Summer Trip Summary

I posted the link to some of our vacation pictures but I thought I would add a little explanation to it.

In early June, I got a phone call from Hyrum. It went a little like this:

Hy: "Hey so, ah, would you like to go to England."

Heather: "Ah, yeah, do you have to ask?"

Hy: "How about the last week in June?"

Heather: I think I responded with a bunch of really confused babbling.

Then Hyrum went on to explain there was a conference in Oxford, England that he felt would be worth his while but he didn't want to go unless I went too because he had been gone a whole bunch over the last month.

We found a sitter for the kids, some good friends that I knew in New York and now live only about 20 minutes away and got everything ready. Then I found myself on a very large plane headed for England. A dream come true.

It was a good visit. It was short and towards the end a bit lonely since I was on my own during the days. The way Oxford University is set up is fascinating and I really enjoyed learning about that and just walking around the city. The weather was nice, a bit warm for the locals but way nicer than Texas. I got to walk in rooms where some of my favorite authors walked, streets where some prominent members of history walked. It was really cool.We even found time to have dinner with my brother who is interning near London. I am excited for a trip to the rest of the rest of the country and hopefully a chance to learn even more about England.

We got home Sunday night and after a crazy day of laundry, grocery shopping, and packing, we left Tuesday for Utah. We decided to take a little bit of a family vacation and stopped at Mesa Verde National Park. I have always wanted to see the cliff dwellings and Hyrum wanted to see it again since the last time he had gone was as a little kid.

Jonathan started getting sick Wednesday afternoon pretty quick after we got the park. I neglected to take his temperature until Thursday morning and when I did we found a 103 temp. We gave him some medicine, saw a few things in the park and then headed north a day earlier than planned. Hyrum's aunt was good enough to house us especially since we brought a sick child. Jonathan ran a fever until Saturday afternoon which meant I was a little frazzled from lack of sleep.

We made it to the annual Allred 4th of July celebration, "Grand Avenue of Fire" or "on Fire"--if you're Hyrum, and by that night Jonathan was happy and feeling a lot better. It was a quick trip and we spent the time visiting our grandparents and spending time with our family. Hannah spent a good amount of time playing with Hyrum's 4 year old cousin. They were pretty much inseparable when they were together.

Hyrum and I even to spent Tuesday almost exclusively together. That morning his mom volunteered to watch the kids so we got ready and dropped them off then we visited BYU campus and our old stomping grounds. After the customary raid on the candy counter we dropped in to see a friend from Austin who is now a professor at the Y. We picked up the kids, gave Jonathan a nap and then took them to Hyrum's sister, Sarah. She wanted to have them for an afternoon and we were happy to oblige. They played with her while we went and saw Toy Story 3. It was a good day.

It was a good trip, an odd trip but good. We've realized that the main reason for visiting Utah this time around was to see our grandparents. We love them very much and hope they are with us for a long time yet but we cherish every moment we have with them. We missed seeing my siblings that live there. We'll just have to coordinate our vacations a little better next time.

We're glad to be home and glad we got to have some good time together.