Trip to Utah

November 19, 2006

So much has happened the past couple of weeks. I will try to give the best update that I can. A couple of weeks ago, before we went on our trip to Utah, Marisa had her first orchestra concert of the year. Her 7th grade orchestra was good, but the Chamber orchestra (that she made through auditions) was outstanding! She is loving being a part of this great program and she is becoming a very good player. We hope to get her private lessons next year which should help as well.



On November 8, we left for our quick trip to Utah. We drove about 4 hours to the Chicago Ohare airport. The drive was fine except for the toll road that sucked up all our change! It took our family 30 minutes to get through the checkpoint. I do understand that they need to make sure we are safe, but I was still upset when they through away our water bottles (even Marisa’s nice school one), my lotion (a small 2 ml size), etc. When he went to throw out my prescription eye drops I threw a massive fit. I explained that it said on the website that eye drops that size were allowed, so he finally gave in and let me have it. (Jerk!) Then Bob’s ticket was in his nickname so, since it didn’t match his drivers license, he had to go back out and get re-registered. It was so frustrating.

The flight itself was about 3 ½ hours and the kids did so well, I was shocked. They colored, played, read, worked on homework. Even Alayna loved being on the airplane. She was more fascinated with the tray tables than the fact that we were way up in the air. (She obviously didn’t realize the danger we were in- I still don’t understand how those huge planes can fly!) We got in to Salt Lake City pretty late. Bob’s parents and Missy picked us up and took us to rent our car. We got this AWESOME black Chevy suburban. Man, was it cool! Then we checked in to our hotel room at Little America. I think we finally got to eat dinner at Wendy’s around 11 and crashed for the night.

The next day we ate a wonderful breakfast at Dee’s and helped Missy and Clark move in to their new apartment. It is a really nice place with a cool view of the Salt Lake Valley. That evening all the Harts went to the BYU/Wyoming game while Alayna and I stayed at the hotel. It was way too cold, but they had hot chocolate and dippin dots and the kids had an absolute blast!! Especially since BYU won. Alayna and I had a great time at the hotel. I worked two full days (Monday and Tuesday) before we left, so we just relaxed, she played and colored while I watched Survivor, CSI, ER and went to bed . It was perfect.

Friday morning, everyone went outside for a touch football game at Liberty Park. My parents also drove in from Logan. That afternoon, the Hart adults went to a temple session all together while our kids got to hang with the Ribera grandparents for the evening. (They had such a wonderful time: pizza dinner, science museum, IMAX movie, swimming at the indoor hotel swimming pool ,etc). After our temple session we went to a fantastic wedding dinner for Missy and Clark. It was a very fancy dinner and the food was so good. It was great fun with great company.

Saturday morning was the wedding. It was a beautiful ceremony and we are so excited for Missy and Clark. She looked absolutely beautiful!! It was mighty cold taking pictures outside the temple, but we were just so happy to be there. We got a special treat at lunch, my brothers and families drove down from Logan and my Grandma Cunningham actually flew up to see us! I was so excited to see them all and the Ribera’s treated us to an amazing lunch at this AWESOME Brazilian grill. My kids are already asking to go back. It had a salad buffet, but then all you can eat meat from their grill, which tasted so great.

That afternoon, we went to the Grand America and took Family Wedding Photos. I have a couple that we took, but I can’t wait to see the final formal ones. After that, we all headed to Jamba Juice for dinner, and then off to the wedding reception. It was held at a place called Cactus and Tropicals. It was like the back of a nursery. It was such a cool place to have a reception. We saw so many friends from college that we haven’t seen since we had Marisa. There were also TONS of people from Macomb, where Bob grew up, so it was like a giant reunion. It made for a very entertaining evening. I think almost 400 people attended or so?

The next morning we were up at 5 since our flight was early. When we were leaving the hotel, I noticed our plane didn’t leave until 8:20 instead of the 7:25 I thought it did. Dang! We could have slept in for 30 more minutes! Our favorite part of the check in is when we each had to go to a chamber that shot air blasts at you to check for chemicals. Kayla was first and it scared her to death. The flight was fine, just seemed longer since we were heading home instead of to a fun party. Again, the kids were perfectly behaved! We drove home from Chicago and got home around 6:00pm. It was a great trip and it was so fun to see everyone.

The next week was a busy one. We got right back in to our routine schedule. Kayla had her first band concert and Marisa had her first choir one. Tyler got “expanders” in his mouth, which are like retainers that go on the back of the top and bottom of his teeth to help push the teeth out and give room to the new ones coming in. The poor guy can’t speak and I can barely understand him. He doesn’t seem to mind and talks just as much as he used to, maybe even more.

So, what is everyone doing for Thanksgiving? We are just staying here. Everyone we know is either leaving town or has family in town, so I guess it will just be us. I tried to talk Bob into just doing Thanksgiving at Osaka, but no dice. It will be good to have a quiet movie day at home, we will just seeing all of you this holiday season. Our best wishes to you all and have a Happy Thanksgiving.