Trip to UT

We drove down to Utah right when school got out to spend some time with Grandpa Tom and Grandma Lorna.  First we had a surprise birthday party planned for Lorna.  I think it worked--we surprised her pretty well!  Emma planned it and did a great job.  The BYU/UT bowl game ended up being that day, which threw a kink in things, but it was a fun day.  Emma had gotten some babysitters to watch the kids in the church gym while we watched the game.  That was a genius idea, especially with how terrible the game ended up being.  Man it was rough.  They did make a run but it was too little too late.  Anyway, the kids had a blast and we joined them afterward for some cake and ice cream.  It was a fun day spent with family.  We missed the ones who couldn't make it.

Cute tired Erin:

Aunt Gina and James playing tickle monster with Eli and Maddie:

We also got to meet Frank, Katy's bulldog that Tom and Lorna were caring for in his old age.  He was a crack-up and we all fell in love with him...even Joe!  I thought that was weird but maybe there's a dog-lover in there somewhere.  I couldn't resist taking some picture of Frank in his hilarious positions: 

Sleeping with his tongue out and legs in the air:

While we didn't always love his slobber and the loud noises he constantly made (just breathing!), we sure loved him.  Sadly, Frank passed away just a couple of days ago.  We were all so sad to hear that, especially the kids.  He will be missed.

We changed our plans a bit and decided to stick around a few more days to play.  Regina stayed with her kids and the kids had a blast with their cousins.  One day we had so much fun sledding with them.

Grandma and Grandpa came and brought Frank with them.  Grandpa got some awesome pictures.  Hence this huge picture dump:

We really wanted to get Frank down the hill and so we tried putting him on Lorna's lap.  He clawed at the ground on the way down and managed to climb off.  It was a hilarious image.  You can see all of us on the top laughing so hard in these pictures.

But then, we got him on Joe's lap and he was much calmer and made it all the way down:

More sledding pictures:

Eli went down all by himself!

Sadly, Maddie came down and ran right into him.  They were fine and I love this picture of James and Lily comforting them:

There's nothing like the pure joy of sledding!

It was such a fun trip.