A Long Hot Summer

It has been a busy, busy summer. Lots of company, lots of traveling, lots of stuff. I'm going to do my best to quickly recap it all. I'll start with the beginning of July when my parents came to visit! This was my mom's fourth time driving to Alabama within a year. I'm sure I've loved it more than her haha. That's a looong drive! A brief summary of that week: haircuts, costco runs, couch shopping, main street cafe, bruster's ice cream, two-year-old tantrums, ikea dresser building, random home church, new construction houses, greenway walks, an exploding firework, and fireflies. My mama has more to say over on her blog. We celebrated Independence day with a bbq dinner at Ryan and Karlie's new house. This was our *festive* contribution.

Mmm! Now for a few photos.

We absolutely loved having gigi and grandpa here!

Next up: Orlando, FL. We toughed out the 10+ hour drive so we could spend the weekend with some of Jason's fam. Debi, Ryan, Karlie, Alisha, Matt, Raquel, and the kids were all there. We split the cost and rented out a big airbnb to share (which I'd rate a 5 out of 10 haha). A summary of that trip: dinner at The Sugar Factory, loud music, tiny lizards, playalinda beach, crazy rainstorms, ice cream at Disney Springs, politics, late night swims, alligators (yes, Emmett went wild), and a Titusville tour. I'm really glad we were able to make it out! It's crazy to think that the last time we were here I had just found out that I was pregnant with Emmett. Time flies.

My babies!!!! I'm obsessed.

We had a little bit of a "break" between our Florida trip and more company coming to town. I say break lightly because we kept ourselves so dang busy during that time. Bunco, boating, cliff jumping, paddle boarding, dentist appointments, a duck pond, taco mama, game nights, swimming, Guntersville lake, well visits, shopping, and cleaning are just a few of the things I can remember filling our days.

We wrapped up July with Tierra, Cortlen, and Jax! They drove all the way from Idaho (!!!) to hang with us in Alabama during their break from college classes. They crashed with us for a week and Ryan & Karlie for a week. While they were here we obviously had lots going on. We hiked a bit, shopped a lot, played games, found some turtles, talked conspiracies, paddle boarded at the pool, drove to Nashville, ate Costa Vida, went to the zoo, walked the greenway, stayed up late, and hit the gym.

Cutest lil cousins!! It's so fun that they're one month apart.

Our cute neighbor tagged along with us on the 1.5 hour trek to the zoo. It was a tight fit and we had some stinky diapers and a sad Brielle along the way, but Tyler was a trooper! He only had to plug his nose and ears a few times hahaha.

Next: UTAH. I had been looking forward to this trip for a long time. This was the longest I had ever gone not seeing most of my siblings. It was also the first time all of them, besides Mauri, met my little Brielle! It was a sweet, sweet reunion and it felt so good to be back. Emmett probably said, "Mommy, mommy! Look! Mountains!!!" a hundred times on the drive up to Park City. It was so cute, but also made me kinda sad that it's something he's not familiar with. I miss the mountains! 

The first couple of days were spent with the entire fam at the Park City house. Last time we were here Emmett was Brielle's age! That's also when Jason received Boeing's job offer making our move to Alabama a reality. Feel free to reminisce here. Park City was a lot warmer this time around so it looked like chairlift rides, little hikes, squirt guns, backyard exploring, barbecues, water balloons, outlet shopping, mexican train, baby shower prep, family pictures, hot tubing and a whole lotta food.

Mid Park City trip, the girls drove down to Riverton for Shi's baby shower! I am sooo happy that I could be there for it. It was basically one big family & friend reunion celebrating the sweetest mama to be!

My mom and Britta are charcuterie QUEENS. Maybe one day I'll reach their level of talent and creativity (okay, probably not haha). It was such a perfect shower. We all can't wait for baby Callum to make his appearance in LESS THAN TWO WEEKS!!

We wanted to make sure we saw Jason's fam as well while we were in town, so we crashed at Britta and Austin's house for a few days before heading back to Alabama. On Sunday afternoon we went to Kaysville to spend some time with Debi, and on Tuesday we went to Logan to see Brent, Jackie, Evan, Blaire, and the kids. I'm happy we were able to get with everyone! Emmett loved being around all his grandparents and cousins.

We soaked up the last little bit our our Utah stay in the best way possible. We hit up our favorite food places, went to the dinosaur museum, got the hair dyed (thank you mom & shi), barbecued, played games, stayed up late watching selling sunset, and decided that we should probably to move back to Utah... eventually. It was the perfect week and we were sad to say goodbye.

The flight situation going home was the absolute worst. Our first flight was delayed after boarding so we sat on the plane for an additional hour. The gate to our connecting flight was on the opposite side of the biggest airport ever. We ditched waiting for our stroller and ran as fast as we could carrying two kids + two carry-ons. We ended up missing it by maybe five minutes. The plane was still parked and our luggage and carseats were on it. UGHHHHHH. The next flight to Huntsville wasn't until the next morning. We waited in line for customer service to basically tell us we're out of luck. We decided we'd rent a car and drive the rest of the way only to find out that it'd be over $400. No thanks! After a few hours, we eventually made our way to a nearby hotel and paid a ridiculous amount of money to sleep in a bed for six hours. Well, at least we'll get a free breakfast out of it. Nope! Closed 'cause covid. Despite the terrible circumstances, both kids did amazing. They were happy, smiling, and probably loving the late-night adventure haha. That was a tender mercy. If they were being difficult in an already stressful and annoying situation, I would have lost it for sure.

ANYWAYS, we finally made it home. It's been nice to relax a bit and live the normal, boring day-to-day life. Well.. at least until our next trip in like two weeks :,) I guess summer isn't over quite yet!