This was a good week! Full of family, fun, friends and traveling in the car!
Monday, July 28, 2014
I had originally planned to take today off so we could drive home to Washington. But when we found out that Morgan's baptism (scheduled for Saturday, August 2nd) was going to be at 9:30 a.m., we realized that we could go to the baptism and still be on the road early enough to make it home before it's too late.
So I worked today. And got a really cute picture of Logan!
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| Logan looking cute with a hat from Steven! |
Tuesday-Wednesday, July 29-30, 2014
We saw some friends, Adam and Amber D'Agostini, on Sunday at Steven's post-church reception gathering. Since we extended our stay, we decided to go visit them at their place in Eagle Mountain on Tuesday after work. The kids had a great time playing in the backyard while we grilled up some tasty burgers and hot dogs. They had a super tasty jalapeno ranch sour cream condiment that had just enough kick. Their three kids are pretty close to our kids in age. Emmelise and Ford (their youngest) are about five months apart, and it was cute to see them playing together. Amber took the picture below when Emmie was giving some love to Ford, but he was interested in the show on TV. Hah!
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| Emmelise hugging Ford |
On Wednesday, we met up with Layne, a friend I made while in the stats department at BYU, and his newlywed wife, Annie. It was so good to catch up with him and also to meet his wife. He's been working at Beneficial Life as a life insurance actuary for the last four years in SLC. After introducing them to the kids, we put the kids to bed and went to Cold Stone for some ice cream. We wish we could have visited longer, but they had to get up early the next morning for work, so we talked a little more and then said goodbye as they headed north.
Thursday, July 31, 2014
Tonight we celebrated Logan's birthday a little early while we were still in Utah with family! Suzanna suggested the idea this morning and quickly planned a fun little party. We had pizza from Papa Murphy's and then recycled my birthday balloon and a few decorations from the Ogdens'. She made some cupcakes and I wrapped a couple of gifts we had for Logan. Here are some fun pictures from the party!
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| Logan with his birthday decorations! |
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| Birthday boy and birthday cupcake |
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| Proudly displaying his TMNT shirt! |
His reactions when he opened the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles shirt and the stuffed snake we bought at Discovery Gateway last week were awesome! I was so glad to get them on video. "A new snaaaaake! Yes! I wanted to get it!" he shouted with a big grin on his face while pumping his fist in the air! It was classic!
Here are links the video clips:
Friday, August 1, 2014
We met up with Laurie and Jemma tonight in Holladay after work. On our way up, we stopped by the Provo cemetery first to visit Papa Rich's grave. It's hard to be there sometimes, as it doesn't feel like we're really any closer to him while there, but I do like going down, especially with the kids.
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| Visiting Papa Rich's grave |
Our trip to Holladay was nice. We met up with Laurie and Jemma at a new burger joint, Tony Burgers, and then headed back to their place for an hour or two. The kids played on the trampoline for a while before we gave them a quick shower and threw them in the van to head back to Provo. Mom was with us as well, and it was nice to sit in Laurie's backyard for a while as the weather was nice and the sun was setting. We even did a few sparklers, left over from the 4th of July. The boys loved those, of course!
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| Jumping on the trampoline with Jemma |
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| Laurie lighting a sparkler for Logan |
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| Little brother, big sister |
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| With Emmie |
Saturday, August 2, 2014
Today was a long day! We did a lot of our packing last night, but what wasn't done, we had to do this morning before going to Morgan's baptism at 9:30 a.m. It was so good to be at the baptism today with all the family (except Hayley)! Jordan joined us in the circle for Morgan's confirmation. Mom gave a nice talk about the Gift of the Holy Ghost and the gifts and blessings of the Spirit.
After the baptism, we changed our clothes and said goodbye to everybody, and hit the road by 11:00 a.m., Utah time. The GPS told us it was a solid 12.5 hours to Vancouver (it showed us the arrival time in the destination time zone), so we made it our goal to make it there by then, including stoppage time. We made great time, as Suzanna drove the first half. We didn't stop until we had passed through Boise and made it to Caldwell, Idaho, where we stopped for gas and lunch. I drove after that point, and we made another quick stop 100 miles later in Baker City, Oregon, where we used the bathroom one more time, topped off with gas, and then got the kids in pajamas. Unfortunately they didn't fall asleep until we were about an hour from home, but finally it was quiet and we got to finish the home stretch in peace.
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| It's 806 miles to Vancouver, we've got a full tank of gas... |
When we got home, I took Emmie up to her room and, as I stood in the dark, my eyes started adjusting and I noticed that something was very different! I knew that a couple of Suzanna's friends (Sara and Heidi) had been up to something while we were gone, but I had no idea that they had totally redone Emmie's room! It was amazing! They painted the walls, hung cute pictures of Emmie from our recent family photos, painted the changing table, redid the dresser drawers and even put up curtains, a mirror, a clock, and a few other little things. It was awesome!
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| Emmie's crib |
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| Close up of the photos |
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| New curtains, clock and pillows |
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| Painted changed table, flags and vinyl, and blessing dress |
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| Dresser and mirror |
I took Luke with me to Walmart to get a few essential groceries. Logan was totally out, so he went down fine, but Luke was wide awake and hungry, so we drove through Wendys and I put him in the cart for the first few minutes. Here's a picture of my big five-year old enjoying a burger in the shopping cart. People must have thought I was crazy for having a young kid with me at the store at 11:30 p.m.!
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| Luke and his burger |
Sunday, August 3, 2014
Today was a day of rest. At least, we tried to make it a day of rest! I had a Bishopric meeting early this morning, but we all got a nice nap after church for a while. At some point in the afternoon, there was a knock at the door and a whole group of friends showed up, wanting to play with Luke and Logan! We don't normally let the kids play on Sunday, but this time we did let them see and play with their friends for a while since it had been so long! It was good to see them playing happily with all the neighborhood kids.
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| The neighborhood kids! |
And a bonus pic of Emmie, sitting on the counter, enjoying some chocolate chip cookie dough!
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| Emmie and the dough! |
It's good to be home! We had a great time on vacation, but it's nice to be in our own home again!
msh
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