I know, I know... I've already written about five posts about our trip to Utah and about seven other make-up posts before that. But I couldn't break it up any more, and I wanted to write down these thoughts about our trip so that I didn't forget it all.
We spent the first week of January with my side of the family, because my brothers and sister flew up to Utah from Ecuador. So we were able to stay with my grandma in Orem and help my brother and sister move in down in Provo and get readjusted to life in Utah. It was so fun to walk around BYU campus several times with our kids and showing them around, and so fun to spend a lot of time with them and with my grandmas.
We spent New Years Day at the children's museum at Thanksgiving Point with Dallin and Krystel, but have no pictures of it. (It was AMAZING though--probably the best kids museum I've ever been to!) Then we headed to Grandma Myres' house for a dinner with way more family than I knew were in town--a bunch of aunts and uncles and cousins all appeared.
Then Dallin and I went to the airport to pick up the Ecuadorians!
And took them straight to In-n-out.
The next morning we went to Kneaders for breakfast and had the unlimited French toast.
And we drove past our old apartment in Provo--which looks like it's been taken care of and repainted since we were there (finally!).
And of course, some chocolate milk in the Cougareat.
This picture with Brigham turned out really good, actually!
We went to a temple session with my Grandma Murphy to see the new and improved endowment session...
We saw Grace and got to meet baby Adeline. Such a cute squishy baby.
We love Grandma Myres!
We all played games with Grandma Murphy one night. Lots of Rook and Quiddler.
We helped Cole move into his room in the dorms.
It was really fun helping him move into his room. Tommy said he felt like it was 12 years in the future and we were driving up to BYU to drop off Dane in the dorms, since we were like the parents in the room. It was kind of weird.
And we took him on a tour around campus to show him where his classes were.
Tommy found his old room in Budge.
And we went back up to Ogden to be there for Axel's first birthday party... we couldn't miss it!
Tommy made Kenzie and Melissa these color-changing mugs as birthday/Christmas presents (that came super super late)... Kenzie's with pictures of her and Jet, and Melissa's with pictures of the family cats (which she doesn't like). Haha! They were hilarious.
There are few things I love as much as babies eating their first cake on their first birthday. I took about 30 pictures of Axel and he's not even my baby. It was THE BEST.
Lucy thought so too. Look at her watching Axel.
All the Leininger siblings who were in Utah (minus Kurt, who left to go back to Dallas already).
Dane and Bubba with their matching Nike shoes.
Saying goodbye to Grandma Murphy.
We finally made the stop at Four Corners on our drive back! It was totally underwhelming but fun to do once. Dane really liked it.
Graham refused to take a picture. Refused. Then after we were already driving away Tommy offered some treats if he would go back and take a picture since he's almost four at Four Corners and he said yes, so we turned back around and Tommy got this super cute picture of him. Worth it.
I'm so, so glad that we did this trip. Seriously, I cannot believe that it was a last-minute decision, because it was basically as perfect as it possibly could be. We got to see SO much family, and do so many fun things, and our kids got to have a great winter/snow experience that they don't get with us living in Texas. We went skiing, sledding, and ice skating; they shoveled snow; they played in the snow with their cousins; we went to see the lights at Temple Square. And we got to see almost all of my siblings and Tommy's siblings, plus a ton of other family and friends. It was the best thing ever, and I will not forget it.
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