My Valentine's Date

Here she is!

This past weekend Jayci and I went to Idaho with my parents to visit my Grandma, who was recently widowed. My parents were planning on going and I decided to drive up separately with Jayci so I'd have my own transportation for the weekend. Jess was great and stayed home with Jack, and took him out on their own Valentine's Date. Jayci was amazing in the car and didn't cry a single tear or wine once on the trip there AND back. However, I did learn the hard way that she doesn't sleep well in unfamiliar places. Each night proved to be a challenge, as she would not go to sleep, and worse still, wouldn't stay asleep. The third night we were there she fell asleep fine, which I was grateful for, but woke up screaming at midnight, and was still awake at 4:30 when my mom came out to relieve me, since I would be driving home in just a few hours. My mom said that she kept thinking Jayci had fallen asleep after she was quiet for a few minutes, and then suddenly she'd start talking and asking silly questions again. It was probably 5:30 AM before she finally fell asleep, and was knocked out until 9:30 when I had to wake her up for pictures. (I'll post those when Katie posts them on her blog)

On Valentine's Day my parents took my Grandma to a movie. I opted out because Jayci's attention span is about one minute, and then she just wants to run and play. She and I bummed around downtown Rexburg and then met my parents, Grandma, Aunt Vicki, Uncle Wylie, Aunt Priscilla, and Uncle Scott for lunch at New Fong's. Then we went back to Grandma's to do some work around her house that she can't do herself (shovel 3 feet of ice and snow off her GIGANTIC deck. My shoulder is still sore) while Jayci took a nap. Then the girls went into town and rented a movie, came back and had dinner while Jayci played with a new cousin, Scott, who is my first cousins' little boy.

Sunday morning we went to church, came back for naptime, then had dinner at my aunt Vicki's house, where Jayci got to play with some more new cousins, Jaden and Landon.


I love going back to Idaho and visiting family. I practically grew up there. As a family we used to go many times a year. This trip was bitter-sweet because it's the first time I've been back since my Grandpa passed away. A few times just out of the blue I'd get hit with nostalgia, which proved to be quite emotional for me. My mom and I looked through some extremely old photo albums and saw fun pictures of my Grandpa and his brothers, and my mom and her family. Then on the drive home my mom told me stories that I'd never heard about her family growing up. It was fun to hear and made the drive seem very short. It was a nice, relaxing, well-worth-it, sort of trip. Thanks to my fabulous Husband who had fun with Jack while we were gone on Valentine's Day. We'll celebrate on our own time, which is good because we won't have to wait 2 hours to go to dinner!

Here is our 4 generation picture. I have one of these with my great-grandma taken when I was a baby. *Just a little funny story, Jayce and I arrived in Idaho about 9 PM on Friday night and Jayci was hungry. So my Grandma started to feed her grapes, and I had been telling her that this was GREAT Grandma because she was a little confused when I called her Grandma. Jayci then started to call her grape-grandma and still thinks that's who she is!

Right before we left I had to get a picture of Jayci on my Grandpa's saddle. He won this when he was 79! Pretty incredible considering he was 80 when he died. She's even in her cowgirl dress.