Day One: The Photo-Op

It always seems like I have to put more thought into my packing list than anything else about a trip. How many outfits, incidentals, essentials, just-in-cases, etc. do I need to pack?

Gone are the good ol' days of throwing my stuff in a bag and going. Now, I have to think about things like "If Noah poops in his underwear what am I going to do with it?"

Eventually, everything on the list was packed and we were ready to go to the Abbott Family-every-other-year gathering. I had been looking forward to this for the whole summer...ever since I got the tickets to go. You know it will be crazy-how could it not with almost 30 people in one house? But so worth it to get to see everyone!

My favorite part of the pre-trip efforts was watching Noah with his new backpack. I had wanted one the last time we traveled but couldn't find one for a decent price. I was thrilled when I happened on this one by accident. Noah was thrilled with it too and had a great time breaking it in before the trip and mostly kept track of it the whole time we traveled.
We made it to Utah without much incident (underwear or otherwise:). We were glad to have arrived and ready to end the day. It was about 9:00 pm to us when we landed and by the time the kids were in bed it was about 11:00 pm EST. And while we were all tired, the boys really did well and slept late on Monday. Yippee!! (I was pretty sure that Ian would be up about 4:00 am MST and while he made a few rumbles he fell back asleep.)

On Monday most the families went to the open house for the Oquirrh Temple, but our family and Elise's family opted out. We figured little potential-temper-tantrum-throwers might not make the best guests there.

This made it the perfect opportunity for a photo-op. I desperately needed updated photos of the boys, me and Chris, the whole family, and just me (Chris has been asking for a picture of me since we were married practically. I hate having my picture taken. I think I can count on one hand the number of pictures of me in my lifetime that I actually like. Hence, the many years it has taken for Chris to get a picture of me:)

I think we got some good ones in the mix.

I would just let you keep scrolling, but have to point out that in the picture below, Noah's face looks like he could be 8 or something!! My baby's growing up!! I just got the letter from his preschool about backpacks and notebooks and snacks! My baby's growing up! Holy Cow!!This was "popcorn ball that would smell so sweet!"
And while Elise and I were working on that photo for Chris, Ian had a little mishap. He tumbled down a mulched hill trying to keep up with his big brother. Poor kid! But still so cute we had to take a picture of it!

Thanks, Elise, taking the pictures!

And that evening we enjoyed a yummy grilled dinner and mission stories (funny and inspiring) for FHE. A great start to a week of fun and family!