Camera-Shy Trip to Utah

Well, we took a trip to Utah in August, so I guess it's about time I wrote about it!

The problem with the post for this little trip is that I am pregnant... Therefore, I avoid having my picture taken at all costs, therefore, I hardly ever have my camera out, therefore there are hardly any pictures of this particular adventure! Of the 10 pictures in existence, 5 of them are on the airplane. I know... super exciting. I guess I fail the awesome mom test on this one. Even worse... I totally fail the awesome aunt/sister-in-law/daughter-in-law test, because I didn't take any pictures of Julia with any of her cousins or many other wonderful relatives we saw. I seriously blame it all on being pregnant. And that is the catch-all excuse, and I only get to use it for a few more weeks, so I am cashing in!! :)

So here's what we've got:

This picture has a story that needs telling. We scheduled a late flight (I think we left Texas at 9:30pm) so that Devin could work on Tuesday, and we assumed Julia would sleep on the plane. Well, we assumed wrong. She was as wide awake as she could possibly be for the entire flight. We tried everything we could think of to get her to sleep. She was actually pretty good, and had the flight been at 4:00 in the afternoon we wouldn't have thought anything of it. But, it was super late for her and we really wanted her to sleep, because the whole time we were thinking about how her going to bed at midnight would ruin the rest of the week for everyone. Anyway... alas, no sleeping for the entire flight. And then we started our final descent. We handed her a coloring book and crayon for the descent, and 30 seconds later the above picture was taken! She fell asleep during the bumpy, loud descent, and stayed asleep through the landing and everyone noisily deplaning. There are no words for the non-understanding of how children work... :)

Devin and I got to escape for a couple of days to Salt Lake for a belated anniversary celebration. We stayed in a really nice Marriott downtown. (Thank you Deloitte, for making my husband spend a ridiculous number of weeks in Philadelphia, thereby buying our vacation with Marriott points and American Airlines miles!) We got to stay on the concierge level (again, thank you Gold status) which means free hot breakfast in the morning and dessert at night. We were ok with that. We went to the Salt Lake Temple (I had never done a session there) and went to the church history museum. We also got to see a movie in the theater, and enjoy dinner at a restaurant by ourselves! The simplest things seem so luxurious once you have a child! :) Finally, this picture is at "The Roof" restaurant in Temple Square. I had never been, and the view was amazing. We got there just before sunset and got to watch the lights come on on the temple, all from the best table in the whole restaurant. It was really quite beautiful, and the dessert buffet was a pregnant woman's dream!!

4-Wheeling with Grandpa Don, Grandma Tonya, Uncle Ross and all the cousins! I obviously was in no condition to participate, but Devin and Julia had a good time.

Perfect Fit!

Look! I'm in a picture! (the shadow, if you can't tell...) Let's be honest though... I really hate being super dirty, but the view up there was beautiful.

We learned that Julia is definitely my daughter. She really wanted to ride with Daddy, but once she got on and started going, she said, "I don't like it! I don't like the bumps!" I'm ok with her not being a daredevil!

This picture was cute enough of Julia and Devin to be worth cropping even though the corner of my face is still present. My 4 chins were not allowed to make an appearance.

Safety First!

Julia was fascinated by the safety precautions for the airplane. She seriously spent 30 minutes studying the emergency plans. Hopefully she would have been able to explain what to do if we had had an emergency landing!

Overall we had a wonderful trip. We stayed at Linda's house with Russ and his family, and Julia loved being around her cousins. We got to see great friends and family, and let Julia visit BYU for the first time. In the bookstore she shouted, "I'm a BYU girl!" at the top of her lungs. Everyone who heard (which was a lot of people... we made the mistake of visiting the bookstore during Education Week) thought that was pretty cute. We were sad to leave, because we had such a great time, but we are just grateful we could get one last trip in before November. Next time we are in Utah it will be with 2 children... Weird!!! :)