utah

We made our annual trip back to Utah this past month. This involved me flying out with both girls by myself. I spent weeks researching the best airports to fly into on the west coast and finding the best connections. The flight went as well as could be expected. Both girls were even sleeping at the same time at one point. I took a picture as it was possibly the proudest moments of my life--but then I broke my phone...again. 

I was so focused on our flights out there, that I didn't pay any attention to our return flight. I guess I just figured it would be a cake walk, as I would have Rocky with me. As we boarded our first flight in SLC at about 4:30 am, I looked at our tickets and noticed some serious time discrepancies between all our connections. Turns out I had chosen the worst possible option and we would be spending some quality family time (five hours) in both San Francisco and Tokyo. 

The total travel time ended up being almost 35 hours. If there was any silver lining at all it was that we were all so exhausted when we arrived home, we have barely had any jet lag at all. Except Elie, who slept 16 of the 20 hours of flight (Vi slept less than 8 hours). She was so disappointed when landed and hadn't watched any of her new TV shows, that we let her spend the first night home with the iPad, while we slept. 

Here's Vi powering through some ice cream about 18 hours in--at this point she's had under an hour of sleep since we woke her up at 3 am. No way this can turn out poorly. 

We bought our kids BYU shirts so they can be easier identified as the weird Americans, turns out we didn't even need them. While we were eating at McDonalds in Tokyo (we took a huge detour through the airport to get there--we had time) a man came up and asked if we were Mormon. He said he'd worked with Mormons before and he said we seemed like a Mormon family. 

I'm not sure this was a compliment as at the moment Vi was running around like a maniac in mismatched pajamas, eating cast off french fries and skittles from the ground. While Eliot was pretending to be a cat, chasing the stuffed rat we'd bought her at the SF airport in a desperate attempt to stave off a tantrum. 

 We spent a lot of time in the mountains. 

The weather was fantastic. 

 Riding the Sundance lift seemed like a good idea but it took all our efforts to keep Vi from falling to her death.

 She dropped her sucker about 3 nano seconds into the ride, but she bummed some rock candy off someone else. 

 I took it away when I put her on my back for obvious reasons. She eventually got it back--there's probably still rock candy in my hair.

 The highlight of the trip for both girls was quite possibly grocery shopping at Macey's. I think it might be right up there with Hong Kong Disneyland on Eliot's list of favorite places.

We loved spending time at the cabin. I'm pretty sure those aren't gang signs, but I have pretty limited experience in such matters.

Vi loved going on rides. 

When ever she went outside, she climbed into the ranger and tried to buckle herself in. When we saw any animals, she would get so excited. At one point we had two bull Elk stopped and staring at us because she was making such weird noises. 

Rocky and E flying her kite, "Girl Power". Which is the name you give a Power Rangers' kite when you've bought it for your 4 year old daughter.

Rosy endured as much love and attention as she could handle from Vi. I'm sure she feels very relieved to have her gone. After a few rides, she got to the point were she would hurry and stand up if Vi came anywhere near. 

Also relieved to see her go are the other three members of the fearsome foursome. Pearl was used to dominating the group but after a few minutes with Vi and a blankie mix up, Pearl spent most of her time around Vi either hiding out or red with fury. Vi entertained herself by taking both boys pacifiers and attempting to fit them into their ears, eyes, nose and mouths. Also, by profusely not sharing and taking anything she wanted, often by excessive force. Apparently she was well aware of her size as she never once tried to take Simon's pacifier--preferring only to pick on those much smaller than her. We're hoping this is just a phase. 

The pond was a hit. Elie finally got the courage to swim in it, even with the snails. Vi might have swam in it naked--not by choice.

We also did our fair share of eating and I came back looking at least 4 months more pregnant than I left. 

It was a great trip and we loved seeing our friends and family but we are happy to not be getting on an airplane or spending any time in an airport with this cute, little girl for a very long time.