Nowhere To Go From Here But Down...

Every  now and then you plan a relatively impromptu trip to Utah to be with family in time of need... and after your husband drives you there into the wee hours of the night, and a day later flies back to San Francisco to work for the week, he'll fly back on the weekend to drive you home. And when you see him, sometimes you'll realize you're not quite ready to go and you'll look at him like this:

... and he'll pat you lovingly on the head, and book himself another flight back to San Francisco for work. And then he'll fly back to Utah the next weekend, to, again, pick your sorry carcass up and drive you home. But this will only happen to you if you have a most excellent and selfless husband. And I do.

And so, my 5 day trip to Utah turned into 16 days. And it was glorious, indeed.

But before I tell you about it, allow me to share a few cute pictures of our family outing to the Oakland temple the day before we left...

The truth is, I don't have much to say about out temple outing because both of our angelic looking little rugrats up there were lunatics that day... and so we snapped a few pictures, shed a few tears, and hightailed it out of there. So that's all. But my family sure looks cute and happy for social media purposes, and that, my friends, is all that matters.

One of our first days in Utah, one of our very best compadres, Matt, happened to be in town at the same time with his munchkin, Jude. And we celebrated by consuming an inexcusable amount of peanut m&ms, and  by observing a moment of silence for his missing wife, Mimi and their other son, Josh. And by "missing" I mean missing  from this get-together. Not like, milk carton missing. Mimi--I love you and miss you and nearly couldn't enjoy Matt's company without you there sitting on my lap. Not his lap. MY lap.

Forgive me for looking 600lbs in this photo--it was the camera angle and the clothes I was wearing and the weather that day, all making me look fat.

My life-long best friend ShaLyse "Shayer" Walker and I have a tough time getting together these days. And this one itty-bitty, baby fern of a picture is all we have to show for it.

But those 20 minutes we spent, holding each other like this in Nordstrom... no talking, just holding... were the best 20 minutes of my life.

I post this picture simply to document that Baby Eve is a prayer nazi and walks around like this pretty much all day long, shouting "Amen! Amen!" and judging everyone who isn't praying. She's a real zealot. She was judging Sam, in particular, in this picture.

The rest of her time is spent dressed as a saloon girl, entertaining the locals...

After Sam left, I went to stay with Mera in Provo for the rest of the first week. And what generally happens is we get drunk off each other's love and change into our nighties and refuse to shower and then take lots of photos of the chaos that ensues. Meradith is a particularly mean drunk...

We are also prone to hold flexibility contests... the clear winner is me. Though, she gets points for her, "I still look cute and care-free even with my leg popped up above my head" face.

And feats of strength...

Again, I win.

And you're welcome for that photo right there.

But Meradith walked away champion after she ran up and down the stairs like this:

Which has given me nightmares for days.

Bone chilling.

While their mothers were out back, competing against each other in "The Lumberjack Games," these four little angels were snuggled up together, watching a show and being adorable and awesome in general.

Occasionally we do shower and go to the park...

One glorious autumn afternoon we headed off to an excellent little pumpkin patch on Geneva road. I can't remember the name, but if you live in Utah and want to go, text me and I'll find out. Or just google it. But make sure to tell me so I get that warm "credit" feeling for giving you such a good idea. Anyway, here are Lucy, Scarlett and Leah getting towed around by Uncle Jason... 

And me and Mera and baby Isla amongst the general splendor. I may or may not have had to crop my enormous butt out of this picture... and Meradith's exceedingly cute butt was lost in the crossfire... for which I apologize.

Cute Marme and Daddy. You'll notice my dad's shriveled up little T-Rex arm... he severely injured his shoulder in a freak heliskiing accident. Or, he fell down the steps in his garage. I can't remember which one it was. Poor Daddy :(

Magical...

Just look at um'. Not a care in the world at the pumpkin patch. You'd never even know about the T-Rex arm.... Except you'll notice my mom's wee little fingers gripping the side of the board... seems she doesn't quite understand the concept of these face cut-out thingys.

These two cousins have been a match made in heaven from birth. Yuv them.

Delectable group. I had left to pick up Sam from the airport at this point, which is why I'm not in the front, doing the splits.

Mera took this little photo of Leah and it captures her perfectly--she literally dances and sings through life, everywhere she goes. I luff her so much.

Meradith's canned goods sure are hilarious! Actually, this is the most g-rated of a series of photos Sam and I staged as a little surprise for Mera when she opened her pantry. An early Christmas present, really. She was elated!

The Thanksgiving Point Farm is heaven on earth for my little ones.

Look at that beautiful sissy of mine on the wagon ride. And Leah and Lucy trying their best to smile with the sun blasting in their faces. What good girls. 

Leah's an old pony-riding pro at this point.

Eve as well. She expressed her delight by literally shaking the fence and scream crying the whole time we were in line, and then yelling "Yee-hah!" for the duration of the ride, and then scream crying in devastation again when her turn was over. She's a passionate women, folks.

Thanks to my dear mama and sweet sissy, Sam and I were able to escape to Park City for a day sans kiddos. And it was heaven. Heaven on earth. Have you been to PC in the fall? It's nearly completely deserted (my favorite thing) and the weather and scenery is complete perfection. Highly recommended.

We spent the morning walking around and heckled the US Olympic Ski team while they practiced. Then we rode the zip line at Utah Olympic Park. Self portrait riding the ski lift to the top.

. 

And this high quality photo of Sammy saying a little prayer before lift off.

We ate lunch at Stein Ericksen Lodge--holy shiz, it was delicious.

 And spent the afternoon skiing...

It was the best day. 

I'm kicking myself for not taking any pictures of our last night in Utah, because it was most excellent... wait, I did take one picture... of these two pies I made.

If you like cream cheese, chopped up symphony chocolate bars, pecans, coconut and sweetened condensed milk all mixed up and baked in a little tin of heaven than these pies are for you! So good. So, so good. Rub left-overs all over your body good. 

And we shared them with our friends, Megan and Terrance, and their boy, Channing, who hailed all the way from Alaska, which made them even better. And we caught up (7 years worth!) and laughed the night away and it was a real love fest all around. Looking back on it, if I had to pick the real high point of the night, it would have been when my step-MIL tried to pawn some of Sam's grandma's 5-year-old insulin off on Megan (who is a type I diabetic) so that she could have some pie... 

After M&T and Co left, Sam's BFF (Sam loves when I refer to his friends as his BFF) Eric, and his lovely girlfriend Aubrey (who we were meeting for the first time) joined us for a night cap. Which led to more laughing and love-festing and pie eating. And it was good. And we were satisfied. 

And there you have it, folks. All of my dreams coming true in one little blog post. How am I supposed to recover? How can I move on from this most heavenly of Utah visits? I'd say consuming nearly a whole family-sized bag of sun chips for breakfast this morning was a good start. 

Muah!