Our February trip to Utah

At the beginning of February when Eleanor was just shy of 4 weeks we took a trip to Utah!  It was a crazy, exciting idea.  Aaron was going for a PwC recruiting trip that weekend and we thought we would take the opportunity to introduce Eleanor to family and friends in Utah.  My mom offered to fly out early with me and Eleanor for those first few days and boy was it wonderful to have her there with us.   We tackled security together and I nursed Eleanor as the plane took off.  I then handed her off to my mom and took a nice long nap for the whole plane ride. Best plane ride of my life!

We stayed at Audrey's house for the first few days, soaking up time with her kiddos, who were so adorable with Eleanor.  Remy especially loved watching over the baby.  And my dear mom continued to take shifts with Eleanor during the night, giving me glorious, needed rest as I was still recovering.

^^Oliver: "Do I have to kiss her?  Can I just pretend?"

^^ Meeting Uncle Brad!

While there, we took an afternoon trip up to see Grandma Raty, who Eleanor is named after.  Grandma had cooked us a delicious lunch and it was wonderful as always to catch up with her.  And I will cherish these pictures of her and Eleanor forever.

Utah in February is cold and snowy.  We did our best to keep Eleanor warm with these cute bunting outfits my mom found.  She look like an adorable eskimo!

Aaron flew in Friday and Annie and Austin got to meet Eleanor for the first time.  We said goodbyes to Audrey's family and then went to Provo for the weekend.

We first stayed in a hotel, thanks to P-dub (aka PwC) and Eleanor ended up sleeping in a drawer draped with a blanket because they had run out of cribs.  Aaron then snowboarded and recruited while I got my haircut as Aunt Nie Nie babysat Eleanor.  We then spent the afternoon with Ellen and Gregg Karren and learned then that they are expecting their first baby!  We, of course, changed our plans for sushi as a result of cute baby Karren and got a great Mexican lunch instead.

That night we had all of our freshmen guy friends and their wives over for a BYU game at Grammy and Grandpa McKell's.  It was just like old times and I so loved getting to see all of our dear friends again.  I love every person those guys married and consider them to be my close friends too now.  We were also surprised by a visit from Aaron's aunt, uncle and cousins that night and had fun seeing them ooh and aah over Eleanor.  Grammy and Grandpa were kind enough to let us stay with them and were so cute with Eleanor.  We sure miss living close to them!

I think I reached a peak of exhaustion that Saturday night and was so relieved when Eleanor slept a little longer (4 1/2 hour stretch!).  It was like she knew I needed that extra sleep.

We went to church with our old Aspenwood ward on Sunday and had fun seeing those familiar faces.

Then on Sunday night Aaron and I flew home on separate flights because that was all that had been available.  Despite a longer than planned layover and flying solo for the first time with the babes, it turned out all right.  Eleanor thankfully slept through the whole thing and every person we came across offered to help, including our flight's pilot!  Thank goodness for good people.

It was definitely ambitious to take such a trip when Eleanor was so young and I still wasn't totally recovered.  I think I will opt to stay at home for the first 6 weeks for my next babies, but it is just so hard to turn down an opportunity to see family and friends.  We loved seeing you all!