We took a road trip to Utah!

Fear not, Jack was not actually behind the wheel while the car was in motion... although he might be old enough to drive in the time that it takes you to read this [really really] long post!

When I realized that we had a week in August between swimming lessons ending and school starting, I immediately starting planning an epic road trip to Utah - and I'm SO glad I did. We were able to visit with good friends and good family and it eased my anxiety about being able to travel (for multiple days) fairly complication-free as a family of five.

We left on a Saturday morning and stopped for a few hours to visit the Littlewoods. I was just there in May, but the kids hadn't seen each other since last August, but they all picked up pretty quickly where they had left off. I totally failed to get a picture of the babies - next time! After I got home I started comparing these pictures of Clyde/McKenzie and Will/Paislee to some we took before they moved two years ago - holy smokes they've all grown up so much!! It was fun to sit and catch up with Lynndi and McKay and watch the kids play - thanks again for letting us swing by!

After that we piled back into the minivan and headed to our next destination: Queden's!!

Quinn and Eden and Isaac sweetly opened up their place to us to stay for two nights and we had such a great time with them.  First order of business was to adore Isaac - such a cute little redhead!

Our next order of business was to keep the babies occupied each night (my big boys were already in bed) so the grown-ups could play games!

On Sunday we made the block and a half trek over to Queden's church and really enjoyed it. Clyde and Will marched into primary without a glance back which was such a relief. Aaand of course I insisted on quick family pictures on the way home :).

This series of pictures shows me trying to take a nice picture with my baby brother; turns out all I had to do to get a smile was punch him!

Our last morning there, Eden and I got all ambitious and went for a run together. I seriously LOVED getting some girl time with her (thanks Chuck for staying home with all four little boys!) and I have high hopes of luring them to settle in Nampa someday... right next door so we can be running buddies all the time!

After having such a great time with one of my brothers, it was time to move onto the next one!  We packed up and headed to Sam and Terri's house in Salt Lake to have some fun, starting with a trip to Hogle Zoo:

I don't why it makes me laugh so hard that all three boys have their eyes closed in this picture, but it does...

Cute little monkeys!!

 

As per our usual zoo enjoyment, we checked out animals both live and statuesque :). Clyde was particularly psyched about the elephants, whereas Will was more taken with the giraffes.

 

We were all totally impressed with the polar bear - his showmanship rivaled that of Alex the Lion in the Madagascar movies. Over and over this sweet guy would swim right up to the window to the delight of all the kids, backglide back to his rock, then dive under the water and swim back up to the window! Sam and Terri said he's like this all the time, so fun to watch!

 

We definitely picked a nice hotttt August afternoon to be outside, so we opted to avail ourselves of the water mists found throughout the zoo; Sam was very accommodating in that effort.

It was so cute watching Clyde and Will and Bailey interact while we were there visiting :).

 

Ahh, this would be at the happy point where NONE of the wee ones cared to be strapped in, leaving us carrying babies and pushing empty strollers, grrrr :).

Quick photo op at the big elephant statue/weird music player/water sprayer deal.

 

And a quick shot of the five Izatts!  After the zoo, we headed back to Sam and Terri's for some delicious dinner and a couple rounds of Monopoly Deal, which Sam managed to win even though he was holding Hazel and on the phone with my mom (it was her birthday, yay!) a majority of the time. Show-off.

The next morning we made the short drive up to visit the Smiths for a few hours, yaaay! 

I was soooo happy to be reunited with my BFSCs Heidi and Courtney; the three of us hadn't been together since April 2011. Court's been in Dominica for her husband's medical school and even though we've stayed really close with skype dates and a few hundred emails it still doesn't compare to seeing each other in person!

 

Chase was just a baby the last time we saw him and now he's a darling 19-month-old! He joined right in playing with the big boys, sooo cute :).

Pretty sure heaven is lounging in the Smiths' pool and then hopping out for a yummy lunch with 'Heidi cookies' for dessert.

The boys didn't stay out of the pool for long, though - Chuck sweetly spent another hour or so out there letting them jump off the diving board over and over and over again!

Clyde's specialty was a spin move.

Will opted for less technique and more wild abandon :).  

It was so fun to visit with everyone; Chuck and the little boys hadn't seen Nate since before his mission, we got to see Reed briefly and give him our best wishes in his new calling as a bishop, and I especially always love catching up with Gloria. And as a bonus we got to see Big Will AND meet his seriously sweet girlfriend Katie.

So I didn't want to freak Katie out by subjecting her to my need to over-document everything, so instead of taking a picture of them that afternoon I opted to steal this picture from Will's facebook. Muuuuch less creepy, right? Anyways, she's soo pretty and sweet and brilliant (just got her Master's degree, no big deal) and interesting and easy to talk to and we all loved her.

Then it was time to head back to Sam and Terri's for another delicious dinner and cake (Robby's girlfriend was sweet enough to have a birthday while we were there!) and more late night Monopoly Deal.

We had such a great time visiting with Sam and Terri and watching the little cousins play together! We probably won't cross paths again now until Christmas so I was extra glad we got this bonding time in :).

We took off for home the next morning, luckily those sweet Braden girls provided some kisses for the long trip home:

Bailey and Jack

Jack and Hazel... right before they switched to pulling hair and had to be separated, haha.

On our way north we stopped in Ogden for lunch at the Smiths' pizza/pasta/sandwich/delicious restaurant, Fat Boy's.

Clyde and Will got sticky hands with their kids' meals which proceeded to entertain them most of the drive home, hooray! 

It was sooo nice to come home after five days away, but our trip really couldn't have been more wonderful - such a great way to wrap up the summer!  Love and miss you all!!

P.S. HAPPY 30th birthday to Sam today! As a present, you don't have to read this whole blog :).