Road trip recap

Quinn and Eden had a baby, yay! Isaac Lewis Braden was born the last week of April, and naturally this necessitated a road trip to adore and admire him and verify in person how much darling auburn hair he came out with.

So Jack and I packed up the minivan and picked up a couple passengers on the way to Provo - Eden's cute sister Summer and Grandma Pam.

We broke the trip up a bit by stopping in Kaysville Thursday night. I was SO excited to be reunited with Heidi after ten and a half months... so excited that we failed to take any pictures of ourselves. Well, that's not true; we took a couple pictures but deleted them immediately. Turns out we aren't our most photogenic at 2am. I did, however, get pictures of baby Jack cuddling with Will and Nate and enjoying his night in Chase's crib. We figured out that all three of my boys' first road trips have been to Kays - Clyde at one month for General Conference, Will at three months for Courtney's wedding and now Jack at four months!

The next morning we hit the road again and after a slight detour via Springville (the University Parkway exit is very poorly marked in the midst of construction) it was time to meet Isaac!

Grandma Pam with her sixth grandchild!

Aunt Summer holding baby Isaac while Eden and Grandma Pam A look on adoringly :).

My first nephew on my side of the family!  Isaac is SUCH a doll - isn't that hair incredible??

It was sooo neat to see Quinner as a dad.

Of course it's always reassuring to be reminded that Quinn is still my goofy baby brother :).

  Isaac is such a lucky boy to have Quinn and Eden as parents!! I seriously can't say enough about how perfect Eden is as a new mom; she is so tender and darling with him. And she was so sweet to let all of us converge on their apartment so soon after Isaac's birth - thanks again babe!

Sweet Isaac was a tad jaundiced so the doctor's office sent him home with his own little tanning bed and strict instructions to stay in it all the time.

Except for eating, of course. And luckily his diet was comprised of a mixture of nursing and formula to help lower his bilirubin levels, so there were lots of opportunities for aunts and grandmas to feed and snuggle him!  (Except for me. I get so nervous giving babies bottles, which I realize doesn't really make sense. Quinn laughed at me pretty good about it!)

While we were in the area, Mom and I both stopped in to visit friends.

Sandra and Pam, still in touch after being roommates in BYU back in the day!

Jack and I slipped away to go visit another sweet baby boy: Krew Littlewood!

Lynndi and McKay welcomed this sweet boy the same day that Isaac was born!

It was so wonderful to see Lynndi and catch up and see McKenzie and Paislee again. They loved holding baby Jack - who suddenly looks not at all like a baby next to these newborns!! 

And then it was back to Isaac: 

Grandma Pam with her two newest grandsons. Pretty sure these two will be best friends in a couple years!

Speaking of best friends, Cameron came to town to meet baby Isaac as well. Isn't this the most heartwarming picture of the former missionary companions holding the bottle together?

Random shot of Jack and me after church on Sunday.  Jack was such a good traveler this trip (minus his meltdown the first night at dinner). I love him.

Jack got lots of snuggling time in as well, with his honorary uncle and aunt as well as his real ones!

All too soon, Sunday afternoon rolled around and it was time to say goodbye to the Provo Bradens.  Thanks so much for letting us come and stay with you and meet Isaac!!

Our road trip visits were not quite over, though. We stopped in Salt Lake to visit Sam and Terri and eat a delicious dinner.

Grandma Pam with her two granddaughters. Bailey opened her birthday presents from Gma Pam a couple of days early - play dishes and some flower barrettes. In the interest of full disclosure, I will admit that I stuck one of the flowers in Jack's hair to see if he would be a cute girl. . . and let's just say it's probably a good thing Chuck and I don't have daughters :).

Hazel and Jack were slightly more interactive than at their first meeting a couple of months ago; they've progressed to staring intently at one another. Bailey crawled down with them at one point and seemed to serve as some sort of moderator.

It was so much fun to see my brothers that I couldn't be too bummed out that we weren't all together at once, so this mashup of pictures will have to count. And Sam was actually talking to Cody on the phone, so all three brothers are technically represented :).

And then it was time for the loooong, late night drive home. The first three hours weren't bad since Mum was with me, but it got a little tricky after I dropped her off in Kimberly, especially since I didn't have a phone then.  So I relied on the flash from self-portraits to keep me awake... j/k, it was actually thanks to Dr. Pepper. I haven't had caffeine in... gosh, probably four years, so about 16 ounces of that and I was wiiide awake when Jack and I pulled into Nampa at around 1:30am.

It was such a great trip, but I am very happy to be home with all of my boys again.  Serious props to my incredible husband who took a day off work and then spent the whole weekend taking total care of Clyde and Will. He did laundry and meal preparation and coached soccer and cleaned off my dresser and nightstand (without throwing anything vital away!!) and mowed the lawn.  And there was plenty of video game playing too, of course.

So I'll forgive him for only taking three pictures the whole time - luckily they were cute shots of the boys enjoying our new swingset (thanks to a sweet couple in our ward whose grandchildren had outgrown it!). Seriously, though, I'm really grateful for how supportive Chuck is when I get a chance to dash away for a bit. Which is good, because I miss everyone in Utah already!!