The Qualters Visit Utah - June 7-12, 2013

Oh dear - I am still so far behind in posting. My sisters have already posted about Elaine's family's trip out to Utah months ago. I can only use the excuse of having a new baby for so long (and that obviously doesn't stop my sisters).

Anyway, here is my version of events. Since I use this blog mostly as an on-line journal and for my parents to see what is going on in our lives while they are living in Japan I'll do a quick recap of events from my perspective before I forget it all:

Friday, June 7th - Elaine and her family arrived in Salt Lake City and I picked them up from the airport. We were all able to fit into Brandon's dad's Expedition - I drove, Elaine sat in the front seat, Mike and the twins sat in the second row, and Lucy, Grey, and Maya sat in the third row. I bought an extra booster seat for Maya that Lucy is now using (she's been dying to upgrade from her car seat for months) and borrowed two extra car seats that Emily had. It was a tight squeeze but better than having Elaine and Mike have to pay for a shuttle or taxi, plus, I needed to get the car seats to them anyway.

Entertaining for large groups of people is not a great strength of mine but I offered to make dinner in order to take some of the work off of Emily who would be hosting them in her home and figured that Elaine, Mike, and the kids would be famished after all their travel. I knew Elaine and Mike would be okay with something laid back (like eating from their laps on the couch since I don't have enough table space) but I tried to prepare everything in advance so they wouldn't have to wait long. I had the garlic mustard chicken marinating (which I would quickly broil once we got home - I have to get a grill some day!), green salad and orzo pasta salad pre-made and in the fridge, and I just happened to have some mini-cheesecakes for dessert. It was slightly crazy in our tiny house with so many bodies but in a fun sort of way that makes it so exciting when family from far away comes to visit.

Once we finished eating, we moved the extra car seats to our Hyundai Sonata (which happened to be same car that Elaine and Mike had before they upgraded to their minivan) so that Elaine and Mike could have a vehicle for their family and some freedom to do whatever they wanted instead of renting a car or having me or Emily have to chauffeur them around. I wish I captured some pictures of our first evening but I was so busy running around preparing food and taking care of little Grey that it just didn't happen. You will just have to take my word that I cooked a yummy dinner.

Saturday, June 8th - We headed down to Provo for a Haleck Father's Day get-together at Timpanogos Park with Emily & Jared's family, Adam & Kim's family, Elaine & Mike's family, Heidi, and Vince & Peg (Vince & Peg would be out of town the next week for real Father's Day). It was so fun to have all of our little families together and especially with all the girls being so close in age. The Dayton family arrived exceedingly late but there was still plenty of food to be had - huevos rancheros and Jared's panni popo (Samoan coconut rolls) being the highlights. And Peg did not disappoint with all her crafts - there were paper ties to be colored, cute wooden frames to be decorated, hula hoops, and whipped cream shavings!

After all the eating and activities, you would think the girls would be exhausted but when we all got back to Emily's house, the dads took all the girls swimming while the moms took care of the babies. Elaine & Mike must have been doubly exhausted because they left the picnic early to hang out with a friend for a few hours and then drove back. After swimming, the girls all took a bath together and got in their jammies. I captured a few pictures from the day but not nearly as many as Emily posted on her blog HERE and Elaine posted on her blog HERE.

Elaine giving Corrigan some potty time.

Cousin bath time!

It kills me how much Maya looks like Elaine and Olive looks like Emily. We eventually separated the girls and made our way home to sleep in our own beds, looking forward to being reunited the next day.

Sunday, June 9th: We skipped out on our church (which starts at 11am - Emily's starts at 9am) to make it to lunch at Emily's house. But we still missed out on the photo shoot with all the other grandkids. We were all starving by lunch and destroyed Emily's tacos. Then we headed out to meet our cousin Megumi and her family for an outdoor walk at Bridal Veil Falls. Unfortunately, it was terribly hot outside (of course, Elaine and her family came out during a crazy heat wave) so it wasn't super enjoyable for us and the poor babies. How spoiled we are by air conditioning! Elaine and Emily got more than enough pictures of the day on their blogs HERE and HERE. I just got a few pictures of the girls after their bath time

Monday, June 10th: On Monday, Elaine and Emily drove up to Salt Lake City so we could all go to Discovery Gateway. Even though Maya had already been there a couple of years earlier on her last visit, she had been looking forward to going again. There just happened to be a sale on memberships there so Emily and I both got new 3-person memberships and were able to get Elaine and Maya in for free (babies under one are already free).

Grey was still in newborn sleepy stage and slept in his car seat.

The more mobile babies played around in the baby area.

The girls enjoyed a music class together.

Of course, they all wanted PINK scarves.

After the children's museum, we met up with Kim & Marlo at Liberty Park to have lunch and hang out. It was still hot so nap time was challenging with the babies. But the girls had fun playing in the splash pad there. Emily and Elaine again, posted many more pictures of the day HERE and HERE. Even though Megumi invited us all to dinner on Monday night at her new home in Orem, just Elaine and Emily went and we (the Daytons) opted out to avoid the drive and the late night away from home since we would be going down to Pleasant Grove the very next day.

Tuesday, June 11th: This was the Qualter's last day in Utah so we opted out of excursions for a more relaxing day. Well, most excursions...we did take a little trip to Discovery Park but that is close to Emily's house. The weather was still pretty warm but I don't think quite as warm as the other days. And we finally got a picture of all the grandchildren! This was the only picture that I got from the whole day but Elaine got quite a few more on her blog HERE.

It was so nice having Elaine and her family out to visit. I know that she loves DC so much and it is improbable that she would ever move to Utah but it would be so fun if the whole family lived close together. Who knows, maybe Emily and I can move back to the east coast someday so we wouldn't be so far apart. Here is hoping that our next Sturgis family get-together won't be separated by so many years and maybe we can get the entire family next time.