Our "stay cation"!!!

So this weekend, we went to Salt Lake City and had a BLAST!!! We weren't sure how Randy was going to hold up, but overall he did ok!!! My sister, Blanche had this trip planned for her family a couple of months ago and I invited myself to go. When Randy got in his crash, I told her we were out. But as time went on, Randy was doing good and so we decided last minute to go anyhow!!! So who is "WE" on this trip?

My sister, Blanche and her husband, Michael. Their son, Matthew and daughter, Brookie. Blanche's oldest daughter, Brittney, Chuck and their 2 kids. My mom and dad. Michael's brother and his 7 kids and us 5. That's right, there were 23 of us!!!


The trip up was pretty fast. We stopped in Nephi for lunch and to meet up with my parents. Then off to our hotel in Murray. The Pavilion Inn is where we stayed. I would recommend it to anyone. They had a full breakfast, 24 indoor pool and workout room, free laundry, the lobby was fun to hang out in, free wi-fi and 2 computers in the lobby to use, and the rooms weren't that bad either. I can't complain one bit about it!!!

After we checked in, we headed out to the The Living Planet Aquarium. It was pretty cool. It wasn't huge, so it was ok for Randy to just walk with the walker.

Here's Tyler and Brookie touching the sting rays.
Maddison was excited about this clown fish.... NEMO!!!!

Cambelle was soooo excited to see the sharks. All I heard was, "that's nice mom, where are the SHARKS????". Over and over. I'm so surprised that my sweet daughter is so interested in the aggressive predators!!!! Just kidding, if you know Cambelle, you know she's a SHARK!!!

Here's all of us at the Living Planet Aquarium.
Then it was off to the hotel pool for a few hours, a nightly ritual.

The next morning, we were up bright and early for Hogle Zoo. We can thank the McInnes family for the suggestion to go in the morning, cuz we were going to go in the afternoon. To us, SLC is cooler than St. George. But in July, it's still 100+ degrees up there. We had borrowed a wheelchair from our friends, but if I would have remembered how steep the hills were at the zoo, we would have sprung for the $25.00 motorized ones!!! It was sooooo hard pushing Randy up those hills, even though he was helping with his arms, it was killing me. Going down wasn't much easier!!! But, we survived and it was a fun experience for the kids. There was a monkey there that sounded like it sang opera, that will be one of the favorite memories!!! Also, the bird show was enjoyed by everyone!!!

There's my mom and dad with Maddison and Tyler on the TRAIN!!!!

Daddy and Cambelle!!!



After the zoo, we headed to Welfare Square. It was so amazing to see what our tithing and fast offering money does. I have never doubted the way that the church handles funds, I just never knew how much it helps people around the world and locally. As some of my friends have said that touring Welfare Square has changed their lives, it has done that for me also. Unbelievable. I loved every minute of it. It is amazing what can happen if you are doing something with the Spirit of the Lord behind you!!! If you ever get the chance to take that tour... don't pass it up.

We were all pooped and H O T, so it was off to the pool for a few more hours!!! Then we got a call from my Aunt and Uncle that live in North, North, North Ogden, close to Canada. They were down for the temple open house with their girls and so we met up with them for dinner. We had an absolute blast. There aren't even words to describe how much I love my Uncle Bear, Aunt Iva, Dallen, Danielle and Elizabeth. They are just wonderful people and they make me feel not as loud!!!! There are a few of us Albrechts that are just FREAKING LOUD.... I'm just one of them!!! Ohhh, we love that family.

Saturday morning, we had the opportunity to go to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house. Randy got to cruise in style in a wheelchair again. It was soooo amazing. I was pushing Randy, so the rest of the family was ahead of us (we used elevators and they used the stairs), which means I wasn't with my 2 oldest kids, but Cambelle rode on daddy's lap. It was fun to tell my 3 year old where you get to be married in the Temple and to hear her expressions on how pretty she thought everything was, just fun. What a beautiful building, again, it's amazing to me what can happen when the Lord is behind the plans!!!

When we got done with the Temple, we went to my good friend, Amber's house to change our clothes. It was so fun to catch up and visit with her and her husband, if even for only a few minutes. It's always fun to hang out with Amber and her little boy is just edible!!!

Afterward, we went to Temple Square. We went through the Church History Museum, which was really cool with my parents. They remember so much about church history and the monuments, it was a lot of fun. The Relief Society Room was my favorite. I came out of that room feeling happy and privileged to be a woman in this church!!! Cambelle's favorite room was the Primary room, with the babies!!! SHOCKER!!!

We walked across the street and found a sister missionary that has been teaching my nephew and his wife the missionary discussions in Kingman, AZ. When sisters get called to Temple Square, they get sent out for 3 months, state side to proselyte. Sister Mok got called to the Las Vegas mission, which includes Kingman. Brandon and Lacey just LOVE her. When he found out that we were going up, he asked his mom to find Sister Mok.... easy enough, right? There's only 160 sisters on Temple Square everyday!!! Well, on our 3rd stop, guess who we found? Yep, Sister Mok. It was so great to see the sister that touched my niece so much. By the way, that niece will be getting baptized in the next couple of months!!! After that, we were DONE for the day!!!

The kids got to sleep in a double bed for those 3 nights. Good thing our kids are snugglers!!!
Sunday morning, we got up and went over to Tooele to see my oldest sister, Tisha. She just had surgery on her shoulder. I'm glad she's home and can get to healing.

The trip home wasn't short enough no matter how fast I drove. It was hard to see my parents go back on the mountain for the rest of the summer. We had a great time and we're glad we went. Randy had a hard time sleeping flat, so we just stayed up really late so he wouldn't have to sleep for so many hours. The only thing he complained about was after 2 days of sitting in the wheelchair, the crack in the back of his pelvis was bothering him, but overall, he did GREAT!!!!

We got home just in time for Naomi's (Randy's niece) birthday dinner at the Clyde's. She turned 8 on Sunday. She was excited because today she got to get her ears pierced. They asked if Maddison wanted to come with. She did, so this morning, while we were getting ready, I asked her if she wanted to pierce her ears too. Her response was a simple, "YEA!!!". I have always told her that she can get her ears done whenever she wants to. She was afraid of the pinch and the clicking sound the gun makes (she's so sound sensitive that she plugs her ears when I blow dry her hair). She always said no to doing it... until today!!! We headed over to Claire's in the mall. Naomi went first and didn't even flinch. Then it was Maddison's turn. She picked the flower petal earrings. There was a minor complication with the petals getting stuck in the casing, so the girl had to pretty much dismantle the gun to get the earring out WHILE IT WAS ON HER EAR. So, that kinda freaked her out, but she went ahead with the second ear and it went perfect. She looks sooo cute with earrings!!! I know she's really happy about doing it!!! I asked Cambelle when she wants to do her ears, she said, "when I'm 4 and I AM NOT getting flower earrings!!!".

Naked ears!!!!


Ears with holes!!!!

The crowd that was there to support Naomi and Maddison!!!
We spent the next half hour going to Aunt Launa's house, Aunt Blanche's work and Gina's to show them the new Maddison. She said that Gina's reaction was her favorite... something about a grown woman screaming and jumping up and down (as much as a 9+ month pregnant woman can)!!!

So, it's been a big weekend for us and I'm ready for it all to slow down, but I know it's not going to for at least 2 more days, but that's the way our life goes... WE LOVE IT!!!