Kailee's First Road Trip (And College Football Season)

My Grandma recently sold her home and moved to a nursing home. Since my Grandpa passed away she has had a hard time with her health and keeping up with the demands of homeownership. Lately, she has not been doing very well, so we decided to make the trip up to North Dakota to see her for Labor Day weekend. We left after work on Friday and drove all night (about 15 hours) until we arrived in Williston, North Dakota at about 7a.m. Kailee slept through the whole drive!! Both Kailee and Kody got to meet Grandma Gilbert for the very first time and she was very happy to see them. We spent the day with her and she let us go through her jewelry boxes and take whatever we wanted. It was good to see her.


Later that afternoon we made the 2 hour journey to Glasgow, Montana to visit my other grandparents at their farm. Kailee also got to meet a few of her great aunts and uncles and second cousins. She had a fun time meeting everyone but was exhausted by the end of the day and was too cranky to play with her new friends.


Needless to say, she very much enjoyed stretching out on the hotel bed which she had all to herself.


The next morning we attended church with the family in Glasgow and then went back to the farm for lunch. Then we took off for Livingston, Montana- which is about six hours away- to visit with my Aunt Joan and her family. My cousin Kenny just returned from his mission to Germany so it was fun to see him and hear about his adventures. Our plan was to float the Yellowstone River Monday morning, but it was way too cold. So we ended up having a barbeque instead. My Aunt Ivy and her family came to visit us at Joan's house as well. It was fun to see everyone

We left that afternoon at about 2 and drove all the way home to Utah. Kailee very much enjoyed her first taste of chocolate during the drive. I know I'm a horrible mother for giving her chocolate but it entertained all of us for a good while.




Kailee did pretty well the whole trip until we got to Idaho Falls. She decided she had had enough of the car seat and screamed most of the way home. Even now, a week after the trip, she still starts to whimper when we put her in her car seat.

While we were in North Dakota my Grandma gave me, my mom, Callan and Cory some boxes of her things to take with us. We opened them when we got home to find that she had split up some of her bell collection with us. She had over 130 bells that she kept in a really pretty curio cabinet. We always loved going to Grandma's house and googling her pretty bells, assuring ourselves that there was nothing more beautiful on earth. In fact, my slight obsession convinced me to join the bell choir in high school.


I know... I was a dork. I was even Vice President my Senior year. But I had fun. Although I did not enjoy being criticized for my undersized, un-dramatic arm circles. I never understood why, because I can't imagine our audiences were too concerned with how theatrical we looked while trying to sheild themselves from the shrill, migraine-causing music we made.

But anyways, we each got about a dozen bells and I'm trying to think of a good place to display them where they won't get broken. So for now I'm keeping them safe in their box in the basement. But I am so excited to have them.




This last Saturday was the long-awaited Alabama vs. Penn State game. We, of course, had a party, and Alabama did not disappoint. Kody has waited ages for Kailee to wear her little Crimson Tide fan shirt. She looked very cute!




Kody's parents came all the way down to our house for the game and Mark, Jo and Joey came out as well. Callan and Cory were also there to support. With good food and our family with us, we couldn't think of a better way to kick off the football season- - wish me luck!!

On Sunday Kailee had her 3 month photo shoot with Gram-paul. We love our little princess and can't believe how time has flown!