Whirlwind trip to Utah

Our cute nephew James was blessed in church the first Sunday in December, so we road tripped down to Utah to be there with Chuck's extended family for the fun occasion! Chuck had a Scout campout that Friday night, so we didn't hit the road until late Saturday afternoon - and came back Sunday evening. Definitely a quick trip, but so worth it!

Jack took an early evening nap in the van and then opted to get the most out of our hotel experience by staying awake as late as possible. The old people playing cards in the common area downstairs loved us. I mean, not outwardly as we awkwardly circled their table multiple times in an effort to count all of the Christmas trees in the lobby... but inwardly I think they thought we were GREAT.

We made it riiight on time the next morning for church and it was a lovely baby blessing and a lovely testimony meeting, after which we sent the kids off to primary with their cousins (Lily and Bri and Will all sitting next to each other in class may have been the cutest thing ever) and I got to attend Melissa's excellent Relief Society lesson.

The cute baby of the hour with Grandpa!

The afternoon was very pleasantly spent eating and visiting and crafting (Chuck's mom always has cute projects for the grandkids to work on - this time it was foam Christmas ornaments) and snuggling and doing the name draw for the cousin gift exchange. Carma got baby James and expressed her excitement by gumming the slip of paper :).

Courtney confiscated my phone whilst I was busy Nutella-ing a crepe for myself:

Incidentally, Steve and Amanda served crepes after Anna's baby blessing too. This, combined with the fact that Anna and James are both absolutely darling, makes me want Steve and Amanda to have like twelve children. What? I love crepes and cute nieces and nephews!!

We marked the occasion of having the entire extended family together with a group picture:

I may be getting sappy in my old age (jk I've always been sappy), but I just have to say how much I love Chuck's side of the family. Good, good people. 

OH, and Melissa sweetly asked if she could take some solo shots of the kids for a Christmas project and I reluctantly agreed. And by reluctantly, I mean jumped for joy. Who else could get my boys to smile so perfectly??

And of course I promptly used these picture for our holiday cards and my blog sidebar and anything else I can think of. Thanks Melissa!!

We lingered a bit longer, walked the awesome block and a half over to Blues' so that Chuck could see their house, and...

took a couple more selfies (#duh).

And then we packed up for the five hour drive home which interestingly felt like FIVE DAYS because Carma was suuuper grumpy. I kid you not, I spent at least an hour crouched next to her carseat softly singing Christmas songs to her - every time I stopped or, you know, tried to sit so I could wear a seatbelt, she screamed.

At this point she conceded to let me sit safely, albeit in the middle seat of the back row (aka super comfy!) and if I stretched out so my feet were at her disposal to play with.

But we eventually made it home safe and sound and the time with cousins/aunts/uncles/grandparents was def worth it :). Until next time, Utah!