Utah Re-visited

James was finally big enough, this visit,

to fit in his Dad's old Swedish outfit.

I wasn't sure how I was going to talk him into putting it on -

he can be pretty adamant sometimes -

but to my surprise,

when I told him about it,

he said, "Do I get to wear the yellow pants,

and can I wear it for as long as I want?"

Jalen Andrew wanted a piece of the Swedish action as well,

and kept trying to steal Farmor's straw goat -

notice how he's avoiding looking at the camera because he's about to

snatch the goat yet again.

He kept stealing our straw goat at home too,

and so we finally had to put it up high with the Christmas village.

He also kept stealing the Swedish flag!

What a good looking Swede you are, James!

Since there was plenty of snow,

we got in plenty of sledding.

Grandpa Brewer found a really great sledding hill,

and the kids enjoyed sledding with the cousins.

Jalen Andrew had his fill the very first time Dad sled with him down the hill.

He played in the snow a little, but mostly wanted to be held,

and have nothing to do with the snow. He refused to wear gloves too,

which added to his fussiness. He and I finally went and hung out in the van.

He was much happier.

The extra boots at Farmor's that fit Jalen Andrew were bright pink,

and he was in love with them. He wore them everywhere!

Look for them in the upcoming pictures.

Though the girls had a great time sledding (Christine especially, who is great

fun to watch, since she crashes a lot, and laughs a lot),

they chose shopping with Kelsey and Emily over sledding again.

Go figure.

Joseph tends to be more cautious with things like sledding. He was very careful

about it all, the first time we went. The second time he went, he let loose a

little bit more, and had a great time sledding down with his Dad and Ty

as a part of a train.

James was wild man on the sled. The more speed he got,

the more bumps he hit,

the farther he sped was all good to him.

He loved every minute of it - especially the exhilaration.

Though younger than Jalen Andrew, Cy was very "cool" about the whole

sledding idea. Cute too!

THE SNOWMEN!

James, Zach, Ty & Joseph

James was much easier to handle on this trip, than I had thought.

On average, there were 4 or 5 adults in the house most of the time,

and because of the high adult to kid ratio,

I wasn't stretched so thin (like I am at home) and could give him

all the attention and time that he needed.

There were still "accidents" but since I wasn't cooking dinner,

helping someone with homework, or any other one of the million things I do each day,

I was able to handle it okay.

Jalen Andrew got to meet Great-Grandma Harrison for the first time.

He was a bit overwhelmed by the whole trip -

lots of new faces and lots of new places.

I love my Grandma! I was so glad that we got to go and see her;

it's been awhile since I've seen her.

We visited Temple Square.

Below is inside the Joseph Smith Memorial Building-

it was beautiful!

As of late, Jalen Andrew has been recognizing pictures of Joseph Smith,

and calling him "Wo Wo Smith."

He was so excited to see a stature of Wo Wo Smith,

and as you can see, was reaching out to him.

Temple Square was cold!

But beautiful!

The youngest boys got some free rides around the Temple grounds.

(Did you notice the pink boots?)

Every time we would pass a temple,

Jalen Andrew would call out "Temple!"

After awhile he started calling all kinds of buildings temples,

but at first he only said it for actual temples, not even churches with their steeples.

He has also started singing, "I Love to See the Temple."

The girls - huddled close together for warmth -

Serianna, Me, Christine, Rebekah & Farmor.

The boys - Jalen Andrew with Dad, James, Grandpa Brewer & Joseph.

We like to visit the Temples that are near wherever we are vacationing.

The older kids have visited most of the Temples in Utah (we'll visit them

again with the younger kids - when it's warmer),

but for this trip we visited the Draper Temple.

And then on our way back home we visited the Oquirrh Mountain Temple;

nobody wanted to get out for a picture this time (it was cold & snowing)

and Jalen Andrew was asleep.