We are only a couple weeks into summer and already have two vacations under our belt. The boys and I just returned from a quick trip to UT. The younger boys thought it wasn't long enough and Marcus was ready to leave after a few days. He's a true teenager. But we all had a good time despite leaving beautiful, cool sixty-five degree weather in WA to the scorching 100+ temps we had to endure in Utah. It was so hot! I even have a blister on the bottom of my foot from walking around Cherry Hill water park. The heat made it necessary to do lots of water activities and thankfully my sisters were good sports about taking my kids to do stuff so I could stay home with Henry and catch up on the fun when I could.
The 13-hour drive went well. I brought a forward-facing car seat for Henry so when he grew restless the boys switched him out of his infant seat and he was instantly one happy kid playing with toys and looking around at the world passing by. It was super cute. We stopped in Boise to see my Grandma while the boys swam in her awesome pool. We were all having a great time until Henry almost drowned. Really, he almost did. I won't go into details but it put a serious damper on the pit stop and reminded me that it only takes a second for things to go bad really fast. And apparently Henry has 9 lives. Or he did. I'd say he's probably down to 3 lives now. But he took a great nap after that so that's a positive side, right?
I packed our schedule pretty tight for the five days we were there. The kids went swimming a ton, we spent time with family as much as possible, including a day with Randy's family, and I even got together with all my high school friends. We finished up the trip with Farmington Festival Days. I'll let the photos tell the rest of the story...
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| Landon was so happy when he realized he was tall enough to touch the bottom of the pool. Barely | . |
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| Here I am chugging my 5-hour energy drink. The hardest part about driving solo is staying awake. These save me and I highly recommend them. |
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| The next morning the boys were barely up before Aunt April took them all to Cherry Hill Water Park. It was so hot but they stayed most of the day, then went back after dinner. |
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| This is proof that I was there and did something with my kids |
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| Donut break! |
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| I spy Bean in the nasty ball pit |
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| The next day we spent at a pond with the Balls Family. Marcus is the oldest grandkid and Henry is the youngest. That tells me I've been having kids for a long time! |
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| Teens and tweens playing card when the swimming got "boring" |
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| the pond |
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| My dad's basement was about 63 degrees so after a day of hot sun these couch potatoes had to bundle up to watch TV. My dad has a ton of cable channels we don't have so Marcus was thrilled when he could watch hours of lacrosse games. |
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| We drove to Laura's house so we could watch The Quiet Place in her newly finished home theater. It was amazing! The chairs were so fancy and the carpet was so soft the boys slept on it that night. My boys were green with envy and all I could think about was how many hours I would waste in there if I had a room like that in my house. |
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| Dad and Kathy took us on the train into Salt Lake to explore the children's museum and eat lunch at Crown Burger |
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| The train is always a hit and these 4 boys are so cute together! |
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| Marcus ate 2 Crown Burgers along with some fries and onion rings. I'm glad he appreciates good food and a youthful metabolism! |
We had dinner with a girl who was Lindsey's favorite mission companion (Usha Maharjan). We reconnected with her when LDS Living magazine featured her in an article where she specifically mentioned how Lindsey's death changed her life. She is a doctor from Nepal who is a convert and helped to translate the Book of Mormon into Hindu (or 1 of the 7 languages she speaks) who married some billionaire and now they do all kinds of humanitarian stuff that makes us all wish we could do more. It was a nice dinner and I'm sure Linz was there, wishing she could interrupt and tell things from her perspective. Also, did you notice April, Laura, and I are all wearing skirts? We didn't plan it but it totally cracks me up. We look and dress more alike with every passing year.
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| Parker at the park. We went first thing in the morning and only lasted about a half hour before we started to melt | | |
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Farmington Festival Days started off with a 5K. None of my boys trained for this like I had hoped but they all did a great job. It was about 80 degrees so naturally Marcus chose not to wear a shirt and Ethan took his shirt off about a mile into the race. They kill me! Marcus said it was the longest 3 miles of his life. He's a sprinter through and through. But he finished in 20 minutes and got 4th for his age group.
Here's all the Spjute family runners. Toby finished in 19 minutes and got 1st in his age group. He's an animal! Kate and Sage placed in their age groups too. I'm just glad I finished.
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| After we showered and ate my dad's amazing breakfast casserole, we were off to the parade. |
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| Waiting and sweating |
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| The parade always starts with the American flag and I love seeing everyone stand quietly as the flag passes by |
The kids got a ton of candy and marketing swag. Marcus got a lot of attention from the cheerleaders and dancers as they passed by. It was hilarious!
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| The kids got water bottles, chips, t-shirts, frisbees, candy, coupons for hair cuts, popsicles, ice cream sandwiches, corn on the cob, capes, bandannas, and a few other things I'm forgetting. They love free junk! |
Henry had a great time at his first parade and waved his hands anytime there was music. He also thoroughly enjoyed his Uncle Toby like all babies do.
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| After the parade it was back to the house for more food. Kathy does a great job of feeding large crowds and making it look effortless. It's quite impressive. |
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After lunch everyone cooled off in the icy waters of Farmington Canyon. Bum sliding is an old family tradition and lots of the grandkids got to try it for the first time. I'm pleased to report that no one got hurt (probably because I left Henry at home with Grandma Kathy).
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| Spjute cousins in order of age, not height :) |
Here I am with my high school friends and a couple of their spouses. I can't believe how old we are. We still laugh our heads off when we get together, just like the good ol' days. After our little mini-reunion I raced home to pack for the drive home.
We were making record time getting back home and then traffic came to a standstill just minutes before our freeway exit. I wanted to cry but Henry did a good job of that for me. No one should ever have to sit in traffic with 5 grumpy, tired, smelly boys after 12.5 hours of driving. It took years off my life. But we are happy to be home. It was a great trip!
Marcus and Ethan were house sitting/dog sitting for our friends at their lake house which meant everyone had a bed to sleep in and when it was time for bed, the teenagers left for the lake house staying up until all hours of the morning without adult supervision. They also got paid to get pillows shipped out for my friend’s business so they even made some money while watching TV. 
