Vacation Pics (It's a lot)

We took a two week vacation to spend some quality time with the fam. Here's a brief recap. Above are Cora and Sydney (with the hood covering her) on a sled my mom's pulling. We spent our first week in Cedar with my parents and brother and introduced them to snow (last year doesn't count since they can't remember it). They loved the snow, but were not so thrilled about the sled ride.
Just to contrast the previous picture, we went a little further south for some good hiking time.

Unfortunately for us, good hikes can only be pulled off with at least three adults for now. My dad had Cora on his shoulders most of the time.

Jeremy had Sydney.

And this is me packing Katie around. Anyone who likes to wander in the woods with a little one, I highly recommend the above contraption. It's called and ergo and it's nice. This made it so nice to be able to wander through wilderness without a stroller! But hey, I guess strollers have come a long way from what they were even a decade ago, so we will continue to get out as much as possible, whether it's 3,2, or 1 adult.

See that worried face? That didn't stop her from going farther. She was determined to climb up all the rocks she could (I'm so proud). Notice the mark on her head? She got 5 stitches from a tickling accident with Uncle Jeremy (my bro), while we were there. My favorite was when we got out of the car at the instacare there she yells, "I just can't believe I cracked my head open! I'm just a little afraid." For how many falls and things she runs into, I'm a little surprised this is only the first round of stitches!

I can't wait till they're bigger, it's warmer, and we can come back and swim! It was beautiful!

We took a trip to the zoo when we got to Salt Lake with Jeremy's sis, my sis, their kids, and Jeremy's parents. It's nice when it's cooler, the animals seem to be out more. We even saw the mama elephant trumpet.

Lunchtime with the cousins. The three on the right are all within 5 months of each other. There is a missing boy in this picture who was so excited to be set free of his stroller. He's only a week older than the twins. About time these boy cousins had some girls their age around.

Daddy got to play a little football with Katie in his parents yard. She loved it.

There's the missing boy from the zoo picture. What a good photographer I am. The three of them found an empty cupboard to play in while my sister was working on dinner for us.

Other than all of us now having a nasty GI bug (started the day we flew back, and it's not just 24 hours), the trip was great. As always, there was never enough time to see all the family and friends, but it was too long with three little girls. They gave up sleeping through the night again by the second week. Which translates to so did we. But we sure loved every minute with everyone. They loved their cousins, aunts and uncles, grandparents, great-grandparents, and all the dogs we got to play with. Jeremy and I were so happy to just be in every one's company. The weather was great for us, and no one had a stay in the hospital.

As always, I leave a trip pondering many things. First and foremost is will we ever not be so exhausted? Every activity (including eating and sleeping) is so compounded now when you're in charge of tiny creatures with little-to-no sense of self preservation every waking and sleeping second of the day. Thank goodness they smile, giggle, and cuddle so often or they may have been left at the zoo.

I'm always grateful for the love and generosity of so many people in our lives. I ache for the different struggles everyone has and we can't seem to do anything for them other than pray for them. I wish we were closer, but I love where we live. There are so many advantages and disadvantages to each location. Both Jeremy and I always end up wondering where in the world we will end up when residency and fellowships are done. Hopefully closer than a 5 day drive, but that would be almost anywhere West of the Mississippi. Oh, well. It's not our time to know that yet.