Fall Break

I spent the first week of Daxton's fall break trying to get all 3 kids to take a nap at the same time in the afternoon. It worked for 3 of the 5 days, so with 3 well rested children, life was calm and easy. Then.... we went to Utah.
I talked Brandon into driving up with me by telling him we could get tickets to go to Conference together. Apparently, that was worth the 12 hour drive with 2 screaming children... and Tabitha. So, we left on Friday and had a rather pleasant drive. We listened to the "fun church songs" that the boys love. They're from the group InsideOut. We also listened to the Wicked recording, and attempted to start a book on tape that just didn't seem worth getting into. I always love going on road trips with Brandon because it's so much QUALITY time together. We did our first road trip together about 3 weeks after our first date. He drove up to Utah with me to meet my parents.
Anyway, I digress.
So we arrived at my sister's house to a flurry of activity. She and Steve, her husband, worked really hard to finish their basement before we came, so the boys would have their own space. The flurry was Steve and my brother Chris trying to get the new plasma screen on the wall. The basement looked great (the BEST part being Jessie's new sewing room-- green with envy). There was chinese food, and family and then we crashed.
But I awoke to what I thought would be the most beautiful weather of the trip. A beautiful gray sky and the perfect amount of drizzling rain greeted me that morning.

We watched conference in relative peace, since we didn't make the boys watch. They were busy poking at snails in Jessie's backyard.

They weren't crazy about the smell when she started making her chili though. Apparently some oil got burned. Hmmm. Good thing we had the fresh rain to air out the house. The chili was SO good though, and I'm going to post the recipe as soon as I get it from Jessie.


My brother Cole came over to enjoy the chili with us and he brought magnets with him. He showed the boys how he could move one magnet above the table with the other one underneath the table. They loved it! Daxton has always been fascinated with magnets.

The next morning I was awakened by the smell of something burning, rather than the smell of Brandon's famous biscuits and gravy. I went down to check it out and discovered that the biscuits had spent a little too long in the oven. But, they were just as yummy once we cut the bottoms off.
Brandon and I got to attend the afternoon session of Conference on Sunday. His brother Dayton, who's living in Lehi with their sister right now, joined us. It was so fun to go and be amongst so many members and so many powerful priesthood holders. I didn't take any pictures inside because we weren't SUPPOSED TO! Lots of people don't listen.
This is Brandon and I after the session:

That's the last picture of me before I did a little chop-chop to my hair. Too bad it's not a better picture. Ick.

Sunday night was a very special treat. Chris (brother) and Andrea (SIL) invited us over (in a very french accent) for a dinner of French Onion Soup, Chicken Cordon Bleu, Rice-A-Roni, and FONDUE! It was all so good. I've never seen so many dippers for chocolate. We had rice krispie treats to dip, and probably 15 other things. As you can see, it was thoroughly enjoyed.



On Monday we went up to Brandon's sister Tyfani's house and got to meet our new nephew, Roman. He is so precious, as all Rohner babies are, and I loved cuddling with him until he got grumpy and I got to give him back to his mom. Lame me didn't get any pictures of the sweet boy. Tyfani went and picked up her oldest from school and we all went to the drive thru and then to a super fun park in American Fork. Here's some pictures:






Grady dressed in this outfit in the morning (it's one of Daxton's hand-me-downs) and he says to me, "Mom, do I look like a rock star?" I chuckled, of course, while thinking to myself, "more like a gangsta." But, instead I said, "Absolutely."


Brandon flew home on Monday night. On Tuesday I drove up to my good friend Missy's house so she could do the chop-chop on my hair. I love that we just get to talkin' and it doesn't seem like 3 hours went by. She announced that she's expecting twins and I'm so excited for her.

On Tuesday the kids and I met my friend Heather (from good old HHS) at Gardner Village. My 3 kids and her 3 kids got to meet all the witches and enjoy the crisp autumn air. It was beautiful.






On Wednesday my brother Chris replaced my rotors and brakes on my van. For the past six months my van has been doing this annoying chirping sound when I brake. Brake Masters wanted $350 to replace my rotors and brakes. Chris did it for $120 in parts, and free labor. Well, I got to watch his 2 year old while he did it, but that wasn't too bad : ). Unfortunately, the chirping didn't go away, so he's thinkin' on it, and we'll try something new when he comes for Thanksgiving.

The kids and I played outside while Chris worked.


On Friday Jessie took the day off work and took us to lunch at a soup and sandwich place, then to Color Me Mine so we could paint our own stuff. Daxton painted his own cereal bowl and Grady painted a snake. Daxton was meticulous with his bowl and he sat there and painted for 2 hours. The kid loves art and drawing and painting. He would have stayed longer if we'd let him. It was TONS of fun.

When we were done painting we dropped the kids at Chris's house and Jessie and I were off to do some major damage at some great fabric stores. Thanks Chris. Kids and fabric stores don't mix.

This is what I woke up to on Sunday:

It was so beautiful, and COLD! I love it!
I spent the day doing laundry and packing to leave the next morning. Tabitha was SO tired, but refused to take a nap for some reason. So, she just lazied around with Daxton and Jessie.

We had the wonderful opportunity to caravan with the Magleby's on the way home. It worked out wonderfully, since I almost never had all 3 of my kids at the same time. Thanks bunches Kim!

This is at a pit stop.
It was, as always, so wonderful to spend time with my family. I'm so glad Jessie and Steve are willing to shatter their quiet, work-filled lives to allow us to come and mess everything up.