Road Trippin'

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...

Landon was so happy when he realized he was tall enough to touch the bottom of the pool.  Barely

.

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.

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.

This is proof that I was there and did something with my kids

Donut break!

I spy Bean in the nasty ball pit

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!

Teens and tweens playing card when the swimming got "boring"

the pond

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.

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. 

Dad and Kathy took us on the train into Salt Lake to explore the children's museum and eat lunch at Crown Burger

The train is always a hit and these 4 boys are so cute together!

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.

Parker at the park.  We went first thing in the morning and only lasted about a half hour before we started to melt

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.

After we showered and ate my dad's amazing breakfast casserole, we were off to the parade. 

Waiting and sweating

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!

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.

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.

 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).

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!

I Met Mel

The stars aligned and I was finally able to meet up with friends from my BYU days, Brian and Mel.  Brian was one of my good friends and I got to know Mel before we all got married, just days apart from each other.  In fact, Brian and Mel hosted a farewell party for Randy and me the day before we moved out to Boston, so we go way back.  We've kept in touch over the years through Christmas cards and our family blogs since she and I are pretty much the only people who still update our blogs {which is such a sad thing because Facebook is a lame way to keep in touch with people in my opinion}.  If you don't recognize Mel from the picture, she is the famous Mel from Mel's Kitchen Cafe.
I've often referred to her cooking blog as "the only blog that matters" and it's true!  She's been blogging for years and her recipes can't be beat.  I love it when I share a delicious recipe of my own  with her and it makes the cut to be posted on her blog so I get to feel famous for a day.  When I told the boys about our pit stop, Landon said, "You mean we get to meet Mel's Kitchen Cafe?!"
Anyway, I dropped in on them on the drive home and boy, did I have a great time!  Mel fed us grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch which was no big deal for her but they were seriously so delicious!  Made on homemade bread with a sprinkle of seasoning put them over the top and my boys still rave about them.  We talked non-stop between bites of food and the boys wasted no time getting a football game going in the backyard. 

Check out all those boys {with the exception of cute Cam}. I hope we will be seeing more of them in the future or at least when all our boys room together at BYU!  Ha!

Winter Break in UT

Randy needed a break from his job and I missed my family so we killed two birds with one stone by driving to UT for the boys' winter break.  We skied at Brighton for a couple days and hung out with Randy's family, then dropped Randy at the airport so he could get back to his favorite job ever while I hung out with my family.  And ate food.  I tell you, my family's love language is eating good food together and I have no problem with that!

Anyway, the drive down was uneventful due to my determination to not get stuck in a storm.  I watched the weather forecast across WA, OR, and ID for a week straight so we hightailed it out of WA on Friday night, spent the night at a hotel so the boys could swim their brains out, and arrived in UT the next day without any trouble.  

 Utah means family time.  We managed to see both of our grandmas {too bad I didn't get a pic with mine) and even squeezed in a quick visit with the Peterson's, our Oki family {didn't get a pic with them either.  Too much catching up to do, I guess.}

Marcus is the oldest cousin on both sides of the family but for some strange reason, the Ball cousins adore him and can't leave him alone.  He absolutely loves it.

Skiing was awesome!  Landon went from cautious skier on the green runs to zipping in and out of trees and keeping up with the big boys. Parker went from brand-new skier to being totally independent and fearless, even after face planting in the powder.  The boys loved skiing with Parker and fought over who got to sit by him on the lift which made my heart melt. I realized this is one activity we can do as a family that the older kids enjoy just as much as the younger so that makes me very happy!

Let's pause and take a look at Parker's ski helmet.  His head is so HUGE his helmet doesn't fit over his head like it should, even though it's the right size.  Makes him look oh so special.....in a bad way.

 Yes, I skied too and was very careful to not fall.

ALL my boys skiing at the same time!  Major fist bump on this one. 

Cousins skiing.  Marcus and Ethan were excited to show off their skiing abilities.  If it were up to them they would've stuck to the double-black runs the whole day

Randy's family joined us for skiing the first day and his mom came again the second day.  She did a good job not falling as she tried to keep up.

 

 

 Once we were at my dad's house we finally got to sleep in and relax after two days of hardcore skiing.  The boys loved being lazy and wasted no time breaking out the pirate swords.

 I walked up above my dad's house and admired the brown ugliness of UT in February

We played a lot of Nintendo with the cousins {so I could sit around and do nothing} and the boys got to try out the old school Power Pad.  I was happy to show them a thing or too.

 

 The boys were super excited to swim at the rec center and race across the obstacle course.  They are ready to be the next contestants on Wipe Out for sure!

 Marcus took Parker down this water slide at least 20 times so he could enjoy the freedom of swimming in a place without stupid rules. Our rec center won't allow kids on the slide until they're practically adults and pass a swim text.  It's pathetic but I digress...

 

 I took the boys on a little field trip to the Church History museum.  They have a new kids section that was fun to play in but my favorite part was learning about the Angel Moroni statue that is on top of every LDS temple.  This one is over ten feet tall, made of steel, and covered in gold leafing.  You're not allowed to touch it but a sweet old lady who wasn't afraid of my rowdy boys because she was a boy mom too, taught us all about the statue and gave the boys gloves so they could touch it.

 We met up with Dad for lunch at our favorite burger place, Crown Burger.  Marcus told my Dad he couldn't remember if a Crown Burger was better than a Big Mac and my Dad knew that problem needed to be remedied, and fast!  Marcus was pretty excited to pig out and so was I.  Honestly, it's the fry sauce and onion rings I can't get enough of.  Ethan ate his first Crown Burger too but couldn't quite finish it off.  Uncle Greg was happy to help him out!

 

Since it was our last day in UT, it always means we cram everything in that we possibly can.  After lunch, the grandparents took the kids to the church to run around and burn off some energy.  Marcus and Megan got some basketball tips from my dad while the little boys ran through the halls playing laser tag and then it was home for dinner so my dad could make his famous pancakes-as-big-as-your-face because Landon couldn't go back to WA without eating one. 

 

Landon ate the whole thing!  They are delicious and Dad even makes them from scratch without following a recipe.  Kathy makes a mean caramel syrup to go on top and basically it's about as healthy as our Crown Burger lunch was.

 

After the unhealthy dinner, my sister April invited everyone to her house for nachos and a game night.  I was stuffed beyond stuffed but I'm not one to turn down good food when it's offered so of course I ate nachos too.  Basically it felt like we spent our last day eating a lot of really good, really unhealthy food.  It made it easy for me to nibble on carrots the whole drive home the next day.

Utah was good to us.  Many thanks to our family, especially our parents, who make time for us in their busy lives.  I know they are more than a little relieved to see us go so they can have their quiet house back!