Utah--Blessing and farewell

We went to Utah for 12 days and it was great! My birthday, the 4th of July, temple, blessing, and farewell--so we were definitely busy!

We (the kids and I) drove up July 1 because Matt was going through the temple on Saturday July 2 (my birthday). Jesse flew up after work on Friday. The drive was ok..Mikaela struggled a little bit but nothing too bad really with having 3 kiddos! Saturday I woke up early and went and ran the trails with my momma! It was wonderful to be up in the mountains and as much as running is hard sometimes I really do love it when I am with my mom. Ran came as well even though he ran ahead of us most the time. Candace met us half way through as well. I accidentally tripped and landed on a rock and cracked my phone screen sadly (and scraped up my arm and bruised my palm)-but wasn't going to let that ruin my day even though waiting at the apple store to get it fixed and worrying about phone problems isn't fun! But I ended up going out to lunch with my mom right by there then rushing to the temple session as my mom watched all 3 kiddos and I left Mikaela for over 4 hours-she did great for my mom though even though I was nervous about it.

The temple was such a great session since its hard for us to go now with a breastfeeding baby and just 3 kids so I was happy to be able to go but it was special to be able to have all the Jensen siblings and spouses all together with Grandma and Grandpa! Such a great feeling being all together!

Sunday Brooklyn and Chris blessed Caroline so we were with the family all day. 

Monday was the 4th of July and it was go go go all day! We woke up early and went out to the plain city parade so the kids could ride on the firetruck then went over to the carnival real quick so they could catch a fish...which really it was me catching the fish for all the kids haha! But I had a great time doing it! Then we rushed over to the Kaysville parade after! I tried to get my kids to take a nap but they weren't going to have it so my Dad and Lezlee and Candace and Brooke and families all came over to the Jensens and went swimming for a while. We went over to my moms for fireworks and popcorn in the front yard! Corbin was getting tired and asked Grandma to tinkle him and he was out within a minute!

Tuesday I was able to go see my friends Kylee and Kallie and hang out for a bit even though at that point my kids were already quite sleep deprived so they weren't the most pleasant but I was happy to get together with them for a bit!

Wednesday we were able to go to Cherry Hill with my friend Anna Lloyd and Hailey. Sadly they had to leave after about 1.5 hrs so I stayed a little longer with just me and my 3 kids but Gavin was getting tired and it was rough to do things with all 3 of them. I was wanting to go back with just Corbin later that night cause he loved the "dragon slides" but it just didn't work out. (definitely would have some Cherry Hill passes if we lived there though I really think my boys would love it)

Friday I was able to go see my friends Chelsey and Natalie which I haven't seen in a long time. We all have added a child (or 2--me) to our families-it was nice to be able to catch up a little bit with each other. After I went and hung out at my moms the rest of the day since she had the day off. She needed to work on Mikaela's blessing outfit basically the whole time but we were able to chat and spend time with each other at least.

We did lots of swimming and just playing around with cousins! The boys were in heaven and love being there!

Sunday July 10th we blessed Mikaela in Jesse's parent's ward because it was Matt's farewell talk as well! Jesse gave a beautiful sweet blessing and she was wearing the beautiful dress my mom worked so hard on!

Monday we hung out at the house again and that night Matt got set apart as a missionary. It was so neat to be able to sit around after and listen to everyone give him advice and talk about their missions.
Tuesday we drove home...corbin cried in the car for a good 45 minutes because he didn't want to go back home. At first it was really heartbreaking because I know he loves being around family so much but you could only take so much of his crying when you can do nothing about it. We did stop in St. George and let them play at the splash pad and ride the carousel though!