We drove to Glenwood Springs where we met up with some friends of Chris’ from the Philippines who now live in Colorado. We picked up Shawn in Glenwood Springs and then drove about 30 to 40 minutes to Aspen to meet his sister, Sheila, and see some of the tourist sites around there. The rain started again as we headed into the mountains to Maroon Bells-the name of the mountains. The lake there is supposedly very beautiful, but it poured as we arrived . I stayed in the van with Kristen while the others got out to check out the lake, and by the time they came back they were soaked. Kind of a waste for the $10 we had to pay as an admission fee into the mountains.
We decided to drive back toward Glenwood Springs for dinner and stopped in a town between the springs and Aspen (can’t remember the name though). We chose a small pizza shop when the Mexican food place was packed and parking was nowhere to be had. It was certainly not superb, but passable.
After leaving Shawn and Sheila, we continued on to Grand Junction where Chris had booked a hotel for the evening. Nothing fancy but they did have a continental breakfast in the morning which was nice. Kristen was a dear and slept throughout the night and continued to do so for the rest of the trip. We are sure blessed to have such a sweet baby. Amy and Misha too were great about going to bed and fell asleep quickly after long and busy days.
We left for Provo the next morning and arrived around 2:30 or 3 pm. We stopped at a park where the girls could play, and I could nurse Kristen. We figured since we were in Provo that we would stop at Susan’s and let the kids play with their cousins. That’s what they had been looking forward to for the past couple of weeks as they anticipated their trip to Utah. We had hoped to meet up with Mom and Dad later that night but after being cut off on the cell phone a number of times as we drove through the mountains, they decided to run down to Salt Lake to pick up something for Dallin.
Instead, Chris called his Novell friends and arranged to get together with them for dinner in Spanish Fork. We met at The Pizza Factory. I was tired and Kristen was beginning to be more and more frazzled so it wasn’t so much fun for me, but there were kids for the girls to play with and we headed over to Brett and Deni’s after dinner to see their new house.
Brad had also closed on his new home earlier in the day, so we didn’t stay long so that we could arrive at Brad’s house before 10 pm. He graciously allowed us to stay the night even though he was going back to Maureen’s for the night. He had been staying at her place for a couple of days between moving out of his condo and closing on his new home. The view was incredible from his living room and was one of the big draws for him. He now has a two bedroom home with a basement framed and ready to be finished. He lives on the Utah County side of the Point of the Mountain across the freeway from Thanksgiving Point. He lives in a new development called Traverse Mountain.
We arrived at his house late just as Mom and Dad and Dallin and Donna were leaving to go back to Dallin and Donna’s house. The girls were sleeping so we made up beds for them and they were back to sleep for the night.
Brad dropped by briefly on Saturday morning to bring food that he had been storing in Maureen’s refrigerator. He was having the carpets cleaned and asked if we would stick around until the cleaners came to let them in. We drove over to Dallin’s and dropped Amy and Misha off for a little bit to play with Angie and Wade. Isaac had been throwing up, but they figured it was from the four hot dogs he had wolfed the previous night.
We waited at Brad’s for 45 minutes for the carpet cleaner guy to show up. He was supposed to be there by 11:00 am but was quite late. We finally left there, went to pick up the girls and headed towards The Practice for Brad to check Misha and Kristen’s eyes. Chris was worried that her eyes weren’t tracking like they should. Turns out she is doing great, no worries yet, and Misha’s eyes have improved in the last year. Wahooo. I hope that they will continue to do so.
We picked up a few groceries on the way home and then went to help Brad unload. Once we arrived, Kristen chose this moment to have a break down. I think she was simply so out of sync with her routine and schedule and so overtired from not getting a good nap. She cried for quite some time, slept a short while and then was up again. The good news is that she slept until after 8 am Saturday and Sunday morning. In fact, we had to wake her up on Sunday in order to get her ready for church on time.
Sadly, when Brad checked to see if his utilities were still working, the hot water that he felt was the last little bit in the tank. He didn’t realize that the gas had been shut off and was not able to have someone out to turn it on until Monday morning. So we didn’t bathe or shower on Saturday or Sunday and finally I boiled water on the stove for a bath for me and the girls Monday morning.
We attended Brad’s church with him at 9 am along with Mom and Dad. The ward was huge and reminded us of our ward in Colorado. Even the church was new and finished in the same colors. Brad’s ward however is growing so much faster than ours. We thought our growth was crazy. They are getting ready to be split soon. There were four looooooong baby blessings in Sacrament meeting. Our girls don’t usually get to have paper and pen until after the sacrament is finished so it was especially long and boring for them as the testimony portion of the meeting did not even begin until 9:55.
We went back to Brad’s after church and just vegged until 5:30 pm. Dallin and Donna had a dinner at their house for the entire family and the girls were excited to play more with their cousins. Amy and Angie get along a lot better now, but Dallin’s boys were pretty rough and punching Misha; wasn’t too happy with that. Her tender little whiney heart caused her to cry a couple of times. Kristen was loved by all.
Monday morning at 10 am we were scheduled to be at the Sears in South Provo for family pictures with the Ball family. After the fun adventure of heating water and bathing, we arrived right on time. It was nice to see more cousins, many that we had never met before. The pictures went on for quite some time, especially since each family did photos as well. When they were finally ready and they showed us ours, I was not impressed whatsoever. They agreed to redo ours, but the photographer was definitely not pleased. Finally that was done, we had picked all the shots we wanted, and we headed to the food court.
Chris, Amy, and Misha were going to Seven Peaks with some of his family, and Kristen and me were hanging with Brad, Mom, and Dad to pick out a couch and carpet for his house. (What he finally settled on he has since changed his mind about and will continue looking). He did find a lawnmower though.
After a long afternoon, and too many stints of feeding Kristen in the bathroom on a hard chair, I headed back to Brad’s with Mom and Dad while he went back to Maureen’s to pick up his bike. The traffic was quite congested, and I knew we would be cutting it close to get to Kristen’s baby blessing on time. Chris and girls pulled in about 20 minutes after I did. I was finishing up feeding Kristen, and we had to then hurriedly change and pack up all of our stuff.
The blessing was scheduled for 6 pm, but so many people were late with the bad traffic. Chris’ mission president and one of his companions and family (Jeff and Jo Isom) were able to attend along with everyone from both sides of our family. It was especially poignant for Chris, and I could tell that he struggled to keep his emotions in check during the blessing. After Kristen’s blessing, Kyle blessed Dylan as well. Nice because Kyle’s parents and sister were able to attend as they live in Springville.
Karra King, my niece, took notes during the blessing and these were some of the things Kristen was blessed with:
“Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus Christ and with the power of the holy Melchizedek Preisthood, we come before thee with this infant in our arms to give her a name and a blessing. The name that she will be known as is Kristen Nicole Kline. Kristen you are born into a special time and are a special and chosen spirit of Heavenly Father. I bless you to have extraordinary strength...You will have the opportunity to marry in the temple.
You have parents who love you. I bless you to have a free mind to learn everything that our Father in Heaven would have you learn. I bless you to have a spirit of peace and to be a peacemaker in your home. You have a strong intellect....Be safe....Seek to know things from the will of Heavenly Father. I bless you to have the spirit. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.”
After the blessings were finished, there were many pictures taken but we finally were able to get everyone out of the church and headed toward Chuck-o-Rama in Draper where we had reserved a room and had dinner. It was a great evening that we all enjoyed (that is, except for Dallin and Donna as Isaac was throwing up again).
After saying our goodbyes, we headed north toward Ogden and Wolf Creek. It was about 15 minutes to get through Ogden to the mouth of the canyon and then about another 20 minutes to travel to and find Wolf Creek. All of the girls had been sleeping in the car, but Amy was wide awake once we arrived at the resort. Linda had booked two condos next to each other. Ours had two bedrooms that slept our family and Becky and Kyle slept in a loft upstairs that also had beds for their kids and a separate bathroom.
Fortunately the unit had a toilet plunger because our bathroom’s toilet was plugged and Chris had to spend time plunging it once we arrived. He was very vocal to Becky at how disgusting it was. Since they were the only ones staying in the condo, it was likely someone in their family that plugged it, but she didn’t think it could have been her family. Go figure.
Tuesday morning arrived bright but not too early. Linda and Candace planned to go to Costco to purchase food for the week and since Chris was strongly encouraging me to get a swimming suit, Kristen and I went along. We bought sooooooo much food, more than we could have eaten in two weeks probably.
We went swimming in the afternoon. Misha said that she wasn’t feeling too great and threw up as we were walking to the pool. She didn’t want to be left behind while everyone else was swimming though. There was a small wading pool there that was quite warm and Kristen loved it. I sat with her while the girls swam and played. They had a great time. Once we were back at the condo though, Misha started to throw up more. Fortunately, the first time, Chris got her mostly to the tile floor before she puked. She threw up in the garbage can next, poor thing. She fell asleep early. Chris started feeling nauseous and there began my very fun evening. He had the chills so I kept warming up towels and covering him up. Once it cooled off, I had another towel ready to go on him. He finally threw up, but never really felt better until the next day.
Amy spent the evening over at Grandma’s condo eating and watching tv. I went over for awhile to eat after Chris threw up and was feeling better, but didn’t stay very long. I tried to have Amy come back with me because I knew that she would be falling asleep soon. She was laying on the floor watching Star Wars. She wanted to stay, so I let her. Becky said that she would bring her home. Not long after I left, Amy was asleep on the floor while cousins played around her.
I heard Misha moan during the night and quickly got up to see what was wrong. Good thing because she was starting to barf by the time I got into her room and could hold the garbage can under her chin. She is frustrating when I do that though because she keeps trying to push the garbage can away. She must have felt better after that because she fell asleep for the rest of the night and seemed to be better in the morning.
Wednesday morning was full of relaxing. Linda had thought she wanted to go go go all week long, but she starting enjoying doing nothing and so the rest of us were happy that we weren’t compelled to go or do anything. Chris wasn’t feeling quite up to par and took the opportunity to sleep while I took the girls swimming. Kristen actually slept in the stroller while I watched the girls swim and play with cousins and Grandma and Grandpa. Chris came over about 45 minutes later and swam for a bit.
Since it was our responsibility to fix dinner on Wednesday evening, we didn’t stay too long at the pool. We BBQ’d hamburgers and hotdogs. I thought that the kids would mostly eat the hotdogs, but lots of the parents did too. It was an easy fix without an overabundance of clean up.
On Thursday Becky and Kevin and their families and us decided to go to Temple Square. Linda and Larry drove to Provo to help Lori and Jenni move and clean their apartment. Yes, they are needy. The rest of us arrived in Salt Lake around noon and found a park close to the capitol building to have lunch at. The kids ate some, played, ate some more, played more... you get the idea. I think we got a little food in them.
After lunch we headed to Temple Square and the church office buildings. Chris wanted to have us go to the top to see the view, which we did, and after we came back down, I looked back to see Drew, Becky’s little boy, throwing up on the floor. What I missed seeing however was how he had already thrown up all over his dad. The rest of us went outside while they cleaned up. Becky and Kyle decided that they had already had enough and headed back to Wolf Creek to rest and do some laundry.
The rest of us stayed a while longer, took some pictures, went to the visitor’s center, saw the Christus, etc. We headed over to the mall to get something cool to drink. Kevin and Candace then decided that they were tired (Candace is 4 ½ months pregnant) and were going back to Wolf Creek. Chris had told the girls that they could ride the light rail, so I stayed with Kristen at Mervyn’s while they went for a ride. There wasn’t much at Mervyn’s to catch my eye, so we headed over to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and sat in the lobby listening to beautiful piano music. Kristen slept while I enjoyed the music and watched people. Before leaving Salt Lake, we made one more stop at the Distribution Center to get new garments. Traffic was awful on the way back. We weren’t thinking and left Salt Lake right at rush hour. Fortunately the girls slept.
Becky cooked a spaghetti casserole for dinner which was quite good. Misha didn’t care for the look of it even and literally made herself sick over one bite. As we sat at the table, she finally threw up after gagging on the one and only bite in her mouth. Good thing she is a slow eater as most of the family had already left the table. Chris put her to bed after that, and she was one starving hombre come morning time.
Since we were gone most of the day, Amy finally got her daddy to take her swimming after dinner. It’s vacation after all. Chris didn’t even get in, but she had fun nevertheless.
Friday morning we all headed up to Snow Basin ski area. Most of us were going to take the tram up to the top of the mountain. Kevin, Chris and Kyle had a little more adventure in mind. They rented mountain bikes and spent the day riding down the mountain. Chris and Kevin stayed together and Kyle and his friend rode together. Chris was exhilarated by the experience. He absolutely loved it. It is something that he has always wanted to do so I am glad that he was able to get the chance.
The rest of us came down the mountain about an hour later and headed back to Wolf Creek. Lucky me got to make dinner for everyone else. Lazy bunch of people. The girls played for the afternoon and when Chris got home around 4 pm we all went swimming.
By the time Saturday morning rolled around. I had had enough “vacation”. Sharing a condo began to get old and wear on my nerves at that point. Kristen hadn’t had a really good nap all week long due to noisy kids and having a room right by the front door. We started getting things packed up in the morning and headed back down to Brad’s place around 11 am. Larry and Linda, along with Candace, Jeremy, and Jonathan were also leaving on Saturday but they had so much stuff to pack, they were lucky I think to finally get out of there before 3 pm.
Candace and her boys were riding back with Larry and Linda to spend the week with her family and then attend Lori’s wedding on the following Saturday. Speaking of Lori, I think I saw her Monday morning at the pictures in Provo and then Tuesday night for a short time. She never even bothered to introduce us to Sam. Anyway, Candace would stay with her family, Kevin was flying home to work and then flying back again to Vancouver the following weekend for the wedding.
We spent a little time with Dallin and Donna and family, but by that time, we were so familied out that we just got some pizza and went to Brad’s for the evening. We were planning to leave Sunday morning to drive home. Our trip home was uneventful and all the girls were pretty good in the car. I was just glad to finally be back in my own bed. I think Kristen was too. She looked around the house and settled in quickly.
We were home for a couple of days and then Chris was off again to Vancouver for the wedding on Thursday the 18th. We probably all would have gone to the wedding if Linda hadn’t been so adamant that she wanted us at the family reunion instead. Seems to me that an event such as a wedding should pull rank, but whatever... Sadly for Chris, he was the only one without his family there. Thus he became the “royal run all the errands” guy. Lucky him huh.
Amy and I along with other two girls got to go visit her teacher, Mrs. Stephen at the school on Thursday the 18th as well. We got to see where her classroom would be and take a tour of the rest of the school. Impressive I say. Amy was so excited for school to start.
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