We had a fun week in Utah with our family. On Monday Rylee, Avynlea, Jaylynn, Heather, Stephanie, Anthony and I met Ryker at BYU so we could go to the Bookstore and spend some time with him. We wanted to see his dorm but he didn't want to have the entire crew go up there because he thought it was too many people and didn't want to be embarrassed. I understood and said we didn't have to. We walked around the Bookstore and found some fun things to get and found a stature for the girls to take their picture with.
Ryker left to go to class and so we ate lunch at the creamery and then we went back to Emilys.
On Tuesday Heather, Avynlea and I met up with Stephanie and her crew at Ikea. It's always fun to visit Ikea whilst in Utah and I found some fun things for our house. Avynlea found this cute bucket hat and coin purse made form the Ikea bags. I bought her the bag and Rylee one as well since they were 99 cents but I didn't spend $4 to buy the hat she would never wear.
I got an emergency alert on my phone about a dust storm happening in Meridian and Kefford was out in it and took a picture for me. That does not look like something I would want to get caught in.
Wednesday was aquarium day. Heather, Jaylynn, Isabelle, Rylee, Avynlea and I met up with Mom, and Joshua and his family at the aquarium. Emily had classes all this week which is why she missed out on most of the things we did.
The aquarium was fun and what you would expect from an aquarium, what made it more enjoyable was my girls being able to be with their little cousins. They had fun exploring everything with them.
Rylee and Avynlea with Fred and Amos
Jaylynn, Fred and Rylee
Avynlea
We got some pictures inside the sharks jaw. I would not want those things clamping down on me in real life, yikes.
Avynlea pretending to be trapped inside an animals habitat, I think it was a beaver
Going across the ropes bridge was a good time but maybe a little anti-climatic
And of course Avynlea pretending to smooch a fish
We all packed lunches and were able to enjoy a nice picnic outside once we were done with the inside of the aquarium.
Later that evening Emily took us girls to one of her favorite clothing and knick knack boutiques. I didn't see anything that caught my eye but it was fun to explore and look at everything. Avynlea found a Dino head that she had to put on and walk around with.
On Thursday Heather and I went back to BYU so we could see Ryker one last time before we left. It was raining pretty hard when we got their and we had to wait outside the dorms for Ryker to come down and let us in. Luckily we had a covering to stand under. While we were outside waiting two boys came out in their socks to enjoy the rain. Heather commented that those were probably Ryker's roommates and here we were looking kind of dumb waiting for Ryker. Sure enough when we finally got to go in and up to see Ryker's dorm those two boys were in fact two of his roommates.
Once we saw his Dorm we went back to the Bookstore so Ryker could get a notebook and a calculator and I bought a skirt and top for Rylee because she needed a church outfit for EFY and the one she brought ripped. It was good to see Ryker one last time before we left Utah. I know he will have a lot of fun attending the summer session at BYU and will have good experiences learning how to be on his own.
Friday morning we went over to Mallorys so I could say goodbye to everyone before Avynlea and I left for home. We spent about an hour being there with my family and I could feel myself getting grumpy and couldn't figure out why. I finally decided I wanted to just leave because of my bad mood and when I started saying goodbye to everyone and I started crying I realized my bad mood was really just me being sad about having to leave. It's always hard for me to leave my family but I am grateful that I do have opportunities to spend time with them. Maybe not as much as I would like but we did make the most of our week together and had a lot of fun. I left Rylee to stay with Emily for the weekend because we had signed her up for EFY and she would be picked up by Abby Eaton on Monday to attend. I had a hard time leaving her but I was excited for her to spend more time with my family and also for her to have a fun week with Ella at EFY.