Utah Trip Spring 2018: Part II

On Sunday we met up with many members of Oscar's family at Emily's ward to see Baby Joseph's baby blessing. Allison was adorable playing with her baby cousins! Lily was smiling and giggling back at her. She also got to meet great Grandma and Grandpa Flinders for the first time, but was too distracted and busy to care. We decided to have them come over to Marcus and Martha's the next day so they could get to know them a bit better.

Afterwards we hung out with Matthew and Melissa and family (who live up in Logan) until our big family dinner and pictures that evening.

It was hard to get pictures of all the kids looking and smiling at the camera. This was the one I liked best, but that's mostly because Allison is looking at the camera and giving a little smile. Tyler gave a great beaming smile in another picture but most everyone else looked terrible so I cropped them out.

Here are the pics taken from William's professional camera.

Martha told me they came up with a great idea for family dinners. They have games and entertainment for the little kids downstairs while the adults eat first with Dilan and Justin as our waiters. Then the kids, who would eat quickly anyway, come up at the end once the adults are fed and can attend better to them. It really works out nicely and makes things less crowded and chaotic. 

Emily and I swapped off with Matthew and Marcus as supervising adults once we were done with our meals. Emily blocked the kids from climbing the stairs while the kids had fun playing with the light switch.

Cousin bonding over Toy Story. They ate breadsticks and chocolate milk to tide them over until they could come upstairs.

Sweet Allison making a slide out of the ramp and helping granny do the vacuuming

Oscar took goofy pictures with his siblings, like this "Bros before hose!" photo.

The one on the left is Dilan and Justin playing Severus Snape stalking James Potter. The one on the right is Ryan photobombing Emily while being photobombed by a chapel.

Allison found a playground in a neighbor's front yard and helped herself to the equipment before deciding it was time to driving off with the cousins.

Sweet silly Tyler! I'm just a sucker for that smile.

 The next morning we hung out with cousin Jane and played in the yard until Grandma and Grandpa Flinders arrived. I figured letting the kids get to know them and take pictures with them was top priority on this trip. They lived in Burbank, CA up until August of last year, so they never had a chance to meet Allison until now. They did get to know Tyler when we came down to Utah for Julia's wedding, down to California to go to Disneyland with my family in 2014, and when we came down to Utah again for a Flinders family reunion later that year, but Tyler had no memory of them either since he was barely 1 year old last he saw them.

Fortunately they were both big cuddlers that day, but I knew it wouldn't last.

I put on some songs for the kids to dance around to. The kids are most enjoyable to be around when they're happy and having fun, so what a better way for Grandma and Grandpa Flinders to get to knnow them! Martha was very pleased.

 Here we are doing "Ring around the Rosie" with Jane. It got the kids good and worn out so they were more prepared to sit for pictures. Jane even fell asleep in Martha's arms, so she put her down and we were able to take some 4 generation photos uninterrupted.

I let Jane use this sweater of Allison's since it was a bit chilly outside and Allison already had a coat. Martha put it on her backwards, but when she tried to turn it around, Jane wouldn't let her touch it. She wouldn't let her take it off either once we got back inside.

After at least 100 pictures, this was the best shot we got of everyone. These two other shots had better smiles on both kid. If I had photoshopping skills I'd stitch them together.

Fortunately a friend of mine does have those skills! There's a smudge on Grandpa's shirt sleeve, which was probably my fault for sending him the cropped versions instead of the originals, but otherwise it looks great!

The kids were happier when we let them sit on Grandpa and Grandma's laps and interact with them, but by then we couldn't get them to face the camera anymore.

"Just catching some rays and climbing on dangerous things with my cousin."Oscar even got them each to eat a bit of carrot.

After Grandma and Grandpa left we went down to spend the rest of the day at Mike's. Mike taught Tyler how to use a pool stick on his new pool table.

Later we went swimming at his gym. They have a zero entry shallow area, which works out really nicely for my kids. 

They have weird rules about older kids though. In the outdoor pool they let the kids swim unsupervised as long as they can pass a swim test. In the indoor pool kids under 12 must be within 10 feet of a supervising adult regardless of swimming ability.

After going out for a Mongolian barbeque dinner we went back up to Martha's house. Martha watched the kids while Oscar and I went down to the Bountiful temple. We then packed up to spend the next 3 nights at Mike's house. We drove down to go to Jungle Jim's in Midvale only to discover that it's closed down. Instead the kids played in the yard with their 2nd cousin Nolan, my cousin Justin's son. My aunt Kathy watches him in the mornings while his parents are at work. 

Allison and Nolan were cute on the trampoline. They didn't do much jumping, but they did chase each other around.

After an awesome pizza buffet dinner at Brick Oven, we got the kids ready for bed. Allison always slept well at Mike's but not well at Martha's. I have no idea why. She had a pack and play and her own room in each place with the same bedding and toys. 

Here's Allison Petting Maggie and trying to get through the doggy door. Allison isn't very gentle with animals, so Maggie nipped her a few times. She never learned from it and remained just as enamoured with her as ever.

The next morning the kids played in the yard before we all went to the Jordan River Temple open house. The temple is just down the road from Mike's house. I loved being able to take the kids inside a temple! I can't remember enough of it from my youth to know what's different about it, but it was very beautiful. Allison liked all the mirrors and chandeliers while Tyler got a sip of water at every drinking fountain we passed. They both really liked the baptismal font. Allison even tried to climb in. To her it's just a big bathtub, right? I was worried about her since she does poorly in crowds and lines, but there weren't too many people since we went on a weekday morning, so we were able to walk continuously with very little stopping. The only part she struggled with was watching the video about temples beforehand in the neighboring chapel. Dad had to walk around with her for a bit. 

Afterwards we took some Family pictures with the Christus statue.

And the kids played outside some more on that warm, gorgeous day. It was the nicest day we had that trip, so we picked that evening to attend the Chinese Lantern festival. We took so many pictures there that it gets its own post. Stay tuned...