Last week we got to take a "working vacation" to Utah! I had been hired to shoot a wedding at the LDS Temple in Salt Lake City on Thursday, and the reception in Nampa, Idaho on Friday.
We decided to make a little family vacation of it and Matt took off Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday we headed down!!
These first few pictures are actually from before we left - Quinn's favorite past time is pulling out DVD's as fast as he can!! He's doing so great army crawling around, we're SO proud of him!!
Paiton was so tired one day that this is how I found her as I unbuckled Q from his carseat!
Quinn's bed head! He worked hard on that look all night!
I forgot to post this with the Father's Day post - I made Matt and the grandpa's key chains. This is Matt's!
Here we go! About to head out Wednesday morning to Utah!
One of the (many) things we learned on a road trip with the kids is that Quinn apparently gets very car sick! He cried for about two hours at the beginning of the trip, and then promptly threw up EVERYWHERE. I mean, really - it was man sized vomit. He was covered from head to toe and so was his carseat and it stunk so bad! We had to pull over, strip him down, give him a wet wipe bath, change his clothes, and I had to tear apart the car seat and clean the entire thing before we could continue on. Yikes!! Not good!
As we were driving Matt and I spotted this. From far away we thought it was a fire but as we got closer we realized it was a little tornado! It might not look like much in the pictures but it was pretty big and kind of scary! It was coming our direction and in fact the car we passed going the opposite direction got scared and pulled over to wait for it pass! We were in awe of it! Matt said everyone would probably be like "That's just a dust devil!" but it really wasn't! It was crazy!
As we drove past it, it was kind of nerve wracking!
Finally in the hotel!!
Of course the first thing the kids wanted to do was swim!!
Wednesday was spent swimming after we got there. Papa was in SLC for work too so we met up with him for lunch. There were a couple Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives restaurants we wanted to try so that night we went to Lone Star Taquiera - Mexican food, it was ok, nothing too great. Then we went back to the hotel and swam some more!
Taking a rest
Sweet loves
Paiton, of course, insisted on having her picture taken with this statue outside of our hotel
Good morning babies!
Breakfast in bed
Thursday morning we got up and headed to City Creek Mall. It's this awesome outdoor mall. It has lots of water features, cool stores (think H&M, Tiffany's, a 2 story Forever 21, etc!) and walked around. Then we HAD to head to In N Out for lunch!!
After lunch we had to HUSTLE back to the Temple so I could shoot the wedding. I have to brag here for a minute - Matt gets Dad of the Year award for this one. It was HOT - the sign I saw said 97 degrees. I was sweating to death shooting this wedding, and poor Matt and the kids just had to walk around and wait for me to get done. He got them snacks and drinks, played in the shade, walked through the mall, etc. I'm SO thankful I had him there to do that with the kids. I had SEVERAL people comment to me how amazing he is with them and how awesome it was he could do that and keep them that happy for that long in the heat! He is awesome and the kids sure do love their Dad. I know it wasn't easy, but he said he had fun with them, and they were happy for all that time, so he must be some sort of magician!! Thanks Matt, you flippin rock!!!
Here's one pic from the wedding:
After that we headed to the Hogle Zoo!
I wish it would have been a LOT cooler - the zoo was really awesome and so fun, but kind of miserable - we were all so sweaty and hot!
Paiton was so happy to see elephants, since our stupid zoo doesn't even have any!
Luckily they had misters set up all over the zoo to cool off. Quinn loved them so much! I think he would have been happy just standing in front of one for hours! They blew really cold water at you and Quinn kept getting so wet because we had to stop at every one and hold him up!
Getting misted!
Of course Paiton wanted to ride the Merry Go Around - for the first time ever she was brave enough to ride an animal that goes up and down, instead of sitting on the stationary bench!! ;) She chose the dolphin and I stood beside her - so fun!
After the zoo we went to another D,D,&D restaurant - Ruth's Diner. We met Papa there and there was live music. It was fun!
After dinner Papa brought his bathing suit and came swimming with the kids - which P was SO happy about!
Quinn is a fish. He has zero fear of water. He'll dunk his head right in and come up gasping for air!! He just splashes like crazy and doesn't ever want to stop or take a break!
He kept doing this to make me laugh! Silly boy!
I do have to brag on my most amazing children for a minute. The first night Paiton got homesick and was kind of a wreck going to sleep - poor girl takes after her mama and prefers to be at home! I was SUPER nervous about how Quinn would sleep away from home. We set up his pack n play, his sound machine, and the video monitor, just like at home. Turned on the sound, turned off all the lights, and put him to bed while we quietly watched TV. He did FANTASTIC!! Both nights he went right to sleep without so much as a whimper and slept past 8 both mornings - a first for him in his little life!! Also Matt and I were discussing how we can't even count the number of times that people went completely out of their way to come up to us and tell us how beautiful our kids are!! Our trip was pure, nonstop, go go go, madness. Neither kid got a nap any of those three days, but were still SO good. They are so well behaved (insert pat on Matt's and my back here ;)) and such troopers! It was way too much fun to be packed into that little time, but we did it and can't wait for our next adventure!!
Friday morning we got up and headed home. Friday was also Matt's 28th birthday! Happy birthday to the most rockin' husband and dad ever! We love you to bits and pieces babe!! Unfortunately he spent his bday in the car with us for 6 hours, then I had to leave for 5+ hours to shoot a reception. :/ Paiton kept telling him over and over on the drive home "Happy Birthday birthday boy!" It was so sweet!
The kids and Matt hung out at his parents house while I shot and had a little birthday fun! :)
More to come on this, but this is kind of a fun picture to share. Saturday was our five year wedding anniversary and I took this picture. About 8+ years ago Matt gave me the "ring" on the left - made out of a twist tie - and promised to marry me one day. 8 years ago on our one year dating anniversary he gave me the next ring - my promise ring. 7 years ago on December 17, 2005 he gave me my ridiculously gorgeous engagement ring, and then after Paiton was born he gave me my family ring, on the far right.
Awww. :) More to come on anniversary V!!! :)
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