SLC

The final part of our Utah visit was spent up in Salt Lake City with my grandparents, Papa & Nana. They have lived in the same house in "the avenues" since I was born, actually since my dad was in high school! So visiting their house is something I've been doing my whole life and is always special to me. It was so great to see Jackson interacting with my grandparents. I am the oldest grandchild, there are only 6 of us, so we are all very close. This also makes Jackson their first and only great-grandchild so we really wanted them to be able to spend time with each other!





At first I was a little nervous how Jackson would do in their house since I was assuming it wouldn't be too baby friendly, but he loved it and did great. They still have lots of toys in their basement that my siblings and I played with when we were young. Jackson was even able to use the high chair I used when I was a baby. Papa bought Jackson all of his favorite foods - a huge case of blueberries and strawberries from Costco were his favorite. They were amused how he eats them by the handful and doesn't take many breaths between bites. Such a fruity kid.



One of the highlights of the trip was our visit to the Natural History Museum of Utah. My grandma was very involved in bringing this amazing museum to existence. She was the museum's advisory board president and spent countless hours transforming the previous museum into this now state-of-the art facility. Our friends in Utah need to check it out! It is a beautiful building located on a hillside near the U campus. Inside are amazing exhibits including several dinosaur fossils that Jackson just loved!









Have any of you parents out their seen the show "Dinosaur Train" on PBS? Well if so you'll remember there's a guy named "Scott the Paleontologist" who comes on that show and talks about different dinosaurs each episode. Turns out he was very involved in this museum's exhibits and is now good friends with my grandparents. They were talking about their friend Scott and what they learned from him and how he appears on some tv show now. I asked which show, and they told us Dinosaur Train - which happens to be one of Jackson's favorites :)

Something else we did up in SLC was visit my cousins the Sheffields. Jackson already had gotten well acquainted with Drue and Kelly on their visit last October but now he was able to see my cousin Sarah, Aunt Kim and all their animals.

I was really surprised with how well he did with the dogs!





He hadn't had many positive experiences with dogs, although he loves pointing out all the "woof woofs" we see. He is normally OK when they're far away on a leash but when they get close he had been more timid. But that's the great thing about Drue, she is so good with animals that she made Jackson feel comfortable too. She also has over 15 birds in her room and while Jackson was scared at first, he eventually pet a bird with Drue's help. He never would have done that with just me.



All in all it was a great time with my family and I am so glad Jackson was able to spend time with his family who adores him :)