Monday was picture day! We've never had Hyrum's entire family together to take pictures. Ever. At our wedding, Edna's husband was back East for work, and Helaman's son was still living in Colombia. Last time we visited Utah, we missed overlapping with Bertha and Oscarito by a couple of days. So knowing that we'd all be in the same state, we arranged to have pictures taken. We were stretched coming up with a good place to do it, since it was freezing outside and there were a lot of little kids, but we ended up at Farmington Station. It wasn't the most glamorous, but they were accommodating and it was warm.
It's always fun to watch the photographer take pictures of kids, and see all the adults behind the photographer trying to make the kids smile.
In some of the pictures the lighting is a little off, or slightly blurry, but it's nice to have them regardless. I'll put some of them in a separate post.
That night we went on a 'date night'. It started with a $20 chiro visit for me, followed by a stroll around the mall, and then dinner at a restaurant my sister recommended in South Salt Lake (The Dodo). It was a totally different scene for us; since we usually go out to eat with our kids, we avoid 'cool' places with crowds and waits. But kid-free, it was a blast. We happily waited 30 minutes, enjoyed nice, quiet conversation over delicious food, and to top it off, we got the best banana cream pie swimming in caramel sauce. I'd go back just for that.
We had more down time the second week, so we spent a few evenings just relaxing and watching movies. More than once, we thought Tiago would fall asleep watching a movie (because he wouldn't stay put in bed) but the credits rolled around and he was still wide awake.... at 11 pm. Good thing it was just vacation. I was relieved when he came home and got back into a regular routine again.
Hyrum had a few friends come over. One afternoon his best friend from college (Claudio) came over with his family to hang out and hot tub. I stayed inside with the kids, and slowly everyone else came inside, too, except those two. They were out there for three hours! We were all concerned they'd turn into raisins.
Another night his friend Alex, who's here from Colombia, came over to hot tub. It's fun to see worlds collide. Hyrum now has a handful of his Colombian friends living in Utah.
For Christmas Matt got a few sleds, so we borrowed them one morning and took Tiago sledding near my parents' house. The sledding was good, but what Tiago really loved was seeing all the fun vehicles--the sledding hill was right at a freeway overpass. Trucks, ambulances, buses, buses, and more buses. Dump trucks, tractors, etc. A few drivers even honked for him.
On New Years Eve Hyrum started getting sick. Several of my siblings came over for an early New Years celebration (like dinner hours). Matt brought a LOT of chocolate from work, and we ate dinner plus had a big chocolate-dipping party. His job certainly has perks.
Hyrum woke up from a nap around 9 and decided to follow through with the rest of our New Years plans. Instead of going to Sariah's house like we usually do, we went to her friend's house who was having a party. Part of me felt like I needed to eat and socialize when I was already stuffed and really tired. Latinos don't like to hear that you're not hungry, especially when there's a lot of delicious food around. Culturally, though, it's not normal for me to eat dinner at 10:30 pm. But Hyrum had a great time, and thoroughly enjoyed himself with all the dancing going on. I opted out of dancing and had a few nice ladies to talk with.
We got to eat lunch on Friday with Grandma Hatch. Not too many kids meet their great-grandparents.
Courtney and Peter came up for the weekend, so we saw a lot of them and played a few games. On Saturday morning we went with my dad and Jenna to the Bountiful Temple. It's a rare treat to be able to attend the temple with family, including my husband. After, Jenna came over and we finalized plans for our month of Whole30 eating. (Glad that's over!)
By this point, Hyrum wanted to die with his cold/flu symptoms. I was trying to pack and sort through all our stuff while he slept. We ended up needing to leave a few boxes of stuff in my parents basement, which we'll pick up when we visit this summer. It will feel like a second Christmas for the kids to see those things again.
We went to Hyrum's parents house in the afternoon. His Dad had left a few days before to Colombia, so he wasn't around, but we saw the rest of the family. Hyrum's mom loves to serve us food. We got soup when we arrived, and a few hours later, when everyone was there, we ate a huge dinner. It's always a surprise when the next meal will come.
Our flight home was for Sunday night (a red eye). Hyrum woke up and got ready for church, and then went back to bed at our recommendation. He looked awful and could barely stand. All day we were worrying about how he was going to carry a baby, a carseat and a suitcase onto the airplane, when he could barely walk. But after spending all day in bed, and getting a blessing, he felt well enough to make it home.
That reminds me--Doug's family drove up to see us Sunday night before we left. We hadn't seen them since Christmas Eve, so it was nice to socialize with slightly fewer people around. (Although with 7 kids, it still wasn't quiet.)
We all got a few hours of sleep before waking up and going to the airport. The flight home wasn't too eventful, besides Tiago crying for the first 45 minutes. It was a relief to land, and unload into our own car. I already wrote about our travels in Part 1, so this is a wrap.
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