Utah Trip

Whew! It feels like we've been gone forever, but it's just been a week and 1/2. We had a great time on our trip to Utah. I took the girls and we surprised my sister and her family by flying in the weekend of my nephew's baptism. They were surprised and excited to spend time with us, as was the rest of our family members. We stayed in Utah County for over a week then we drove down to Hurricane where my parents recently purchased a 2nd home. David met us there for the weekend. It was wonderful to see him after being apart for over a week, that was hard!! He made it very clear that we can never do it again. :)

Our time was spent playing with cousins, exploring outside, napping, reading, visiting, eating, baseball games and a whole lot more!  It was so very enjoyable.

Here are some picture and highlights from the trip. 

There are a lot, don't forget this is my family journal! :)

So happy to be at Grandma and Grandpa's!

Playing at the park with cousin Ty.  We've waited 3 1/2 years for these 2 to get along and finally it happened!

Jacob's baptism day.  It was a very special day and the spirit was felt so strongly.  Our family is so lucky to have this amazing little man in our lives!  Isn't that a handsome family?  And that's the Mt. Timpanogos temple in the background, their chapel is across a parking lot from it.

After the baptism, Cyrena wanted to stay with Jacob a little longer, so I headed home to give Natalie a nap.  Well that afternoon, Jacob heard the magic music of the ice cream truck.  He immediately rushed around the house trying find my sister's wallet.  Cyrena noticed the commotion and began rushing around with him saying "what?! what?!"  She had no idea what those magical musical notes meant; but she soon found out.  Here is Cyrena's first encounter with 'the ice cream truck'   Good thing my sister is so quick with her camera or else I would have missed it!

Afterward she said the ice cream man was so nice and he's her new best friend.  Creepy.

Grandpa is so fun to climb on.
It wouldn't be a visit without making s'mores (or 'snores' as Cyrena called them) in the backyard fire pit. 
Cousins Elise (17) and Jacob (8) slept over one night.  Cyrena got her fingernails and toenails painted and her hair done all fancy!  She had already taken out the hairdo by the time this picture was taken.  She and Jacob slept in the same bed.  I was amazed she stayed all night because she has NEVER slept with someone else in her bed.  She doesn't like it, even when we have tried to persuade her to sleep with us when she's sick.  She likes her own space.  But she loves Jacob and stuck it out!

The next morning, during Natalie's nap, I took Cyrena and Jacob hiking on some trails behind my parent's home.  Cyrena loves maps and we forgot to bring one.  So I gave her my phone and pretended it was a GPS.  She typed in numbers and told us which way to go.  In this picture she's telling us to go "55544 right" And I LOVE the patient look on Jacob's face, he indulged her!  

We were stalking a bluejay in the meadow.

I took the girls to visit David's grandparents.  Great-Grandmother and Great-Granddad Gerstner.  It is always fun to see them and visit.  They are such sweet people and love playing with the girls.  Granddad always has a comb in his pocket...his hair always looks nice!

We went to several cousin's baseball games.  There are a lot of Taylor boys and most of them are in the middle of baseball season.  Here we are at Alec's game which Seth (his little brother) got to fill in on his team since they were short a player.  So we got to watch both of them.  The weather turned a little funny and it was windy, cold and sprinkling.  Natalie was wrapped up in her blanket and my dad's jacket, but she was happy as always!

The support crew.  Baseball can sure get intense! Some phrases repeated often were "choke up a bit"  "atta boy"  "wait for your pitch" and "let's go Alec/Seth" Don't you love sports talk? 

Cousins eating some ice cream sandwiches after the game.

Cyrena was privileged enough to help my dad mow the lawn.  At one point she was yelling something, but I couldn't quite hear her over the motor.  I finally figured it out though...."I don't want to go back to Arizona!!"

Natalie helped Grandpa tie down some luggage on top of the car.  Don't even ask what happened to that green duffle bag that had all the stuff I'd bought.  Don't ask about it falling off and us searching in vain for 2 hours.  Don't even ask.  I think it was Natalie's fault.

Even though we were in Hurricane for only 2 days, I really wanted to go to the St. George temple.  So David and I got up early Saturday morning and it was a great session!  I didn't realize how small it was but it is so beautiful.  I'm glad we had the chance to go.  

Saturday afternoon we went to a lake that is close to my parents house.  We had a picnic and played baseball.  Natalie sunbathed on a blanket and loved every minute of it.  The wind picked up though and we had to end early because we were getting sandblasted.

My parents just got the landscaping done on the Hurricane house, so there was grass to play in outside.  This was the first time Natalie sat up for longer than a few minutes or so.  She sat and played with the grass for at least 20 minutes!  She was so cute grabbing the long pieces and trying to hard to get them to her mouth.  She finally succeeded at the end. 

Again ladies, he's all mine! This picture gives me butterflies....what a handsome guy.

Oh my goodness, look at the concentration! We had quite a few foot races that afternoon.

A happy family

My aunt and uncle drove up from Vegas to see us for the day.  He is a dentist so I had him do a quick check of Cyrena's mouth.  She was very cooperative and wanted a free toothbrush when he was done.  She was disappointed he didn't have one for her.  He said her teeth look great!

While David and I packed the car for our trip home, Natalie was tired and fussy so my mom took her inside and got her to sleep.  We miss our grandma and grandpa!