A quick SA trip

We took a quick trip to San Antonio for Dean's baptism at the beginning of September. We went there on a Friday after school and the baptism was Saturday morning. Harvey was especially excited to see his favorite person Eva!

We went to Alamo Cafe afterwards and the kids' favorite part was all the cool games. 

After eating we went to check out one of the missions! We'd been to one a year before (back HERE) and it was fun to see another one. Even though it was SO hot haha.

We went home after that! It was a fun, quick trip!

Celebrating Grandma Andersen

My sweet Grandma Andersen passed away on August 23. We'd just barely gotten to see her when we were in Utah (back HERE) and were so grateful for that visit. She caught a cold right after we saw her and couldn't fight it I guess. She was 98 after all! Since we had just made the drive as a family and Millie was back in school and Tyler had just taken time off of work for the reunion, we decided that I would go myself. I ended up getting to drive up along with my parents, Steph, Tim, and cousin Whitney and her baby. It was basically an adults road trip and tons of fun. Lots of great chats in the car about everything.

We were there in Utah for such a short amount of time. We got to Orem about an hour before the viewing started (just enough time to change clothes and freshen up after 2 days in the car haha) and were there for a few hours. It was amazing how many of my cousins and family members were there. We were all commenting how rare it was to have so many of us together. Elder Christofferson and his wife also came, they were so sweet and it was neat to meet them. After the viewing we grabbed some Cafe Rio and hung out with cousins for a while. My parents rented a house in American Fork so my immediate family all slept there.

The next morning was the funeral. It was a beautiful service. The chapel and gym were busting at the seams and probably 80% of who was there was her posterity. All of Grandma's living children spoke or sang. I was reminded that it doesn't matter how old you are or how old your parents are, it is still sad to say goodbye to them. I was also reminded in a poignant way that families can be eternal, and the relationships we work so hard to build and maintain on this earth will last. I'm so grateful for that. I also learned things about my sweet grandma that I never knew (both in the funeral and in reading her short autobiography on the drive up) and am excited to get to know her better when I see her again. Her memory started to fade when I was a little girl so I didn't know her the way I would have liked to. 

We went to the cemetery afterwards and I was touched by my dad and all my uncles as pallbearers. My dad gave a beautiful prayer, dedicating this final resting place for her body.

It was fun to see all my siblings again. Long time, no see!

There was a luncheon for family at the church building afterward. This was quite an undertaking! 5 different wards helped. Such a sweet act of service. We got to eat and enjoy time visiting, as well as listen to my aunts sing a few songs. They always ended up singing together at reunions or any family gathering growing up, and hearing them is one of my favorite things. 

We got all of the cousins together for a picture. I think we had almost 90 out of the 104! It was amazing.

The visiting moved to the family park for several of us. There were volleyball games and ultimate frisbee and lots of fun going on, some of us running out for dinner at different points. Once it got dark a few of us made a Chip run for some cookies and stayed up late visiting. I haven't been to an extended Andersen reunion since we moved to Texas so I knew I wouldn't see many of my cousins again for a long time.

The next morning we got up bright and early to make the drive back. We stopped in St. George for a few minutes of a sacrament meeting and other than that made it back as quickly as we could. It was a whirlwind trip and I was so thankful to be able to go!

1st day of 1st grade

Millie was so excited to start school! She had gotten herself dressed and ready down to her shoes and backpack on an hour before the bus came.

The boys and I were a little unsure of what we'd do without her! But we managed okay.

She ran off the bus beaming so I'd say it was a pretty great first day of school!

Back to school prep

We came home from Utah and had a few days to get ready for school to start! In between dentist appointments, haircuts, cleaning rugs, back to school shopping, and meet the teacher, we made time for some swimming and reading parties in the tent.

After avoiding it all summer, Max got brave and went down the slide at the gym pool! He was so proud of himself.

My favorite thing about swimming at the gym for me was that we'd always use their showers afterward and wouldn't have to worry about that before bedtime! I sure love this cute crew of kids.

Utah after party

Thursday morning after we packed up and cleaned at the campsite, we headed down to Orem/Provo area and dropped Tyler off to go golfing with Grandpa, Tim, and Jeff. They had a fun time at a beautiful course at Thanksgiving Point!

Meanwhile, the kids and I went to the BYU Paleontology museum,

saw the cougar on campus,

and went to the Bean Museum! We covered a lot of ground in a pretty short amount of time. Millie and Max had been there before so they knew the good stuff to see.

After that we went to see Grandma Andersen. Aunts Steph (and kids), Kim (and kids), and Sarah were there with Grandma too. It was great to see her. I thought several times that it would probably be the last time I saw her. The kids sang to her and she was her usual spunky, forgetful, thankful, sweet self. 

I also took a picture of her staircase. She had 11 children's family pictures all the way down. We always loved to take our time going down the stairs and look at them all. I wish I would have gotten the wall on the other side of the stairs, which has the giant spreadsheet with the names and info about each of her posterity. Pretty amazing. 

After we said goodbye to Grandma we grabbed lunch to eat at the family park and play for a bit. It was fun to be back where our reception was held almost exactly 9 years ago! Couldn't help but take a pic of the kids in front of the arch where we had one taken back then.

After a little while we took Grandma and Sarah up to Thanksgiving Point where we traded them for Tyler haha. We went back down to Orem and grabbed a couple of Arctic Circle shakes because that's just part of the Utah experience for us. We got oreos and cookie dough because that was my invention back in my days of working there, which flavor Blue Bell has now made lots of money on. Someday I want my piece of that. We walked around BYU campus and went through the bookstore.

Hey, mannequin Uncle Dodo!

We couldn't resist one final Cafe Rio run, and one final beautiful Utah summer evening. After grabbing food we met Mitchell, Shayna, and Garrett at one of our favorite old parks, Nielsen Grove. 

We got to go see Mitchell and Shayna's new place for a few minutes and then went to Garrett and McKenna's place for the night. They were so nice to host us and we enjoyed chatting with them after the kids went to bed. In the morning McKenna was so sweet to have breakfast ready for us so we could eat quick before taking off!

Before we even got on the highway we saw the Apple Maps truck. Pretty funny sight.

Other memorable thing from our drive home was this red truck. It was driven by an elderly lady named Betty (which we knew because all of her belongings you see in the back had her name on them haha). We traveled the same road for a long time. We just thought she was a rockstar for traveling so far on her own! And we were watching very carefully in case anything slide out of the bed of the truck. 

We made it home Saturday evening. The kids did great on the drive and we were all SO happy to be home. It was an epic trip for us!