Trip to Utah

Traveled with two kids in the car for 11.5 hours each way. Need I say more? This is Dottie, expressing her joy on my bed.

It was really a good trip. I'm just still feeling the side effects of traveling, and being sick while traveling, with two sick kids.
We made this little trip (we were there 3.5 days) to visit Mark, Yoshiko, and Chris, Joe's uncle, aunt, and cousin. They live in Japan, so it's not very often we get to see them. It's always a special trip when they come. So it was well worth the trip.

Again, I'm lousy at taking pictures when I actually go places. I'm only good at taking pictures when I have nothing else to do. So here's the family: Yoshiko by the banister, followed by Chris, Mary, Joe and Elliot, me and Dottie, Mark, Grandma, and Grandpa Hollstein. It was really fun talking with Mark and Yoshiko -- I can count the times I've met them on one hand. They are really lovely people and we enjoyed being with them.

Dottie and Chris. Chris is eight, therefore, Dottie idolized him. She thought everything he did was very funny. She's wearing a Hello Kitty shirt over her dress from Mark and Yoshiko. Yes, she loves Hello Kitty that much.
We stayed with Mary and Jesse while we were there. And sadly enough, I took no pictures of them. I'm terrible. Mary and Jesse have a Wii, so we enjoyed playing with the Wii. We also went to Raging Waters with them, a fun waterpark. Joe was the most adventurous, going down slides that were physically damaging. But hey, Joe loved it.



We also got to see Amanda and Jonathan briefly while we were there, as well as Aunty Eleanor, Travis and Michelle, and Morgan. It was one of those quick trips that didn't allow us to really spend enough time with anyone. But this is when we could get it in, between Joe's band camp and school starting (yes, he's already in teachers' meetings. How terrible). But it was still fun to see everyone. Amanda and Jonathan leave for Boston on Tuesday, so this was really the last Utah hurrah with them. Now we'll just have to go to Boston to see them . . .

In other news, Elliot is a ravenous eater of baby food. He loves it. I especially like it when he eats carrots, because he gets an orange beard that strongly resembles his dad with a goatee (compare this picture to the first one in the last post -- you'll see what I mean).

So my summer is mostly over :( I have one more party: mom, dad, Bryan, Jared, and Carrie are coming on Monday and will be here 10 days. So that will be exciting.

Thanks again to all of our Utah friends and family for making it a fun trip. We enjoyed seeing you and we miss you!