Salt Lake

We saved a ton of money by taking a red eye flight home.  So we had a whole afternoon and evening to kill in Salt Lake before we had to be at the airport for our midnight flight.  It was actually perfect because it was a few days before conference and so there were missionaries everywhere wanting to give tours.  We got an hour long tour of the conference center and the kids loved it.

We walked around to look at all the artwork.  Ben and I really liked this depiction of the waters of Mormon.

Naturally, the roof was the kids favorite part.  They loved all the fountains.  Ben and I enjoyed hearing all the symbolism.  Did you know that the fountain that produces the water for all the other fountains on the conference center is placed exactly over the pulpit?

Then we crossed the street and toured temple square.  It seriously brought back so many memories of my childhood since my grandparents used to live across the street from temple square.  I have spent many hours and days running around all the fountains.  To this day, whenever I smell flowers, it triggers memories of temple square.  For some reason the smell of flowers equals the smell of temple square.

My all-time favorite fountain.  We were lucky we hit it on a warm day so that the kids could play in the mist.

We also creeped around to the back of the Lion House so we could show the kids the garden where we had our wedding dinner.

They were also giving tours in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.  It was so nice being able to see the uberly gorgeous chapel I used to attend Sacrament Meeting in with grandparent's ward.  Apparently the prophet still goes to church here.

We also had a senior missionary give us a tour around the temple.  That was really fascinating.  For some reason I've always noticed the stars on the one side but never realized it was the big dipper pointing to home.  

(We would have dressed nicer if we weren't about to hop on a plane and were expecting to have our pictures taken)

Spending time in Salt Lake was the perfect ending for our trip.  It made general conference so much more special and real for the kids.  They kept saying, "We've been there!  We've seen that!"

All in all, it was a great trip to see family and to see where our family started.

Fun with April's Family

Most of our time in Idaho was spent with April's family.  We had so much fun with them.  Seriously, we're all just kindred spirits.  We ate lots of yummy things and laughed a lot.  The kids all had cousin sleepovers in the basement each night.  Everything was awesome.

Ethan and Thaddeo are also twin cousins...

...much like Sam and Lily.

These kids had a lot of fun keeping themselves entertained.  They played with perler beads for hours.

It was crucial that we went to Big Jud's.  Um, hello, there ginormous burger, fries, and the world's best fry sauce.

I was not going to let my extra fries (or fry sauce) go to waste...

Y'all.  This.

Ben and I bought 4 bottles of fry sauce to bring home and how much we've already consumed is none of your business.

Aunt April showed all the kids their 4-wheeler.  All of them loved it.  But I think Ella loved it most.

We left a few days before April's birthday and so we decided to celebrate it early.  April lit her own candles with a blow torch which basically made my day.  

Visiting Deanna

I had to give this its own post.  We visited my friend Deanna who was my all-time favorite roomie.  

We had lunch at her house and she jokingly gave each of the kids a little bit of seaweed since they've tried other foods from Hong Kong.  Deanna has lived in Hong Kong and so she always has a plethora of Chinese things.  Anyhoo, Thad was the only one who liked pretended to like it.  And so everyone else would give him theirs.  And being a proud 3 year-old he kept accepting it and scrunching up his face as he ate it.  It was amazing.

I wanted to get a picture of Thad with his seaweed but he kept holding it in front of his face so I said, "Thad, hold it to the side of your face," and this is how he interpreted it.  :D

This is the picture I want to remember.....

..... but the next ones were too funny not to post because it was while Ben and I were getting into an argument and I look absolutely terrible.  And Deanna keeps smiling and looking amazing.  It makes me laugh.

Rexburg

One of the main reasons we wanted to go out west was to see Rexburg again.  It was my home for 3 1/2 years and Ben's home for 16.  We really wanted to show them BYU-Idaho, our two apartments, the hospital where Lily and Skyler were born, and just the town in general.

First we wanted to walk around campus.  Parking was a problem when we were at BYU-Idaho, but oh how much worse it has gotten.  We had to park in the temple parking lot.

Okay, first world problems.... 

We had to walk through the campus gardens and show the kids where Ben proposed to me.  We both were recovering from the flu when he proposed.  So we ate the super fancy dinner he made and then we went home to bed.  Ha!

We went to eat lunch at the super fancy MC.  I mean, seriously.  These students have no idea how nice they have it now.  There's a Chick-fil-a in there.  A CHICK-FIL-A!!!

We went to the bookstore and spent a lot of $$$ because Ben and I will do anything to convince our kids that BYU-Idaho is the greatest school on earth.

Then we went to go and visit the Jeppesens.  Matt was Ben's best friend in Jr. High and high school and college.  Ella and Thad took over the camera and Ella got this great shot of Thaddeo.

Ben with Matt, Rita, Amanda, and baby Paisley.

It was so good to see them again!

We had to drive out a little to Sugar so that the kids could see our very first home from when we got married.  This is The Ghetto Shack.  It has a very warm spot in our hearts.  It was a one bedroom house with 7 foot ceilings (Ben had to duck in doorways).  The toilet growled and often had hobo spiders hidden under the toilet seat.  The clear shower curtain often showed hobo spiders hidden behind that as well, which you never saw until you were actually in the shower.  The oven, stove, and microwave were all connected in a fabulous avocado green combo from the 60's.  We rarely used the spin dial microwave for fear of radioactivity.  We had virtually no counter space and so we often had to cut potatoes on a cutting board on our lap on the sofa.  The design of The Ghetto Shack was so bizarre that we couldn't actually get a sofa inside of it because of the weird winding hallway.  So Ben had to saw it in half and get it in through the back window.  We didn't have trash cans, so we used a large plastic tote to keep our trash in until we took it to the dump.  The tiny dogs from next door often squeezed through a hole in the fence and came to tear apart our garbage.  Once I had to throw away an old fish, and since it was Rexburg, it froze in the trash.  I watched that little chihuahua try to get through that little hole in the fence with a huge trout in it's mouth, hit the fence, and got thrown on its back.  The house had tons of leaks and we could feel a breeze at all times in the house.  Our electric bill for this tiny little house was $200/month during the winter.

In other words, we have a lot of stories from this house and I never want to forget how amazing it was.

When we were getting ready to have Lily, we moved to Andrew's Place simply to give Lily her own bedroom and to get away from the hobo spiders.  This was the biggest upgrade ever.  We thought we were living the life.  I still have such fond memories of this apartment and how spoiled we felt living there.  It was the best apartment ever.  

The Farm

One of the main reasons we wanted to go out west was to visit Idaho again since we hadn't been there since 2009.  We've both really missed it.  We stayed with April's family in Rigby and Had. A. Blast. there.  

April and Tom have neighbors with a farm and they kindly let us come over and gawk at all their precious animals.  One of April's young women gave us the tour.  

I was a little bit happy at that moment.

I think her name was Hayley?  Anyhoo, notice how she has braces on in this picture...

Ethan with the pigs.

Lily's dream of being around horses came true!

Erin and Ella petting the horse and Alix behind them.

The kids were thrilled to see one of the cows poop and both of them peeing for like 5 minutes straight.  I think that was the highlight of their day.

We came back a few days later when Hayley got her braces off!  She was sweet enough to hurry home from the orthodontist to give the kids rides on her horse.  Here are Lily and Sam.

Did I mention that it was about 45 degrees and windy that day?  Lily regretted her wardrobe choice later.

Lily and Ethan (who is Thad's twin cousin)

Sam and Ella