Jenna Comes to Town

In the middle of June, my sister Jenna came out to start school. She's at BYU for the summer and then will head up to BYU-Idaho in the fall. She stayed at our house for a week, and Megan, Sam and Natalie came down for part of it. It was so fun. Here are some of the highlights. And a ton of pictures.

It was so fun for the kids to have an auntie around. They all adore Aunt Jenna and she is so good with them. She even volunteered her babysitting services one evening and let Nate and I sneak out for a bike ride.

It was fun to show off our little Asa. Jenna and Meg and Sam are the first on my side of the family to meet him. And I thank Megan looks so cute in this picture.

We went for a hike in Wheeler Canyon. It was June 14, so none of us bothered to check the weather. It was so cold!

Addison scrambling on the rocks.

This is one of MANY pictures of pretty and amazing things that the kids found. We told them that instead of picking them all up to take home, they could take pictures of what they found.

The creek.

Natalie rocked this hike. She was very calm the whole time. And cute.

We hiked a little ways up to a wooded area where we could explore and throw rocks in the water.

And of course, Bryn was the one to fall in the water, bless her heart. She was a trooper on the way back, but I bet she was freezing.

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Asa also rocked the hike. I wished I'd brought a hat or something, but he seemed content to cozy up to me in the front pack and snooze.

And then we went to Zaxby's. Oh baby.

We were all still full of Zaxby's by dinner time, but that did not prevent us from having a weenie roast. The kids were SO excited. They set up this fire on their own, and all the little bricks for everyone to sit on. Nate and I were extremely impressed.

Sissies.

Sunday was Father's Day, and we found a quiet minute to all pile in Leah's room and spoil and celebrate the best dad in the world.

Natalie had a blowout.

Asa is cute.

During the week we tried to take Jenna here and there to keep her from going crazy and also to show her some classic Utah. One of the days we decided to hop on the train and go have lunch with Nate and see Temple Square.

That looks like so many children! They were really good on the train ride down.

And a silly one.

It was fun to see Nate in the middle of the day, and the Temple Square gardens didn't disappoint.

We had it all planned perfectly, and were right where we thought we were supposed to be at the right time. Unfortunately, the place we were supposed to be was not the place we thought we were supposed to be. So we missed the train. And we were all really hot and tired and it was like 5 million degrees. And the next train didn't come for another hour. So after a tense exchange with Nathan on the phone, we decided to just hang around the train station until the next train came. However, as I mentioned before, it was so hot. So we set out to find some air conditioning, and find it we did. At the greyhound bus station. 

Wow. There was a very interesting cross-section of people there. After buying out the ridiculously expensive drink machine (that took cards, thank heavens), changing Leah's stinky diaper on the nappy floor, and Jenna giving money to a very nice meth addict, we were kind of glad to leave it behind and get on the next train, which we did not miss. The kids were less well-behaved on that one. But hey, we made it home.

The next day we headed to good old BYU to get Jenna dropped off and set up in her new digs. She spent the morning in orientation and the afternoon setting up her apartment and buying books and groceries. We hung out on campus for most of the morning and then Nate and I tag-teamed it with the kids at a few parks during the afternoon. Although we did stay at Jenna's apartment with the kids long enough for them to break one of her roommate's glasses. Really nice. It was a long day, but a good one. It's nice to take our turn helping a sista out, since we've definitely taken our turn mooching.

The kids loved the sculptures outside the Museum of Art. Addison thought they looked like Minecraft guys. (Which I have no idea how he's so well-versed in.)

The kiddos and I by the HFAC - my old building. It's amazing how things have changed since those days! I took the three big kids inside to scope it out, and they thought it was so cool. I felt like a celebrity. Everything was pretty much the same, too. Even the couch in the 2nd floor bathroom.

We were also (especially Nate - ha) very excited to check out the new and improved Bean museum. It definitely has improved, but we took out turns getting the willies as we looked at the stuffed animals.

This butterfly is pretty cool. It's made out of real butterflies!

Beetles.

They had a little kids' area with a slide and a small cave that the kids could go in. Nate and I couldn't see inside the cave, but the kids said there was a bear in it. They were kind of freaked out. So we sent them in with the phone to take a picture of it. They were so scared of it that they didn't want to get close enough to take a picture. So we got about five that looked like this.

Nate finally went in there to see what it was all about. And yes, it was creepy.

Snoozing at the park.