we went to utah: part 1

So, the beginning of October, I was really missing my family, missing Utah, and feeling like, with the price of plane tickets rising all the time, that I might not get to Utah any time soon.  On the 8th of October, it hit me that in less than three weeks, Krew would turn 2 and from that point on, we would have to buy 4 or 5 plane tickets (depending on whether or not we invited Bart), or drive 25 hours with three kids in the car if I ever wanted to visit Utah and my family again.  So, on a whim I decided to look online at plane tickets to see if, by some miracle, there were any reasonably priced tickets to go out there and come back before Krew's birthday.  And. There. Were.  So, in what may have been the most spontaneous large purchase I've ever made, I booked our flights for 10 days later, made necessary arrangements, packed and on the 18th, the kids and I flew to Utah!  (Unfortunately, because of the time crunch, there was no way Bart could get time off work, so he had to stay at home. Bummer.)

 The boys were all great on the long drive to the airport and on both flights.  It could have been crazy traveling with three kids by myself, but it really wasn't bad at all!

 As soon as we got to my parents' house, the kids took advantage of the warmer weather and played in the backyard, throwing dirt...

 playing catch...

 riding with grandma on her "tractor..."

 playing with grandma's large collection of homemade puppets...

and climbing on the rocks.  We were all so excited to be there, and it was awesome to see my parents again, and to watch them and my kids interact together.  It felt so good to be there, what could possibly go wrong...