Briton Update

Briton checked into the MTC today and had a little surprise. His mission was reassigned to the Uruguay, Montevideo Mission. I think that Briton was fine with this change. He has taken several years of Spanish and is practically fluent in it. I got the impression from him while talking to him in Utah that he was excited to go to Russia and serve, but he really thought that he was going to go Spanish speaking. I wonder if he had a little of "finally the right call" after they told him. I guess that Briton and Ali have been lead by the spirit in there shopping excursions also, because they did not make any purchases of winter clothes.

I have not heard of this happening before. I have heard of temporary reassignments to different missions while they are waiting on visa's, but never a permanent reassignment. So anyway, I am looking forward to learning more about Uruguay. I have thoroughly enjoyed my many nights that I have googled and wikipedia'ed Russia. I am always looking for something else to look up on wikipedia. :)

Tuesday in Utah

My Grandma was not feeling well, so my Dad and the boys and I went down to see her. It was nice to get to see her new place. She had moved from the Provo area down to Price since the last time I saw her. The boys were great and enjoyed showed our "Utah Grandma Moffitt" how they do puzzles. Miles is so confused that Grandma Moffitt was my Grandma, and his Grandpa's, Mom that he told me, "I decide that I am just going to have a Utah Grandma Moffitt and a Texas Grandma Moffitt". Hey that works.

After a visit and lunch with Grandma we went back to Uncle Richards and Aunt Shanna's to ride horses and spend the night there. It was a wonderful night, and boys just love it that every time they come to Utah Uncle Richard will let them ride his horses.

This is my Uncles neighbors cat, but Miles just loved on it. Troy is allergic to cat's so they are not allowed close to our house. I told Miles I would take a picture of him the cat so that he could always remember it.

Our drive home was long. We decided to go home over the Monarch Pass through Colorado. It is a beautiful drive, but we were all so tire from our week, that for most of the car ride home the whole car was a sleep except for the driver. But we decided to get up early today so that we could get home early, and we got home about 4:00. We had a great vacation, but it so nice to be home.

Monday in Utah

I took the kids down to Temple Square today. I think the last time I was on Temple Square was when Miles was about 6 months old. I enjoyed the day with the boys just walking around and going through the visitor centers. I do think the boys enjoyed the day and felt the spirit like I did walking around. The Sister Missionaries loved my boys, and just showered them with attention and complements, which they loved! I really enjoyed the visitor centers, I think that they have been redone since the last time I was in them so it was nice.

After our day on Temple Square we got to go the family dinner at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building for Briton my nephew, which was really reason that we came to Utah. Briton got his mission call to Russia and will go into the MTC on the 3rd. It was such a special night to be there with our family and Aleta's family and celebrate what a great kid Briton is and how proud of him that we all are that he chose to go on a mission.

What good look group! We are proud of you Brit.

Sunday in Utah

We went to church with Greg and Carly today. Gracie was so excited to have here cousins go to her class. I had told Miles and Tyson that they could both go to class with Gracie so that Tyson did not have to go to class by himself. Tyson fell a sleep during sacrament meeting and slept through about half of Sunday school. When we walk him into primary, Gracie's little face just beamed. She waved Tyson over to sit with her, and even shared her chaired with him. Just in case you were wondering, Miles told me that Uncle Greg's church had 25 speakers. OK, so I still laugh at this every Sunday.

After church My Uncle Richard, Aunt Shanna and cousins Dirk and Monica all came up to Greg's house for dinner with there families. It is always a highlight of my trips to Utah to get to see my cousins and catch up and see how much their kids have grown since the last time. Unfortunately I got to carried away in visiting and forgot to take pictures.

Saturday in Utah

Saturday was our fun day with the Utah Moffitt cousin. We got to ride the train into Salt Lake. This was a major highlight of our trip. The boys were beyond excited about this. It is a little sad, because we have a train in Dallas, but we don't live by it, and by the time we drove to the train, we could be in Dallas.

We rode the train to Gateway Mall (I guess, I don't know exactly what it was called). What a cool mall! I could have done some serious shopping, there were several shops that I would have liked to gone into. I guess thankfully for Troy, I had the three boys with me, and we had already made plans for the day. :(

We went to Discovery Kids and spent the day. This place was so much fun for the kids. They had a blast touching and getting into everything. I wish that there was something like that in Dallas I would get season tickets and take the kids all the time.

When you first enter you walk into a "beehive" filled with balls that they kids get to gather and drop down different tubes. We could have stayed here all day and made Drew one happy boy.

Tyson is very proud of the fact that he can spell his name (and Miles, and Drew). He can not identify all the letters yet, but he is getting there. I think this was done with some help from Aunt Carly.

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There was a Care Flight helicopter outside that the kids could get in and pretend to flight. This is Miles and Gracie at the controls.

Livi found this costume to put on, and wore it the rest of the time, it was really cute to see her running around.

Drew and Tyson are helping with construction. Oh no Troy - maybe they are going to follow in your footsteps.

There was jeep that the boys could fill with gas and pump up the tires. They had been eyeing for for a while, but there was always a ton of kids on it. Miles and Tyson were so happy when they finally got a turn. Miles was over there telling the kids how to check the tires and put air in them, because his Grandpa Moffitt had just shown him how to do it.

We had a great day! As you can probably guess, all the kids slept on the train ride home.

Friday in Utah

We got up in the morning and went to see one of friends from Flower Mound that recently moved to Utah. What a great morning it was to be with Heather and her kids. It was fun to just catch up with each other. I feel that is a good friend, when we don't see each other, or talk for awhile and then when you are together it is like no time has past. I know I have several friends in Utah that read my blog, I am sorry that I was not able to see everyone, but I will try next time.

For dinner we went up Mueller Park Canyon for a weeny roast. When I was growing up we use to go this canyon and eat all of the time. Driving past our old house, and then up into the canyon brought back a flood of memories. That park has not changed much from my memories. It looked the same, smelt the same, we ate and put drinks and the melon in the stream just the same. It is nice to know that some memories from your childhood are correct, and can be relived. It was a fun night to get to do something with my kids that I used to do with I was there age. I feel bad, because I sometimes I feel like my kids are never going to have the opportunity to see where I grew up and where I went to school like they will with Troy. So I was very happy to get to spend this evening with my kids.

The Drive up to Utah

We had a great time in Utah this year. The boys and I enjoyed getting to see the family and spending time with them. We ran at full speed for the whole week, and crashed when we got home.

We left Wednesday morning and started our drive through Texas and New Mexico. We took a couple of the Route 66 turn off and that just thrilled the boys. We would be driving down the road and they would start yelling "there is Flo's" "that's Sarge's" "Where is the Cosy Cone?" We did stop at the the Tee Pee gift shop in Tucumcari and let the kids get a license plate for their wall. The whole time Miles was telling us, this place in on Cars. Then we were talking to the owner and Miles told us, he is in Cars. Pretty soon a guy walked in and Miles said he is from Cars, and he turned to him and said your right! He was one of the guys interviewed in the making of Cars and he told the boys that he is friends with Sheriff (which thrilled them) and he told them they are making a new Cars movie. The boys were very excited! When we got back to the car, Miles made Grandpa watch the Cars movie so that he could show Grandpa that we just talked to the guy from Cars, and of course Miles was right. He never forgets anything!

We spent the night in Gallup on Route 66. I think that the boys were in heaven! I was not sold on the idea of staying in one of the original motels, so we found a newer one to stay in and everyone was happy. We did not realize that we would be dealing with trains all night along. I swear they went by every 20 minutes, and every time they passed Drew would pop out of his bed and yell "CHOO CHOO MAMA!"

The next day we stopped in Moab for a break at the "Hole in Rock." It was a fun place to walk around and get the wiggles out. The boys (and I think Grandpa) were most excited about the jeep.

I don't remember where we were when we took this, but this has got to be one of the funniest things that I have seen.

We were very happy to finally make it to Greg's house that night for a great dinner that they had waiting for us. Gracie and Livi were as excited for us to get there as Miles and Tyson were to get there.