Utah

Temple Square

The day after Christmas Justin, Katie, and Jason met up with the Gardner’s (and our girls) to see Frozen.  Drew and I spent the afternoon running errands with my Mom and Val.  We took turns sitting in the car with Drew while he slept in his carseat all afternoon.  We met up with Justin and the kids that evening in SLC to eat dinner at Café Rio and to walk around Temple Square.

Macy’s had some fun window displays made from candy

Waffle Love

I recently heard about Waffle Love – a traveling food truck serving delicious waffles in the SLC/Provo area.  When I saw that on Friday they would be just 10 minutes from my Mom’s house the girls and I had to check it out.  We were not disappointed.

Jason stayed back at my Mom’s and spent the day sick, sick.  Thankfully it was just a 24 hour bug.

Hanging Out

As I mentioned we spent a lot of time just hanging out at my Mom’s house.  The kids never got bored though and found plenty to keep them busy.  On Friday night we had access to the theatre room downstairs (Val’s son lives downstairs and they were out for the night) so we picked up the Disney movie “Planes” from redbox and had a movie night.  The kids also played lots of games during the week.

Jason’s favorite was Battleship.

We love a the puzzles made by Ceaco – they are so fun and bright.  We gave the kids one for Christmas, but ended up going out and buying two more to do during the week.  Doing puzzles during Christmas break was something I grew up doing and I’d love to carry that tradition on with my own family.

Grandma and Val read many, many books to Katie and Jason during the week.  The girls spent hours and hours coloring page from Carly’s color by number book.  No joke, they probably logged 5+ hours on Saturday.

The girls played the piano a lot during the week.  I enjoy hearing them play, but I realized how incredibly grateful I am that we have a piano that we can turn the volume down low. 

Drew can now sit in a high chair and pick up little pieces of food all by himself.  

Drew learned how to roll from his tummy to his back at my Mom’s.  He got so comfortable doing rolling around that he could get himself across a room pretty quickly.  He got his first tooth on the way to Utah and was working on his second tooth on the way home.  For the most part he adjusted really well.  Naps were a little harder since we’d either be running around or making too much noise for him to sleep very long, but overall I’d say he did really well. 

Grandma Ikhaml

On Monday we ventured down to Provo to visit my Grandma Ikhaml.  We had a nice visit in the lobby of her assisted living center.  We saw her when we were in Utah three years ago and I didn’t expect her to still be a lively and well as she is.  She'll be 99 years old in May!  Before we left I wanted to get a picture of the kids with my Grandma since there is a very good chance we won’t ever see her again – though we’ve been saying that for years and she continues to amazes us with how healthy 98 can be.  It was sweet for me to see Katie and Jason snuggle right up with her.  I have so many special memories with my Grandma I’m glad to see them get to spend a little time with her as well.

And one with my Mom

We can make room for me too, right?

In parting she gave each of the kids hugs and kisses and $5.  We had a very slow lunch at PF Changs before heading back to my Mom’s.