Utah Vacation: Riding Airplane & Temple Square

Labor day week we went on a grand adventure and flew out to Utah to visit Happy and Jared and their family for a week! Both of us have never been out west before and we have never been on an airplane with kids before so it was a lot of new things for us. I was nervous about the mechanics of packing bags and going through an airport with the kids, so I made sure we got to the airport extra early. It was a good thing I did because as we were going through security they chose me to get my hands tested for explosive chemicals and it came back positive! As a result they had to hand search all of our luggage, pat down Rett since I was holding him, and I had to do a full body pat down in a private room! It was the craziest thing, I had to stop myself from laughing at how weird the entire experience was. Once they cleared me, I started thinking back to what could have been on my hands. I realized that James and I were playing with sparklers the day before so it was probably traces of powder from the fireworks. Lesson learned: no playing with fireworks right before flying on an airplane!

Anthony got a little car sick on the shuttle ride from our car to the airport, so he ended up taking some Dramamine that almost totally knocked him out during the plane ride. Rett was a little fussy with a small fever and congestion so I was not looking forward to the 4 hour long plane ride. Luckily he was easily entertained with the movies on the plane and the snacks and treats we bought. 

 James was very excited about the idea of going on an airplane and he loved every minute of it! He was not scared one bit! Here is a video of us taking off.

Since Rett was still under 2 for one more week, he got to fly free. (yay!) He didn't have a seat of his own, so he went back and forth between sitting on our laps or between Anthony and me.

After we got to Utah, we picked up our rental car and drove to Happy and Jared's house. We were amazed by the mountains! We took a few walks in their backyard and couldn't get over the view. These pictures have no filter on them, it really was that beautiful!

James was excited about sleeping in Dallin's room on his bunk bed, but when it came time to actually sleep he had a harder time. He snuck into our bed a few nights in a row until he got used to it. Rett and James both took awhile to adjust to the time change, so the first morning they were up at 5am!! Luckily Nolan got up a little while later and invited James to go play trucks with him outside. They had such a blast! It became a regular thing for James to go off and play with one of his cousins, it was an awesome break for us :)

Monday morning we decided to ride the train to Temple Square in Salt Lake City. The train ride was a big hit! Rett was so excited about everything he saw out the window, he was yelling, "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!" nonstop and then pointing and trying to say the things he saw. It was so cute!

Our eyes were glued to the window watching all the scenery. Being able to see mountains all around you is so different! We also loved seeing all the church buildings and temples. It is so wild to see so many of them close together!

Exploring Temple Square was interesting, but our favorite was seeing the Salt Lake Temple. It is so beautiful!!

Checking out the old tabernacle:

James loved riding the escalator in one of the visitor's centers. Of all the exhibits and things to look at, I think this was his favorite part :)

Everyone, including Anthony's parents, in front of the Christus. The walls all round and on the ceiling are painted like space, so James was a big fan.

We walked across the road to see the new conference center. It was so neat to see where conference actually happens! James and Nolan had fun playing on the seats while the tour guide gave us some information about the building. At one point James got a hold of one of the tour guide's binders and he sat down, told Nolan to sit next to him and started flipping the pages intent on telling him everything.

We got to go up on to the roof of the conference center and it had a great view of the temple across the street.

We had to wait a bit longer than we expected for the train back because it was Labor Day and the trains were on a holiday schedule. Everyone was tired and worn out, so the pictures got a little crazy :) This is Anthony's favorite because of Jared and Dallin on the side. It was a great first few days in Utah!

Soccer Fall 2015

This week James had his first practice for the fall season. He has the same coach (yay!!) and quite a few of the same teammates from previous seasons. Two of his teammates are also in his preschool class, so they get to see a lot of each other!

We were pleasantly surprised that James had a good day at preschool (no time outs/hitting incidents, etc..) and then had a great cooperative practice where he listened and followed directions the entire time and didn't try to push any of his teammates. It was an exciting day for us as parents!! Yay for James!

 Doing jumping jacks to warm up:

 A lot of the kids needed reminders to not use their hands to touch the ball, so the coach had them hold their hands behind their backs. It looked much harder to balance that way, but it worked!

They also got to practice throwing the ball in by trying to hit their coach in the back. They love this drill!! One of the other moms got this picture of James and his friends getting ready. They look so in the zone in this picture :)

 Rett gets crazy wiggly and restless waiting for James' practice to be over, so I let him play with the camera on my phone. We got a few pictures in before he started to crowd the camera with his curiosity.

This isn't soccer related, but it was so cute I wanted to post it. James' preschool has a private facebook page that they update with pictures occasionally. This was a picture of his class playing with shaving cream and tracing letters with their fingers. Look at the joy in James' face! (He is the one sitting at the end of the table). He loves going to school and is excited to go, but we are still having issues with him listening to his teachers, being kind to the other kids, and following the rules. He wants to do well and he usually starts the day off in a good mood with good intentions, but somewhere during the day things deteriorate. We are working on things at home and his teachers are committed to working with him, so hopefully it will get better.