Saying Goodbye is Never Fun

The worst part about a trip is saying good-bye and going home.

The nice thing about the non-stop flight to Charlotte from Salt Lake City is that it doesn't leave until 5:00 pm, so that gives us a whole extra day with Grandparents that we wouldn't normally get. 

Grandpa had to work, but came home for lunch to give hugs and kisses goodbye to Lily. Marco missed out because he was sleeping.

And Grammy accompanied us to the airport to ensure that we made it safely through security. Lily was very helpful and wanted to push the stroller into everyone's shins. She was also very concerned about Grammy and wanted to make sure that she was coming. When she found out that she wasn't coming she said to me, "Mommy, let's go give Grammy another hug." Being little is so hard because she doesn't understand why we had to separate and couldn't just give her as many hugs as we wanted to.

Boarding the plane and the flight was awful. The plane was delayed about an hour, plus we were in the runway forever getting de-iced. Marco wouldn't fall asleep. Lily had to go potty four times. Snacks were spilled. Drinks were spilled. Lily's back got scratched big time by improper use of the seat belt. The iPad wasn't entertaining. Marco only slept about 25 minutes. It was just a really rough flight. The only good thing about it was that Lily sat by a boy that she flirted with the majority of the time. And this fifteen year old didn't seem to mind it much.

It got even worse when we got to the baggage claim and we found out that the conveyor belt that brought luggage to us was broken. It took an hour to fix. 

After all was said and done, we got home at 2:08 am. I slept until 10:30 - Lily slept until 11:00 and Marco until 11:30. It was heaven being able to sleep in and just have a lazy day where we were recovering from traveling. Every time I take that flight I tell myself I'm never doing it again - yet - I always end up taking it again. C'est la vie. That's life. At least we had a wonderful trip and a little hiccup with one night of rough traveling won't stop us from being adventurous and going out to Utah again!

Miscellaneous Family Time

Here are some random tidbits from our trip to Utah that I don't want to exclude.

My Dad is so cute and when we arrived, it felt like we were at a hotel. In the bathroom an assortment of toiletries were displayed for us to use and feel like we were staying at a luxurious resort. Additionally, our rooms had fresh towels laid out and beds were made and included extra blankets. Kids sleeping arrangements came complete with stuffed animals for them to snuggle. I'm telling you... this was way better than any resort!

Lily was treated like a princess while in Utah. She had many castles to explore. 

And her hair was put into a ponytail like "Tangled."

She sure acted like a princess when she told Grandpa that "he needed to be a good boy."

And Marco... this little boy slept more than a newborn. He fell asleep around 5:00 pm and woke up around 7:30 - he went back to sleep for a nap around 9:00 and slept until 11:00. At Noon he went down again for 3 hours. And then repeated the whole cycle. Take a look at that schedule. That shows him only being awake for 4-5 hours a day. It makes me wonder if he was sick, or if he had a hard time with the altitude, or what the deal was where he just slept all the time! It was nice and not so nice at the same time. It was hard to go anywhere and do anything with him sleeping so much, and he didn't get to spend any quality time with Grandparents because he was so busy sleeping.

I told Grammy that it was her job to fatten up Marco when we were out in Utah. Not to worry, he ate lots of ice cream, guacamole, and bread with butter - but he still remained as skinny as can be.

Bath time was so cool at Grammy's house.  treat both kids looked forward to. I think that they liked it so much because they could splash to their heart's content. The tub is so deep that it didn't create a mess - so splash away children, splash away!

When Marco was awake he was getting a lot of attention from everyone but Mommy. Mommy was in  Heaven!

When I was in charge of Marco, he was still up to his mischievous self!

At the first of our trip, Lily was sick and just wanted to sleep. Traveling is so hard on kids - then add getting up extremely early to catch a flight. It really took a toll on these two and poor Lily had a hard time recovering from it. After Lily got over her cold, Grammy came down with one. Everyone was sick, so it was a good think that we bunkered down and spent time at home recuperating and feeling better.

Once Lily was feeling better, she was into everything!

and like Marco, took full advantage of the fact that she had two new people willing to hold her - ALL. THE. TIME!

After Christmas gifts were opened, the kids took advantage of playing with them as much as possible. One night, when Marco was up until about 5:30 or 6:00 - we brought out the remote control cars. Its as so entertaining to whip the cars around and watch Marco try to chase them. Once he got a hold of them it was game over. Lily wanted a turn and after giving her full reign of the bumper cars - she didn't want to do anything else but drive them around. It became a new favorite past time. But when the remote control Dinosaur came out - Lily was so scared. Grandpa had to put it away and play with it later after Lily went back to North Carolina.

And these are some of my very favorite pictures. I had a hard time deciding which two to keep and display - but figured all of them are perfect. They all show how busy Lily and Marco are. How hard they are to keep contained. How their interests change so easily, and how (even though they are a lot of work how) much fun they are!

Lily and Marco loved their trip out to Utah. They had a great time. Loved spending time with each other and with their Grandparents. They loved all the activities they were able to participate in and loved all the attention and gifts they received. They are two wonderfully spoiled and lucky children.

Friend Visits

When we went to Utah this year, we wanted to keep our visits to friends to a minimum. We really wanted this trip to be about spending time with family. If others wanted to come and visit us, we were okay with that, but we didn't want to spend the majority of our time off with others.

We did go visit Great-grandparents. My children haven't been around them, so they were weary of these "new" people... but once they brought out all their Christmas singing stuffed animals, my kids apprehensions melted right away and they warmed up to their Great-Grandparents. Marco still just wanted to play with the Melekelekemaki Dog.

I did make it a point to go and visit one of my very dearest friends, who also happens to be a mission companion: Nia (Sapoi) Sidal. I had been dying to meet their miracle baby: Lusetania. Nia has not been a stranger to trials in her life. Six months before she got married her mother passed away, and four months after that her father followed his sweetheart to the other side of the veil. With no one to sit by her as her "mother" at her wedding, Nia asked me to do to the honors. This crazy girl asked me! I was so worried when she was an hour late to her own wedding, and had never even tried on her wedding dress... but the spirit was so strong that you could tell her deceased parents were in the room with her so proud of her decision. There was such a feeling of love at her sealing.
After getting married, Nia tried to start a family and had numerous unsuccessful attempts. She miscarried twins at 18 weeks. A year following the miscarriage, she had a baby girl at 27 weeks, who lived one day and died. And exactly a year following the death of her daughter, she had another baby girl whom she carried to 28 weeks and lived only 2 short days. After that Nia went through some major surgery and was able to carry a beautiful (miracle) baby full term (40 weeks). Luse has been her pride and joy and it is so fun to see her be a Mommy. She is so tender and loving towards her little girl. And spending time with these two was absolutely precious for me! I have been able to vicariously learn and grow through watching Nia experience the trials that she has. I wouldn't wish these on anyone. I am truly grateful that she has made me such an integral part of her life and always been there for me if I needed love. Nia is the definition of Christlike charity and I hope I can emulate 10% of the love she shows towards others.

The other person I was able to see (twice) was Berklee Hammond. I've been tutoring Berklee since 2011 and for 4 of the 5 years it has been via FaceTime. She had no idea I was coming out to Utah, so when we had our "FaceTime" tutoring session set up one evening, I surprised her by showing up at her home. It was a great surprise - and one that she didn't see coming.

The only problem with this surprise is that Lily, who LOVES Berklee, didn't get to see her either. We tried to connect at Temple Square when we were seeing the lights... but it just didn't work out. I was a little sad that my little girl didn't get to see her favorite Berklee. But my prayers were answered when we ran into her and her family at the South Town Mall. Once Lily saw Berklee her eyes just LIT up and she ran toward Berklee and gave her the biggest hug and biggest kiss. It was almost as good as seeing your favorite Disney princess at DisneyWorld, but I think that this reunion was so much better!

Thanks Berklee for loving my little girl and for being such a good Math student. You never cease to amaze me at how much you are learning and how quickly you grasp everything. I wish I was as smart as you are when I was your age!

We also had the Sirrine girls stop by and play with us one evening. We put their hair in braids and Lily was so enthralled that she couldn't stop touching their hair and calling them "Elsa" and "Anna". She wanted us to braid her hair just like them. Unfortunately, she doesn't have as much hair as they do, so instead she just admired their beautiful braids. And Brittany was enamored with Marco. She loved him and wished she had visited us earlier so that she could have spent more time with this little guy. He seemed pretty taken to her too!

It was a perfect trip and we were lucky to have been able to spend some time with friends, but the majority of time with family. We will always be back in Utah, and next time plan on staying longer so we can see more people that are near and dear to our hearts.

Christmas

"I used to think that being a kid on Christmas was the best thing ever, but it turns out having kids on Christmas is!"

This quote puts perfectly in words how I felt about Christmas this year. 

It was the best Christmas ever!

From watching Lily open (and help open) every single present...

To watching her dress up Buzz "YearLight" in princess dresses...

To Marco being thrilled about a toothbrush and mini M and M's...

To Lily getting excited about (what she thought were) Diapers (really tissues) in her stocking...

To Lily wanting to play with everything at the same time and being so overwhelmed she didn't know where to begin.

Best. Christmas. Ever!

We always have a tradition to read Luke 2 and say a prayer before heading down to open up gifts. This year my Dad read the scripture passage, and he choked up while reading it. I've seen my Dad cry (maybe) twice my whole life... so already I knew that this Christmas had a special spirit.

Everyone got situated and ready to open gifts... 

... and the present opening fun began!

Even when others had gifts, Lily was right there beside you to help you rip open your package.

And Marco, just wanted to shake his M and M container (it's too blurry to tell what it is)...

... or eat his toothbrush (that he stole from Grandpa).

We took a break from opening gifts and had breakfast.

But Lily was too excited to get back to playing with all her new toys!

And dressing up in her new clothes.

Now every time a package gets delivered to our home, Lily feels that it is her responsibility to open up this package and see what's inside. She gets excited even when it's a lens cap from Singapore, or Coconut Sugar on backorder. 

Thanks Grammy and Grandpa for a truly magical, memorable Christmas. I wish there was some way to repay you with how much this holiday meant to me and my family, but words cannot express the joy we had from spending this special day with you. We love you!