Day 2 - Road Trip Begins

Thursday 5^th May

We were slower out the door than we would have liked as we headed off on our road trip. It was a great opportunity for Hayden to get a feel for driving in America without inner city pressure.

We were heading south – south-east for Kanab. We stopped at Filmore for lunch at a rest stop and then again at Cove Fort for a look:

This place was built entirely of lava found in the area by President Hinkley’s ancestors. It was a refuge for travellers amidst the wars that were happening with and between the native American Indians.

We headed further south to Cedar City before heading East past Cedar Breaks National Monument. It was snowing at the summit and the scenery was beautiful. 

We finally arrived in Kanab at the Holiday inn Express. We headed out for some authentic Mexican for dinner, turned out it was some kind of special holiday and they had a jumping castle at the restaurant that Toby loved.

Day 1 - Family Trip to Utah

Wednesday 4^th May

After finally getting up in a fog of dizzy tiredness we headed off to find the 3^rd floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and find mum. She took us on a tour of her floor and a bit of the building, we got to meet Sis Williams and a few others. 

The chapel in the JSMB where Mum's ward meets... so beautiful!

We went downstairs to the family history centre and Toby played while Hayden and I had a go in their interactive room, it was fun finding out about our heritage and it was a great personalised experience:

Then Mum took us down through the underground carpark to the COB for lunch. Toby ended up wetting himself for the FIRST time ever while out and about so we had to make our stay brief and head home. After we cleaned him up we headed to City Creek for a wander (We discovered a dinosaur play area) and had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.

That night Hayden and I headed off for his second drive in America to go find a Walmart and get some supplies for our roadtrip. Walmart was massive, like a Big W and supermarket combined with a bit of Bunnings as well. Needless to say we spent a long time trying to locate the drink bottles we needed and headed to bed quite late that night.

The short walk from Mum's across the road to Temple Square

Getting there - Family trip to Utah

We woke at around 3:30am, Tuesday 3^rd May, to have quick showers and do final prep. Emily arrived about 4:05am to take us to the airport in her car and we woke the Children 5 minutes later. Toby had been looking forward to going on the plane for a LONG time, as soon as his eye’s popped open he asked “We going on the airplane mumma?”

By the time we packed the car etc. we arrived at the airport around 4:35am, checked all our luggage and got boarding passes before heading through security and waiting at the gate.

Here’s us out the front of the airport:

The plane ride to Brisbane was three hours and was fairly uneventful, Edie fell asleep and Toby looked out the window most of the way.

We arrived in Brisbane at 9am their time and headed straight to the international airport via the shuttle bus. The kids enjoyed the play area when we arrived:

It didn’t take long for us to be boarding the ‘giant plane’. 

We had great seats at the bulkhead just behind premium economy (we had more leg room than them!) This was so we could make use of a bassinet for Edith. 

She fell asleep on take off and slept for about an hour in the bassinet. Toby was too excited to look out the window and watch peppa pig on the entertainment system to sleep. I had a plane plan which worked out fairly well. I had lots of little toys wrapped up for Toby and Edith but we didn’t use them much. With the food and crawling/walking around we were able to entertain them for the first 6 hours of the flight and then put them ‘to bed’. It worked so well, they both slept most of the rest of the time. Pity I was too excited to sleep! I think Hayden got a quick power nap. 

Nearly there - Here is Toby catching the sunrise over America:

We arrived in LA at 7am their time or midnight our time.

Thanks to Edith we were whisked to the front of the line for both customs and security so we ended up getting out of the international airport quite quickly.

We walked around to Teminal 5 to catch our Delta flight, it took forever to get through security and it was really hot! Toby was getting a little bit tetchy which was understandable so that was the worst bit of the flight. When we finally got to the front the guy said ‘how come you guys weren’t brought through the family line?’ Annoying!

Our flight out of LAX to SLC wasn’t until 10:20am which isn’t that much of a wait but by this time we were so exhausted and over it, it seemed to take forever. As we were lined up to board Toby was singing ‘I Am a child of God’ at the top of his lungs, we figured this was a pretty safe line to do it.

Finally we arrived in Salt Lake and it was great to see Nan/Mum we shared big hugs and tears, just out of sheer exhaustion and relief I think. We picked up our ‘Big Red Car’ (photo in the next post) and with Hayden behind the wheel hit the American roads for the first time. I’m not sure if it was because I was tired or the size of the roads, speed and amount of traffic, but that combined with being on the WRONG SIDE made the 10min ride from the airport to mum’s place the scariest thing I’ve done in a while. My heart was beating SO fast.

By the time we got to mum’s it was about 2pm so we resolved to stay up till 5 before crashing. We did a little bit of talking but it was all a bit of a blur. Mum went out and got Crown Burger for us (which was delicious) and we finally crashed just before 6pm. Unfortunately Edith had other ideas and woke at 9pm ready to go! We tried rocking, a drink, Hayden took her for ‘the best walk ever’ around temple square’ and then finally I fed her (this did the trick) and at midnight she went back to sleep. As did we.

We had agreed to meet mum about 11am for lunch, needless to say we were late by the time we got up and going and dragged ourselves out the door.

My Beautiful Children

 Toby Robert is my handsome 2 and a half year old who, at the moment, is SO happy to smile for the camera with his cheeky big teeth grins. He is so clever and has mastered the art of using the toilet in the last week and a half.
He loves the wiggles still, especially when his calls for "you dance with me Mumma" are heeded. I get the best cuddles during thunderstorms (which occur a lot lately in Darwin), and when i'm cooking tea. He loves to help; sweeping, doing the washing, changing Edie's nappies, washing up, if i'm doing a job he wants in!
He loves his little sister lots, sometimes a little too over enthusiastically. He loves running, jumping, and throwing. He's still figuring out his personal pronouns which results in some very interesting requests sometimes, "Me carry you, Please Mumma?"
His favourite story at the moment is a Star Wars book that makes sounds. His favourite toys are still balls and balloons, infact the 40c balloon was all he played with on Christmas day.
He loves singing, anytime, anywhere and any volume, Normally it's 'Book of Mormon Stories' but 'The grand old duke of york' has been getting a bit of a run lately.
He hates bugs, almost as much as his mum and dad, and will eat anything in a wrap. He is still my little fruit bat, eating a punnet of berries in one sitting is usual. The other day he ate three apples within an hour!
He is happy to go to Nursery with his friends and loves going to people's houses during the week (if mum is organised) because other people's toys are always so exciting.
He's a pro at using facetime, being away from family has made that a legitimate learning curve. He still likes to sleep but has pretty much grown out of his day naps, the other day I had one while he entertained himself, mumma's never grow out of day naps! He LOVES the ipad, because watching ABC kids on demand is heaps better than watching it on the t.v. he can have unlimited Peppa Pig and Hey Duggy.
He's obsessed with the airport and going on planes, this may be because for his tender years he's probably earnt more frequent flyer points then I did before I was 25! He likes to be tricky and call me Dadda and Dadda Mumma, apparently the most hilarious thing ever! He also enjoys being tricky while talking to Nan in America, she'll ask what he did today and he always replies, we went to church and then laughs his cheeky 'i'm tricking' laugh. He has great fun with Dadda, who is always the star of the show when he returns home from work, and on the weekends. He's a happy, bright and bubbly kid, except when he's unwell or tired, then he becomes the champion whinger, like seriously, better than me!
We love our little Tobert.

Edith Louise is 8 months old and is our gorgeous little delight. She always has a ready smile and giggle and loves to bop away to music! She loves food and is very insistent on when she should have it!
Edie's eyes follow her big brother and dadda everywhere! If Hayden arrives home from work and walks past with just a 'hello' instead of picking her up, she has something to say about it!
She is so wiggly and persistent at the moment, if she sees something she wants, nothing is stopping her from grabbing it. Her latest trick is to wiggle her way out of your grip and slide of the couch into a standing position, as if she's about to walk off (she can't even crawl yet) but she is so pleased with herself standing on the floor holding the edge of the couch.
She is also a real chatterbox. She is attempting 'mum mum' and 'dad dad' and 'hi' and 'hello' make an appearance every now and again. Today she said as clear as day 'Hello Dadda', Genius! (I swear she's said 'I love you' a few times before too).
Today in Relief Society the lady taking the lesson would ask questions and Edie would answer with her cute little baby talk and everyone was quite distracted.
Edie enjoys tasting everything and using her new teeth to test strength of materials through biting. She is also attempting waving, which involves palm in the air, arm up and down, SO cute!
Love you Edie-lou!