We Are Family

After visiting Washington Ben and I split up for a bit. I headed to Utah and Ben went to Hawaii. A pretty fair deal :) Navigating the airport with Riley and the stroller, carseat, 2 checked bags, two diaper bags, and a backpack was quite a task. I got pretty good at it near the end, but there were also a lot of nice people who insisted on helping me even when I promised I had a system and could manage.

My stop in Utah was kind of a treat to myself for the hard two months we had just experienced and I figured it only added one extra ticket so why not?! It also made it so I got to see all my siblings, except Rich and Loren, in this adventure of ours. I was going to see Loren at first, but then he went and got himself a job, but I still got to hangout with Elise. One big surprise was that Britt was in Utah when I arrived!! All these excuses she was making as to why I couldn't see her during my time in Oregon was because she was going to be in Utah and would be waiting for me when I arrived! Such a fun surprise! Again, we had 3 of the 4 Messerly sisters united and we had a blast! I was not as proactive as Ana in getting Britt to hold my child so I don't actually think she held Riley the entire trip...but at least they met!

Our time in Utah was awesome. I got to start going back to the gym regularly with Mom as the awesome babysitter. (I hadn't been able to get to a gym in Washington other than once with Mel). Riley had been showing signs of separation anxiety, not wanting anyone, but me or Ben. It was so nice to have Mom playing with Riley and getting her to accept someone else's company. Riley's life also got a little more thrilling after meeting her cousin Emmitt. We were both new to the feeling of constantly being on guard for danger, but we did a pretty good job moving Riley out of the way of any flailing limbs and Riley and Emmitt ended up with only positive interactions. Elena was so funny with Riley and created a someone unconventional love story between Riley and Andrew. (Although that's coming from the girl who thought marrying her brother was the right move so I guess we can't be too shocked) ;)

My last weekend in Utah Elise came down to visit. It was so fun seeing her! We had a fun girls trip and got pedicures. We went out to lunch at panda and I discovered their new Honey Sesame Chicken is the bomb and my new go to instead of Orange Chicken. We worked on a puzzle together. We sang songs. It was just an awesome weekend. After a week and a half in Utah it was time to head back to Texas. Sad to say goodbye, but glad to know we'd be seeing everyone again in December or January.

A few picture from the trip:

Ana was pretty impressed that Riley was content on my lap the whole time. We'd been through a few plane rides together.