Vacation Recap part 2

Sunday, Oct 28, we went to church with my parents, then later that night went over to my brother's house to see his family. Scott & Codi have 3 kids, the youngest, Dallin, is just three months older than ours. He is such a busy little boy! Climbing, jumping, running, its amazing what he's able to do at his age--and I'm so grateful mine aren't as fast as him! We had a great dinner and a fun time chatting and letting the cousins play together.

Monday, Oct 29, Marc and I had dental appointments in the morning, then he went downtown to change the tires over for my mom. What a great guy! My mom and I went out shopping that afternoon and found some really cute clothes that I'm really excited about wearing. That night we went to Jade's Chopsticks for dinner. It's one of the best Chinese Restaurants that we've ever had and I think my family's been going there for almost 10 years now. I LOVE their Mandarin Chicken!

Tuesday, Oct 30 All of us went to Walmart in the morning. My mom wanted us to help her with getting little gifts for all of the grandkids. Did anybody else ever get gifts for Halloween?? This is something so out of the norm for me. My mom has been really eager to learn how to effectively use her digital pictures by putting them on her computer, uploading them to a store to be printed, and putting them in an album like mine from "my publisher.com" So we spent most of the day helping her with that. That night just Marc & I went over to Scott and Codi's where we played one of our favorite games, Settler's of Catan then spent the rest of the night talking.

Wednesday, Oct 31 (Halloween!) Marc, myself and the kids all drove out to Nampa to visit my grandmother and two of my aunts that were out there as well. We had a nice lunch and everyone just enjoyed watching the kids play and investigate. We rushed back so I could make my hair appointment, I got my hair permed! Most of you know that I just get bored of my hair so quickly and need to have drastic change, so it definitely looks different now. I like it, but am still getting used to it and needing to wash it every day. That night we had a little Halloween party with Pizza, witches brew and doughnuts. We dressed the kids up in their Dog Costumes and they went Trick of Treating with their cousins. They had a blast! Neither Marc nor I expected to be out very long, but we went to over 15 houses! Most of the excitement came from following their cousins and copying them, but they were smiling and laughing so hard. They kept trying to go inside the houses, I think that was a little confusing, but they definitely got the hang of going up to the door and waiting to be given something. We had a really fun time taking them around.

Thursday, Nov 1, We did some shopping in the morning, then when the kids went down for a nap Marc and I were able to sneak off to go to the temple together. It had been way too long since I'd been to the temple! It was such a nice feeling to be back there again--and especially to go back to the temple that we had been married in! When we got home the kids were having a blast playing outside. Bryce learned how to climb up the ladder to go down the slide by himself and Tyler was chasing the ducks and the rabbits around the yard. Codi was kind enough to offer to watch the kids for us while we went out to eat with my parents. The Texas Roadhouse is also one of our family favorites and we enjoyed a delicious steak dinner! After dinner, my mom and I ran over to see my cousin Shauna's brand new home. It is a gorgeous home with lots of space to grow into. It was great to see her again and to meet her husband for the first time.

Friday, Nov 2 Marc went up with my dad and my brother Scott on a Pheasant hunting trip. Since marrying me, Marc has been brave enough to learn to hunt so he could spend time with my dad. The rest of us women and children met them up at the lodge to have a nice lunch and let the kids play. Then, the men went out again, and took Palmer, (Scott's 5 year old son) out with them to get a couple of birds. We were supposed to have gotten together with my good friend Sarah and her husband, but the plans fell through and I'm totally bummed that we didn't get the chance to see each other.

Saturday, Nov 3 we left Boise at 6:20 in the morning. We flew to Salt Lake and had a 3.5 hour layover there. We hopped on the shuttle that goes to Temple Square and grabbed some breakfast and walked around for a bit. This was definitely our "worst" flight with the kids. We got them to sleep really quickly--but as I was holding Tyler the circulation was cut off in my arm and I was experiencing so much pain that I tried to move him to readjust. This woke him up and he was screaming as though all heck had broken out! I couldn't do anything to console him or get him to go back to sleep he just continued to scream. I felt like everyone on the plane was staring at me thinking "shut that kid up!" Marc had Bryce who was still asleep so we switched off and he took Tyler. He was finally able to calm down when he was given two cups to play with and some apple juice to drink. All I could do was sit there and hold Bryce and cry. I don't know why I was crying---out of embarrassment, frustration, and probably just exhaustion. Anyway, we finally landed in Chicago and had another long layover there. I was wandering around the airport with the kids and we stumbled upon a "children's museum" there in the airport. So at least they were able to run around and play for a bit before we got on the next plane. The ride to Cincinnati was smooth sailing. We finally got home at 9:30 at night. We loved seeing everyone, but it's so nice to be home! :)