Off we went, home we came

Last Monday, as in January 26th, I made the mistake of telling Clara in four days we were going to go on a long trip to see the snow. I told her we'd be in the car all day long so she would have to take a nap. She listened to and remembered all of that, except for the "in four days" part. So Monday thru Thursday, every time we got in the car, she told me she was going to take a nap. When we pulled into our destination, she cried that it wasn't snow. Every morning and afternoon when she woke up, she would inquisitively say, "Snow?".

Alas, the four days passed. We headed out late Friday morning and less than a mile from our house, Clara told us she was going to take a nap, closed her eyes and did her best to fool us into thinking she was taking a nap and fool herself into thinking she'd see snow any minute. The trip took about 10 hours and went great. Although Clara only took an hour nap the entire drive, she was super good. She stayed dry even though we only stopped in Page and Spanish Fork. Highlights from the trip... 1: Clara tapping her feet to the rhythm of the music; 2: the "test zone" with 80 MPH speed limits (almost made Jason want to move to Utah); 3: Jason teaching Clara how to bump to some old school rap; 4: While I took a little nap, Clara pulled my sweater off the hanger and put it on

On the way there, we practiced names.

Clara, can you say Casey Anne? "Sasey"

Clara, can you say Emma? "Nemma"

Lucas? Nothing

Micah? "Mamee"

Lucy? Nothing

Elsa? "Salsa"

The only one that stuck was Nemma. And she hasn't stopped talking about how we went bye bye away from Nemma. Someday we'll tell Emma that she became the fifth official person to exist in Clara's world. Fifth only to Mommy, Daddy, Sheeshus (Jesus) and Mine. If you're not one of them, you're still People.

We sure got a good laugh the next morning when we realized we'd left the wipes in the car. We're not used to freezing temperatures, you see, but this wipe container turned into a brick. Kind of like the water bottles we left in the car too. Clara was not disappointed when she saw the snow at Rachel's house. Saturday morning, we all went sledding. Clara kept eating the snow. She loved it every minute we were in the snow.

The whole reason we went was for Micah's baptism, which was Saturday afternoon. This is the second baptism I've been to this month and the second one I cried at. The overwhelming spirit that emanates from some of these children is amazing. After that, we went to Don's parent's for food and had a great time visiting.

Then we went to see our lovely house. Jason has never seen it. It was covered in snow and apparently no one cared to shovel our sidewalk and driveway. Some neighbors we have. :)

Later that night, we had a little gee-tar hero fun. Until then, I might have been the only person I know that hasn't played it. The first (several) attempts were brutal. I got booed, kicked off the stage and mocked. Oh, but I figured it out. I wasn't as awesome as Don and didn't have the concentration of Kathryn, but I made it through a few songs. Good thing I don't have it, I can see how it'd be highly addicting.

Arizona boy meets Utah boy

Clara was excited about something... obviously.

Sunday night Clara got some cousin time. First it was bath time.

Then we read books (I know this picture is blurry, but check out Clara's face... she looks like that fat blob thing on Star Trek/Wars - sorry, I get them confused).

And took pictures

We weren't forgetting Micah in the other pictures... he was just gone. Micah is the sweetest little boy. If I have boys, I want them to be sweet like Micah.

Crazy cousin picture

Then I kind of let the kids run up and down the hallway instead of calming them down before bed time. But look how much fun they were having.

Monday morning, we packed up to leave. Clara was not happy. She didn't want to say bye to her cousins or the snow. So sad.

On our way home, our first tangent was to visit our house. Again. When we went before, lots of people were with us. I wanted to just go with our family. Clara loved looking out the windows and running around. It's four times the size of our house now (not kidding).

Our second tangent was just outside of Page: Horseshoe Bend. If you haven't gone, you should go. It's been a few years since the first time I went and I told Jason it was probably about a 1/2 - 1 mile drive off the road and a five minute walk. Turns out it's about a 100 foot drive off the road and a 3/4 mile walk. :) Woops. But it was still worth it.

I didn't take too many pictures of the actual look out because last time I remember taking picture after picture, attempting to capture what the human eye can see. Impossible.

Clara was really good again on the way home. She stayed dry, even though we took much longer to get home. We did have to make a few more stops for her to use the bathroom. When she gets tired, she loves to hold and snuggle with my hand. She's also been into licking my hand. She thinks it's funny and then gets sad when she realizes I'm not joking around when I tell her to stop.

Near Flagstaff we saw three different herds of elk. See them in this picture?

What? You don't? Oh, that's because they aren't there. By the time I figured out what setting I needed my camera to be on to get beyond the windshield (the aquarium setting, duh), they were all gone.

We had a really fun trip. I was really sad to leave. I've never really been that sad to leave after visiting Utah. My two explanations are 1: Jason was with us so I had no one to run home to and 2: Rachel started a temporary full-time job the day we left and I wished SO bad that I could stay and help her out. What would help her most is someone to help her cook and to watch her kids, two things that are physically impossible for me to do from Arizona. Not that she can't handle it, she's pretty awesome in case you don't know her, but just knowing if I were there I could help made it hard to leave. Oh, but it was good while it lasted.