Sunday, July 30, 2006
Day One: So our flight finally took off around 3:00 a.m.--only six hours later than it was supposed to. We should have arrived in Utah around midnight, but instead landed in Salt Lake at 6:00 a.m. Fortunately, it only threw us off a little. First thing on my list was food so we hit Denny's where I ate more than I've eaten in a very long time. Denver ordered Mac and Cheese and ate it all, as well as some of my pancakes. Guess the trip took more out of us than we thought. We stayed at Grandma and Grandpa Stout's farm where we met all 26 chickens and Zeke. Denver fell head-over-heels in love with the cat and would not leave the poor animal alone. He locked it in bedrooms and closets, carried it everywhere, wrapped it in blankets, everything. Caleb also fell in love with Zeke and Zeke fell in love with Caleb. They wrestled and played just like they were brothers. But at the end of the day, Zeke really loved Noah and fell asleep on Noah's lap so many times, even Noah started getting upset about it, and Noah loves cats. We hit Wal-mart for diapers and formula and a few goodies for the boys to play with. Noah picked a Volcano sprinkler which the boys had a blast playing with in the backyard. We ate dinner at Training Table (probably the place I miss most) and had dessert at Dairy Queen. We literally fell in bed and fell asleep.
  
 
Day 2: We ran a few errands on our second day there--mostly Beehive clothing and Seagull Book and Tape. We met up with Mom, Dad and Kathy at Bajio's for lunch and drank enough Apple Beer to last us the entire trip. Then we took the boys swimming at the West Jordan Rec center, which everyone was thrilled with except maybe Noah. They have a giant waterslide there that Noah couldn't wait to get his hiney on. There was one of those little critter boards up against the wall, holding its hand at 50 inches high and sign that read "you must be at least this tall to ride the waterslide." Noah walked right over to the board, backed himself up, held up his chin and looked at me with a great big grin. I sadly shook my head "no." He was about ten inches too short. That didn't stop Noah. He immediately got up on his tippy toes and looked at me again, with an even bigger grin on his face. When I shook my head "no" a second time, he immediately melted into tears and was devastated. He really wanted to go to Seven Peaks Water Park, but I'm afraid he wouldn't have been tall enough there either.
 
 
Later that night we joined the Stout family for a picnic at the park. Hunter learned to play Five Crowns while we were there and loved it so much he continued to nag us, the entire rest of our trip, to play it with him over and over and over again. We played until the sun went down and then returned to the farm where we crashed in our beds once again.
Day 3: We spent almost all of Saturday at the Children's Museum with Bethany and Devin and their family. I think it was the most fun we've had there, ever. The boys drove the trucks, flew airplanes, painted, played with balls, built some towers, played in the water, played with bubbles and pretended all sorts of fun scenarios. Denver learned how to wash laundry the "old fashioned way" with a bucket and a washboard and he and Noah could have spent hours in the frontier house cooking me tea and pancakes and washing my laundry. Eventually we had to leave so we could meet Grandma and Grandpa Stout at Joe's Crab Shack. On the way we stopped at Petco to buy Zeke a few toys and met up with Uncle Michael (H) and Caroline and James. At dinner Noah met Christina Stout, who is currently in school studying Geology and happened to mention that she loves volcanoes. Noah was thrilled to talk to her and spent the rest of the evening talking her ear off about lava and asking her all sorts of questions. When everyone was done, we bought the boys new Crab Shack t-shirts. Hunter's says, "Homework makes me crabby" and he can hardly wait to wear it on the first day of school.
 
 
Day 4: We went to church of course and then spent the afternoon with Grandma and Grandpa Stout eating Mark's fabulous homemade scones and playing Five Crowns with Kathy. Then we headed down to Spanish Fork where we joined the Henrichsens for Family Dinner (another thing I totally miss). The kids frolicked and played till the sun went down and Mark and I were introduced to the BYU Creamery's Graham Canyon ice cream, which we both fell in love with. Hunter, Noah and Denver discovered "Uncle" Jeremy who ran and played with them for as long as they could run and play and who kept them laughing and being silly the entire night and then some.
Day 5: At the suggestion of Matthew and Anita, we decided to head into the city and visit Temple Square, with the hope of meeting up with family while we were down there. So we hopped aboard Trax and headed north for the day. Unfortunately, Christie Sue had trouble with her teeth so we didn't meet up with any Henrichsens while we were there. But Kak-Kak did go with us and we had fun wandering around in the extreme temperatures, splashing in fountains and walking through the Visitor's Center. We then took the kids over to the Gateway, where the kids put on their swimsuits and joined a million other kids playing in the fountain. Denver was a bit cautious, but Noah and Hunter went crazy in the water and had a blast. I think we all suffered a bit of heat exhaustion that day and were all very glad to get home. We stopped by Kak's house for a tour and ended the day at Village Inn for dinner.
Day 6: Tuesday we spent part of the morning at the grocery store buying things we miss and all the things we needed to bring to the Ray and Roy Family Get Together. We used to miss a lot more about Utah but I guess we've found happiness in CT and really only needed Homemade Chili Sauce and Stephen's Hot Chocolate to take home with us. After we finished cooking up a bunch of salads and cookies we headed South for the party. We spent the afternoon swimming and eating and enjoyed a special performance by PALS, Nathan Henrichsen's singing and dancing group. It was great fun to be together with everyone and especially watching the kids play and get reaquainted.
Day 7: We picked up our rental car as soon as we had everything for Reunion packed up. We were supposed to get a minivan but due to minivan demand, we were blessed with a Suburban instead. Mark and I joked about a two day test drive, since one of the cars we're considering purchasing is a Suburban, but mostly we were glad to have it for the off-roading we were about to do up to Reid Ranch. Along the way we stopped at Walmart and the grocery store for various wedding shower items for Caroline and got some lunch at Arby's. Then we hit dirt road, where we experienced our first flat tire since Mark and I have been together. The boys hiked a nearby mountain while Mark handled the tire changing like a pro. We reached Reid Ranch just in time for the boys to shoot a round or two of arrows and then the heaven's burst open and dumped buckets of rain on us for the rest of the evening. Uncle Matthew saved the day shuttling us all back and forth between the Cafeteria and the Lodge. Then we played Five Crowns with Hunter and Paul introduced Hunter to Killer Bunnies which now has very high priority on his Christmas Wishlist.
 
Day 8: Very early in the morning I got up to go to the bathroom. About half an hour later, Mark and I both thought my water broke. Due to the dark dirt roads and the washout earlier, we didn't leave for the hospital until later that morning. Mark and I were both very upset because the odds of 24 week twins surviving premature labor didn't look good. The doctor ran several tests and concluded I had basically just peed my pants and my CT doctor agreed and said that sort of thing happens all the time with twins. Funny no one mentions it until it happens. Anyway, we returned to Reid Ranch to find Noah and Denver happily playing with Grandma and Grandpa Henrichsen and Hunter happily playing Killer Bunnies with Paul. After a brief swim, we had dinner and then enjoyed a family get together around the campfire and Caroline's wedding shower. Of course, our camera batteries died on our return to Reid Ranch so. . . if any of you who are reading this have pictures you'd be willing to share with us, we'd be mighty grateful--especially pictures from the campfire. You can email them to us at sshenrichsen@optonline.net or mhenrichs3@optonline.net.
Day 9: Aunt Kathy arrived early in the morning to take family photos and although the boys weren't really in the mood to have their pictures taken, they smiled occassionally and were pretty good sports. We took the boys up to ride the ponies afterwards and Denver was especially thrilled. He rode the pony once and the big black horse, Blackie, twice. Hunter and Noah weren't so thrilled but I imagine that had something to do with the heat and the fact that they wanted to do paddle boating instead. After lunch we said our farewells and headed back down the dirt road once again. We stopped at Cows in Park City where they have some of the very best ice cream ever, washed the Suburban before returning it (leaving behind half a mountain) and then met Grandma and Grandpa Stout and Kathy at the Golden Corral for dinner.
Day 10: We spent our last day in Provo, running to several different stores here and there. I wanted to go to Deseret Industries (Utah's equivalent to Goodwill) and look for some modest dresses. Seems Goodwill and DI have a nice assortment of modest dresses that are hard to come by anywhere else. I managed to find a few and Hunter found a book about the United States that he wanted. We then stopped by the BYU Bookstore where we picked up some lunch and Mark found a lanyard that he wanted. Of course, we also found a couple of books we wanted too. Then we swung by the BYU Creamery for some ice cream (Graham Canyon for me, of course) and some Mint Chocolate Brownies for Grandma and Grandpa Stout, just to say thanks for letting us crash their house and use their car for a week and a half. Then we returned to SLC where we stopped by Chick-Fil-A for dinner and got to see Megan, Uncle Aaron and Aunt Alice, Grandma and Grandpa Stout, and Joe and Suzie and kids. After dinner we headed over to the Streadbeck reunion, where we once again chatted and then made our final farewells. We packed up all our belongings and headed East once again--this time having a much smoother flight back. Mark had a little bit of a falling out with the parking authorities because it seemed they were charging us ten dollars more than they were supposed to. Afterwards Mark realized that they were totally right and we will very easily chalk it up to sheer exhaustion on Mark's part. We spent our entire first day back catching up on lost sleep, not just from the flight back but from so much partying and having fun out there in Utah. We definitely can't wait till next time.
posted by Shana # 9:54 PM 
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