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!

Andersen Family Reunion 2018

I didn't take tons of pictures at our reunion but we had so much fun! Laura and Tom did such a great job planning everything. It was a great balance of planned activities and down time where we could just play and talk. We had almost everyone there and loved being together!

The reunion began Monday afternoon. We all rolled in to the campsite and got settled before we split into two groups for the ropes course. I was in the second group with Harvey so we got to eat lunch and do a little exploring beforehand. The lake (I think it's called Legacy Lake) was gorgeous! I was attempting to take a panoramic picture below and it wasn't working but I like this one anyway.

The deer were so friendly. I saw a few buckets of feed hanging from trees so I think the deer know where to hang out. We even saw a couple babies around and they were so cute.

The second group got there as the first group was finishing and I got to watch Tyler have his turn on the ropes course! It was a cargo net climb, ladder steps, and then a zipline. It was super fun. Millie did it but Max says he will next year haha.

It was so cool that the camp was run by senior missionary couples. They really knew what they were doing and were so kind. It's kind of hard to tell in this picture but little Ian was a bit tangled up and trying to figure out how to get from the net to the ladder steps. This sweet missionary went over and helped him figure it out. We all went outside our comfort zones a little bit and it was so fun. I wasn't expecting to be nervous but those ladder steps are high up and you feel so exposed!

After the ropes course the kids had fun running from cabin to cabin and playing together outside. The adults took turns with kids and played volleyball and spike ball in the sand court. 

We had a big pavilion where we ate our meals and gathered for big group games and stuff. That first night there was a ball being thrown around and Millie got hit in the head. She cried but seemed okay. around midnight (right as I was climbing into bed) she woke up and threw up several times. I think it was a nice combination of being dehydrated, altitude sickness, and maybe a little concussion. She never had a fever or other symptoms, just felt nauseous and had a headache. I changed her bedding and pajamas and put everything outside (what else can you do in the middle of the night while camping??) and went back to bed. A few hours later, the same thing happened. Poor thing. Tuesday was spent taking care of her. I stayed with her and Tyler got to take all the dirty laundry down the mountain to a laundromat in Heber. She slept a lot and wouldn't eat, but was drinking some. 

Harvey went with Grandma on the lake when everyone was canoeing, but Max wanted to stay with me. We colored together for a while and it was nice.

In the afternoon the kids got to decorate their own pillowcases. Max drew Transformers on his, of course. 

Max and cousin Brigham were such cute buddies during the reunion. Briggs had just had his 4th birthday a few days before and had some cool new toys at the reunion. He was so nice to share with Max the whole time.

We went on a little hike around the lake and I had this dude on my back the whole way. 

We stopped at the end where there were lots of great rocks to throw in the lake. The boys had a fun time.

When we got back Millie was feeling well enough to venture out to the pavilion. She decorated her pillowcase with unicorns all over one side, and emojis on the other. Very in line with her current interests!

Got a family picture in our reunion shirts.

The Bakers brought their bumbo for Oliver to sit in at meals and Harvey thought it was the coolest chair. I guess I should bring ours out more often than when he gets a haircut.

Every night there was a gathering of adults in the big kitchen to talk and/or play games. Tyler and I took turns going after the kids were asleep. Kids are great and we love them lots! But I always appreciate the times we get to talk without interruption haha.

Wednesday morning we got another chance to go to the lake! We were so glad since we missed out the day before. It was a gorgeous day. There's something so peaceful about being on a lake. We did paddle boats at first and switched to a canoe for the last half of our time there. Thankfully Millie was feeling well enough to go.

We lingered there for a while and let the kids play in the sand while the rest of us chatted and played volleyball. The older cousins were so cute with Harvey. Someone was always helping him or wanting to play with him.

Max and Eliza were cute buddies too. I saw them sitting on the path and when I asked them what they were doing Eliza said, "Just talking!" 

There were babies all around. Where there were adults playing, there were other adults watching and on kid duty haha.

The first night we did a talent show at an amphitheater near our campsite. The last night we went there again for a testimony meeting. We enjoyed feeling the Spirit and hearing each other share testimony. After the last person had spoken suddenly a little snake slithered across the stage! Leighton ran after it (our resident reptile expert) and the rest of the kids quickly followed. They caught the snake and that was the activity for the rest of the night for them. They waited in line for turns to pet and hold the snake! I believe they named him Striker.

Thursday morning we ate breakfast at a table outside in shifts as we cleaned and packed up. 

It was such a fun week! I'm so thankful for this crazy, awesome, loud, loving family of mine. 

More travel

We left Albuquerque pretty early and were greeted by hot air balloons in the sky. They're pretty tiny in this picture but they looked awesome!

I also snapped this picture to remember a funny Max moment. As we were driving Max asked, "What's that big tower?" After a few minutes we figured out he was talking about these mountains! I was laughing so hard. That's when you know you live in Houston. 

We eventually made it to Utah! One of our last stops on the drive was to walk/hike up to Wilson Arch. Millie was attached to the hat she'd gotten at the restaurant the night before and just looked so cute.

It was a little more climbing than I remembered from doing it as a kid, but pretty cool!

We got all the way up and down and put Harvey down so he could walk to the car and he fell flat on his forehead. Got a huge bump. He was crying and I was icing his head and changing his diaper and Tyler tried to start the van, but the key was stuck and wouldn't turn for some reason. We sat there for a few minutes, trying over and over and Tyler reading the owner's manual to see if there was something we could do. Eventually we got it to start but it was a little scary there for a minute! You can't have a road trip without some kind of drama.

As we came through Price/Spanish Fork canyon we saw some wildfires up close. It's hard to tell in this pic but there's a helicopter flying over, dropping sand on it. I was amused by the signs that said not to call and report the fires. 

We made it to Provo and were sad to see that the smoke from that wildfire had made it to the valley. We couldn't see the mountains and the air quality probably wasn't good! Didn't stop us from enjoying some time outside though. Mitchell and Shayna met us at the Provo Temple grounds where we had dinner and played and chatted. It was such a nice evening and we were so happy to be out of the car! And Tyler and I had Cafe Rio, so our joy was full right along with our stomachs haha.

Sunday morning we went to church at Laura and Tom's ward. They blessed their sweet baby Chloe and it was amazing to see ALL of my brothers and brothers-in-law there in the circle, along with my dad, Grandpa Backus, and all of Tom's side.

We had lunch and enjoyed visiting outside. Laura and Tom were so nice to host all of us, it was a big undertaking! We were all just so excited to be together. Snapped a picture with Grandpa and Grandma Joyce before they left.

Later in the afternoon we took family pictures! It was a little chaotic with 38 people but the photographer was awesome and got through it all pretty quickly. Harvey fell asleep on the way to the picture site and was out cold for almost all of the session! The photographer was so nice to take another family picture of our little fam once he was awake, but for the big group ones he was comatose! Funny memory.

Laura hosted everyone she could fit (and her neighbor had the rest of us) that night and we packed up to head to the official family reunion in Weber! More on that to come.