the blog version of a vacation slide show

the blog version of a vacation slide show, no one really wants to watch but you can't pull away.

the day after you get home from a loooong trip:

exhaustion combined with grocery shopping to make up for 9 days of travel. COMPLEX THOUGHTS ARE HARD! and a spoon of nutella is a must to get you to lunchtime!

for real. we spent 3 days in georgia with thomas' mom and then we came home for a day so thomas could attend some work meetings so that his bank would not implode without his very important presence. then i did laundry and repacked because the world would spin off it's axis if i didn't have fresh laundry as we left for 5 days in utah for my brother's wedding. 

our trip could be summed up as this: traveled. humid. traveled again. screaming baby. dry weather. ears popped. cafe rio. football. flew home.

but for posterity, here's the blow by blow and every excruciating detail:

we drove to georgia with 3 heavily drugged kids. no one slept but me. 

we visited with the kid's beloved mimi and she honored the tradition of attempting to trick the big kids into thinking manual labor is fun. they both got to take quite the lengthy spin on the mower and did not realize that the purpose of driving in circles for 2 hours in the RIDICULOUSLY HUMID south georgia swamp was to mow a field. smiles abounded. 

we visited the barnyard animals that are recent additions to mimi's farm. new piglets were born the night before and they smelled like absolute steamy,ripe death. we were also greeted with synchronized pooping from the other 300lb hogs. a family reunion indeed. 

 

these are the types of shenanigans my kids get away with in church when we visit mimi:

it took all my strength to not swat those unrighteous, irreverant bottoms.

after our 24 hour interlude back to south carolina, we headed up to charlotte, north carolina to catch out flight to salt lake city.

flying with blythe was just about as bad as you can imagine but at the same time, those experiences are just about as spiritual as you can get. i know prayers are answered. think about wrestling a greased pot-bellied pig for 43 hours while tied to a stool and praying like your life depends on it. on our second flight of the day, we were all separated with boys in one section and girls in the other. i volunteered to take blythe because i was hoping to use it for leverage later on. she screamed for 45 minutes straight all the while i am praying, nay, PLEADING in prayer that she will fall asleep after having had only 5 hours of sleep the night before. finally, my heart's righteous desire was granted. blythe fell asleep. right after she pooped her pants. there was no way on earth i was waking her and changing that diaper and i informed my seat mates of this and told them to breathe through their mouths and be grateful for tender mercies.

by time we arrived in salt lake we couldn't wait to get out of confined spaces, but we changed our plans and made a beeline to the cafe rio at the airport. over the next 24 hours, we would have cafe rio 2 more times. dinner in park city and lunch in provo. 

we took in some of the sights of temple square. some liked it more than others.

after temple square, we drove to sugar house and saw one of my favorite people of ALL TIME AMEN, emily!!! i hadn't seen her since we lived together at byu. i teared up when i saw her on her porch and felt like i needed to tear off my clothes, put a sweaty, ripped up shirt on over my swimsuit and eat 54 otter pops on the front porch whilst playing the ever popular and continually relevant game, "who would you rather kiss?" it was like 2001 all over again. i love her dearly. God has given me good friends.

after visiting emily, i got a text from someone in south carolina. i didn't know who they were, so i decided to play along. if only i had played along a little longer i could have heard what i can only assume to have been a really fascinating bit of news. thinking about this exchange cracked me up for days.

after all the day's festivities, blythe put herself to sleep.

DAY 2. i know, just day 2. that morning we saw all my siblings at my brother david's house in west jordan. then we drove to provo and briefly saw grandma bonnie. during all that family time with people i hadn't seen in 3 years, i took one picture. my grandma's world map with all our family's past and present missionaries posted. it's a treasure trove of work and history.

in provo, we drove to all our former apartments and houses that we could find. the kids loved it(sarcasm). being a starving college student is one of the best experiences you can have. not fun, but best.

the sky is a bit bluer in provo.

we got to be "that family" walking 4 wide with a stroller during class breaks on campus. who needs a marriage prep class when you see us coming?

someone is always dancing in the ballroom.

they've drastically improved the wilk barber shop to a full-service paul mitchell salon. i'm sure the students are the worst tippers EVER.

we indoctrinated as much as we could. we may bark with the georgia bulldogs and roll with the alabama crimson tide, but we are BYU cougar true blue all the way. this is where you want to go kids.

day 3
wedding day at the salt lake temple
christmas card accomplished

the fabulous bride and groom. i'd like to thank shayla for allowing mark to be a part of her wedding.

i must say that i did have a mini, internal temper tantrum when i saw her dress for the first time. i may have thought, "i hate her stinking guts for looking so good when i was stuck getting married in the early 2000's and the only dress option was a white t-shirt style dress and a voluminous skirt that made you look like a shapeless blob." but, shayla is really nice so i forgive her for being so pretty. 

we are now 5 for 5. we tricked 5 unsuspecting people into joining this band of weirdos.

because you can never have enough pictures of the salt lake temple. 

my delightful cousin jen, who just birthed her 3rd offspring a few DAYS prior, wrestled blythe during the wedding luncheon.

mark gave a nice speech at the luncheon and i kept wondering who this nice young man talking was. funny, charming and full sentences. everyone really does grow up eventually.

after the young lovers left for the their honeymoon, the rest of us repaired to our sister-in-law christine's family cabin. we proceeded to eat until we were void of emotions. happy, sad, it didn't matter. we just ate. 

the becks in their natural habitat.

 




we also watched beck family home videos. it's an acquired taste. this time was especially poignant for us as this was the first time we had all been together since dad's funeral. hearing his commentary on the home videos is priceless. 


there were even footage i had never seen. me in hello dolly! 1994. perhaps it's time for another perm?

day 4(i know, it seems like day 342) we went to the hogle zoo. i sort of really hate the zoo, because it's hot and smells like poop and that's a terrible combination. but we were so close to the university of utah you couldn't even tell the difference! (ba da bum! still got it!) the hogle zoo was really quite nice. plus, it was nice hot, not unbearably hot. i won't be making an hogle zoo patron donations, but i may even pay for my own ticket next time. a pleasant zoo experience indeed.

cousins in the monkey house, visiting family! (see what i did there? still got it!)

if i could pinpoint one big difference between southerners and the rest of the country, it's willingness to talk to other people they don't know. at our hotel during breakfast, we found people avoiding eye contact with us and shutting down any conversational attempts. i guess friendliness made us the weirdos. on three separate occasions when people actually would reciprocate conversation, we found out they were from louisiana, alabama and georgia. 

this is thomas talking SEC football with an LSU fan:  

 i had also never been to dad's grave in sandy.

afterward we headed to uncle ray's and ate our brains out again and watched byu triumph over texas. it was a beautiful thing. 

we looked like this at the airport on day 5.
 simpson=delightfully obnoxious

the end. i'm convinced i will actually try and make my own cafe rio sweet pork now. can't live without it.