The rest of Utah

WHOOSH! Nothing gives you a "best mother in the world" boost like driving 12oo miles over 5 days with three kids 4 and under BY yourself. Although I could also say nothing makes you feel like "worst mother in the world" doing the same activity.
A week before we left I decided to go. Crazy, right? I had a lot of things to reschedule and organize to make it work, but the stars aligned and my busy schedule last weekend parted like the Red Sea so we could go. Couldn't pass up the opportunity. My lovely, darling sister in law just got engaged (seriously love her to pieces, last Ellingson woman, men, she's taken!!). Like, JUST. I had a dream a while ago that my brother in law got married and we went to his wedding and the brides family was nutso and wouldn't let me near the couple with my camera. I woke up all stressed out, so I posted on his facebook wall to tell him how irritated I was that his future bride's family was ruining my sleep (he's not engaged, don't worry ladies...). I wistfully mused that maybe the next night I would have better luck with Amber's future spouse's family. Har har, right? Well Amber called me the next week, and here's me, not even knowing that she was dating anyone. And she's all "Ha ha- that was funny what you posted on Michael's facebook wall," to which I replied, "Oh yeah, make sure that you tell your fiance's family to move out of the way when I do your wedding, ha ha." "Okay, so you'll do my wedding pictures for me when I get married, right?" she laughs. "Of course!" I answer.
"How about on December 16th?"
"Oh yeah, ha ha, sure Amber, okay!"
*silence*
"WAIT. Are you trying to TELL ME SOMETHING???"
Yes, indeed she was trying to tell me something. DECEMBER 16th people!!
So I remembered that Craig's parents were driving out to Utah for the weekend to pick up apples, and I thought, what the heck. I need to meet this guy and I need to see my family and the kids need to see their cousins. It totally worked out! We stayed with my aunt and uncle in Park City for a few nights, then met up with all the Utah Ellingsons at Craig's oldest brother's family's house in Springville. I met the fiance. I approve. I saw Amber's wedding dress (by picture). I approve. I've got my wedding assignments so far (as both bride and brides mother are Relief Society Presidents this semester, yikes, talk about BUSY! But I'm THRILLED to be able to help, I love weddings :-)). I piled the kids in the Pilot and followed Craig's parents out there. I brought lots of snacks, pillows, blankets, and of course, the portable DVD player. The kids did great! I successfully changed DVD's on the mounted DVD player with one hand without unmounting it. It was fantastic. Aside from trying to drive to Vernal instead of Springville while getting from Park City to Provo, I didn't get lost once (I made it to this lovely reservoir along the Strawberry River before I thought to myself "...this road is not wind-ey enough to be Provo Canyon, I think I went the wrong way"- although I did get my "drive in the mountains to see the fall colors" trip taken care of in the meantime, it was a beautiful road to get lost on, if I do say so myself).
I didn't take a whole lot of pictures of the trip. My motivation to take pictures of everyone gets lost when I'm visiting with family. Here's a couple of the kids on various parts of the trip I fully enjoy sleeping back in my own bed in SEPARATE rooms from my kids. Linus wakes up a lot during the night, holy cow. Maybe that accounts for his bad attitude when he wakes up some mornings!