When You're Here You're Family...

The boys and I took a trip to Utah to get out of this nasty heat, and stayed for about a week and a half. Poor Ace had to stay behind because of work. Lame. I felt {just a little} guilty enjoying the nice weather of Utah without him.

I found some cheap tickets to fly there so I flew with my two kids BY MYSELF. I had major anxiety about this. I have flown with Easton and Ty separately, but never together, and I feared the worst. But everything went so good, and they were both so excited about the whole thing, it was actually pretty enjoyable.

Two funny stories about the plane ride: Easton has been watching Toy Story 2 a lot lately and he was completely convinced that Woody and Buzz were at the airport just like in the movie...

He said, "Mommy. Buzz needs my help! They are trying to get Jessie! I gotta go help them!" He continued to quote the movie the entire time.

Then when the plane was getting ready to take off, I was explaining to Easton what was going to happen "The plane is going to start going really super fast and then start going up into the sky." He wasn't really listening to me and then as we started to take off, he gripped the armrests and starting yelling, "What is Happening?! What is Happening?!" I told him to look out the window...he then relaxed a little and yelled, "We are Flying! Mommy! We are Flying! This is sooo amazing!" I was laughing so hard I couldn't even tell him to talk softer. He continued to give a play-by-play with the things he could see out the window the whole flight. He said things like, "We are like big giants and we are going to smash those little tiny trees."

Uncle Jesse had to get his tonsils out, and he was pretty miserable.  So we tried to keep him company.  Easton was his movie watching buddy all week long...Sometimes there was a little too much teasing, but it always ended on a happy note...

Then we headed up to the Casper's for Baby Carson's First Birthday... Can't believe he is already 1!

There was a little teasing by Uncle Brad...

But Ty liked it, so all was well.

We tried to get pictures of the cousins...this is what we got:

At least they are all cute even when they don't smile.

We went to the Farm with Grammy, Aunt Rebecca, and Carson.  Everybody liked the ducks.

Rebecca got really into feeding those ducks :)

Some more Uncle Brad teasing that didn't go as well as the water... apparently Ty is cool with standing in the grass, but things get crazy if you put grass on top of his feet.

Bubbles were a nightly routine.

We went to Thanksgiving Point with Grandma Leelee.  The boys got to ride the pony's, and there was no convincing Ty that it was a pony...He kept calling it "Doggy".  But he did love to see all the other "Mammimals".

This one is random, but just enjoyable to me.  I found Easton sleeping like this one night....

And the reason we really made the trip was for the reunions.  We had a big giant Smith reunion, and then the next night we had a smaller reunion/tribute to my Fabulous Grandpa John.  It was so fun to see everybody, Easton loved having so many big cousins to play with, and it was yet again confirmed that my family's nuttiness goes back many, many, many generations.  All I can do is continue to pass it on...

We are so glad to be back home with Ace, but not so much back in the heat.  Bleh.  But yay for family, I am glad we got to spend some time with everyone!

p.s The post title is dedicated to my mother...who while at our {very large} family gathering at The Olive Garden made that very statement to the waitress...yep.