~Utah~

I made the mistake of announcing to Averi that we were going to visit Nammy and Papa (and the rest of my family) soon...in a month...which come to find out is NOT soon to a 3 year old! Every day at least once, Averi would ask me "What time is Grandma coming over?" or "When do we get to see Nammy and Papa?" I finally just made a sticker countdown to help her gauge the amount of days we had left. That girl loved her grandparents!

On our way!

The flight there went really well and we even got a 3rd seat since no one was sitting by us. We got a whole row to ourselves and the kids were SO good. Phew!

 The fist day we all went to a new park in Cottonwood Heights. It had an awesome splash pad and playground so the kids played hard and had a great time. Rob and Jen's family was there too so Averi was loving all the cousins to play with. Kadence loved the splash pad even though she didn't really want to get wet. She would get really close to the water and get her feet wet but then chicken out and back away. It was really overcast and not too hot, so I guess the water wasn't as enticing to her than it is in the scorching desert.

 I love the clouds in this picture.

 Kadence was not the most friendly child when it came to getting re-acquainted with the family. She actually had never met Rob and Jen's family so she was extra stand-offish with them :) 

Exhibit A and B:

Averi, Deane, and Macy all had birthdays within a couple weeks of each other so on the second day we had a combined birthday party for them. Here is Averi opening a present from Nammy.

 She got a cute pink dress, and a purple necklace which Bryce offered to put on her...such a sweet kid!

 Singing Happy Birthday to Macy

 Kadence playing in the basement with Macy and Bryce. She warmed up to them pretty quickly.

 The third day we went back to the splash park and played. Then it started pouring rain so we dashed to the pavilion and ate pizza (with Nammy, Papa, R. DeGraw's, M. DeGraw's, and Meijer's. The rain storm was awesome but eventually it got crazy with wind and everything so we went home...WET.

Here is Kadence enjoying a pizza slice in each hand sitting on top of the table.

 Averi playing with Nammy in the little-girl paradise downstairs. Toys galore!

 Sweet little Chase giving Kadence a hug (and Kadence actually tolerating it!). I hadn't seen him since he was a couple months old so it was so fun to see who he is turning into already at age 3. Such a character.

 Kadence with her Papa

 Off to the zoo!

 Nammy, Payton, and Averi checking out the monkeys. They were so cute and would just lounge around like a bunch of lazy lumps.

 Kadence with her Auntie Deanne looking at a monkey.

 Averi and Kadence were having the time of their lives in Nammy's kitchen playing with this stupid toy puppy that sang and danced. I guess you never know what toys are going to be a hit!

 The last night we were there was when the real excitement happened. Deanne had left for the airport to pick up Doug while I was home trying to put my girls to bed. We were upstairs and I was getting Averi a snack when I heard a ground-shaking "THUMP!", then the screaming. Kadence had fallen off their couch and landed on the tile that surrounds their fireplace. She was face-up when I first saw her so I couldn't see anything wrong with her. I picked her up and felt a drop of something land on my arm. "Please don't be blood!" I thought. Then I looked...yep it was blood. She had cut the back of her head and it was bleeding pretty badly...but not profusely. It wasn't gushing blood or anything, just dripping a little. I didn't really panic because she didn't black out or throw up and she cried right away so I knew that had to be good. I called Doug who had just gotten off his flight and told him what happened. "Soooo, Kadence cut the back of her head and I think she might need stitches." So as soon as he got home we decided to take her to Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake. We got there at about 10pm and they took us back right away. The doctor looked at the cut and wondered if there may have been a scull fracture since the cut was so deep (and not a clean cut either). She didn't want to staple her up until we got results back from the scan yet so we waited for about an hour until it was available. Then we took our little K-Bear to the scan room and they strapped her down like a mummy...head and all. By now it was about midnight and she was completely exhausted and crying. They said that she could not be crying or the scan won't be accurate. How on earth are we going to get her to stop crying when she is strapped onto this huge strange bed in a dark scary room?? They gave us a bunch of toys to see if that would help and we went along with it knowing full well that it was NOT going to work. After about 15 minutes of her screaming, the tech came back in and said "This just seems too mean. They may have to anesthetize her and bring her back again." Then started the water works. Ugh! So we waited in our room for another hour until finally the nurse came back in and saw Kadence. "Still wide awake, huh?" she said. Apparently the doctor just wanted to try to wait for her to fall asleep. So she left again and came back haf an hour later and she was out. We finally were able to get her onto the scan bed and through the scanner without her waking up so our mission was accomplished! Then we just had to wait for the results. We finally got them (NO scull fracture!) and the doctor stapled her up. She got 6 staples which were NOT fun to get. I didn't see them do it but I had to hold my poor crying baby while metal was put in her tiny head. At that point, though, I was just glad that there was no scull damage and that she was going to be okay. We headed home and pulled in to the house at 3am. LONG night!

 The killer tile.

 The next day.

 

Averi and Chase became really good little buds after a few days. They played so cute together.

The last day we were there, we had the main event... a surprise birthday party for Cliff! He turned 80 years old! All the family and a ton of his friends came to celebrate with us in their friend's amazing back yard.

 Kadence was not allowed out of her stroller or my arms most of the time, since she was apparently out for blood (her own).

Averi and Bryce loving the pool

Natalie and Rob in deep discussion.

We were there for about 5 hours so eventually I put K down. Since I forgot to bring a bib, her while shirt got destroyed with food stains thought dinner. So we took it off! She thought she was pretty cool in these pictures trying to play soccer with these boys. The funny thing was that they weren't even paying any attention to her, but she seems to think she was the star player. She would go stand by them and act like she was strategizing, then she would race back to me laughing hysterically.

Late that night we met up with Brett, Dayton, and Cardon. They had rented a van and we started our ten hour drive over to Petaluma, CA for part 2 of our trip! Luckly the kids (and I) slept most of the time since we drove all night... perfect!!