I've been sitting on my posts about our Utah vacation and haven't drafted up anything substantial yet. So, I need a new approach. I'm going to quick take our Utah vacation! Just so you're in the know, a quick take is a mini post that doesn't really seem sufficient on it's own, so I publish it in a group with seven other mini posts -- making the total post really looooooooong (the name can be misleading). Brace yourself.
I already wrote all about our travel to and from Utah and gave a quick overview of our various adventures back here. I also drafted a post for our Bassett family reunion. So today I'll mention the other odds and ends of our trip that I would like to remember.
1. Bassett Family Easter Egg Hunt
On Saturday my mom hosted an Easter Egg Hunt for all her kids who could attend (Jon's family wasn't able). We also had our big yummy Easter dinner. The kids had a lot of fun playing with cousins again. But if I'm being completely honest, I've forgotten most the details from our afternoon. I remember Isaac found the money egg in the garbage can (luckily Reid thought his 25 cents had a bigger value than Isaac's 20 dollars, ha!). I also remember my mom's traeger grilled turkey roast was amazing. So those are the important memories you get for the egg hunt.
2. Meet up with Friends
Earlier Saturday morning Ben and I walked the kids down to the grocery store for it's anniversary sale. They have 25 cent hot dogs and cotton candy. Nell had been dying for that cotton candy for weeks, weeks! We waited in line for what felt like forever, and then she didn't even dare taste it. Seriously. I was so mad. But ... I did see a couple of old friends while I waited in line. It was funny, Reid was trying to figure out how I knew people in Delta if we didn't live there. "So you're friends, but you just met her?"
One friend I ran into was actually someone I was planning on meeting up with later that night. Two of my best friends from HS, Ali (Nickle) Hughes and Carolyn (Gardner) Jenks, were both in town for the weekend. They came over to my parent's place once all the kids were in bed and we chatted away for about two hours. It was so fun to catch up and see where they are in life. I just love the memories we share together and how much we still connect after all the growing and changing we've experienced in adulthood.
3. Easter in SLC with the Szilagyi's
Sunday morning we loaded the kids up in my parent's minivan and headed to Salt Lake City for another fun Easter Egg hunt and dinner with their Szilagyi cousins. They loved playing with Henry and Jazella, and Coraline and Mason got along marginally better than they had the week prior when Katie and Mason visited us here in Wisconsin. Two-year-olds are such interesting social creatures. It's like, "hey, I like you and want to be your friend" one minute and then "I'm mad at you and am going to plow you down for no apparent reason" the next.
After the hunt the kids each found an Easter basket from Grandma and Grandpa Szilagyi, and it's a good thing because we had absolutely no Easter bunny this year. And you know what, the kids didn't even notice his absence. It was perfect. Reid couldn't wait to build his new Lego plane, Nell quickly switched her and Coraline's My Little Pony's (Nell wanted Pinky Pie and Lou loves Rainbow Dash -- so it was a great trade), and I couldn't wait to watch Moana.
We walked to Church with Bizzie and Steve shortly after the hunt. As we settled into our pew Ben leaned over and commented that the median age of our group was four. To make things worse, the mode was zero! We had three babies, and then a pair each of two, four and six year olds. They were easy enough for five of us adults to handle. Ben and Lauren took the two-year-olds home for nap after sacrament meeting. The others all stuck around for primary (or naps in their parents arms).
After Church we headed back to Bizzie and Steve's house for a yummy, yummy Easter dinner. It was so fun to spend some time with each of our families over the Easter weekend. We had originally planned to stay the night in SLC, but I was so tired of traveling and having new sleeping arrangements every other night that we decided to just head back to Delta that evening. The kids were such troopers through all our many travels in this first leg of our vacation.
(for a quick recap: Tue -- travel from Oshkosh to Delta, Wed -- from Delta to Hatch, Fri -- through Bryce Canyon and then back to Delta, Sun -- from Delta to SLC and then back to Delta, WHEW!!!)
4. Exploring the Wild, Wild West
On Monday Ben took Reid out to the dump to look for scorpions (we'd read a big scorpion book from the library earlier in the month) and Reid said "I think we're in the wild west dad!" He was pretty excited to be part of the real deal. Even as Ben tried to explain that it wasn't so much a place as a time period, Reid insisted that the outskirts of Delta were in fact, the really real Wild West.
They had even bigger adventures when they went to U-dig fossils with Nell on Wednesday. At U-dig they were able to search for trilobites and they brought back a whole bucket full! Ben said they also saw even more scorpions than when they went scorpion hunting.
Those two big kids of mine are super in to Dinosaurs, and Nell has always really loved rocks. So the fossil dig was perfect for them. Though they are young, I hope it was a fun day with dad that they'll always remember. When they got back to town he took them to the gas station for lunch -- a slice of pizza and a soda. They were beaming from ear to ear when they arrived home.
5. BBQ and sleepover at the Bassetts
On Monday night my brother Matt invited us over for a BBQ. The weather was perfect for it and the food was delicious. It was such a wonderful evening. Reid and Isaac learned of each others love for Minecraft and quickly ran to the basement to play it on the Xbox.
The kids were not happy about having to head back to Grandmas at bedtime. Reid wanted to play Minecraft all night, and Nell certainly didn't want to leave if Reid didn't have too. Ironically though, Reid was pretty anxious about actually staying the whole night at Isaac's house for a sleepover. He didn't quite grasp that staying all night meant not sleeping in a room right next to his mom and dad. In the end Reid came home around 9:30, but Nell stayed the whole night through. She was in heaven; I'm sure. Zoey and Sofia were both such sweet cousins to her. They really helped her feel like one of the big girls, and I know she valued her play time with each them.
6. Picture Night
We made plans to have one last get together with all the Bassett's (we hadn't all been together since the reunion) on Tuesday night. Our main motive was to snap a picture of the entire family, but I think the delicious Chinese takeout and cousin play time were more exciting for most the group. The weather had been hot and sunny all day, but about a half hour before picture time we saw the storm coming. Those clouds roll in pretty heavy and pretty dark when storms brew in from the West. It was a complete down pour by the time we were all gathered at my parents place. Their basement -- with it's golden 70s carpet and limited lighting -- would have to do.
Ideal picture or not, it was a fabulous evening to top off a great day. Most the cousins had been over to play for a bit around lunchtime, so my kids were really starting to feel at home with everyone. It's pretty awesome to have so many built in friends to grow and laugh with when you're part of a big extended family.
7. Final Day for Cousin Time
They had one more day of good cousin play on Thursday. We met Kristina and her kids at the park for lunch. I seriously loved that Hudson was still calling Reid "Buddy" after a full week together. My mom tells me that since we've left he's asked her where his buddy is. I think they'll be quite the match for years to come.
After the park we headed to McDonald's for some lunch. Matthew and his family came over for goodbyes around dinner time and soon after Phil and his crew came too. My mom ordered pizza and we all watched the kids run around the backyard one last time. Well, I was upstairs trying to contain Coraline's throw ups, but I had a pretty good view of all the action out the back window. Poor Lou.
Bonus:
Here's two more photos of things that happened while we were in Delta.
I already wrote all about our travel to and from Utah and gave a quick overview of our various adventures back here. I also drafted a post for our Bassett family reunion. So today I'll mention the other odds and ends of our trip that I would like to remember.
1. Bassett Family Easter Egg Hunt
On Saturday my mom hosted an Easter Egg Hunt for all her kids who could attend (Jon's family wasn't able). We also had our big yummy Easter dinner. The kids had a lot of fun playing with cousins again. But if I'm being completely honest, I've forgotten most the details from our afternoon. I remember Isaac found the money egg in the garbage can (luckily Reid thought his 25 cents had a bigger value than Isaac's 20 dollars, ha!). I also remember my mom's traeger grilled turkey roast was amazing. So those are the important memories you get for the egg hunt.
2. Meet up with Friends
Earlier Saturday morning Ben and I walked the kids down to the grocery store for it's anniversary sale. They have 25 cent hot dogs and cotton candy. Nell had been dying for that cotton candy for weeks, weeks! We waited in line for what felt like forever, and then she didn't even dare taste it. Seriously. I was so mad. But ... I did see a couple of old friends while I waited in line. It was funny, Reid was trying to figure out how I knew people in Delta if we didn't live there. "So you're friends, but you just met her?"
One friend I ran into was actually someone I was planning on meeting up with later that night. Two of my best friends from HS, Ali (Nickle) Hughes and Carolyn (Gardner) Jenks, were both in town for the weekend. They came over to my parent's place once all the kids were in bed and we chatted away for about two hours. It was so fun to catch up and see where they are in life. I just love the memories we share together and how much we still connect after all the growing and changing we've experienced in adulthood.
3. Easter in SLC with the Szilagyi's
Sunday morning we loaded the kids up in my parent's minivan and headed to Salt Lake City for another fun Easter Egg hunt and dinner with their Szilagyi cousins. They loved playing with Henry and Jazella, and Coraline and Mason got along marginally better than they had the week prior when Katie and Mason visited us here in Wisconsin. Two-year-olds are such interesting social creatures. It's like, "hey, I like you and want to be your friend" one minute and then "I'm mad at you and am going to plow you down for no apparent reason" the next.
After the hunt the kids each found an Easter basket from Grandma and Grandpa Szilagyi, and it's a good thing because we had absolutely no Easter bunny this year. And you know what, the kids didn't even notice his absence. It was perfect. Reid couldn't wait to build his new Lego plane, Nell quickly switched her and Coraline's My Little Pony's (Nell wanted Pinky Pie and Lou loves Rainbow Dash -- so it was a great trade), and I couldn't wait to watch Moana.
We walked to Church with Bizzie and Steve shortly after the hunt. As we settled into our pew Ben leaned over and commented that the median age of our group was four. To make things worse, the mode was zero! We had three babies, and then a pair each of two, four and six year olds. They were easy enough for five of us adults to handle. Ben and Lauren took the two-year-olds home for nap after sacrament meeting. The others all stuck around for primary (or naps in their parents arms).
After Church we headed back to Bizzie and Steve's house for a yummy, yummy Easter dinner. It was so fun to spend some time with each of our families over the Easter weekend. We had originally planned to stay the night in SLC, but I was so tired of traveling and having new sleeping arrangements every other night that we decided to just head back to Delta that evening. The kids were such troopers through all our many travels in this first leg of our vacation.
(for a quick recap: Tue -- travel from Oshkosh to Delta, Wed -- from Delta to Hatch, Fri -- through Bryce Canyon and then back to Delta, Sun -- from Delta to SLC and then back to Delta, WHEW!!!)
4. Exploring the Wild, Wild West
On Monday Ben took Reid out to the dump to look for scorpions (we'd read a big scorpion book from the library earlier in the month) and Reid said "I think we're in the wild west dad!" He was pretty excited to be part of the real deal. Even as Ben tried to explain that it wasn't so much a place as a time period, Reid insisted that the outskirts of Delta were in fact, the really real Wild West.
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| Scorpion Hunting near the dump. |
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| Trilobite hunting at U-dig |
Those two big kids of mine are super in to Dinosaurs, and Nell has always really loved rocks. So the fossil dig was perfect for them. Though they are young, I hope it was a fun day with dad that they'll always remember. When they got back to town he took them to the gas station for lunch -- a slice of pizza and a soda. They were beaming from ear to ear when they arrived home.
5. BBQ and sleepover at the Bassetts
On Monday night my brother Matt invited us over for a BBQ. The weather was perfect for it and the food was delicious. It was such a wonderful evening. Reid and Isaac learned of each others love for Minecraft and quickly ran to the basement to play it on the Xbox.
The kids were not happy about having to head back to Grandmas at bedtime. Reid wanted to play Minecraft all night, and Nell certainly didn't want to leave if Reid didn't have too. Ironically though, Reid was pretty anxious about actually staying the whole night at Isaac's house for a sleepover. He didn't quite grasp that staying all night meant not sleeping in a room right next to his mom and dad. In the end Reid came home around 9:30, but Nell stayed the whole night through. She was in heaven; I'm sure. Zoey and Sofia were both such sweet cousins to her. They really helped her feel like one of the big girls, and I know she valued her play time with each them.
6. Picture Night
We made plans to have one last get together with all the Bassett's (we hadn't all been together since the reunion) on Tuesday night. Our main motive was to snap a picture of the entire family, but I think the delicious Chinese takeout and cousin play time were more exciting for most the group. The weather had been hot and sunny all day, but about a half hour before picture time we saw the storm coming. Those clouds roll in pretty heavy and pretty dark when storms brew in from the West. It was a complete down pour by the time we were all gathered at my parents place. Their basement -- with it's golden 70s carpet and limited lighting -- would have to do.
Ideal picture or not, it was a fabulous evening to top off a great day. Most the cousins had been over to play for a bit around lunchtime, so my kids were really starting to feel at home with everyone. It's pretty awesome to have so many built in friends to grow and laugh with when you're part of a big extended family.
7. Final Day for Cousin Time
They had one more day of good cousin play on Thursday. We met Kristina and her kids at the park for lunch. I seriously loved that Hudson was still calling Reid "Buddy" after a full week together. My mom tells me that since we've left he's asked her where his buddy is. I think they'll be quite the match for years to come.
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| Playing at the "old mine entrance" (it's cosmetic) in the park. |
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| Fun in Grandma's Backyard |
Bonus:
Here's two more photos of things that happened while we were in Delta.
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| Jumping on the tramp with sprinklers just moments after we arrived home form Bryce. |
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| Reid went to Lance's Barber Shop for a (much needed) haircut. |
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