Trip to visit Katie's Birth Family

A couple of weeks ago we received an email from K (Katie's Birth Mom). While it is always great to hear from her this email came with some bad news. Someone (I am not saying who on purpose) in her family has stage 4 lung cancer. What a shock!

We got her email on Saturday at noon and by Monday night we were on the road to Utah to visit the family. We felt very strongly that we should go visit them at that time. What is amazing, is that Ken had already planned on taking a few vacation days that week so it worked out perfectly. (I still can't believe that we got everything ready and packed in such a short time.)

We decided to drive straight through (24 hours). That was an extremely long and tiring drive but it seemed to be easier on Katie since she slept through most of the night. This was our first time taking our dog Kassie on a long trip and she did really well.

Our first day there was the 4th of July. We spent the morning at the Hogle Zoo with my brother and his family. Katie was so excited to see her cousins again. The zoo was a lot of fun. The best part of course was the company but their new polar bear exhibit was awesome! The polar bear loved to preform for the crowd. He would do back flips off the glass.

On the way to the zoo:

After the zoo we grabbed a bite to eat and then headed over to see our birth family. It was great to see everyone. They have a very big family and we got to see almost everyone. Some of their family from Australia was even there. The only bad part of the visit was that I enjoyed talking with everyone so much that I didn't take that many pictures.

On our way to see them the second day:

We spent the next afternoon with them as well and this time I didn't take any pictures. :( I will have to take a ton when we are in Utah this December. I can not say how much we enjoyed our visits with them. They are such wonderful people and we are so glad that (almost) 3 years ago we became an extended part of their family.

We watched some fireworks with the kiddos but Katie and her youngest cousin didn't enjoy the loud bombs so we didn't stay very long.

Since we decided to go to Utah at the last minute we didn't have a chance to tell anyone that we were coming. Except of course my brother and sister-in-law who let us stay with them on such short notice. (Thanks again) We decided to surprise my Grandpa by just showing up at his house. It was actually his birthday that day and he was beyond thrilled to see us. My Grandpa and I have always had such a special connection and we are very close so we cherish our time together. Plus he hadn't seen Ken in almost three years so like I said he was thrilled.

We were also able to spend some quality time with my other Grandpa and Grandma. It was so good to see them. We really enjoyed spending time with them. They are such a cute and fun couple to be around. We went out to lunch with them and almost the whole time my Grandma and Ken were talking politics, lol.

Here are some fun pictures of the kids playing (and Ken too. Thankfully there are no pictures of me trying to bounce the ball off my knees.)

I had to put this next picture of my niece up by itself because it cracked me up. My niece hates to have her picture taken and so I thought it was pretty funny that the first picture I took of her playing with the soccer ball turned out like this.

While we were in Utah we decided to visit Temple Square in Salt Lake City. Ken had not seen the new conference center and the last time I was there was with K and Katie was still in her belly. ;)

The conference center is a beautiful building itself but the paintings inside are what we feel make it truly special. We also went through the visitors center.

The Salt Lake City Temple grounds are so beautiful and peaceful. It was great to just sit there and relax. We loved all the flowers especially Katie.

Our favorite part of the trip was when K meet us at the Temple. As much as we enjoyed spending time with her whole family, there was something special about it being just the four of us. There is no one in this world who loves Katie more than the three of us.

We didn't do anything special, we just had lunch together and talked. K enjoyed watching Katie just being her fun loving self and we enjoyed watching K watching Katie. (haha, that makes us sound like stalkers)

I wish I could put into words how much that day meant to us but I can't. All I can say, is that our hearts are full of love for K and I tear up just thinking about that day. It meant so much to us. We are so thankful that K and her family will always be a part of ours and Katie's lives.

The next day we headed back to Texas. We decided since we were really tired it would be best to take two days to drive home. Thankfully Motel 6 accepts pets!

The trip was so inspired. Everything lined up perfectly so we could be there to show our support for K and her family during this difficult time. We are so grateful for all the blessings that Heavenly Father gave us so everything could come together. And we are also grateful for our family letting us crash with them with only 2 days notice.

The trip was short but it was jammed full of fun times. So much so, that Katie didn't really nap while we were there. She was having too much fun to be bothered by sleep. Here are some cute pictures of her getting some sleep whenever and where ever she could. The bottom two pictures were taken the morning we left Utah. Her lack of sleep had finally caught up to her and nothing would wake her. Ken even pulled the pillow out from under her and it didn't even faze her. Poor girl.

One last picture I had to add. When was the last time you saw one of these? I was so shocked to see a payphone in the visitors center I had to take a picture of it. (You don't have to say it...I know I'm a dork!)