February Utah Trip

After two winters in Chicago, we have learned that when February rolls around, it becomes necessary to get away from Chicago and the cold, if one wants to preserve their sanity.  This year, our winter weather wasn't actually horrible, but we had already planned a trip to Utah...and honestly, it turned out to be very therapeutic and wonderful!

The boys were thrilled because our family is now officially too big to fit in any of our parents' cars, so we had to get a rental van.  With automatic doors!  And a DVD player!  And this nifty mirror that I thought would make a cooler family selfie than it did.  Still, the van was a major highlight of the trip.

It turned out that we got to be in Utah for my birthday! So we planned a really full day of fun from dawn to dusk.  We went to the Provo City Center Temple open house, and the only tour time we could get was for 7:30 in the morning.  So bright and early we went!  It actually turned out to be a great time because it was quiet and calm, and wow - the temple was beautiful!

Ben and I have really lovely memories of attending Stake Conference at the Provo tabernacle in the early years of our marriage.  We were so devastated to hear about the fire, but it really is so miraculous to see what has come of it.  The temple is so beautiful!  

It was neat to share it with the boys and let them see the inside of a temple.  They also enjoyed the informational area - where Sam tried on his Brigham Young pose.  

Then, this happened for breakfast.  

I love trendy Utah food places.  Waffle Love was amazing!!!

You might think that after that breakfast, we wouldn't want any more sugar for the rest of the year.  But it was my birthday, and the BYU Bookstore candy counter prevailed.  We aren't in Provo over Valentine candy season very often!  I had talked it up so much before the trip that the boys had saved their money for this moment.  I wasn't supervising very well when Henry ordered $8 worth of Sour Patch goodness...

Ben's parents then kept the boys while Ben and I took a lovely drive to Midway to see the quiet town and beautiful farmhouses like this one.  :)

We then met all of our parents for dinner in Salt Lake.  It was a great birthday!

The next day, we drove down to St. George and welcomed the INCREDIBLE feeling of 68 degrees!

We enjoyed some Smash Burger goodness with these guys and my parents.

The next morning, Sam and I took a little detour to the urgent care office because he had strep throat.  We needed to nip it in the bud before it ruined the rest of our trip!  Sam was a trooper and recovered pretty quickly.

He wasn't feeling awesome, but did his best to enjoy some exploring at Zion National Park.

I was so happy to see my boys, with no coats or jackets, enjoying the out of doors!

We hiked with my parents and Brady, McCall, & co. to the Emerald Pools.

Blake, Brady, and Ellis!

Archer almost didn't know what to do with himself - outside and not all bundled up in his car seat.  Man, it was so refreshing for all of us.

The Emerald Pools turned out to be a perfect hike for our group and was so pretty! There was no way to capture the beauty of the pools in a picture, but it was really cool.

I had a proud mom moment when Henry stopped us to make sure we were getting a good look at the spectacular views.  He had a lot to say about the science behind the amazing rock formations in the park, but he also could appreciate just how stunning and unique it was to look at.  I really love that boy.

Brady kept things interesting by initiating a "guess the Skittle color" competition.  We had to eat each of the five colors with our eyes closed and guess the color/flavor.  Turns out I'm not quite as good at this as I thought I would be!

One of the best parts about this trip was staying in a house with all of the cousins!  The Jacksons had to go to Isaac's soccer tournament while we were at Zion, but then we got to hang out and play with them a bunch at the house.  Our kids have so much fun together!  This is Henry and Ivan...

...and Sam and Max

We also were thoroughly entertained by James - Brady's 4-year-old.  He likes talking to adults, and I'm pretty sure he asked Ben and me, "What's your favorite thing about your garage?" at least 15 times each!  James loves garages and vacuum cleaners more than anything!

It was Valentine's Day on Sunday, so we decorated the obligatory heart cookies.

Turns out, pretty much all the kids were happy to help!

On Sunday, Kati had the idea to go to a place called Pioneer Park.  Sounded like a pretty appropriate Sabbath Activity.  It turns out that the other name for this place is "the butt crack."  And - believe it or not -  it turns out that our boys preferred calling it by the latter name.  

It was a really fun place to hike and explore!

Kati and her family exploring

Henry

James and Sam

Milo and Ellis

It was so refreshing to spend time in the sun and especially to spend time with family!

Grandma Griffin: April 20, 1934 - July 1, 2015

I was deeply saddened to hear about the passing of my Grandma Griffin on July 1st.  She was such an amazing lady!

I have so many good memories of her and my grandpa, and I'm grateful that my boys were able to have some experiences with her.  This is her at Sam's first birthday party.

And one night at Kati's house when they talked about their marriage for Family Home Evening.

I was lucky to be able to fly to Utah for the weekend of the funeral.  It was such a spiritual bonding time for our family as we shared memories of Grandma.  I felt honored that my painting of her childhood home in Trenton, UT (painted when I was in high school) was on display.  

This was her parents' headstone - she was buried near them in Logan, UT.

This is Grandpa, Dad, and all of his siblings and their spouses.  I love all of these people so much!  I feel sad for all of us to lose Grandma, but I especially feel sad for Grandpa.  He has always been so sweet to her, and I just hate to see him be alone.

I can hardly imagine the world without my sweet, angelic grandma. She warmed up every room she entered. She made absolutely stunning breads, rolls, pies, desserts, gravy, stuffing - you name it - all from scratch, and somehow made it look effortless. She never took credit for any of her successes, but always transferred her praise to others. She made every single one of us feel like we were the most impressive thing she had ever seen. She loved unconditionally and taught us that "people are more important than things." She spent her entire life selflessly giving to others. I know I will never come close to her level of perfection, but I like to think that she will live on through me as I make a feeble attempt to be like her. I love you, Grandma!

I'm so thankful that Ben held up the fort so I could enjoy this special time with my family.  I think the boys enjoyed their time with Dad!

April Fool's Day for the Books

I can't tell you how excited we were to find out that our Spring Break trip overlapped with my favorite holiday, April Fool's Day!  

This is what I wore on the plane on the day we arrived to visit our families.  Fun surprise, right?

  What our families didn't know is that I had a belly like this one above at 11 weeks, and with friends who saw me on a regular basis, the fact that I was pregnant was quite obvious from about 8 weeks.  I would have loved to tell our families, but who can resist the chance to tell them in person, at 16 weeks, and on April Fool's Day, no less?!?

The day before we flew to Utah, we had an ultrasound, during which we found out that we are expecting a baby boy.  Boy #4 for the Iversons!  But we thought it would be more fun to tell our families that we are expecting TWIN boys, and it was a fun little joke as they tried to figure out if this could in fact be an April Fool's joke, and if it was, which part of it was a joke.  Was I actually pregnant?  Was it one boy or two boys?  Or was it a girl?  Or did I not even know?  These questions and the accompanying torment filled my parents' kitchen for a painful 2 hours.  I kind of wanted to tell everyone the truth, but I honestly couldn't figure out how to tell them in a way that would make them believe me.  No matter what I said, it sounded like another addition to my April Fool's Joke.  "It's a girl - April Fool's!"  "It's a boy - April Fool's!"  "I'm not actually pregnant - April Fool's!"  It got painfully annoying after a while.  My mom just wanted to go to bed, so she could wake up and have it not be April Fool's Day anymore . . . but she knew she would not be able to sleep!  

Brady saved the day with some April Fool's entertainment of his own.

Finally, I pulled out the ultrasound prints and let them see the single, adorable baby boy for themselves.

I quickly updated my shirt with the truth . . . to clarify everything on the morning after.  Anti-climactic?  Maybe.  But it was kind of an adventure.  

We spent the rest of the week laughing, crying a bit, and mostly celebrating all the really great boys in our family.  These are some of the boys in the Griffin family.  My parents have one adorable granddaughter - Sophie, who will be followed by TEN grandsons in a row!  Yes, it is true.  Time to restock the Nerf bullets.

We played with Iverson cousins and had a fun family night with cousin Zach.

Henry, Ellis, and Sam enjoyed getting dirty in the Ogden River with the Jackson cousins.  

Sam and Max threw at least 800 rocks in the river.

And Ellis and Henry stretched their normal levels of bravery and insanity to impress their cousins, by crossing slippery rock paths and dunking different clothing items in the water.  Yeah.

We enjoyed the annual Iverson egg hunt.

Sam got a golden money egg!

And Ellis scored the broccoli egg!

Ellis amused us all with his uncanny resemblance to Little Debbie.

We spent lots of lazy mornings sorting and eating Lucky Charms (especially me).

We had a fun visit to Ogden's Treehouse Museum.  Don't you love my little firemen?

And my cowboys?

And my brave and chivalrous knights?

And my talented calligraphers? 

I love them too.  I felt so lucky to get to bring these three boys (plus one little bump) home with me.  I'm a lucky lady.