nearly 5000 miles in 2 weeks! Part 5

We had originally thought that we might go home on the 5th, but then family pictures were scheduled for that day so we changed our minds. Then when family pictures got moved to Thursday, we decided to stay till Monday anyway. On Saturday morning, Sean helped my dad with some yard work while Mom and I watched the kids play with a pretend BBQ on the patio. We went to lunch at Sweet Tomatoes and then we went to a store called Gordmans where Brett got to spend his lemonade stand money. He picked out an awesome little dump truck which is still on the top of his list of toys to play with. We lost Alana’s black sandals in Oregon, so she got some cute new shoes at Gordmans too.

We mostly took it easy Saturday. I honestly can’t remember what we did that afternoon. Jared made some yummy pasta for dinner. We played a game called Dominion and went on a nice long walk. Sean and I always enjoyed evening walks when we lived in Provo. They have become less common here since we don’t live in a neighborhood and we have littles that go to bed. It was fun to walk through the neighborhoods and dream about having a house someday.

On Sunday, the Brown family headed back to Boise. The kids had fun playing and posing for pictures before they left though.

I love Kaity’s pose in this one!

You can imagine that all this travel took its toll on our kiddos in more ways than one! One of those ways was sleep. There were nights that Alana just refused to sleep in her bed and slept with Sean and I . Brett had a hard time too with all the different places to sleep. Surprisingly the hardest place for him to sleep was my parents house. He got in his mind somehow that there was something called timers and dings in our bedroom there. He woke up one night, screaming and bolted for the door. We were all in the same room and Sean got up fast enough to grab him before he got to the door (we were worried about the stairs!) Sean and Brett ended up sleeping in the front room that night. Brett was shaking and horrified about the timers and dings. We still have no idea what that was all about, but we still talk about the timers all the time and how Grandma and Grandpa are fixing their house. All that lack of sleep took its toll on Sean and I too! We long for the days that we get to take naps when everyone else does and get to sleep in after a rough night!

On Saturday I got a message from my old roommate Marci that she was going to be coming through Utah on Sunday and would love to get together. It worked out perfect that her family was able to come to my parents house, have lunch with us, and go to church with us. Marci’s older son Adam and Brett hit it off right away and had a great time playing in the scorching sun. Her younger son Miles tried to get in on the fun too. Marci was loving on Alana with her cute dress and bows! It was amazing to me how well our families got along together and I have spent a lot of time since then wishing that we didn’t live nearly 25 driving hours from each other! (also doesn’t my parents garden look awesome?!)

On Monday we got up early and headed back to NM. It took us the longest it ever has to drive from UT to NM, but we made it. We are all so so happy to be back home! We feel incredibly blessed that we got to see every one of our siblings, nieces, nephews, parents, and Grandma in the month of June!

Brett picked out a yummy, and thankfully very long-lasting lollipop in Moab:

These next two pictures sum up how we all felt about being in the car by the end of this trip!

We sure had fun though!

And then we had to sort through this giant mess! It took several days =)

The end!