Last Minute Trip to Utah

 I went to Utah the weekend before Halloween.  I had to convince myself that it was no big deal to pack up 4 kids and drive 9 hours by myself and the convincing worked!  All my little pep talks to not stress made it a very good trip.  Brent was Hunting Antelope and the kids had 2 days off of school.  And my brother Brett was going to be in Utah.  He lives in Alaska and is going to Afghanistan in a few weeks.  This was my last chance to see him before his deployment.  This was the real reason for the trip!

I think going last minute is a great way for me to do it because then I don't have time to stress over packing or planning every detail.  I didn't have enough time to be with Brett and would have loved to have more time for him and everyone else on my list.  There were so many people I would have liked to see but didn't get too.  You were in my heart. 

We spent each night at a different house and it was a ton of driving, as always, between Brigham City, Salt Lake City and Eden.

We carved pumpkins with Nana and Papa!

We got to hold little Lainee Jane!  This was another big reason I was dying to go to Utah.  I wanted to meet this little princess!

We slept at Grandma Corinne's and the girls played gymnastics with their cousins for almost 2 hours.  It was fun for my girls to see that the other girls love gymnastics just as much!

Katie and I shopped a bit while the girls had fun with Grandma Corinne!

I got to see Sage play Soccer.

Sage and Zach shared their obsession with para cord bracelets.

We got to play with  and feed Grandpa's horse, Belle, and Sienna was the first person to EVER sit on her!  Ayla got a turn as well.  

We hung out with Brett and his kids at Dad's house and ate very yummy pizza and salad courtesy of Dad and Jeannie.  I wish I would have pulled out the camera for this.  I'm really sad I didn't think to get some pictures of Brett(he loves pictures, NOT).  My girls had fun bonding with him.

We hung out with Jen, Grandma Corinne and Zach and Sami.

We had "The world's Best Chili"  courtesy of Nate! And then we went trick or treating in the most beautiful neighborhood.  It felt like we were in a movie.  Perfect weather, leaves crunching beneath our feet and kids laughing as they ran from house to house. Elsie kept saying, "Mom, I'm trick or treating!"  As if she didn't believe it herself and she would hop a few steps.  It was a moment to be cherished.

Thanks to all of my hosts for a great trip.