My summer trip home this year was one of the best. Dallen is finally at a good age where I can leave him with the family, and where he'll play with others instead of insisting of being my siamese twin. We were there for a full 6 days and had time to do lots of fun activities, lots of down time and time for me to do things I wanted to on my own. Everyone came home to be together as well: Jess, Sarah, Joe, and Jordan. Here are the highlights:
Great Grandma Judy's was the first place we went. All of the great-grand kids had a wonderful time playing with trains, coloring, snacking, and finding the kitties. That evening my good friends Kym-me and Trisha came to mom's with their kids. It was great to see them and their kids, but not the best way to catch up. It was a little crazy.
One of the fun things we wanted to do with the little kids was to take them swimming. So while the girls were in school, Jess, Sarah and I took the 5 cousins to the Apex indoor swimming pool/playground. They of course loved it and I enjoyed seeing all of them having a great time. We took Sophie and Jacob down the big water slide which was a blast doing something adventurous with the little ones. After nap time we took the kiddos to the park which is always a hit.
Another activity we wanted to do was go to the temple together with the adults and do family names. I had never been to the temple with Joe or Jordan and I don't think I've been much with Sarah either, not to mention mom and dad. So it was a great experience. Sarah, Joe and Jordan did a few baptisms and confirmations. Then we all did initiatories which was the highlight of the experience for me. It had been a very very long time since I'd done initiatories and I thoroughly enjoyed the words spoken there. We all did a session together and got to see the new temple video which was amazing. Then we did a lot of sealings and ended up in the temple from about 2-7:30pm. It was kind of weird kneeling across from Jordan at the alter, but I would rather it be my brother if not Travis. I definitely missed him in the sealing room. The long wonderful temple day was followed up by a nice dinner courtesy of Dad. Just a great experience for all of us.
Friday was a day for me. I took Dallen with me to run some errands and then left him with the family while I got a pedicure, acupuncture, saw City of Bones-a movie I've really been wanting to see since it's based off of one of my favorite book series, The Mortal Instruments, and then went and played sand volleyball with Sarah, Joe and his friends. It was such a great day; one I hadn't had in a long long time.
Saturday was The family day. The whole family went to a Rockies game in downtown Denver. I don't really remember watching the game at all, but instead was busy feeding Dallen, chasing Dallen, wrestling Dallen and arguing with him. I think I eventually just gave him the ipad to watch because I couldn't take it anymore-ha! It was fun to be there with everyone though.
Being at church together was wonderful too. We got to hear Dad's and Jessica's testimonies and Dad gave me a much needed private blessing as well. I had a good talk with Mom and Jess and it was just a good uplifting day for the soul. That evening was game night and we laughed and laughed playing our favorite family game-Telestrations.
It was nice to not have to leave on Sunday or on a Monday. So instead of just hanging around on Monday, we took the kids to the Butterfly Pavilion and to a splash pad afterwards. Dallen enjoyed looking at the tanks of fish and bees and even was curious about that big spider everyone was taking turns holding-yuck! The butterfly area was a super humid and hot greenhouse and because the butterflies wouldn't sit still, it was hard for Dallen to really focus on them. So he just ran around instead. The splash pad was definitely a hit and the kids just didn't want to leave but they were beyond tired. We ended the day with a family BBQ on the back patio. It was seriously the best trip home. Can't wait til next time!
