The In-Laws

I hate that expression, "in-laws." What does it mean, anyway? We're legally bound to these people? I don't want to be "in-lawed."

Another movie quote...any guesses?

I'm getting a little tired of posting about Utah. I'm ready to move on, but I want to record my whole trip for my own sake. So I'll try to get the rest of this finished in one post.


We visited the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving point. Reid was scared out of his wits. He kept saying, "Dinosaurs....AAAAAAAA." Then after he caught sight of this giant prehistoric fish hanging from the ceiling...

...his eyes filled with tears and this is what ensued...

Grayden was busy making cute funny faces.

The boys dressed like dinos.

And they enjoyed the same 4 square inches of sand on an archaeological dig.

We celebrated all the recent and upcoming birthdays at my in-laws.

I got to have a lunch date with Zac and Crystal and their cute family. Zac works in downtown Salt Lake like a real grown-up. He met us for lunch at the Gateway all dressed up in a shirt and tie. (Zac is a high school friend and Crystal and I met at AFY when we were 16 or something.) I had a really good time with these guys. It's a shame we don't live closer. Zac left when I took the kids to the bathroom so I have no picture of him (and I didn't even say bye). But the rest of us went over to run through the fountains.

Doesn't Crystal look amazing? She has a 6 month old (Abree) AND is three months pregnant. And she's thin as a rail.

Hunter...her other cute kiddo.

Gray LOVED this. So did Park. Reid was a little cranky.

And speaking of visiting old friends...I got to see my old roommates!!! I have never had girl friends quite like these. I don't see near enough of these girls. Of the seven of us, only three live in Utah...soon to be two when Stutz moves to Omaha in a couple weeks. But the four of us (Jenni, Heidi, Stutz, and I) had SO. MUCH. FUN! We stayed at the restaurant for at least two hours after we were finished eating and then hung out at my in-laws until after midnight. We missed Brooke, Tammy and Carrie way too much.

We spent at least a few hours everyday in the sprinklers. Way too often it was fully clothed. My kids went through clothes like nothing while we were there. They went outside to play and inevitably ended up soaking wet. Even grandpa got in on the action (but I don't think he'd appreciate me including pictures).

Parker discovered he loves cousins. We don't have any on my side so he only sees cousins every other year. They are a novelty to my kids. Parker and Liam were best friends by the end of the week and neither Parker, nor Reid, has stopped talking about him. Infact Parker will say to Reid, "Let's play cousins. You be Parker and I'll be Liam."

You could frequently find these two sitting this close.

And we visited a dinosaur park with big fake dinosaurs all over the place that roar every so often. Fully equipped with a dinosaur playground.

Parker deciding what to see next...


The boys running away from a T-rex.


Again, Sharing the same spot of sand.


Grayden's bored face.


We are the dinosaurs.


Parker pretending to be eaten.

And even though we were leaving first thing on Saturday morning, we did manage to let off a few fireworks before the kids went to bed. It wasn't too dark out yet, but I couldn't handle keeping my kids up when we were getting them up before 5am the next day. I did NOT want cranky kids on a long car ride.

My cute, cute, cute niece McKenna loved being in charge of lighting off the fire works.

Nothing like three rowdy boys...

...finally holding still

Obviously a fantastic trip. There is never a dull moment at my in-laws house. There are seven people living there, plus us. And for a few days Spencer's brother Benny and his wife Amy drove down from Wyoming with their family to stay. That made 18 people packed into this house (with an air conditioner that went out). And we had non-stop laughs. You could garauntee that any hour you were awake, someone else would be around to hang out with. We spent late nights laughing with Joe, Benny and Amy....which I ALWAYS look forward to. And I enjoyed early morning walks and talks with Jodie in the crisp Utah air. I got to know Kirsti on a whole new level...she's out of high school and a real grown up know. I had a really good time with her. And I witnessed an Adam Sandler impression from Joe that will forever be imprinted in my mind and give me have a whole different view of Joe. I got to enjoy some old musicals I've never seen before with both RubyAnn and Mckenna. And Ben (my father in-law) didn't stop with the gifts. Sweet! We even got out to Steve and Marie's house for while one afternoon. Their kids are so grown up and Spencer and Steve have the funniest relationship. All in all...two thumbs up. Now it's too bad it will be two years before it happens again. We miss them already.