The day before I left, a Sunday, was one of the worst days I've had so far with the kids... ever. I don't know what it is about these ages, but they really just make me feel like a crazy person sometimes. It was reassuring to have a plan; I had some hope the crazy would stop once I was in Utah and had some back-up help.
I was at my parents house the whole time, and got to catch up with friends, interact with adults, and shop. My dad works from home, so during the girls' naps I was often able to get out of the house and have a break. The kids slept great--sometimes even sleeping until 8 am!
My hope was to take a picture of the fun stuff we did, so I'd be able to look back and remember... because my brain sometimes fails me. So some of these pictures aren't great quality, but still serve their purpose.
This was our Drive to Utah. We stopped overnight in Rawlins, WY to break up the drive. Having three little kids requires some logistical planning. I put the bag under the stroller, diaper bag on the stroller handle, girls strapped in and Tiago holding one hand, and a pack & play in the other hand. I push the stroller with my stomach. It's quite the show, but it works. And I'm always glad to find solutions that work.
We visited the Bountiful temple. Tiago recently learned the name of Angel Moroni and loves to point it out on all the temples we visit.
We went to a park in downtown Salt Lake--there's a little river that runs through it that kids can plan in (like 6" deep). It was a fun alternative to the splash pad, and most of the time the kids enjoyed it.
My kids spent a lot of time here: Grandma's pantry. They found the candy, the chocolate chips, the fruit snacks, and the cookies. And, they helped themselves. Clearly.
Cousin Talia came over to play several times. She's about as big as my girls are, and they were all quite entertained by each other.
I got my hair done! It's my first time lightening my hair, so that was a fun change. Now it looks kind of how I always imagined it looked, except it never actually did. This is something I've wanted to do for a while, but needed someone to watch my kids. Same with going to the dentist! I finally went to get my teeth cleaned because I knew I'd have someone to watch my kids. What a luxury.
More play time with Talia. It was pretty hot most of the time we were there.
This was a fun night! One thing I love about being in Utah is that I can make plans with one sister, and then it snow balls into a big girls night out. We all met up in Salt Lake for delicious food, including plenty of pie. This also reminds me... I got lots of new clothes! I ordered clothes a few months ago during a Nordstrom sale, and got all my sisters' opinions on what to actually keep. This shirt I'm wearing made the cut, along with some really comfortable jeans. Nothing helps a post-partum body quite like good jeans. (Even though I'm now 18 months post-partum, things still aren't quite the same.)
Siena had several issues while we were in Utah. In addition to getting a rash (which the doctors have, since, diagnosed as eczema) she woke up several nights with a dirty diaper and had severe diaper rash. This picture makes he look like such a diva. Grandma helped her out with a blow dryer, then kept blowing it on her while she ate some food in the bathroom. And, that's my necklace.
About a week into our trip we went to visit my Grandpa Buttars. This picture below sums up how that went. My girls were SO clingy and miserable that first week, and I was constantly holding them and trying to entertain them to keep them from throwing fits. Unfortunately, that means I didn't get to spend much time with my grandpa, and we definitely didn't get a good picture of everyone.
We went to Arctic Circle with him, and while we weren't looking, Mila snuck over and helped herself to the soda. Tacked onto our trip to Preston, we also visited the Pepperidge Farm factory store to get gold fish, another factory store to get shelf-whipping cream, and another clothing store to get discount pajamas for the kids.
One thing we didn't do on that trip was get the shaved ice we wanted... they ran out of ice! So we found another place in Bountiful that sells shaved ice, and it was delicious. Who doesn't want a big scoop of ice cream in the middle of their flavored ice?!
My aunt Marilyn came to visit us, and enjoyed the girls.
We spent several mornings at this playground in Layton. It was so hot, though!
The girls felt quite at home, and went up and down and up and down the stairs to entertain themselves.
Tiago saw some pumpkins at the store, and wanted his own. Ironically, he picked a fake plastic blue one. Not quite what I expected, but he was so happy with his pumpkin. It came in handy a few days later when we went to a parade.
Most of my siblings came over one evening to hot tub. Unfortunately, the temperature was turned down so we weren't all that hot. We ended up getting out and making s'mores instead.
We had a big adventure one Saturday when we headed down to Orem. First up was breakfast with the Porters. Colombian breakfast is always delicious, and I knew Hyrum would be jealous of this picture. I love being around these cousins because they're SO helpful with my kids. They're like mini-moms that I wish we had around more often.
Next up we visited Courtney and Peter. It was the first time I've seen their apartment. The girls (thankfully!) took a nap there, which made them very happy when they woke up. Courtney took me to Swig for the first time; I'm convinced she's the one to go with, because every time she calls on the phone she says, "Hold on a sec.... yep, thanks... okay, don't judge me, I'm at Swig." It's a specialty soda place, that you just drive through. I think the best decision we made was to get a rice krispy treat and two cookies along with our sodas.
Don't they look ready for a pair of twins of their own??
Mila had another encounter with soda. Every time she took a sip, she said, "yummm". Peter asked her if she liked it and she happily shook her head up and down and took another sip.
Tiago playing with Talia before church one Sunday. Some Sundays, my kids did awesome at church. (In fact, one Sunday, Mila sat with my dad for about 40 minutes without making a peep.) Some Sundays, they were pretty miserable during church.
But the girls turned 18 months!!!!! This probably deserves its own blog post because it's the single most exciting thing that's happened in months. The first Sunday they went to church nursery, I just dropped them off and ran. My mom checked in on them, and said they were having a great time. I absolutely loved relaxing in Sunday School, and in all the Sundays since then, nursery has been such a game-changer.
Tiago loves Oscarito, and was thrilled to wear his hat.
Another fun snow-ball day was Labor Day. Originally, I was talking with Courtney about going swimming with the kids. Someone mentioned Bear Lake, then we found out my Grandma was going to be in a parade, and then nearly all the family came for both events. We started in Evanston with a parade that turned out way more fun with the kids than I expected.
My Grandma Hatch, who was the rodeo queen back in 1941. She's (not surprisingly) the oldest living queen and they invited her to ride in the parade.
With buckets filled with taffy and broken suckers, we next drove to Bear Lake. It wasn't hot (unfortunately), so we kept our jackets on. But the sand and sun were glorious. The kids just played nice with each other and I was able to relax and enjoy adult conversation for an hour. That happens so rarely.
I thought it would be fun to get a family picture with the beautiful lake behind us... the kids had other ideas. This is pretty much what life looks like.
One morning my parents emptied their hot tub to re-fill the water. Before I knew it, my three kids were mostly naked enjoying the warm water. You never know what will happen with Grandma and Grandpa around. They're softies.
This is the view from my parents' deck. One afternoon I couldn't find Tiago in the house, then found him sitting out on the rocks digging in dirt. He spent part of every day digging in dirt, and left big gaps in my mom's landscaping.
Another afternoon I was making cake with Tiago. We measured out the dry ingredients, then I realized we needed to wait for the butter to thaw. I left, and came back to Tiago playing in the flower. It turned into such. a. mess. And he was so. happy. We were cleaning flour off the floor for days.
I didn't know Farmington had a pond, but they do, so we visited it. Tiago enjoyed throwing bread to the ducks. I was incredibly grateful for a fenced-in dock. Otherwise, this is one of those activities that is logistically impossible.
We started talking about one of my ancestors, which led me to look around on the family tree, and we came across a few questions. I saw that they were buried in Taylorsville, so we took a trip to the cemetery to check it out. This isn't actually my relative below, but we were looking at different Butterfield graves nearby. (My mom took the pictures of those.)
In celebration of my brother's birthday we went to a mystery escape room.... which was actually my second chance in one. The first time was the previous week, when I went with my mom's young women group. We had fun but didn't make it out of the room in an hour. (Not shocking, it was a bunch of teenagers, and a chained zombie chasing us around.) So when we went as a family, we were determined to escape. The room we were in was kind of new and had a 6% success rate. Nonetheless, we thought we were pretty clever and made it out! Truthfully, a few of us mostly held phone flashlights for the others, but still, we made it out.
One Sunday afternoon we visited Temple Square. It was a fun Sunday activity.
Then we stopped by Matt and Kayla's apartment. I'm impressed by the amount of toys they had to entertain visiting children. And I'm always impressed with the chocolate they keep around.
When Siena is crying, she almost always cheers up when she sees herself in the phone camera.
We celebrated Tiago's birthday. I wrote about that in my last post.
I got to visit with one of my mission companions. Her daughter is the same age as my girls. It was a great visit, besides my kids dumping goldfish all over her floor.
Tiago had more fun with cousins celebrating his birthday.
We got discount tickets to Lagoon, where they were starting their Halloween stuff. My dad was nice enough to stay home one evening with the kids while my mom, Peter, Courtney, and I went. There's a new roller coaster that was awesome. We came home and made caramel apple nachos. So good!
Another birthday party for Tiago!
Another visit to the temple.
Tiago heard a few classic stories from my dad -- three little pigs, and the three billy goats gruff. Except... Tiago called them the billy billy gruffs, so I can only guess what he thought the story was about.
When our time was up, we loaded the car and headed home. We left with a lot more than we arrived with. For one, I bought a new twin mattress. I found a really great deal on a gel foam one. Tiago got some birthday presents, I bought plenty of clothes, and there's that blue pumpkin full of parade candy.
Within a few hours of arriving home, Hyrum arrived! Oh happy day.
