Kellen had accrued some vacation days and we decided we wanted to go somewhere for Shade's spring break. We were thinking of going to Lake Michigan, but we decided we hadn't seen Kellen's dad or stepmom in a long time and should try to visit with them. So we chose to go to SLC for spring break. Unfortunately, we fell for the outward attractiveness of buddy passes and bought some of those to use without realizing it was not only spring break for many folks, but also Easter time and General Conference time... Needless to say, we spent almost 2 full days in the airport, one trying to get to Utah and one trying to get home. Kellen even spent a night waiting to get a flight when the rest of us just happened to score 2 empty seats and another passenger was nice enough to offer taking Eli as a lap infant so I could take all 3 kids with me... luckily, all 3 kids were complete angels the entire flight and Eli didn't even cry until 4 hours later after we had landed and he finally decided he was hungry. And it was a good thing we got through, because we foolishly had not planned on that happening and hadn't packed enough formula to last very long and I was only nursing about every other feeding by that point (another story for another day). We did a lot of praying, and our prayers were answered, but I also got the distinct impression that we weren't the only ones praying for help to get through on those flights... On the way back, we were all able to fly together, but we had to take a different route and ended up flying to New York first instead of going straight to Detroit. And Eli and Olive did great all the way to New York, but then Eli was really fussy on the short flight to Detroit. But hey, at least we made it out there and back!!! We almost gave up several times and stayed home!
(At least Eli handled the airport well... sleeping at a restaurant in between trying to catch flights...)
We flew in late Thursday night and started out by staying at my sister Teresa's house. Immy (Loo Loo) is getting so big! Teresa had gotten Friday off from work and Lily was still on spring break, so we went to the Hogle Zoo. We invited Janica and her kids and Jen (Ward) Pritchett and her family also. It was nice to see everyone again, but it was difficult to spend time to see all the different things with so many people. But we don't have elephants at the Detroit Zoo, so that was fun. We also got to see the baby orangutan, which was actually quite cute :) Unfortunately, we forgot our camera, and I didn't bring my phone, so we were without many photos at the zoo :(
(Bathtime, Jazz hands, Immy, Eli shades, Minni Mouse, Cousin cuddles, Dance game, Bear hat)
(The only pictures we got at the zoo from Kellen's phone)
Saturday morning was Olive's and Teresa's birthday. We got to eat at The Other Place for breakfast. It was yummy. Then we headed up to Kellen's dad's house. Janica's family and Camron showed up too, and Olive got to have cake! Then the kids and I went outside to play on the playground and we each ran about a mile total! Even Olive ran at least a quarter of a mile!
(Birthday girls, Cake)
(Grandpa and Grandma Wilson, Shade's crazy face, Playing Trouble, Anela's sneaky smile...)
(The playground)
(Seeing who can balance the empty can on their head the longest... Gerry won.)
We spent the night there and then the next day we headed up to Kellen's mom's house. We got to listen to conference on our drives to the different locations. At grandma's house, we got to stay in her little guest house with the Afa cousins. It was fun! They have horses and chickens and Jaime brought his dog. That day we had a big barbecue dinner with Jason's family, Jessica's family, Gennassee and Rich, Taylor and his girlfriend, Jaime, Camron and 3 of Bill's kids. Before we ate, the kids got to have a big Easter egg hunt. There were hundreds of eggs! All full of something. And there were 90 golden eggs, each with a number. And when your number got called, the kids got to go up to a treasure chest full of prizes and pick something. They loved it!
(Running around on the farm)
(Olive being cute [guest house], Riding the horse, Shade being a goofball)
(Finding eggs with "Ana," Shade's & Gerry's loot)
(Eli with grandma and daddy)
(Family Pics: Jason&Kim; Jessica; Taylor; Genessee&Rich; Janica; Mom&Kids
(Cousins)
We stayed there until Tuesday and went back to Teresa's house to sleep and left early the next morning to go spend the day at the airport. It was so nice to see everyone again. I really do miss living close to family. It has been 8 years! Too bad we only had enough time to visit the Salt Lake area, but at least we made it out!
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