With the Pace Family

We left the Boyds and went back to Salt Lake around 1:00 in the afternoon, and the boys slept in the car for most of the way. A much needed relief since Landon always gets car sick. We enjoyed a steak dinner with my parents, though the boys didn't eat very much and were extremely withdrawn. My dad tried to bribe them to be friends with him using ice cream. We went to Hires to get some ice cream and celebrate Tyler's birthday. So Thanks to Tyler who let us come with him for his special time with Grandma and Grandpa! Sam loved his ice cream cone, and Tyler's adult sized root beer float was so huge it made him a little sick. We put the boys to bed when we got home, but Sam woke up around 11:00 and threw-up again. I guess he wasn't feeling good that day, though he really disguised it well.
On Tuesday we relaxed in the moderate silence of my parents home. Dad still tried to bribe the kids with food. It didn't work. Sam warmed up a little, when they played ball in the backyard, though Sam kicked it away from my dad more often then not. For dinner we went to my favorite Chinese restaurant. The Mandarin in Bountiful has the best food! I stuffed myself silly.
My mom and I decided that Wednesday would be our day together. We spent the morning at Fashion Place Mall shopping and talking. It was nice to spend a few hours alone with my mom, and lunch at the Cheesecake Factory is ALWAYS good!!! In the evening we went to visit Chris' best friend from High School. Stan is newly engaged and we were excited to meet her. Amber is great!!! She's so perfect for Stan. We're so happy for him. I wish I had taken some pictures of the night. After dinner and a few hours of talking Landon finally warmed up to another human being. Stan brought out a Nerf Dart Gun for Landon to play with. Landon remembers them from Shawn's house so he got very excited and forced Stan to help him shoot the darts around the room. In the future we're going to get my parents one of these and Grandpa can bribe Landon to be friends with him that way. The whole food thing just doesn't work.
On Thursday we woke up to seeing Nicole. We haven't seen her in almost three years. she got home from her mission last December, so it was nice to finally see her and spend some time catching up with her for the day. In my dad's quest to become friends with the boys he took the boys on a ride in the wagon then had them help clean up around the big pine tree. Landon has always liked picking up the pine cones with Grandpa. Then Landon discovered the croquet set, so after the boys afternoon naps we went out to play. My Grandparents showed up around 4:00 and Grandma played a game with us. Landon didn't understand how to play, so my dad started giving himself extra turns and the cheating began all around. Grandma won. Landon's favorite part of the game was making sure everyone used the correct ball. I had to use the black one, and Chris was given the yellow. Sam liked taking the balls away from everyone, so he could have one. This messed up all of Landon's plans so, of course, there was fighting and yelling going on through out the game too. When Allison and Jordan came we all headed over to Daniel's house for a great Lasagna dinner, and Cheesecake for desert. We stayed late and formed our own band with Dan's Wii. The boys loved playing with their cousins.

We had a great vacation! Chris reminds me that we could have bought a very nice, new flat screen television with less money than we spent visiting family, but we both know that we made the better choice. Hopefully next time the boys will be nice to their grandparents, and maybe we won't eat so much. Thanks to everyone who made it such a great Spring Break!!