Utah was fun. It was fast, but it always goes by so fast. I drove up with the kids on Wednesday morning and Shawn flew out later that week after work. It was my first time driving by myself and it actually went really good. My mom took a few days off work to be with us. It was fun hanging out with my mom- she's pretty cool :) The kids LOVED uncle Mikey, Matt, and Grandpa Dave. They indulged the boys with the motorscooters, pets, wrestling, Lego'sand all other boy stuff. Liv got her first pedicure and toenail polish from my mom so we wouldn't miss out on the girl stuff. I took advantage of free babysitters and Shawn and I even went out for Sushi on Saturday night. Ethan has been needing some new summer clothes so I took him shopping. I let him pick everything out entirely on his own. His clothes now all have a common theme: black, grey, skulls, and fire. Oh well, he is a boy!!
We enjoyed some camping out in my parents backyard, roasting marshmallows, and I got my green tree and grass fix. I guess I have been starved for green grass, but I think living in the deseret will do that to a person. We had lots of great food and ate out at Bucca De Peppi, the Mayan, and lots of BBQ's. We went to the sea aquarium in Sandy, went swimming at Aunt Marsha's, and mostly just had fun.
On the drive back we got stuck in horrible traffic just outside of St. George. I was busy complaining when I noticed an ambulance pass, and then another, and another, and it just kept going. I think we counted 5 ambulances and 12 police cars. When we got up to the scene of the accident we saw that it was an SUV that rolled over into the middle of the desert. Clothes and suitcases were scattered all over the road. I noticed out the corner of my window a body laying about 20 feet from the car. They had placed a blanket over his head and all I could see was shorts, red socks, and tennis shoes sticking out. The second I saw that I literally got sick to my stomach and I almost started to cry. For some reason seeing that really affected me (ask Shawn, I talked about it all the way home). There is something about seeing a dead body laying on the ground that I just can't get out of my head. I asked Shawn how he deals with it at the hospital. On Wednesday night he did CPR on a 3 year old boy who died. Just not sure I could handle it-guess it's something you get used to. The crazy thing was that when Shawn got into work the next morning he found out he was taking care of some of the kids in the accident. I guess the tire blew on the SUV and caused the accident. It just made me really grateful for a safe trip and healthy family.
Why is it that when you get home from vacation things almost seems to be worse for a few days? Getting unpacked and life back together took some going, but I think we are up and running now. The kids started swim lessons on Tuesday. Ethan is doing great, but surprisingly Cole is having issues. Cole is a daredevil and doesn't seem to sense harm or danger, but for some reason he is really freaking out about swimming. Yesterday I dropped Ethan off at school and drove the the local water park for Cole's preschool party. About 30 minutes after we got there I got a call from the school saying that Ethan was in the office crying with a tummy ache. So I hurried and got the kids in the car to rush off and get Ethan. While I was loading the car, the book I was reading was sitting on the stroller. The stroller got bumped and the next thing I noticed was the book flying off the stroller straight down the storm drain, and by now is probably in the ocean or something. A trip to the library and twenty-five dollars later and I was SOOOO mad. Seriously, these kind of things happen to me- Shawn just laughs!! Ethan and Cole's favorite friends are moving away this weekend. We are sad about that -I'll miss you Cass, no one else says "hey girl" when they see me quite like you :). But Cole insists this won't affect he and Emmy's plans to get married. They will just have to "write letters on pink paper because that is Em's favorite color." Cole already got his first letter form Emmy in a yellow envelope because that is his favorite color and he has carried it around for two days now. So cute!! Now that I 've rambled for a while, here are some Utah pictures.
