Last week, Ben and I took a couple days together away from the older kids while my mom came up to visit. It was really fun!
We were originally going to fly to Texas to our new nephew there, but with nursing, we would have needed to take Oliver and it ended up not being something we all thought would be worth it (though I'm dying for the baby snuggles!). Before we decided not to do it, we'd arranged for my mom to come stay with the girls for a few days and they were very excited about that. We took advantage of the pre-arranged babysitter to have some (almost) kid free time together.
We got an Airbnb in Jensen, less than 20 minutes from our house. It was an adorable little place to stay with a nice little yard that Oliver loved. My favorite part was all the shade that made it enjoyable to be outside when it was 90+ degrees outside. I can't wait until our yard has lots of trees.
Oliver trying to eat a leaf.
The first night (Friday), we left after Oliver's nap, so we didn't get there until after 5. For dinner, we made salads and a Papa John's pizza and marinaded chicken thighs. We brought our air fryer with us and were able to make really delicious food the whole time. We also brought some pre-made cheesecake ice cream to have each night.
After we put Oliver down, we wanted to relax together. The place we stayed at didn't have wifi, so we couldn't watch the show we're in the middle of. The place had a DVD player with some DVD's, so I picked out some romcoms and Ben agreed to watch one with me. We watched Just Like Heaven and actually enjoyed it a lot.
The next morning, we decided to go to the Dinosaur National Monument. Despite living close to it all these years, we've never gone (Ben went when he was younger). The house we were staying at was super close to it.
There were lizards everywhere and it was really fun finding so many.
Despite Oliver's face in this picture, he loved our little day trip here. He loves to go new places and see everything and everyone.
Oliver, pointing to the map and telling us where we should go
(when I told the girls that was what he was doing, they laughed and laughed)
Some petroglyphs on the trail
I had to take some pictures of flowers to show the girls.
I knew they would love the hike and because a single car pass is good for seven days, we did end up bringing them later (pictures of that later).
You can take a shuttle to the monument or hike, and we decided to hike. We didn't get there super early, so it was pretty hot. We were fine, but we wanted to make sure Oliver didn't get too hot. We were glad when we made it to the monument, which is indoors.
Giant dinosaur bones.
A family selfie in front of bones!
Oliver loved touching the bones!
After looking at the bones, we took the shuttle back to our car. Oliver really liked riding on the shuttle too.
Ben thought this sign was funny, so he had me take a picture of it.
Before heading home, we decided to stop at a cafe in Jensen called Donnie's. I'd seen things about it on Facebook before and have actually wanted to try for awhile. It was really yummy, which made me happy. There isn't really anywhere in Vernal that has a really good hamburger. They also had really good onion rings. I definitely want to go back and even though it's in Jensen, it's actually less than ten minutes from our house.
We finally went back to the Airbnb and I nursed Oliver to sleep. He needed the comfort because it was a long day for a little guy! I love letting him sleep on me like this as he gets older. The drawback was that his nap schedule was way off and we didn't get to spend time alone while he napped.
After his nap, Ben lay down on the couch (we didn't sleep very well the night before because we were trying to figure out the AC). I took Oliver in the bathroom to play in the tub (one of his new favorite things) and then I took him outside and let him play on the grass while I read in my book. It was a nice, lazy afternoon.
For dinner, we made steak and brussel sprouts. We got New York Steak from a local meat plant and it was excellent. We love cooking steak in our air fryer. Oliver was pretty grumpy by this time. I nursed him and let him have a little catnap because of how grumpy he was, but it didn't really help. We ended up turning on a chick flick and walking around with him until bedtime. After we put him in bed, we played Super Smash Bros together until we went to bed.
Oliver woke up in the night and struggled a little. I don't know if it was because we wanted to be home or if it was because of the change to his schedule the day before (or both) but it was a little bit of a rough night.
When we had planned the trip, we had decided that we weren't going to come home until our stay was over (Friday night to Monday morning). It was far enough that gas money was something we were conscious of (hello gas prices) and it was a little stay-cation for us. That meant missing church and finding other people to help with our callings (and Ben turning down a talk). But then we found out that Ben's younger brother Dalin was being ordained as an elder and we really wanted to be there to support him.
We decided to pack up and just go home. Oliver was having a hard time being away from home and it didn't feel worth it to drive back to spend one more night away with Oliver. After we packed up, I had the idea that maybe we could leave Oliver with my mom for the last night since it was only a few feedings.
We came home, showered, and left the kids with my mom while we went to Dalin's ordination. It was a little awkward because it was at our ward building at the time everyone was coming out of sacrament while we were waiting to go in, but it was fine. And we were really glad to be there. The Spirit was so strong. I am so proud of Dalin for the choices he's been making and really happy that he's found a path for himself that is bringing more joy and peace into his life.
My mom said we could leave Oliver with her, so after giving him one last feeding, we went back to our Airbnb and got some actual kid-free time. It was heavenly! We were unsure if we should do it or not, but we ultimately ended up being so glad we did!
We had leftover steak and chicken for lunch, with salads and strawberries. It was so yummy! We got to try a game we've been wanting to play for over a year called Splendor and had a lot of fun with it. We loved relaxing all afternoon together.
After a dinner of chicken nuggets (I'd made them beforehand and frozen them so we could reheat them in our air fryer), we went up to Split Mountain to do another hike together.
Beautiful mountains.
The hike was about two miles long and looped around. The first half was a lot more interesting than the second half. We both love hiking and had a lot of fun doing this one together.
This lizard was white, which is something Ben hasn't seen before.
We had to take more pictures of flowers for the girls. They loved all the pictures of the hike, especially the lizards.
Leaving Oliver with my mom was a really nice break and he did pretty good with her. He didn't drink a lot of milk from a bottle, but he did eat solids or her and slept well at night. We also finally slept better that night.
We didn't go back to Dinosaur National Monument with all the kids until Wednesday. It was a cooler day and we left earlier to try to beat the heat. We also took Ben's dad with us, because we thought he would have fun with us.
The cutest little dinosaur going to the Dinosaur Monument 💗
Oliver 😂
Rylee was a little Grandpa's girl the entire hike.
Looking at a lizard. We had to talk to them before the hike to make sure they knew not to catch the lizards or try to gather any rocks or flowers. They did really good with it.
Before going into the quarry, we had a bathroom break and everyone got a balance bar (the kids' favorite food).
Touching the dinosaur bone!
Everyone watching Oliver touch the bone 😂
Can you guess who the center of attention is at our house?
This fake-bone bench was Rylee's favorite part of the day.
Touching more bones!
They also had a lot of fun on the shuttle ride back. Parker told the driver to go as fast as he could. They loved the hike and the monument, and I think I was correct in thinking that the lizards would be their favorite part!
