Surprise Trip Home

A month ago Shawn and I surprised our parents and flew home for a few days! It was so nice to get out of Boston and back to warm, sunny St. George! A much needed break. We got to see all of our siblings and their families as well.

We flew into Salt Lake City late Wednesday night and my brother in law Garett picked us up. We stayed with him, my sister (Kaylyn), and their two boys (Andersen and Camden) that night. We woke up the next morning and helped them finish packing for their big move to Dallas! Around noon Shawn and I drove down to St George with the boys while Kaylyn and Garett drove the Uhaul down. Oh my heavens, those two little ones are hilarious! We were driving down the road and I said something like, “Ahh watch out for that freakin’ driver cutting you off!” and Andersen (4 years old) looks up at me and says, “Auntie Lexi, freakin’ is a mean word.” Shawn and I had to hold it together and try not to laugh because it was freakin’ funny!

When we were about 30 minutes away from my parent’s house, I called my mom and said, “Hey, I sent your Mother’s Day/Birthday present to your house and it has to be signed for. They said it’s out for delivery today. Will you be home between 3:30 and 4:30 to sign?” I just wanted to make sure they’d be there when we pulled up. She said yes and once we pulled into the driveway I called her again. “It says it was delivered, did you get it?” She said, “No” so I asked her to check if they left it in the driveway…and when she came out Shawn and I were standing there with the boys. She started crying. We actually pulled off the surprise and they had no idea we were coming!

After we explained everything to them and told them we just needed a mini vacation and some time away, we headed over to surprise Shawn’s parents. We had “been in cahoots” with Shawn’s sister Tiffany to make sure his parents would be home when we came over. When we pulled onto his parent’s street, we parked at the neighbor’s house so they wouldn’t see us coming. Then Shawn called his dad and said, “Hey, I lost my phone. Can you track it to see if I left it at school?” So his dad (Lenny) got on his phone and started tracking it. He said, “Wait a minute. This can’t be right. It says you’re in Washington, UT.” Shawn played along and replied, “Hmm that is weird. Well it could be because I’m standing right outside your house.” Lenny didn’t believe him and said, “You are not.” So Shawn told him to come open the door and see. Sure enough, Lenny opened the door and we were both standing right there. Lenny looked shocked like he still didn’t believe we were there! He called for his wife (Mary Ann) to come look. Mary Ann comes to the door and almost started crying. In unison, Shawn and I said, “SURPRISE!”

We didn’t tell Shawn’s parents that all of his siblings and their families were coming into town as well, so it was just one surprise after the other as they all began to arrive. It was a weekend well spent with both families!

Kaylyn and Garett were driving all of their stuff to Dallas and then flying out two days later to head to the east coast for Garett’s Graduation Trip. Washington D.C. to New York to Boston. Since they were ending their trip in Boston, Shawn and I said that we would just take their boys with us that weekend out to Boston and watch them for a week. Then they could meet us in Boston and all fly home to Dallas together instead of having to go back to Utah to pick up the boys from Grandma’s house. We were excited (and shocked!) that they agreed. We love our little nephews and were so happy that we got to have them come home with us!

So Sunday night when it was time to head to the airport, we packed up all of our stuff and the boys’ stuff…boy do kids come with a lot of baggage haha! The plane ride actually went really well. Both boys slept and before we knew it we were in Boston.

Playing "Life" with Anders and he says, "You girls are so skunky" as he proceeds to pull the pink girl pieces out of the boy cars. Haha!

Apparently this is comfortable...at least Cam thinks so because that's how he sleeps every night!

The week started off a bit rough…after all, going from no kids to two kids overnight is kind of rough! But after we got into a routine and pattern, things went a lot smoother. They really are good boys. And they are so hilarious! I can’t tell you the number of things Andersen said that had me rolling on the floor laughing. We did EVERYTHING with Anders and Cam. We went to the Children’s Museum, the New England Aquarium, Boston Common Park, the swimming pool, you name it.

BOSTON CHILDREN’S MUSEUM:
Knowing how much Andersen loves tractors, and excavators, and bull dozers, we had to take him to the museum to see some in person. They had construction hats and goggles that the kids could wear while they played with all the toy tractors and machinery. Andersen loved every minute of it. Uncle Shawn spotted a life size tractor that the boys could climb in and I’m pretty sure that may just win him “Uncle of the Year” award. Trying to get Cam and Anders to look at the camera at the same time was beyond a joke, so we settled for what we could get…both of them in the tractor and neither one crying!

We soon realized it was a mistake to show Anders that area first, because he didn’t want to go see anything else! He would have been completely content to play with tractors all day. After some difficult negotiating and a promise to come back later, we finally got him out of the tractor area. And he ended up loving everything else he saw too.

They got to see airplanes, school buses, school houses, black lights, shadow puppets, bobsleds, Angry Birds, and so much more! Anders really liked the Lego wall that we passed on the way to the museum. He is his grandpa’s grandson haha!

These boys sure do love their Uncle Shawn!

Anders LOVED being on TV ;)

Look out world! These two goobs skipped lessons & went straight to flying + driving school buses!

NEW ENGLAND AQUARIUM:
I think Shawn and I loved the aquarium as much as the boys did. We had so much fun looking at all of the different fish, sharks, turtles, and sea life. My favorite part was watching the different looks on Anders’ face as he saw and experienced all the new things. There were only a few creatures that scared him and when he saw one of those he asked Uncle Shawn to hold him. So sweet!

BOSTON COMMON PARK:
The playground at Boston Common is pretty big, but it seemed so small because of how many children were packed on that thing! It was a nice day in the beginning of June, so of course there were masses of people. Luckily, he was content to just play for about 20 minutes then move on to something else…we may or may not have bribed him with ice cream. Come on, it was hot outside!

We did so many things with them, but pictures speak louder than words!

After eight days with these little goobs, their mom and dad came into town and boy were they excited to see them! It was so sweet to watch them give hugs, and tackle their parents to the ground! In the four days that Kaylyn and Garett were here, we did The Freedom Trail, Cape Cod, Maine, and the beach. We had a ton of fun and made some great memories!