Utah Girls Weekend

So this past weekend, Maile and I decided to have a little adventure and go and visit my brother and his family in Utah. Mikael was going camping with his friend Christopher in the mountains, so I was taking two days off so he could go. I didn't want to just stay home and take vacation so I decided to take a road trip. Jamie lives in Ogden Utah, which is about 8 hrs away. I was a little scared, since it was just going to be me and Maile in a car for 8 hrs and one of us has the energy of a jack rabbit, and the attention span of a gnat. But I was going to go for it anyway we hadn't seen my brother since Maile was a week old, and the kids and Sonja (his wife) hadn't seen her at all. We left early Thursday morning, and arrived in Utah around 4. Surprisingly it went very well. Maile did awesome, I had packed two bags of toys, and put just one of them right next to her carseat so she could reach into it. She would pull things out, play with them, then repeat. It kept her busy until our first stop and then we switched the bags out. It worked like a charm. She was very well behaved the entire drive, and only had a little melt down, about two hrs away from Ogden.. totally exceptable.. I kind of had a melt down too. HA HA HA. Once we got there I could not slow this child down for nothing, she and her cousins had such a blast the whole time. Here are some pictures of what we did. Thursday night we just hung out, chatted and let the kids get acquainted.

Friday it was nice and sunny so we took the kids to the neighborhood spray park. Maile didn't get wet until the very last 10 min we were there. But I still think she had fun either way.


Then we returned home, and set up the kiddie pool.. this was way more Maile's style and they played in the pool for almost two hrs.. I think Maile would have went longer, but she was getting cranky. Oh I forgot to introduce the cousins. Faith is 7 and Stephen is 5.. they were awesome with Maile, Faith is such a nurturer, she loved to help out with anything. Stephen is a goof ball, and such the camera ham! But he was so sweet the entire time, always curious what we were up to. Zach is the oldest, but he didn't go in the pool with the kids..I have a picture of him later, he's 16. nuff said. HA HA HA


That evening, I watched the kids while Jamie and Sonja went out for their anniversary, it's been 17 years since they got hitched, and about that long since they've had a date night. HA HA. Anyway I painted the kids faces, and we had a photo shoot. However, all Maile wanted to do is play in the pool.. she didn't care there wasn't any water.

The other two were very into the photo shoot though, we painted Stephen up as a vampire, as you can see he was very into it.

Then Faith wanted to be a kitty, and she was so cute as the kitty, I have some more that I'll post on shutterfly for you all to see.

The next day was dreary and rainy, but we didn't let that spoil the fun, we took a little trip to this fantastic duck park and had a rainy day picnic, and fed the ducks/swans/geese/seagulls. Luckily the table was covered so we didn't have to eat soggy sandwiches, but unfortunately everything else wasn't covered so it was crazy muddy.. oh well, it washes.

Maile was a little afraid of the ducks at first, because after probably years of being feed by humans, they aren't that afraid of you, and come right on up and take it from your hands. So Jamie was holding on to Maile.. but... she wasn't so sure about Jamie either. HA HA HA

Here she finally got up the nerve, after watching the others do it, and she threw a piece of bread. She looked up at me and yelled " I DID IT!!" then she wanted to do it more and more and more. One even took it from her hand.

Here's a picture of all the kids, by the pond, Zach's the tall one, if you didn't guess that already.

Then we got home, the kids threw Maile a b-day party, and got her a little dolly, which she loved and a cake, which she loved even more. In celebration we painted our faces one again, but my camera was running out of juice and I don't have any cool pictures of those. Maile was a bunny though, and she was hopping all over the house. SO CUTE!!

So then we left the next morning, bright and early, and the ride home went just as easy as the way back.. I have to admit though I was pretty tired of driving when I got home.

Mikael was back when we arrived home, and we went out to dinner, in honor of father's day, and gave him a couple little gifts, since he is a pretty rockin daddy. Maile and I made him a book of him and Maile pictures from birth until now. He loved it.

It was good to be home, and spend some time catching up with each other.

So here are a couple more pictures of the kids.. Grandma Day requested some nice pictures so she could hang them on her wall, so I did my best.. they turned out pretty cute actually.