Utah Fun

We originally planned to drive up to Utah on the 29th, but was gladly warned by Aunt Ann for a big storm and then lots of snow in Southern Utah. So we changed our plans and stayed a couple extra days in Tucson and drove up on Jan 1st. Road condition was not great for my taste if you know how close to blind I am... well I still managed to pass the driving test. Anyways, usually on a nice day I can drive a few hours on the free way with no problem, but the day we drove up to Utah, I was only able to drive for maybe a little over one hour. Sam drove almost entirely the whole way. Thanks Honey! We stayed with Aunt Kerri and Uncle Brett until Jan 6th.

It was really relaxing staying with Aunt Kerri and Uncle Brett. They really tried to make us feel as comfortable as possible. They even tried to make kids' friendly meals which I appreciated so much and made dinners less stressful. We stayed next door to Grandma downstairs. We chose to give the bedroom with a bathroom to the kids and it was the right choice. Don't be jealous but we went in and out of their room, talking, making loud washing noises in the bathroom in the middle of the night and they didn't even make a peep. They are good sleepers just like that!

Our boys loved their dogs Chaco and Tilley (Hope I didn't spell their names wrong) !! I wish I had more pictures to share this cuteness. They have never been around dogs so much like this trip to Utah, so it was super cute to see them being excited around dogs. I think they only got a little intimidated by dogs' full on wet kisses ;) I wish I had more pictures of them and the dogs, but here are some of Peter touching Tilley (right?) on Aunt Kerri's lap:

We enjoyed living next door with Grandma Great. She was really graceful and sweet to talk to. She sometimes gave great advice. We also got to visit Grandpa Great with her on a Sunday afternoon. Though there was different advice about bringing the boys to see Grandpa Great, we eventually decided to bring them any way. And it was the right choice. Grandpa Great was really responsive that day, even though he didn't remember or know us at all, his eyes lit up every time the boys gave him a hug, a kiss or said "I love you". The pic of Peter holding Grandpa Great's hand was precious. I think Peter was saying "I love you", "How are you?"  to him. I took the boys for a walk in the building when they showed signs of being bored and restless (We get that a lot with a bunch of boys ;) ), and we found Grandpa Great's room with his name "Dr. Bruce Neville" on the door (We visited Grandpa Great in the common room area). And we had fun looking at the few pictures on the picture board outside of the door. All in all, it was a super sweet afternoon to remember for years and years to come.

We visited Aunt Shelley and Ann's house. Shelley and Ann's dog Prim was just the right size for the boys. They of course enjoyed playing with her. Enoch asked if he could put beads on Prim and here is what happened: 

Aren't they cute together?! Enoch has some great ideas sometimes. Aunt Shelley and Ann gave us some really good chocolate chips they got from Aunt Stacey. My first time getting these nice chocolate chips! I'm still saving it ;) Shelley gave the boys each a book and it was fun reading books with them. 

We had a really nice relaxing family Sunday dinner at Aunt Kerri and Uncle Brett's house. It was so nice to finally meet Taylor and Shawn right before they moved to Germany. Isn't that crazy that I felt like we've been friends forever on facebook but actually officially met for the first time after so many years? Haha I also got to meet Tailor and Monica. They are all lovely ladies! It was nice to be able to talk to Thomas a little bit about LSAT. I had been freaking out a little bit about how much I have to study to catch up on things that average American already knew just by growing up here. Well, on top of the unique way of reasoning they test that's so different from Science and engineer for Thomas' case. I might write something about preparing LSAT soon. 

We had a very nice lunch at Aunt Melanie and Uncle Roark's house, followed by sledding. We had so much fun! Everybody was happy the whole time which was amazing and proved that it was such a fun activity. Michael just loved it from beginning and wanted to try with different sleds. Enoch and Peter took some time to warm up to it. I eventually got Peter to get on with me together. Even though I don't like snow very much, but I wish we could have a little snow to do sledding with kids more often. Melanie was really nice to let me borrow her very own braided viking hat, I thought it was cute on me ;) 

Aunt Kerri offered to watch our boys for two nights so we could go out. That was really nice of her and we really needed some alone time. First night we went out to eat a nice dinner at Tucano Brazilian Grill. If you know how much I love meat, then you know how wonderful the dinner was. I ate until nothing tasted good any more. The second time, we went out to see the movie "Mockingjay Part I". Have to say that it's the best movie we've seen for a while, way better than "Guardians of Galaxy" and "Frozen". On a side note, we finally watched "Frozen" at Kerri's, our boys hated it, Sam and I got bored and had to fast forward. At least we set and watched "Guardians of Galaxy" without fast forwarding. 

While Sam interviewed on the 6th, I went to Kaitlin's house. She is so easy-going and already planned different things for me to choose to do. We went to planetarium which was FREE, just the right things I like to do with my kids. Houston has so much free and awesome kids stuff that I have a high expectation. And I was not disappointed. The kids loved it. Even though Michael was the typical difficult 3 year old and threw a huge tantrum right on the street, it was still worth it. 

Utah was a lot of fun! Came to think of it, it was Peter's first time to see snow. They all did great! Enoch and Michael enjoyed building a snow castle thing and playing balls with Uncle Brett at a playground around their house. They loved playing snow ball fighting at another cool playground at the station. Just walking down the street is fun too when there is snow :

Rocky Point

We went to Rocky Point for a week in Dec. It had been more than 4 years since we last went when Enoch was about 8 mos old. Can you believe it's been that long? We've been jealous seeing everybody going there and we just couldn't make it during the past 4 years. And finally we were there! Sad though, none of the siblings could make it. So instead we invited our good Tucson friends Jimmy and Megan and their kids. Luckily, they were able to get away from their work and came for a couple of days. 

The things we got to do at Rocky Point: 

1, Beautiful sunsets! Great timing for such beautiful sunsets! We don't get that in Houston. I think Sam misses it more than I do given that I don't get to see it much where I grew up. Hopefully we get to see it more often where we move to. 

2, Kayaking. Kayak is probably my favorite beach toy. I have some fear towards water and kayak is the most comfortable for me to take out of water by myself. I took it out daily for multiple times through out the day. Kayaking with kids are even more fun. David took Enoch and Michael out on the double Kayak, they loved it. I loved going out on the double kayak with Sam!!

3, Stand up paddle board. I took a stand up paddle board out on the water for the first time this trip. David, Jayne and I went out together during that beautiful sunset. Jayne fell into the water and I was kind of scared so I turned around. Glad I didn't fall or else I'd never do it again... ;)  Later days, I started to like it more and took it out a few more times. One day I took it out and without realizing I was so far away from the shore. And then the more exciting thing was that I found out the leash was not attached to my ankle... I was in real deep water at the time. If I fell into the water, with me not being able to swim with my eyes open, not being able to reach the paddle board to get back on, I could be in real danger. I thought in my head" Should I focus on not falling in the water or should I focus on reaching the leash and attaching it on my ankle?" I decided to just forget about the leash and focus on not falling into the water. The wave was pretty bad on the way back and it was unbalancing side wave, so I had to sit down to avoid falling. It seemed like forever! But I did it and I was exhausted! Sam said he was a little worried about me. 

Sometimes dolphins will come swimming not far from the house and you can see them jumping in and out of water.One morning I woke up by dolphin calls.  Sam told me that I should go out cause there are a group of dolphins in front of the house. So I got dressed and took the kayak out. I saw David on a stand up paddle board paddling around the dolphins. He was really close that everybody else was so jealous! I paddled hard but still didn't catch up with them. But I did get to paddle into a huge group of birds and made them go crazy and freak out. I was a little worried that I might get pooped on. I didn't. Phew! 

4, David and Sam took the windsurfing board out a couple of times. The wind was actually pretty good. They got some good time on the water.  

5, Small baby pool. That's what we like to call it. Every afternoon, there is a shallow water area right in front of the house divided from the deep water by an island. The boys loved playing in there. Enoch learned to do stand up paddle board and kayak. He got pretty good at paddling. Michael loved to float on boogie board, while being pulled by Enoch. Peter loved throwing sea shells in the water while sitting on the kayaka, paddled by his two brothers. They make a great team. I am so proud :) 

Here is a video of Enoch pulling Michael on stand up paddle board:

Here is another one: 

Here is Enoch Kayaking:

6, ATVs. Sam and I got lots of ATVs time with kids and by ourselves. We always took Enoch and Michael out when Peter was napping.  I like to drive fast and go down hills when by myself, but when I have a kid sitting in front of me, I get nervous and worried. Once Sam took me to a pretty big and steep hill, he went down and then turned around to watch me. I had Michael in front of me, the whole time going down I was worried that Michael would flip out of the front seat. Good think he didn't. 

7, Playing on the beach. Sand is just the magical toy for kids. Our boys can play with sand for a long time. They didn't seem to get tired of it. When our friends Jimmy and Megan came, their kids played really nicely with ours. Enoch and their 4 year old daughter Eleanor were just so affectionate towards each other and it was so cute to watch them being silly together. I think beach is the heaven for the kids. They probably can just live on the beach. Although, the mom in me had to be the annoying one to make sure everybody got their sunscreen on. Gladly nobody burned badly this time. 

8, Playing games, hanging out with friends and having quality conversations with friends at night after kids went to bed. It was awesome! I love some good friends who I can talk to and enjoy talking to. Sadly I don't have many that kind of friends. Jimmy and Megan are some awesome people and I am glad to have them as friends. 

9, I swam a little. The water was cold but not as cold as the Orlando hotel pool. I was pretty happy with it. The weather has been treating us well and no complaints on that part for sure! 

10, Fishing! Fishing was a big advantage this time of year. Even people like me who knew nothing about fishing, didn't know how to throw the hook in or when to roll it back, I even caught 3 fish on my first try! That was amazing! Sam caught the biggest fish so far! A huge plunder! I cleaned up all the fish we caught and cooked them for lunches. I have to say that I relatively enjoyed being in control of the knife. Somebody said that I could make a good fisher woman. You know, might not be a bad job choice ;) 

Ok, are you ready to see some photos?