A week with an angel…

My brother and his family live several states away from us.

It’s far… much too far away and I don’t like it one bit!

My little brother, the one I used to lock out of my room when I was little so I could play dolls with my friends- uninterrupted- has become a successful career man, and I am so incredibly proud of him.

To tell you the truth, David and I have always been close. Even though he is my little brother, he was always an example to me. When I was a senior in high school he was a freshman and I loved having him at “my” high school. He was a cool kid and I was proud that he was my brother.

He’s now married and has 3 beautiful children. Every time I visit I feel as though they live next door and I get to see them everyday. Being a doting aunt is so fun when you have doting nieces and nephews, wink!

With my trip planned to Myrtle Beach, I mentioned to my bro. and his wife that Emma, their oldest daughter should fly home with me and spend a week at our house. Emma is their slightly more cautious child, so we were all careful to let her make her own decision in her own way. When my brother asked her how she would feel about spending a whole week with Aunt Erin and Uncle Patrick, she had a concerned look on her face and said… “Dad, can I stay there two weeks instead of one?” After that, I knew she would do just fine away from home!

.

.

.

Saying goodbye to her family at the airport was tough, but once we got on the plane we had a blast!

.

.

.

.

.

.

We ate a ton and played fun games. MASH anyone? (thanks for the reminder, Wendi!)

Both Patrick and I had our birthday the week she was here. Emma made our celebrations extra special! Patrick made us reservations for dinner at the Roof in SLC. It's one of our favorite restaurant- a gourmet all you can eat buffet. Yum! We got all dressed up and ate until we were stuffed!

We baked LOTS of goodies! Emma is quite the little chef!!

We went up the canyon for a yummy breakfast for Patrick's Birthday. Emma made friends with a very lucky little squirrel!

Emma got an adorable hair cut...

AND-with her parent's permission... We went and got her ears pierced!

What a brave 7 year old, huh? I love this picture... she is looking in the mirror to see her earrings for the first time.

We played a vicious game of Monopoly that lasted 2 days, bought flowers and planted them in our back yard, and tie dyed a shirt for her daddy.

We went up to visit my sister and her kids and had a great time. Lynell helped her start a cute little night gown...

Her cousin Lonica came home with us and we got to tour around SLC. We went to East High School where they filmed High School Musical, the Church History Museum, Temple Square, This is the Place Park, the cemetery where Pres. Hinckley is buried, The Beehive House... Phew, what a fun day!

It was extra fun because it was my birthday. What a perfect way to celebrate! AND to make it even better my parents AND my sister and her family traveled up from California for our summer river trip (a future post). We had dinner at the Brick Oven, a great pizza place in our area.

Once my mom got here she became the designated picture taker... so I only got this one photo... (I forgot to get those from you mama) But I will say that we had a blast! All of us in this photo, including Patrick and my parents, had a real live slumber party including hot tubing, a game of Apples to Apples, cake, presents, a movie and staying up way too late. Good times!!

.

Our week was up and it was time for Emma to fly back home, this time alone. That is a very scary thing for a 7 year old, but she was so brave! I was so proud of her! We all had a hard time saying goodbye. There were lots of tears, but more so there were LOTS of great memories made.

.

Emma, you are so polite, so sweet, so kind, so helpful. Thank you for being so brave and spending a week with us!

.

We love you so much Emma and we miss you like crazy!!

Myrtle, Myrtle... Can I buy a turtle??

Several months ago my brother and his wife invited us to join them for a week in a condo at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
.

I was giddy with anticipation. Just imagine it, a whole week with my sweetie, my favorite brother and sis-in-law and three ADORABLE nieces and nephews. This is going to be heaven!!

Patrick pulled out his blackberry... scrolled down to July and by the look on his face I knew he was not going to be the bearer of good news. Business in Texas for the whole week.

No beach, no adorable nieces and nephews, no fun!

I sat silent... until the wheels in my head started a spinnin'...

Patrick will be in Texas. It is the week of our anniversary. I will be home. Alone. Bored.

Patrick could read my mind and encouraged me to go on without him. I tried not to act too excited as we both packed our bags. I packed my swimsuit, flip flops and some sun screen. He packed his business attire and lace up shoes. Poor Patrick.

I grew up near the Pacific ocean. Every summer, my family camped at the beach for a week. To me it was paradise. I love the beach and would play in the waves ALL day!

Little did I know, on the other side of the country they were keepin' a secret. A very BIG secret. A secret called the Atlantic Ocean. It is warm. It is shallow. It is gorgeous!

Davey, our little surfer dude!

I sure love these kids!!

Gracee wanted to be a mermaid

Emma wanted to be surprised. She became an octopus

At night we did crafts, made sweets and just chilled out

The pool was equally fun. Do you like our George Washington?

My bro. and his sweet wife

I sure wish we lived closer to each other!

We had so much fun! We swam ALL day and often times into the night. At the beach we played in the sand, searched for ocean critters, and played in the waves.

At the pool we had underwater tea parties, played the over-under twisting game and had throwing competitions... who could throw the kids the furthest.

We went to a gift shop and they were selling tiny baby turtles. I was so excited, it would be the perfect souvenir to bring home to Patrick. Only one minor detail... I couldn't bring him home on the airplane. Bummer. They were dang cute!

It was a week without make-up.

It was a week without blow drying my hair.

It was a week I will never forget.

Thank you Dave and Marla for letting me join you!

I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!!!

Actually, I’ve fallen behind in my blogging world and I can’t catch up!!

I have been busy, SO BUSY that I have not had a chance to get online.

For the last 3 weeks I have been with my nieces and nephews either…

Swimming at the beach
Making sandcastles
Swimming at the pool
Making crafts
Airplane rides
Shopping
BBQ-ing
Getting’ haircuts
Ear piercing (not for me)
Birthday celebrating
Having slumber parties
Planting flowers
Cooking, cooking, cooking sweets
Site seeing
Tie-Dying shirts
Scrapbooking
Camping
White water rafting
Roasting marshmallows
Eating way too much
AND taking about 1,000 pictures-
At least! You gotta love digital photos!

It has been a GREAT 3 weeks. I have loved every second of it. I wish I could go back and do it all again.

Anyone got a time machine?

I will post some of the highlights so I can relive it and remember them FOREVER!

The best two years of my life...

Today is our two year anniversary. I can honestly say it has been the best two years of my life!

Patrick- I love you so much and feel so honored to be your wife.

You bring me such happiness everyday!

You make me feel beautiful.
.

I love that you send me flowers for no particular reason.

I love that you laugh at all my jokes.

I love being your woman and I LOVE that you are my man!

We knew we would be apart today (I’ll explain later) so we celebrated last weekend.

We drove down to a tiny little town and stayed at a cute bed and breakfast.
It was so romantic!
It was adorable!
It was perfect!

I love you babe! Happy Anniversary!

Happy Birthday U.S.A.!!

The 4th of July is one of our favorite holidays.

For three years in a row we have celebrated it EXACTLY the same way. You could call us creatures of habit, but we like to call it tradition!

We get up early and head over to see the hot air balloons. My favorite balloon looks like a strawberry. Patrick’s favorite is the big pink pig.

Then we head over to the parade. We love our little community! It’s so fun to see several of the high school bands and colleges, local leaders, bag pipe groups, children’s singing groups, even the LDS missionaries get a place in the parade- over 100 of them! I love that part!

Our favorite is when they have the fly by- Patrick can name the planes every time. We also love when the war vets and the flag go by. Everyone stands and cheers as they pass. I have to choke back my emotion. I feel so proud to be an American! Also, this year Glenn Beck was the Grand Marshall- how cool is that??

After the parade we head up to my sister’s, sister-in-laws house. (can you follow that?) She has a swimming pool and we swim ALL afternoon. Also we always play a vicious game of pool volleyball. We eat and eat and enjoy being together. When it gets dark we set up our chairs in her cul-de-sac and light up the fireworks. So much fun!

The 4th of July is a perfect day of patriotism and family fun!

We LOVE it!!

Is my face red??

You know when someone asks that question… the question you generally don’t have a real answer to… the question that makes you wish you had really great story??

Well, after this morning I can answer THAT question…

What’s your most embarrassing moment?

I live in such a way that I do embarrassing things ALL the time. One particular moment doesn’t really hold a pivotal feeling over another.

Until today…

Patrick and I had our physicals for our adoption application this morning. We do not have a primary care physician. In fact, other than fertility stuff, we have not been to a doctor’s office in several years- probably more like 10.

After the routine stuff we met our doctor. He was younger than most, very friendly… he seemed like a nice guy. We chatted a bit about adoption and then on to the medical questions.

He mentioned that Patrick would need the old "turn you head and cough" checkup and I would need a breast exam and a pap smear- lovely. I convinced him that after all our fertility appointments I was a-okay down in that area of my body. He agreed.

Phew! I dodged that -ever so uncomfortable- bullet.

Patrick was up first. Everything went very smoothly and now it was my turn.

Ears. Check. Throat. Check. Breathing. Check. Reflexes. Check.

At that moment Patrick asked about a mole he had. “Speaking of moles,” I added, “I have one on my side that I’m wondering about.” He said he would check it out. “Would you like a gown?” Oh, it must be time for my breast exam. “Sure”

I proceed to remove ALL of my upper clothing. He and Patrick are still chatting.

As they finish the doctor looks over at me with a surprised look on his face. A look that let’s you know you’ve done something wrong.

I’m holding the gown in front of me to maintain some modesty for the time being.

“Oh my, I was just going to check that mole” he says in a hesitant voice.

He apparently had decided not to do the breast exam…

"Oh... Yeah... Alrighty then, I'll just put my shirt back on." I announce in a nervous tone trying to think of something witty to say. Nothing came to mind. I should have said something like "It's really hot in here..." That would have broken the awkward silence that just didn't seem to go away.

Does this make me a hussy?

You gotta good story?

Please… do share.

Heeeeere's Johnny

Last week we got the chance to play parents.

It was fun…

So, so fun!!

Johnny, my 11 year old nephew stayed with us for a whole week and we LOVED every second of it!

He had an elite gymnastics camp that he signed up for. Luck for us it was over an hour from his house and only a couple minutes from us. He was at the gym from 9-3:30 everyday but after that, he was all ours!

One night we went to the newly opened Harley Davidson’s Motorcycle shop. So cool! They had a great little café that was so yummy!

Another night we went flying at the park and Patrick taught Johnny boy the how to fly his model plane. It was a gorgeous night! It started to sprinkle and it felt so good!

Patrick and I needed to get fingerprinted for our adoption stuff and Johnny came along. The lady was so nice she did Johnny’s prints as well. We even had fun taking his mug shot. He had the hardest time keeping a straight face. What a cutie!! Wow Johnny, you're looking pretty tall!

.

Any time Johnny got a new skill at his camp he got to pick a prize out of the prize box. He brought home lots of fun prizes! One day he brought a Karaoke DVD set. We sang at the top of our lungs! What a blast!
We played Wii A LOT! Probably too much, but hey, we are on vacation… right?

We stayed up way too late EVERY night… shhhhh… don’t tell his mom… she might not let us do it again.

We love you Johnny!

We can't wait to do it again!