Autumnal Recollections... of our own insanity

The Doctor is remarkable. (And so I remark...)

He decided to run another marathon this year. This time in St. George, Utah.

The timing was tricky, though, because it happened to be the weekend BEFORE our kids had a "Fall Break" from school. It also happened to be at the same time as the LDS temple open-house in Star Valley, Wyoming. 

SO- I hatched a daring plan (facilitated by $35 one-way flights from Southwest Airlines.)

It looked like this:

Green represents Me

Red represents my kids

Blue represents my husby

And somehow (with tons of help from BOTH sides of the family) we pulled it off!

The kids and I flew and stayed with my mom at her sister's house in Lehi, Utah.
(my mom's one bedroom place was rightfully deemed too small for our crew)

Good thing Aunt Liz has a lovely home and some awesome kids to play with!

Feta fell in love with the play kitchen.

We visited Gardener Village (where Grammy works at an amazing sock shop)

we were joined by Aunt Kelsey, and Uncle Lon and his Liz.

We may have also been introduced to Pokemon Go and way too many yummy treats.

We owned the nickle-cade--we literally had the place to ourselves!

Please note here:

Pencil has 2 lolly-pops in his mouth.

Because, why not?

Then I left my monkeys and flew back to Las Vegas to meet up with this handsome face.

We stayed a night in the Cosmopolitan-- on the 60th floor! 

We had a stellar view of the Bellagio's fountains.

We also ate some good food.

That key-lime tart though....

We also tried the different Coke products from around the world.

Some were SO good! Some were not!!

We met up with our marathon-partners-in-crime, Dan and Tara.

 AND we got to see David Copperfield LIVE.

His show did not disappoint!

The boys ran another marathon-- 

As spectators we had some trouble getting to see them along the course this time.

(something about the race following mountain trails in a canyon versus easy city blocks when we were in Baltimore) so my documentation is a little sparse.

They didn't even die!! (it was really hot and runners were dropping like flies)

This is with Dan's sister, who ran her first marathon with our seasoned champs.

Whew! Are we done yet? NO!!

After the marathon we got to hang out with a bunch of the F family (Dan's siblings are a delightful riot) and the next morning we drove back to the northy part of Utah, where the monkeys had traded grandparents and were staying with Grandma Jen and Grandpa Craig.

After the briefest of pauses, we gathered our children and continued on to the Star of all Valleys.

We got some good time in with Grandma Ida and Grandpa Dee.

And we went to see the sweetest little temple.

Complete with wagon rides!

It was a beautiful experience and I am so thankful to a little (and big) family who helped me make it happen. 

We also had family pictures taken by a most talented lady-- my cousin's wife.

See the next post!