Don’t mess up my train, sister!

We sure kept busy, but we were missing Daddy every second!

Lots of love,

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Bean Museum, dinosaur museum, Thanksgiving Point, Utah

Faux Thanksgiving in Utah

Samantha and Amelia’s First Plane Ride

Utah Week Three and Going Home

Utah Week Two

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