Wednesday, November 22, 2017

Birthday Weekend in Utah

I'm sure many saw this on Instagram/Facebook, but we flew up to Utah to surprise Jenn (my twin sister) for our 30th birthday. I was really hoping she'd go into labor while we were there (she was almost 39 weeks when we showed up on Thursday), but that didn't end up happening :/ Such a bummer! Besides that though, the trip was such a blast :)

We flew up Thursday, the 9th, on Allegiant's first flight taking off at 7. It was an early morning!


All looking a little tired.


Aiden and Janie both wanted to sit by the window...


...and somehow Aiden got his way, even though Janie was there first :/


Richard was so kind to pick us up in Provo and take us straight to Jenn and Michael's. I posted some Instastories letting everyone in on our little secret on our way over ;) My parents and all of my sisters knew of our plan and I was pleasantly surprised that no one spilled the beans by accident. We had Amy text Jenn the night before to let her know she'd be by with some baby things in the morning. We all knew there was no way Jenn would answer the door to an unexpected knock (I can't blame her - I'm the same way). It was about 9:30 when we showed up on their doorstep. Jenn was so surprised and completely speechless! Such a fun surprise! (I'm so bummed. I didn't get any pictures, only videos for Instastories, and I can't figure out how to get them on here :/)

Amy had shown up to be in on the surprise with her boys and actually had an appointment a little later, so the kids got to all hang out together. Once she got back she took Janie and Aiden with her to play and we went off to pick up some groceries and then later I got to go with Jenn to her prenatal appointment. This was the first time the doctor checked Jenn to see if she was dilated and she was at about a centimeter.

We had an easygoing evening (chicken pot pie for dinner) and Jill came to hang out for a while afterward.

Beckett made himself right at home :)


Michael met us at the house when we surprised Jenn and brought balloons and flowers. Beckett was loving the balloons :)


The next day, Friday, the 10th, was our birthday!! It had been several years since Jenn and I got to celebrate together and we had a fun day! Big thanks to the rest of our family for making it so special :)

Jill had decorated the garage for us the night before :) So much fun!



Jenn and Janie were kind of matching :)


Then we were off to do a few fun things. First, we headed to Zurcher's, a party store in Utah. This may seem funny, but I actually wanted to go there b/c I had Aiden's birthday party on my mind (his birthday is a week after ours, on the 17th) and I wanted to see if they had any reptile decor/party favors. We were able to find a bunch of lizards so that was nice :)

We were feeling a little hungry so we stopped for lunch at J.Dawgs (a hot dog/polish dog place in UT with a yummy special sauce).


Next we headed to Sweet Tooth Fairy to pick up our free birthday cupcake :)



Jenn had been wanting to go check out a little place for a nursing bra (do you love how we just wanted to take care of a few errands on our birthday..haha..we're officially old), so we did that next. 

The whole time we were out Jenn kept mentioning that she was having cramps. We headed back to rest and Jenn's cramps just kept getting worse. We really thought she may be in labor!!

Amy and Trent had talked in weeks prior and got us all a reservation to eat at The Roof later on, but we decided to switch to The Garden b/c some of us weren't feeling like paying the hefty price for a buffet dinner, especially since us girls are incredibly small eaters..haha. A huge thank you to Jill's roommates and friends for watching all of the kids.



Jenn and Michael actually decided to stay behind because they weren't sure whether Jenn was in labor or not. We were sad to not have them.


Such a gorgeous view.




We had a fun time chatting away (and comparing our tongues..Jill has an incredibly short tongue..haha) and then we headed back to the Moran's for cake and gifts :) Jenn was no longer in any pain. Dang it!!




Party animals ;)


Reading my mom's nice card.


It was really a nice birthday. Everyone really spoiled us!

Cute sleepy boy at bedtime :)


Whoops, Beckett knocked the mirror over and broke it (no worries, no one was hurt) :/ We were kind of joking with Jenn and Michael that they'll need to baby proof soon enough ;)


Saturday we all met at the South Town mall b/c there's a special Harry Potter Christmas exhibit going on. It was actually the first day so there was a craaazy long line so we decided against it. We'll be back up for Christmas so we're thinking maybe the hype will have died down some by then. 

Jackson and Aiden taking a peek inside.


Group shot :) Notice that none of the kids would smile for a stranger..haha.


Then we headed down to Provo with Jill. The kids were getting pretty grumpy, i.e. hangry, so we stopped for lunch. We tried out Bruges Waffles & Frites on Center Street and Trent was loving the authentic Belgian waffles and frites (fries with dipping sauce). He served in Belgium :)

Aiden got the Waffle Monster :)


They even had a replica of Mannekin Pis - the famous sculpture of a naked little boy peeing into a fountain in Brussels..haha.



Trent hadn't gotten to see the Provo City Center Temple yet, so we walked across the street after lunch to walk around the grounds.

We forgot Aiden's jacket so he was borrowing Jill's..haha.




And it was super sunny ;)


Then we headed to BYU Campus. We also forgot our stroller at Jenn's (ha) so we borrowed Amy's. Beckett was loving how high up he was :)



I mostly wanted to pick up some chocolate covered cinnamon bears from the BYU Bookstore ;)

We found Cosmo!


Future Cougar ;)


We only spent our time in the Wilk and BYU Bookstore. We didn't even get to walk around the rest of campus b/c we didn't want to miss seeing Amber at work. Next time!

We headed to the Riverwoods to visit Amber at Lime Ricki.

Beckett trying out some sunnies ;)


Amber was actually really busy b/c they were having their biggest sale yet, but we were able to snag a quick pic. And Jill actually bought a bracelet from her ;)


Aiden lost his second tooth while we were loading up to head back to Salt Lake. It was bleeding pretty bad and it was freaking him out :/


That evening we took it easy and later everyone came for a movie night (Wonder Woman) at Jenn and Michael's.




These two munchkins :)



All of these cute cousins :)


Janie fell asleep between Trent and I :)


Cute cousin sleepover :)


Sunday we went to Church with the Moran's. Jenn is in the Primary Presidency so I hung out in Primary with her for 2nd and 3rd hour.

Snuck a little shot of Aiden and Jackson together ;)


I thought we better get a final bump shot of Jenn. I knew it would be her last Sunday pregnant ;)



Janie takes her coloring seriously :)


Aiden stayed behind with the Moran's for a little bit and the rest of us headed to the Shurtz's so that Trent could get going on the pizza (Trent and Richard made their homemade pizzas that night :) ).


It was a fun evening of hanging out, yummy pizza, chit chat, and lots of Spot It :)


Cute cousins :)




We turned on Frozen for the kids.



Kids everywhere :)



And once we left the Shurtz's we headed back to the Moran's to get packed up. Thumbs down.

Janie slept in the bed with me..haha.


Jenn dropped us at the airport Monday morning and I had to get one more picture of her showing that baby girl was still in there..ha.


A big thanks to Jenn and Michael for letting us crash at their house unexpectedly! I don't know if I would've been up for that right before my first baby was to come. Amy was fully willing to have us stay with them if Jenn was feeling too stressed, but it all worked out great and we had the best time :)