However, the flight out there went very smoothly, the kids did really well and I was pleasantly surprised!
We colored....
Watched movies.....
And, Slept!
They were troopers. I was proud of them. The trip home was a little bit of a different story, but I'll get there.
We flew into Salt Lake City and stayed there for a few days before driving to Wyoming.
We went to the Salt Lake City Childrens Museum, which they loved and the next day we went to Lagoon (an amusement park) which had an entire section just for little ones.
The first night Andrews parents took the kids and we were able to have a date night and went out to dinner. The next morning I woke up to a surprise massage appointment!!
When I was done with my massage I met them out at the pool and they were having mickey mouse pancakes for breakfast.
These are just a few pictures of the Grand America hotel, I thought the courtyard was so pretty...
A few pictures from Lagoon...
Drew and daddy having a conversation at breakfast.
Then we drove to Wyoming
Drew would not allow pictures to be taken that morning.
This was taken on our way out to the ranch. Andrews grandparents have a ranch out on the river - and the kids really had a blast with the horses and tractors and everything this year. The last few years they were a little too young for that stuff. But this year they really got into it.
Emma talking to Grandma's decoration ducks in the yard.
Drew taking a ride on the tractor with Grandpa
They helped grandpa feed the horses
Emma absolutely loved feeding the horses. She just continued to shove hay at them (probably a little too much (Sorry Kaycee!) but she was having so much fun.)
One of the nights we were out at the ranch the whole family came out to visit and eat and it was so nice getting to see everyone. Aside from those that don't live in the area anymore, and we missed you guys! We see Andrews parents quite a bit but we really only get to see all of the grandparents, aunts/uncles, cousins once a year.
The following night we saw the other side of his family and his Yiayia made a huge greek dinner - she was busy cooking all day.
Both of his grandmas really are amazing women for their age. Extremely active and love spending time with and playing with the kids.
Also while we were there, we had family pictures taken. We did it for a birthday present for Andrews mom. The photographer was so good with the kids, and I think she probably got some really great shots of them. I didn't know of any photographers in the area so she was recommended to us by family. She gave us a few 'sneak peak' pictures to preview while she is sorting through and editing the rest.
That experience could have been horrible, considering when Emma figured out we were there to take pictures she put both hands over her face and would not remove them. So I must say, she definitely had a way of working really well with the kids. I was impressed! I'm excited to see the rest of what she has!
The trip home did not go as smoothly as the trip out. Unfortunately. And I don't blame the kids, because it was a rough day. It started with a 2 hour drive to the airport - which was fine, they slept for some of it... We got to the airport and through security and had a little over an hour to wait. (we thought, but it wound up being delayed) They were cranky and wanted to run around the gate area, and I was exhausted and cranky myself, which didn't help with my coping skills. We were lined up to board and they announced that Chicago put a 45 minute delay on any incoming flights because they were backed up from storms earlier in the day and wouldn't have gates open. That did not really go over too well with the kids. We finally boarded and neither of them wanted to sit and/or have their seatbelt on and they were very vocal about it. Emma's ears were bad taking off and landing and she was literally screaming and kicking. We tried everything.... and I just wanted to cry. We landed, and there wasn't a gate available, so we sat on the tarmac forever - the plane was off, so no air - it was unbearably hot and uncomfortable, half of the plane was upset that they were missing connections, Emma and Drew wanted to get off the plane that moment and refused to stay in their seats, I was seriously considering going down the damn emergency slide had it been one minute longer. We finally get off the plane (of course at the furthest gate away) and get down to baggage, only to have to wait probably about an hour for the bags to come down. At that point it was really late at night, the kids were exhausted, we were exhausted, they were going crazy, it was a nightmare. Eventually the luggage came and then we had to take a shuttle to the car. There are 3 parking lots - Yellow, blue and red. The blue bus came, the red bus came, the blue bus came again, the red bus came again, and on and on. No yellow. Of course we were parked in yellow. We had 100 lbs of luggage, 2 cranky toddlers, and carry ons that were way to heavy. A shuttle came by and called me over and said he had picked people up and brought them to the marriot and back 3 times and saw us standing there each time, so he offered to take us over to our parking lot. Thank god. I'm convinced the yellow shuttle bus driver was off somewhere taking a nap. Which is really what I wanted to be doing at that point. Once we were in our car, we had atleast an hour drive home from the airport if not more. So, the trip home was not as smooth as the trip going out.
But aside from that, we had a great trip, it was really nice to see everyone and visit, and the kids had a blast.
I did not go into the office today, I really didn't think it would even be physically possible to haul my butt in there this morning, so I'm home, filtering through a weeks worth of emails, trying to get myself together, and organize my life.
Andrew actually had to work for a few hours last night when we got home, and go in for an early morning meeting today. He's a trooper.
One more thing - that always amazes me about Wyoming - drive through bars! You can literally drive up to the window, order a drink and they just hand it out to you.
We actually had to pick something up for Andrews yiayia on our way over there.
These pictures were just from my phone, but Andrew got some really great shots with our good camera, so I'll probably do another post with a few pictures once we get them uploaded.
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