As soon as we heard about Grandma Thompson's passing we starting making plans to travel back to Utah for the funeral. Thankfully our 14 hour drive to and from Utah at Christmas had gone so smoothly that we didn't even hesitate when it came time to make the drive again just a week and a half later. This time we had two extra passengers, Scott's brother, Vance, and his son, Lincoln. Vance and Lincoln drove down from Minnesota and then jumped in with us for the drive to Utah. That made for a 20 hour drive (not including stops) for them. It was a lot of fun having them along for the drive and getting to know Lincoln a lot better.
When we got to Utah, Scott and the "Original Six" were all together for the first time in 4 years! We wish it were under different circumstances, and not for Grandma Thompson's funeral, but it was really great to get to spend some good quality time with everyone.
It would be impossible to have all of the Murrays together without every night being a game night.
The funeral services were Thursday and Friday and everyone was staying until Sunday so that left Saturday for us to get out and do something together. Scott and I really wanted to go skiing since it hadn't worked out for us to go together over Christmas (other than the failed family ski trip). Somehow we ended up talking all of his siblings, none of which had skied more than a time or two in their youth, to come night skiing with us. It turned out to be so much fun!! A huge thank you to my parents who lent us all their ski gear and then watched our kids plus a few others so that we could sneak away as adults.
I've said it before and I'll say it again...skiing (or snowboarding in my case) with my hubby is quite possibly my all time favorite thing to do. It was a wonderful and very therapeutic night for me.
While we were off gallivanting with Scott's siblings (most of which were spouse and child free for the weekend) my parents decided to take the kiddos on an excursion. They took the front runner train out to the Thanksgiving Point's Museum of Natural Curiosity then to lunch and then back home on the train. The kids absolutely loved it and still talk about it.
It was a very quick trip and before we knew it we were back in the car heading home.
A final random picture and story from the trip. On the drive out we stopped at one of those big truck stop gas stations. Miles was going crazy running around touching everything he could get his hands on. In what was probably not my finest parenting moment I told Miles to stop touching things because if he did the blue guy (a blue manikin) was going to come and get him. It worked like a charm...until right as we were leaving Miles reached out and touched something and then yelled, "Hurry quick the blue guy is going to get me." For the rest of the weekend Miles and Lincoln would constantly talk about the blue guy chasing us. So on the way home, when we unintentionally stopped at the same gas station, the kids were thrilled/terrified to see the blue guy. We had to take a picture by him since he had become such a memorable part of the trip.
That's it for our second trip to Utah. Hopefully we can wait at least a couple months before we have to make the drive again.
