Pre Christmas Trip to Utah

One of my Christmas gifts was a quicky trip to Utah two weekends before Christmas. It was so fast. I had jet lag the entire time I was there. I took completely random pictures. 

Here's look at my three day trip. 

My wonderful parents, who I never managed to get a picture with or together for that matter. My mom is so smitten with Brynn. It is so cute. 

Brynn was so wonderful the entire time. Even though she was teething, she did really good getting to know all of her grandparents and cousins again. 

This is Kate "dressed up" in ribbons to surprise her cousin, Ellie. It was Ellie's birthday and Kate was her birthday present. Kate was not very happy about me sticking bows on top of her head

Here's a picture of the girls with my brother, Ryan. He's always been able to sit in the background and watch the rest of us do all the parenting. He finally joined the ranks. 

It was fun to see my sister in law, Allison, pregnant. She delivered her baby the day I left. She doesn't even look pregnant in this picture. I'm so excited for them. Congratulations!!!

 These girls got spoiled by Grammy. I came out with one suit case and left with two, bulging at the seams. Don't they looked so cute for church?

I also lucked out and got to see my sweet Grandma Fletcher! 

This is my cute sister, Emily. She watched my girls while I went out to dinner and pulled off an amazing birthday party that weekend too. 

I got to go out to dinner with my friends from Draper the very night I got in town. I was so tired after that long flight. I feel like I missed out on half of what was going on.  These girls are near and dear to my heart. We've trained from triathlons together, been to San Fran, watched each others kids, sat through hours of piano lessons, had many a fun girls nights, and laughed ourselves silly. It was so fun to reconnect with them. 

 I also go to meet up with my high school/college darlings! (Yes, people, that is Cafe Rio and, yes, I ate there twice) We sure missed Becky and Amy.  I love that we have been friends for so long and have so much history together. No matter how long it has been since we've seen each other, we slip right back into things. Love you girl!!! 

 Adam's family got together everyone together on Saturday night for dinner and hanging out. 

It was so fun to see everyone. Sophia is SO big. 

Poor River was stuck with a bunch of girls that night. He sure missed the boys. 

Don't let Sean's look fool you, he's a teddy bear! 

Madison is a little mommy. I am always amazed at how fast time is going by. 

She's so grown up already. 

We got spoiled and got to see Grandma Jones and Danielle twice. And I am bummed that I didn't get any pictures of them or with Dawn when they came over to visit. I was not a good picture taker. 

This is Adam's brother, Matt.  He is such a great uncle. Adam is excited because they are going to meet up for a boys trip in a couple of weekends and then we get to see Matt again at the end of February, when he passes through Boston on a business trip.  We went from living 2 1/2 miles from each other to much more than that. It's been one of the hardest things about this move for both of them. 

And I have to show off a picture of my mom's "new" kitchen. Since she's married to an architect/builder/someone-who-can-never-sit-still-for-two-minutes, she gets a new and improved house on a regular basis. This is the newest project. I love it. It turned out amazing!!

It seems like this post took longer to write than the entire trip lasted. It was so much fun to get to go home. My most favorite part was just hanging out with my mom. I miss her so much! I am so lucky to have been blessed to have her in my life and I am so grateful for everything she does for me and my family. 

Thanks for a great trip, Mom. I love you so much!!