Trip home!

(It has been over 4 months since we last posted to the blog, so here comes a massive update:)

Lucas and I made our semi-annual trek to visit family for a month.  Just so you don't think I abandoned Craig for an entire month, he headed off to a conference and visited with his research mentor for a couple of weeks.

Lucas and I made the most out of our trip, we were able to go to the tree house twice, which Lucas loved, especially when his cousin Eevee was able to come with us.  We were also able to make a trip to the Aquarium in Sandy, which was fun, Lucas still talks about seeing the sharks, big fish, and penguins.  Lucas and Eevee did well together, which was a big improvement from our last visit.  They loved being around each other, and when they weren't together, Lucas was asking me where Eevee was or talking about what he did with Eevee.

Lucas loves the aquarium

Cowboy Lucas at the Treehouse in Ogden

 Craig always says that if you were to ask what was on my list of things to do when I go to visit family, it is mostly places I want to eat at.  I won't dispute that, when I go home there are some restaurants I would like to go to, but most of the time it involves going to eat with family, like meeting up with my aunts for lunch and Mexican food, catching up with my old co-workers over pizza, eating all you can eat french toast (so good!) with my really good girlfriends,  grabbing a bit to eat with my sisters and mother after my sister has just ran her little heart out at a track meet (more to come on this later), or spending an evening with my sister and sister-in-law and having fish tacos for the first time.  Lets be honest people, that is how we socialize:  over food!  So that is what Lucas and I did, a lot (probably too much), but it was delicious and I will admit that I ate two pecan mudslides and had a really good chocolate malt!

Okay enough about food, because that is not all we did, we did so much more!  Every time we go home we always get sick in one way or another, sure enough less than a week after our arrival the plague hit in the form of the stomach flu.  I was the first victim, followed by the rest of the family, the only survivor was, surprisingly, Lucas, who made it through unscathed.  Unfortunately, Lucas did not make it completely through the trip without incident, the inversion really wrecked havoc on Lucas.  He spent a couple of nights coughing his lungs out, poor little fellow.  We would take him to the store with him hacking away and people would look at us suspiciously, I was thinking, "hey people, blame it on your bad air!"  Looking on the bright side off things, we didn't make one trip to the E.R or insta care.  Success!

Riding on the train

Lucas started singing the ABC song while we were away, it is pretty cute, though he doesn't much care for the letters J and K, as they are not included in Lucas version of the Alphabet song.  Lucas really likes public transportation vehicles, especially buses and trains!  So we took a day trip and rode the frontrunner to downtown.  Eevee and Kim were able to join us, and the kids had a lot of fun.  They would stand in the aisle with their hands out and rock with the movement of the train, all the while saying "whoa, whoa".  I thought it was really cute, but it was not cute to the lady passager sitting a few rows in front of us, who kept sighing and huffing about it and acting completely annoyed!


Lucas and I also had the opportunity to see Kenzie (my youngest sister) run.  Kenzie is on the cross country team in high school, and right now she is doing in-door track.  This was a ton of fun, to cheer on your sister as she is putting forth all of her effort to succeed (I got a lump in my throat ever time I saw her do it) and let me just tell you (impending bragging)....Did she ever succeed!  She is so fun to watch and she is doing really well.  Really, really well!  It was pretty cool!!!  (Kenzie, I though of putting an embarrassing picture of you pulling a funny face here, but I restrain my self.)

For Christmas my sister gave me a ticket to see Andy Grammer while I was town.  I went with my sister and sister-in-law and it was a blast, probably one of my favorite things I did while I was there.  My favorite thing being the early morning walks with my mom, I know cheesey, but the truth.  I have always been a momma's girl and I don't see that changing anytime soon! (Thanks Kenz for making thos walks possible.)

The day before we left we were shopping in celebration of Grandma Les's birthday, grandma was asking Lucas if he was excited to being going on the airplane, and who was he going to see when we landed.  Lucas response was, "I like my daddy.  My daddy is pretty, pretty, pretty tall!", and a little later we were pulling out of the parking lot and there were some people walking pass Lucas says, "Peoples go peoples, dang peoples."  I have received several comments on the how much Lucas is talking, and boy does he talk nonstop!

Last but not least,we were able to make it down to the Swenson clans house a few times!  I am sure Lucas felt more at home here, because Craig's family looks like Craig, especially his dad.  They gave Lucas all the attention he could ever want and then some!  They are wonderful and we are luckily to have such wonderful family!  As wonderful and fun as our trip was, it was nice to come home and see Craig.  Lucas saw Craig and said, "That's my daddy" and ran to him.  He has also spent time rediscovering his toys and hanging out with his friends!