Utah Vacation

Nick and I recently had our first "vacation" together as a family.....lets just say we learned lots of things to help make our future vacations go smoother. I will first start with all the great, fun things that happened while on vacation and then we can go over a few of the um... mishaps. We flew in Tuesday together into Salt Lake and went straight from the airport to visit our friends Lisa & Brandon. It was so great to see them, they adopted a little baby about a month after Austin was born and quickly found out that she was pregnant as well. She is due this November, so her babies will be 8 months apart!! She couldn't have looked cuter with the little belly and Nick and I are so excited for them.

We then headed down to stay with Houston and Cristina in Orem for the remainder of the week in Utah. Wednesday Nick left super early and I didn't see him until Friday afternoon because he spent the week in Salt Lake golfing with his brothers. During that time I got to spend time with so many great friends and family that I have missed so much. I spent a whole day with Janey, which was so much fun it actually made me sad I lived in Texas. Our babies played together on the floor, rolling into each other and laughing really hard. It was the most adorable thing ever. We then went to Wal Mart to visit all the old friends and co-workers and then headed to the famous Cafe Rio for a late lunch. The talking and laughing was non-stop, which made me super sad to leave that evening. I miss you Janey!!!!

I spent the nights at home with Stina, which was so much fun!! I don't think we have had one on one girls time in a really long time, which was pretty much what we did all of senior year. So every evening she would send Houston on his way to work and I would get Austin down and in bed, then it was just us! She introduced to me some really great 80's movies, which made it even better to watch their horrible clothes and hairstyles. We had sonic runs, popcorn and fun chats- once they move down here we can start making it a tradition and leave the babies with the boys!

An old Prom pic of Stina, Halie and I!

Another day was spent with Julie, who I miss so so much. Stina, Julie and I all went to Zupas for lunch but had to drop Stina off to school right after. During that time Julie and I ran errands together and went to her apartment. It was so much fun to see her again and have fun like how things were when we lived together. The summer before I got married Julie and I lived together, worked together, had the same gym membership and when we weren't doing those things we were either swimming or shopping together. It was some of my fondest memories at BYU. It was so great to catch up with her and I can't wait to see her soon!

I also got to see Kylie, Kevin & HolliJo and some other close friends, I miss them all! I wish I could have spent more time with Houston but with him working overnights it was a bit harder. He was really sweet with Austin and I while we stayed. He always wanted to hold and play with Austin and always offering to make me food because he knows I love his great cooking. I finally saw Nick again on Friday afternoon, he met up with Stina and I in Park City to do a little shopping, which brings me to my first memorable story. As Stina and I were walking through Nine West I had Austin sitting in his stroller...unbuckled. Now don't judge me because he has been so little and not wiggly but recently he has been changing and wanting to move more. Anyways- I was pushing the stroller and Austin was whining and then all the sudden the stroller got really light. I looked forward and Austin had fallen to the floor in the middle of Nine West and to make me feel even more embarrassed and worse, we were surrounded by a group of people. Stina still claims that no one noticed, but I think she is trying to make me feel better. It was a good lesson for me to not leave him unbuckled and Austin was fine- just felt pretty stupid.

That night we met his roommates for dinner but also got to see some of the Butler clan- John, Emma, Josh, Jake and all the babies on the way! John kept calling Austin "Victor" or "Vic" because he thinks he looks like my dad- don't know how I feel about that.... So after seeing Mandy Saturday morning I was on my way to Cedar with Nick to join me the next Tuesday.

Cedar city was great to spend time with the family and Forrest came down to join us for that week. The guys played golf and helped my dad with some moving things, while my mom and I shopped and took care of Austin. My mom loves Austin and says she thinks he is going to be smart because he has a "big frontal lobe." I am pretty sure she doesn't even know what the frontal lobe does, so I just take it that Austin has a big forehead and we need to teach Austin that Grandma will always say "funny" things. :) We just loved spending time with the family, eating great food, seeing movies and being away from the norm. Fo, Nick and I saw The Dark Night, which was really good. My mom also said she "didn't like that movie because it was dark and reminder her of hell."Anyways, by the end of the week Forrest was gone, Nick was catching a flight and my dad was on his way to Houston. My mom and I spent the next with lots of girl plans. We went up to Brianhead to my Aunt's cabin for a girls weekend with my cousins and grandma too. We all made blankets, ate food, played games, watched movies and acted very unlady-like. It was great. Then my mom and I headed to Vegas for some shopping and family time, then caught a flight home a few days early!

Here is a 5 generation pic- we couldn't get my Great-Grandma to smile.