Virgina...

About a month ago I couldn't shake this feeling that I should go to Virgina with Kirk. He was scheduled to go for work and I just kept thinking I should go with him. So we checked to see if it would be possible for me to come. Everything worked out perfectly in our favor. Because of his skymiles I was able to go for $10! His mom was already going to be in Salt Lake that weekend and would be happy to take the girls for the week. My brother Josh, sister Kristy, and Mom were all willing to help out with the girls when Karen had other things going on. Everything was set to work out perfectly. Both Kirk and I were so excited to go. The trip was Sunday to Friday, 5 days alone! We couldn't believe our luck! The girls were so excited to go to "Nana's house" and the week happened to fall on Kirsten's spring break. I was planning to relax on the beach, get some reading, pondering, studying, and organization done. 4 full days to myself?! Are you kidding I was so looking forward to it so much and had a list a mile long of the thing we were going to do. I'm not sure why I felt so strongly that I should go with him on this particular trip. I've never traveled with him before and never even really tried to. I wonder if it is partly because this was his first trip since his trip to Paris(Rome)? I thought maybe we have hard times coming and this was our happy times before hand? I'm not sure but I sure wasn't going to deny the prompting to go.
We left Vegas Saturday after Kirsten's soccer game and drove to Santaquin to stay with my sister Camille. My girls adore my nieces Abby and Allie and were so thrilled to be there.

Kirk stayed at home with the kids while Camille and I snuck out to see the late show of Hunger Games (I loved it, it gave me the chills, made my cry, and made me laugh. It was everything I was hoping the movie would be). We woke up early and drove to Salt Lake to meet up with Karen for breakfast. We were also lucky enough to have breakfast with two of Karen's sisters, Paulette and Bev. It was a great start to a fun vacation. We left the girls suitcases with Karen and took the girls to Josh's house for the afternoon. Karen had tickets to the afternoon session of General Conference and Josh was so kind to keep the girls entertained so we could catch our flight. The girls watched cartoons and napped...at least that is how easy Josh made his job sound. We sure appreciated his willingness to put up with those two for a couple hours. Kirk and I kissed the girls goodbye and drove to the airport. I was a little apprehensive about leaving the girls for so many days but it was so exciting to go somewhere new with Kirk.
It has been 3 years since I have flown and airports haven't changed a bit. Kirk is an expert and knows the quickest way around everything. It was fun to get on the plane, snuggle up to him and just relax the two of us. We felt so lucky to have this week alone!  I use to love flying, but was kind of a nervous wreck the whole time we flew because I knew if something happened to us the girls would be left without either parent, I feel much safer on the ground these days. We had trouble with our plane from Atlanta to Norfolk and after settling in had to get off the plane and onto another because of a broken door hinge. Not a big deal but we didn't end up in Virgina until 1:00 am. We were exhausted and so excited to be there by the time we finally arrived. I have a lot of sympathy for all the traveling Kirk does, it's not easy. We stayed in Virgina Beach which was the cutest nicest place, I definitely want to go back! The smell of the ocean was in the air (what makes the ocean smell so delicious?). We lucked out big time! Our hotel was literally right on the beach and our rental car was a convertible! Our room was a one bedroom suite with a king size bed (why don't we already have a king size bed?!). But our luck ended there because Monday morning, while I was enjoying sleeping in, Kirk went to work where they notified him that the training had been cancelled. Apparently they had let IBM know but the guy didn't let Kirk or his boss know. Our perfect vacation was cancelled. We tried to see if there was a way we could justify at least staying one night but it wasn't going to happen. IBM said to catch the next flight home. It gets worse. We had to cover the cost to change my flight, $450!!! We were super disappointed. But there was no use moping about it. We made a list of the things we wanted to do before our flight left in a a few hours.
We walked down on the beach. It was incredibly windy and we only stayed long enough to snap a few pictures, touch the Atlantic ocean, and find some sea shells for the girls. Oh how I love the ocean. I can't wait to go later this summer with the girls and spend a relaxing day on the beach.

The view of the beach and boardwalk from our hotel balcony

 

Oh man I love the beach!

 

From the balcony!

So happy to be on the beach!

Ha ha it was a giant shell that I made him pose under

I love to kiss this man!

We took the top down on the convertible (despite the wind) and drove all around the beautiful town of Virginia Beach. Virgina is so green! So many trees! Much better than Vegas.

So green!

Kissing in the convertible!

Love the trees!

We went to a lighthouse. The first lighthouse the US government built. Cape Henry I believe is the name. We were able to walk up the winding staircase to the top of the lighthouse. It was so much fun! I've always wanted to go to the top of a lighthouse. It was beautiful from the top. We were very lucky to be the only ones in the top for about 5 minutes. That moment almost made the whole trip worth it!

 

At the bottom of the staircase (When Audrey looks at this picture she says "Ohhh scarey!")

At the top!

Best moment of the trip!

View of the modern lighthouse from the top

The lighthouses were on a military base, this is the modern lighthouse

We then decided to go to dinner. And since I'm not a huge sea food buff we decided on pasta aka Olive Garden. It was nice to have a dinner just the two of us (without having to accompany any cute kids to the bathroom).
And then we were back in the airport. We arrived back in Salt Lake around midnight that night. It was our 35 hour trip that we will never forget! We stayed with my sister-in-law Crystal that night and we were up until 2:30 chatting away! The next day Kirk and I went to Hunger Games together, we both loved the movie (again!). We met up with my sister Amanda for lunch at Smash Burger (mmm our favorite!). We arrived in Vernal that evening around 5. My wonderful sister Kristy had watched the girls the whole day! The girls just stared at Kirk and I when we arrived and we them. Neither of us were exactly ready to see the other. They had so much fun playing with all their cousins and family they rarely get to see.
On Sunday Karen and the girls drove down to Provo and stayed with Aaron and Joriel. The girls had a blast playing with Alex and Kassandra.

Monday they drove to Vernal with Nana and then went to Liz and Derik's for dinner and painting Easter eggs. They had a blast and were still bragging about their eggs days later!

They were not ready to see their parents. We had told the girls for days beforehand that we would be gone for 5 days and they would stay with Nana. We told them we would be back the day after they stayed at Grandma Brinkerhoff's. (Whenever we told Audrey this she would say "but I miss you!"). So Tuesday night after we left Kristy's we were all a little grumpy. All four of us were tired, irritable, and frustrated.
We woke up Wednesday in much better moods and were ready to adjust to being back together as a family in Vernal. We stayed at my parents house. We stayed home all morning and relaxed. We went to the new Jumpin and Jivin place in Vernal with Karen. It was so much fun, the girls loved it! We were lucky enough to meet one of my best friends, Camille, and her kids who just happened to be in spring break for Vernal too! It was so great to see her. That evening we had a nice dinner with my parents, put the kids to bed early, and enjoyed visiting with my parents and playing card games. Turns out our bad luck wasn't so bad after all!

Easter 2012

We had such a fabulous Easter this year. We celebrated for three days straight! We were very lucky to be in Vernal for the holiday by chance.
Thursday we celebrated with my parents and sister Kristy and her kids. We drove out to the green river for a picnic. We had hot dogs, potato salad, chips...the Easter picnic of my childhood. We had an Easter egg hunt for the kids. Madison was sooo cute with Audrey. She stayed with Audrey the entire hunt and helped her find all the eggs. Audrey's bucket was completely full and Madison only had one egg in her bucket. We had to literally hide eggs out of Kirsten and Audrey's buckets for Madison to find because she had been so kind and their weren't any eggs left! I can only hope my daughters are so kind in the future. I had my first experience as a mother trying to get my girls to go "potty" in the woods. Kirsten had no problem but Audrey refused. She tried half a dozen times before she finally just decided to hold it for the day. Even when we found an outhouse she wouldn't go there either, she just might be our little city girl! After the picnic and egg hunt we went and played in the sand down by the river. The kids had a blast playing together while the adults visited. I love being with family! That evening my mom, Kristy, and I went to the movie Mirror Mirror. It was cheesy and fun.

Madison and Audrey

finding eggs with Grandpa

Friday we packed up at went over to Kirk's parents. We went over to Liz's house and let the kids play with their cousins while we visited. I am very blessed to have Liz as my sister-in-law! After a while we went back to Karen's and helped her make Easter dinner. That night Liz and her kids, Jody Taryn and Stetson, Tom, and Aunt Cindy were there for the dinner. We enjoyed the delicious ham with good company. Karen hosted her annual Easter egg hunt which the girls LOVED! 

We left the party around 8 to drive out to Santaquin. We had a crazy near crash just outside of Vernal that left us all a little unnerved.

We were happy to arrive to the party at Camille's. Garrett, Emily, Bekah, Chelsey and Cody were all there. We have so much fun with them. Saturday morning we woke up and let the kids find their Easter baskets. All the kids were sooooo excited! The girls got candy, sunglasses, and jewelry boxes.

After a delicious breakfast we packed up and headed south to Kolob. We stopped just outside of Fillmore to play in the sand dunes. Garrett always has the best ideas. We had a great time playing in the sand and making paths to roll our eggs. The girls loved getting dirty and being with their cousins.

Love these two girls!

We made it to Kolob in the early afternoon in time for a picnic and Easter egg hunt. Jacob was so funny and insisted on finding only the blue eggs!

We then went on a mile hike out to an overlook. Kolob was simply gorgeous! I only wish we had more time to explore it all.

The girls were tired after one hike so we called it a day and went back to the hotel and swam. Our girls sure are little fish, we can't wait for our pool to open for the summer!

We then went to dinner at Costa Vida and later played games until we were all too tired to keep our eyes open anymore. We shared a room with Garrett, Chelsey and their families. Cracking jokes and laughing while we laid in bed was one of my favorite moments of the weekend. We had to wake up much to early and drive home to Vegas. Kirk flew out later that day to California which is where he has been all week. We figured after all our traveling was done (not including Kirk's California trip) we had unpacked our bags from our car 7 times in 8 days! It was a lot of fun and a whirlwind of a trip. We certainly feel very blessed to have such wonderful family. We love them all very dearly!