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Sunday, June 5, 2011

A Trip to Utah to visit the Dunns, Dingers, and Dinosaurs!

For our annual Memorial Day Celebration we made our trek down to Utah to visit our peeps! Oh how we miss you peeps! We left Friday night after Jason was done with work and drove our 4 1/2 hours to good ol' Hooper. It was amazing to see all of Utah still green! (It was the end of May and there is still snow in the mountains...and it snowed in the mountains while we were there too!) It was also nice to finally drive into the valley and not be filled with severe sadness that we lived so far away from family and friends. I think we are now used to living in Idaho and I think we owe that a LOT to our amazing ward family!
In Hooper we saw Grandma & Grandpa Dinger, Auntie Joy & Auntie Marie. The girls were pretty tired and went to sleep pretty fast but after getting some good ol' loving!
Saturday morning we ventured down to Sandy to meet up with the Dunns, Debra and Rachel at the Living Planet Aquarium. You may ask...why are there no pictures from the aquarium? Well, after swiftly taking Tori inside to go to the bathroom (have I mentioned that I HATE potty training?!) I met everyone inside the aquarium and Jason didn't get the camera out of the car. Da-da-dum! Sad day, but we confiscated Marie's camera and took some pictures that will be viewed on a later post!
It was fun to see the Dunns and little baby Ryah, who is now not so little and getting bigger and bigger as we speak. I cannot believe that the next time we see her she will probably be 1 and be walking! YIKES! Time flies! Anyway, the aquarium was fabulous and Tori had a blast. After their own little fiasco at home Debra, Rachel and Rachel's niece Caroline met up with us at the end of our aquarium tour. We then went to lunch at Olive Garden and gabbed for a few hours. It is so fun to hang out with the old gang! WE MISS YOU! There is a picture of all of the girls at Olive Garden, but at this moment in time it is in limbo....lost in the files of another camera.

After our delicious meal we made our way down to Spanish Fork to start the amazing Dunn Dinger Extravaganza! Oh how much we love and miss our Dunns! Of course we were greeted by Max the dog (as Tori likes to call him...not to be mixed up with any other Max that she knows) and a feeling of home. The Dunn's house is definitely our second home and we all feel pretty comfortable there...ahhh...nice! The girls love to play their piano and Brooke roamed around the whole place bejeweled... she made sure that we packed her jewels!

Max (can you spot him camouflaged in the couch?!) couldn't get enough of Jason (and vice versa) and I just couldn't get enough of this little girl! Baby Ryah is quite the content little one. Tori loved her too (I don't think Brooke really knew that she existed...maybe next time) and taught her the art of watching TV.

Of course, one of the main reasons that we go down to Utah is to go visit Spencer's grave. To us it is a happy place...we know he is not really there, but we like to go and visit. Tori isn't in the pictures because she fell asleep in the car. I love the color of the roses that we got this year. It is really amazing to see all of the beautiful flowers and families coming together to visit their loved ones. It is somewhat sad to see all of the little children that surround little Spencer's grave, but I know that they are all safe and in a better place.

We ALWAYS have a good time with the Dunns. Tiffany and I usually do something crafty (this time it was bookmarks for Tiff's RS meeting) while we roll our eyes at our husband's silly antics. Jason and Adam together is a little on the scary side sometimes! (Oh and that marvelous picture of Jason and I is amazing! Thanks Marie!)

Here is some more Ryah loving time...I am sure she was tired of our kisses at the end. It was fun to see her interact with Tori. Ryah would get so excited when she spotted Tori in the room. Tori played "This little piggy" with her toes, sang her songs, gave her loves and taught her all the secrets of being part of the Dunn Dinger Clan.

Sunday night we were joined by Debra, Rachie and Marie's friend Tyler. I didn't get to many pictures of this reunion because I was barfed on (which luckily was a fluke...I mean, it was not an ongoing thing....and Brooke actually slept pretty well that night) and attacked by a killer poo virus! TMI...maybe, but that is the truth (I wish I could have spent more time with my girls!). Tori had to sit in between Rachie and Debra on the couch and held Debra's hand. But nothing can beat playing and snuggling with Adam! Tori loves Adam so much that I think she left him her cold. Alas...all things Dunn Dinger had to come to an end. We had a BLAST! and cannot wait until next year!

On our way home, we stopped in Ogden for some good ol' Chick-fil-A with Grandma & Grandpa Dinger and Auntie Joy. We decided before the kids had to be in the car for another 4 hours, we would let them roam around the Dinosaur Park by the Ogden Canyon. I had NO idea how fun this place was. Tori (our resident Dinosaur lover) was in HEAVEN! Tori was not impressed with the animatronic dinosaurs, but really liked the fossilized eggs and poop that we saw in the museum. Brooke loved to climb on all of the displays that said "Please refrain from climbing on exhibit. Thank you." It is really hard to chase around a toddler and take pictures at the same time!

Tori was pretty much amazed by everything outside in the gardens. (Make the pictures bigger by clicking on them... they are so dang cute!)

She even hugged and kissed a few dinosaurs! She liked to put her hands (and basically her whole body) into the dinosaur prints and exploring the secret trails along the way.

We explored the whole park (and even found a slug).

In the center of the park was a play area. Brooke and Tori went wild. Brooke is a little bit more adventurous than Tori, and climbed all over everything and even went down the spiral slide all by herself. Do you see the wild animals that we saw at the park?

We tried to get a good picture of our family under the legs of the dinosaur, but of course Tori would not look at the camera and artistic license of the picture taker only got the stomach of the the dinosaur. Oh well. At last, we had to leave Utah... and as you can see, the Dinosaur Park tired out our little scientist...and she got a good nap in on the way home. Thanks for taking us to the park Grandma & Grandpa Dinger (and for the GREAT idea Auntie Joy)!

Here is my favorite picture of the trip...Tori caught a ladybug while sitting on a slide in the Dinosaur Park. Tori LOVES ladybugs and was tickled (literally and figuratively) that the ladybug wanted to crawl all over her!

5 comments:

One mom said...

Whew! I am glad you were able to travel to see your family/friends. I also love the picture of Tori holding the lady bug. Thanks for the fun pictures and update!

Sawyers Family said...

Looks like so much fun!! We were talking about you guys the other day and we sure miss those Dingers!!

Alli Blue said...

What a great trip! Loved all the pictures! What a sweet family you have!

Lesley said...

Looks like a wonderful trip! I am always so impressed by your blogging skills. I want to be like you someday.

Katie said...

Kendra, here are some links to where I learned how to make the flowers for the headbands: http://www.prudentbaby.com/2010/02/diy-fabric-flower-hair-clip.html

http://www.prudentbaby.com/2010/10/no-sew-rolled-fabric-flower-baby.html

I made them then hot glued them on to bands I made from cutting women's tights about 2 1/2 inches wide.

As for the nursing, this time I pumped every time after she would eat for the first 2 weeks (hospital rented pump) and I took fenugreek herbs as well. Hope this helps.