Missed us?

Kidding ;)

Aaron was sent to Orem, UT for work this past week to acquire a new facility, so I took it upon myself to invite the rest of my little family up to make a mini-family reunion since my sister lives there. It was a great week to be there because there were two big events happening: my BIL Philip(Carrie's husband) was graduating from the police academy (GO Philip!) and their baby Gabe was being blessed at church.

Here are some of the good times captured in pictures:

*Disclaimer* The following could be "boring picture" overload for y'all. But this blog also serves as a family journal (of sorts) and I intend to have it printed out someday, so there you have the reasoning behind the randomness! :)

The kids putting on the play "Wicked" every single night. It was too cute! McKay even printed and cut out tickets for us! Leda performed the song "Popular" all by herself.



The only pic Aaron and I took together all weekend



Spending time with my brother Rob and his girlfriend Blythe (and enjoying their KILLER homemade apple pies!)


The entire family (both sides)at the blessing


My sisters family of five


Great food and treats! I got to eat at Costa Vida three times. Jealous?


Cousin Daniel's Mustang at the car show in Provo


Cousin Daniel letting the kids go crazy in his Mustang...how cool is cousin Daniel?


Dancing with Chase to the music at the car show (his giggle was hysterical)


Pedicures with the girls! While driving home one night, we saw an OPEN sign at a nail salon, quickly pulled over, turned over the kids to the guys (we had to do some major car swapping and re-arranging of carseats) but it was worth the extra effort to have the some R&R with the gals! And my purple toenails are SO cute. I even bought the nail polish right off the shelf so I could take it home with me. lol


Aunt "KiKi's" swingset/backyard big enough to run around in and then some...sigh, yes I came home with backyard envy again.


Bonding with Grandpa (My Dad was SO great to play with the kids for hours out back!)


Downtime with Spencer. A five year old is SO cool. This is the best age ever. I just love him!


Didn't we do a great job?


Leda loving baby Gabe


Spending time with my best friend...


Gabe loves his Aunt Marcy


I'm one of two people (his Dad being the other) who could get Gabe to smile every time I talked to him. See? He loves his Aunt Marcy already at 6 weeks old!


Precious new nephew on his blessing day


Spending time with my Grandma Joy and letting my kids get to know her. Leda warmed up the last day we were there. Stinker.





There was a lot of good happening this past week, but equally a lot of bad. Here's my list for your reading pleasure:

* I learned that my kids really do NOT sleep well outside the comfort of their own beds and we all got very little sleep...including Leda up 3-4 times a night in a "sleep-walking/screaming" state. OH, and those episodes always woke at least one (if not both) of her brothers. One night Chase was so bad (he was in our room in a crib) that I abandoned Aaron in bed at 1:30am to go upstairs and sleep alone on the couch! Poor Aaron was left behind to try to fall asleep to his screaming. What a good sport my husband is!

*Aaron was supposed to be done working on Wednesday, but ran into some snags and didn't finish up until Saturday afternoon, so he was MIA a lot of our "vacation"

*Chase got a bad cold, threw up at Kneaders (from all the coughing) and I had to cancel the babysitter that night and stay home from Philips graduation ceremony.

* We got lost on our way to family photos and we were 30 minutes late into our 2-hour $300 photo session. Leda fell asleep on the way there and was a BEAR the entire photo shoot because we had to wake her. Picture her either kicking and screaming during every pose or scowling at the camera. And to top it all off? Trying to pull out her cute hair. FUN!

*I broke my toe (well, it's all black and blue, totally swollen and it KILLS) when I tripped over my suitcase in the middle of the dark night trying to get Chase back to sleep in his port-o-crib.

*I got yelled at by a flight attendant for "letting" my 19 month old sleep deprived son lay in the isle of the airplane on our plane trip home (without Aaron mind you, he left a day earlier). Uh, FYI to the flight attendant: Chase wasn't sleeping there, he was just throwing a sleep-deprived tantrum. Good times.


But give me a few days, and I'm sure all I'll remember from this trip is the good times I captured in the photos I just shared ;)