Mainland Trip Part One: Our Arrival & Utah!

I figure these next many posts comprising the month of June should be broken up into "Parts" because there will be SO many! So here we go...

June first, we left Honolulu. June second, we arrived in Denver! We were exhausted and River slept less than 3 hours the whole time, but we arrived... and the whole time Kolea had an awful fever... remember that fever, it lasted for two and a half weeks! But we'll come back to that later...

Yay! He's smiling b/c he finally got to get down and crawl a bit!

Everyone is SO excited!

And silly!

And tired. But we managed to smile through it all! You like their colorful hairdos? That is from hair color sticks I found at Walmart. Every time I travel I bring brown paper sacks filled with little surprises or goodies that I give to the kids periodically. The LOVE it! It keeps them being good- b/c they don't want to lose the opportunity to get a new surprise and then whatever is IN the sack normally provides some form of cheap entertainment that lasts a while :)

That night (as tired as I was!) I went out with 3 of my ladies! L-R: Melissa, Crystle, and Tiina. No, that is not a typo, she is Finnish :) That's what you call Finlanders, right? :) Well, to clarify- her mom is. So Tiina is half. But doubly cool with two "i"s in her name. Anyhow... we had a super fun, much needed, long awaited ladies night in Old Town, Fort Collins. Miss you ladies!

June 3rd, I tried not to do anything! We were all trying to recover from JET LAG!!

June fourth, I took River and flew to Utah with my mom. The trip was two-fold. One, my grandma Wilkey (paternal grandma) has not been doing so hot lately. She's had a whole bunch of strokes and I was afraid I might not get to see her or visit with her again before she passed on, so I booked this short trip to Utah. And it coincided perfectly with my soon-to-be, sister-in-law's first bridal shower!

This is my sister, Tamara. She is the hostess with the mostess!

How lovely :)

My dearest mother!

My girl, Leslie who was also a comp from my mish! And she also happened to be the lovely lady that took the engagement photos for my bro and his fiancé.

Bride to be, Bekah!

My wonderful cousin, Becky! She was my closest friend growing up :)

Another wonderful cousin, Amanda- who lived a bit further away ;) but I love dearly!

My grandma, Muriel. Gotta love it! I wanted River to meet her as well. He's the 82 or 83 great grandchild for her! Come on cousins, any of you know for sure the order? I feel so out of the loop that there is no way I could figure it out! :)

And I'm happy to report that it's the middle of September and good ol' grandma is still hanging in there! But what would you expect from a woman that birthed 13 children, raised 14 and lived alone for nearly the last 30 years when her hubby was unexpectedly taken to heaven!?! Grandma, you are a trooper and we LOVE you!