Utah Fun

Weeks before the wedding we had made a plan to all leave Middleton on Friday morning in two cars loaded up with Andrews stuff and get to Provo on time to move him in at 3:00pm.  Wednesday night Andrew came in my room and said we needed to be in Provo by 9:00pm on Thursday so he could play with Miguel's soccer team.  With some farther research we also realized that freshman orientation started Thursday morning 🤦.  So we made some quick adjustments; Andrew and I headed down to Provo after he finished work Thursday and we arrived just in time for the double header soccer games.  

It was fun to watch him play again.

The two of us crowded into Natali's apartment for the night and we dropped Andrew off at orientation early the next morning.  The two of us grabbed breakfast and picked her friend up from Trax.  We went back to her apartment and reviewed all the wedding plans and I ran some errands for her before meeting up with Andrew at his apartment at 3:00 to move him in.  With Natali's help it didn't take long to have him all settled.

Meanwhile, Greg and the girls were having a heck of a time getting to Provo.  Road closures, wrecks, detours, who knows all the things but their 5 and 1/2 hour drive turned into over 8 hours.  At one point I looked at their location on my phone and it looked like Greg had left Kate and Emily behind at different points along the way.

We eventually all met up for burgers together before the girls headed to Natali's bachelorette party.

Andrew got into the women's soccer game with his ROC pass but the tickets were sold out so Greg and I caught part of the women's volleyball match before picking the girls up and heading to the hotel.  

All the saturday wedding fun will get its own post so I'll skip on to Sunday.  We slept in and went to a 10am church then headed to the Timpanogos Cave where we met up with cousins from both sides of the family to hike up to the cave for a tour. 

The scenery and cousin time was beautiful.

We had the pleasure of touring the cave with the Iverson's, Grandpa, Mark, Gayle and Marley.

Anders and Bacon's questions and commentary were the best parts of the tour.

Kate and Lily got to go through with Parkinsons, Yorgason girls and Loveridge's.

Fossils are cool.  Mack would have loved them but Sophia wasn't up for the 1.5 mile, 1,100 foot elevation gain hike.  

I was amazed that 80 year old grandpa made the trip up and down the mountain.  He is incredible.  

After the hike we all headed over to Laurie's to eat dinner and swim.  The kids had a blast with both sides of the family merging.  It was wonderful to have time all together.

Monday morning we enjoyed Kneaders breakfast then met Mack and Sophia at the Ancient Life Museum at Thanksgiving Point. 

I found this photo from the last time we had been there and we tried to replicate it without Reed and Sophie.

Look how she's grown.

Another recreation.

We had a lot of fun and learned a lot but had to say goodbye.  Andrew drove Mack and Sophia into Salt Lake to hang out, eat lunch, and kill time before their flight home to Moscow.  The rest of us headed up to Aunt Sue's house to say hello to Nani before heading home.

First Day of School

The girls started school August 18th a week and a bit before Andrew, and 4 weeks before Kate.  It is hard to believe that summer is already over when we still have one more wedding to pull off but time keeps slipping...

Emily as a Sophomore.

And Lily in 7th.

Love these little monkeys; hard to believe we are down to two.  How will I go from feeding 8 this summer to feeding 4?  It's going to be a fun year!

MK Nature Center

As the last days of summer drifted closer we figured we'd better make the most of them.  On our big trip I realized that nether Emily nor Lily remembered the MK Nature Center trips we used to take.  So we picked a day and invited Payton along for the ride.

The girls had a blast wandering the trails, looking for the big sturgeon and learning that mink are regularly spotted there.  Emily will be coming back whenever possible to watch and wait for her mink spotting.

End of Sunmer

The morning after we got home from Finland I took Emily back to the airport so she could meet up with Natali in Atlanta and help her drive back to Utah.

They spent the first night together in Atlanta then loaded up the car and hit the road.

First stop, Bentonville.  They enjoyed chatting with Spencer and Keeley and playing with the kids.

Then on to Denver.

They stayed with Natali's friend and then Natali dropped Emily off at the airport the next morning as she soloed the last leg to Utah.  The trip gave Emily hours of experience behind the wheel and lovely bonding time.

We needed one last play day at grandmas and took advantage of of the change to hang out with cousin Anna in town working for grandpa.  We were there on Spencer's birthday so the girls took the opportunity to find the weirdest Uncle Spencer pictures and reenact them.  That wig isn't too far off Lily.

LOVE IT KATE!

Then it was play and swim time...silly girls.

Grandpa picked Emily up when she was done with work and she had to do her own Spencer picture remake.  

Finland - Porvoo

We had a few hours Monday morning before we needed to head to the airport so we drove to the second oldest town in Finland, Porvoo.

On the way we had an amusing conversation about song length.  How common are songs under 3 minutes? Are songs getting shorter?  What is the best song length?  Opinions differed but I personally vote for short songs - embrace 3 minutes or less...but onto Porvoo.

Porvoo Cathedral surprised and entertained us with these photo cutout boards.

The 15th century cathedral itself was beautiful although the organ music was not as beautiful as the church in Copenhagen. 

The old town hall is now home to a museum, which we didn't have time to see and sadly the ice cream stand wasn't open yet.

We walked down the cobblestone streets, through the old town, and by the river.  It was a lovely little town and a nice place to spend an hour on our way to the airport.

Strange things in the airport and I'm not talking about my girls...

With no where to sit we found an empty table in this pub and waited for our plane to board.  It was a lovely trip but we were all ready to get home.