Vacation time!
Phase 1: Mavis. The party actually
started off here in Texas with my sister Melodie (aka Mavis) coming to
visit. The kids had anticipated her coming for weeks and so it was
pretty darn exciting to have her finally here. We took her to Norma's,
one of our favorite restaurants and Deep Sushi (the best sushi in the
Big D). We also hit up the Galleria, zoo, park, library, donut shop and
Mel helped me on a few projects. I love having someone here during the
day to chat with during the day.
After Mavis had been here for a week she helped me fly the kids back to Utah. Eric had to work a few more days, so I really appreciated the help on the plane. Holy cow, I couldn't have done it without her. (Best part of the plane ride: Ethan shouting "We're on a roller coaster to heaven!" as the plane took off.)
Phase 2: Hanging at Gramma Utah's house. (My kids refer to their grammas as Gramma Washington and Gramma Utah). Man, the kids had fun. There was so much room to run around. Uncle Jay played with Ethan and Libby for hours on end...jumping on the tramp, feeding Gramsie's chickens, playing cars, watching all the great Dearden VHS tapes, etc. We also went up Lost Creek for FHE one night which was a huge highlight. We counted 43 deer up there. Wow.
While we were there the neighbors pig had 11 piglets! Holy cow, they were sooo cute.
We also got to meet Lizzie, Stephen's great fiance, which was a huge plus. Lizzie, welcome to the family, girl! It's gonna be a wild ride!
The best part of this phase, however was going to the temple with Bryant who is leaving for his mission in Nicaragua on August 1. Everyone in the Dearden fam was there, except Jay of course.
Phase 3: Gennie's Wedding!
Eric's sister Gennie got married and his little bro Brandon came home from his mission within 2 days of each other. It was so exciting! It was the first time in 5 years all the Pelfrey kids had been together at one time! It was such a great time. Libby was in heaven with all the aunts, Ethan was in heaven with all the uncles, Ollie was getting attention from everyone and Eric and I were enjoying all the help with the kids. (Eric joined us the day before the wedding.)
We had a bit of a mishap the day of the actual wedding.
Now it is funny, but at the time it was anything but. It started with me and Libby going over to help Mavis with Gennie's wedding flowers. It worked out nicely that Mavis is a florist and could do Gennie's wedding flowers. Anyway, the bouquet had a filler called hypericon berries. Pretty common. No big deal. Until you eat one. Like Libby did. So after Mavis and I had realized that she had downed a couple, we decided we'd better google them to see if they are poisonous. Ah, crud...yes, they are. So we called poison control. PC told us she might feel sick, maybe throw up, but in such a low dosage the berries wouldn't do any lasting damage. Whew! So we kept asking Libby if she felt okay and she seemed fit as a fiddle, so we didn't worry about it anymore. Ok, next day: day of the wedding. I dunno how, but of course we were late. We were driving from Provo to Bountiful as fast as we could, hoping we weren't going to miss the sealing. I get a call from poison control and confirm that Libby is still okay. No sooner do I hang up then I turn around to see Libby majorly tossing her cookies in the back seat. Oh man...its all over the rental car, the car seat and certainly her beautiful wedding outfit. Oh man, oh man, oh man. Well, there was nothing do but pull over, strip her down and use Ollie wipes to wipe her from head to toe. The poor little girl! Luckily, the story turns out fine. I had fortunately brought another dress...I don't know why, but I guess I was inspired. It even matched the wedding colors. We drove about 90 to the temple and made it in the nick or time which turned out to be plenty of time because the temple was busy and behind. Libby felt perfectly fine the rest of the day. End of that ordeal!
Anyway, the wedding was truly beautiful. It was such a special day. I am so happy for Gennie and Chris... We had a blast chatting with family at the temple and at the reception at Thanksgiving Point. Everything seemed to have turned out so well.
The rest of our vacation we had the very good fortune to stay in a cabin of the Pelfrey's friends up past Sundance. It was AWESOME! The cabin was gorgeous with plenty of room for all of us. Eric and I were pretty convinced that we ourselves need to invest in a cabin after having been there.
All of the Pelfrey kids (except Gennie, of course) were able to take time off to play. Some of the activities we did during the week were: hike Bridal Veil Falls, eat at J Dawg, Cafe Rio, and Kneaders, roast marshmallow, play games, tour BYU, chat, swim at Bryan and Carla's pool, etc. It was so relaxing and just plain fun. The kids were in heaven playing with the aunts and uncles. The only way it could have been better, really, was if Grandpa Washington were there to joke around with us. So glad to know of the plan of salvation.
What a wonderful trip.
Well, folks, if you've outlasted this blog post, I congratulate you! Thanks for reading and we'll see you next time.
