spring break.

ricks and i just returned to davis from our spring break in utah this last saturday. here is the recap: i left march 8 bright and early (4 am to be exact) to catch my flight out of sacramento. ricks was to follow a week later when his spring break actually started. the first week i was in utah, my time was spent doing various things with my mom to help my sister. my sister, alicia, had just given birth to her triplets and was laid up in the hospital recovering from a c-section. the triplets came much earlier than expected. in fact their arrival was so unexpected that alicia had 2 baby showers planned for the weekend that she was in the hospital. my mom and i were sent as ambassadors to her ward shower. we brought along a computer and skyped her in from the hospital to visit with her friends and neighbors. the following evening, my sisters and i had planned a family shower for alicia. the shower went on as planned and again, we skyped alicia in from the hospital. it ended up working out really well.

so, the first 2 nights i was in utah, i went to a couple of baby showers! i had previously created a registry for my sister on myregistry.com and, once the showers had taken place, it became my mom and my responsibility to return extra items in exchange for necessaries. we ran around all week, registry held firmly in hand, gathering any as yet unpurchased essentials. it was fun spending time with my mom but i think im ok if i never see another target, kohls, or walmart again. anyway, we could what we wanted to done and alicia's house is not totally outfitted for the kiddos to come home from the nicu.

speaking of the babes, only parents and grandparents are allowed up into the nicu and so i still havent been up to see them- although i do have tons of pictures courtesy of my mom. they are teensy tinsy little babes -each around 3 pounds at birth and very slowly packing on the weight. i think at the latest weigh-in, the big boy was 3.12 pounds. there are 2 girls and 1 boy: ethan, elli, and amelia. im excited to be their aunt and to get to know them.

throughout that first week, not a whole lot happened besides working a couple of shifts at the provo hollister, getting a new phone, and helping my sister out. by friday, i was very excited for ricks to come. my mom and i picked up ricks late friday and then we all went home to crash.

on saturday we had ricks' family over for a swimming party. it was fun to quickly catch up with the davis family. and by quickly, i mean quick- all the little kiddos were pretty worn out after swimming for an hour and then, after a short dinner, everyone went home. so, with more of an evening leftover after the party than anticipated, ricks and i watched moneyball. sunday was church and family dinner. my mom (who gives gifts for any and every occassion) gave us our easter presents because we were all at home. the boys got a light up toy - because all boys need to act like they are 5 every once in a while- and the girls got some awesome charm bracelets. and, of course, sunday wouldnt be complete without a visit to my grandma wilson's home.

this particular week, my family was planning on going on a trip together. we had discussed potential locations but nothing ever really came together and so instead we decided to just hang out in utah. now, looking back, it was definitely a good thing we were all in utah because of the triplets' arrival. so, in lieu of a real vacation, we opted to have a staycation.

monday i had made plans to have birthday lunch with ricks mom and sisters. we went to buca di beppos and ate well. that afternoon my mom and my sisters went and got manicures while enjoying sees chocolates. that night we went to Big Fish to watch a movie in the theater. we chose Dr No and ate Buffalo Wild Wings and pizza. it was really a lot of fun-one of our more favorite activites of the week. tuesday we went with my mom to check out the crate and barrel in salt lake, buy some kitchen things, and eat lunch at cheesecake factory. YUM! that night, ricks went to salt to be with his dad and i started feeling pretty yucky. wednesday we got massages and then spent the afternoon with mindy and elsie riding bikes and making hummus. it was really fun to spend enough time with elsie and to see her come out of her shell a little bit. she is such a cutie. we left mindys to see wes, danae, and robert. we were going to go bowling but the lanes were so busy that we chose to go back to the snows home and just have a chill evening enjoying each others company and some good food. ricks and i are really grateful for friends as wonderful as wes and danae. i had felt pretty terrible all day and really didnt get much sleep that week either and so by the time we left the snows, i was ready to get home. i went to sleep with a pretty bad fever and woke up radiating heat. i felt poor enough that i missed out on an opportunity to go flying with my dad. ricks still went and im extremely jealous because they flew to jackson hole, over the tetons and around yellowstone. and i just laid in bed feeling gross. as the day wore on i started feeling a little better and even went to get some food with alicia and my mom only to come home to lay on the couch a little more. the upside of all this was that i got to watch an episode of frozen planet on the discovery channel which totally blew my mind. it was really cool.

thursday night, we went to the culinary school at uvu for dinner. having dinner there was one of the more fun dinners that ive ever had. theres a lot of food, so you get to try a little (or a lot) of everything and most everything is made pretty well. i really loved the chicken tikka masala and the potato dumplings with spicy chipotle chutney.

friday was our last day in ut and everyone wanted to do one last thing with us. we went bowling with kim and ksenia, visited mindy who gave us a really sweet care package for the drive home, said hi to neal and family briefly and then saw ricks' parents and tami and family. that night we had dinner at pat's bbq. it was pretty funny to watch us eat. youd think we were starving the way we wolfed down the food, but man, was it good! the last item on the agenda was to bring my sister-in-law some dinner at her new job while simultaneously checking out slc's new city creek shopping center. we visited paulina at tumi and then walked around. it was crazy crowded at the mall but, admittedly, the mall was pretty cool. im glad i got to see and i think it will be fun to go shopping there in the future.

it was really really good to see family and to relax a bit and help a bit, too. i love my family a lot and its hard living away from them but it just makes it that much sweeter to come home and be with them.

saturday we prepped the subaru for the drive home and quickly stopped by my grandma worthingtons to pick up some famous strawberry jam. we then drove pretty solidly from 830am pacific time to 630pm with only a couple of stops for gas. its good to be home. we taught our primary classes and made some rolls to go with the jam and now its back to life as usual.