Family Fun!

Patrick is from Indiana and most of his family still lives there. We sure wish we all lived closer- but boy I tell ya, having them come visit is such a treat!

We loved introducing them to our little Cal. He seemed to instantly know they were Grandma and Grandpa.

This trip was extra special because two of our nieces, Emma and Lilli got to join Grandma and Grandpa. It was their first plane ride and first trip to Utah. We loved having them with us and they too loved meeting their new cousin! He loved them right back!

The first day was a tour of Salt Lake City and all the fun Church history sights. There was Temple Square, the Tabernacle, the Conference Center, President Hinckley's grave, Brigham Young's grave... it was quite a day!
That night we had dinner outside. Actually, most nights we ate outside and enjoyed the mountains- something that is unique to these Indiana folks! :) We also got out games and played and laughed! It was so much fun! On this particular evening we were celebrating Cal's 2 month birthday. Lilli helped me make his little cake.

One night Emma and Lilli decided to soak in the hot tub...

I forgot to take any pictures- what a pity- but we spent some fun time on BYU campus. We ate at the Cougar Eat, toured the school a bit and even played in the science building. We are doing our best to convince them it's the BEST place to go to college! Their mom played on the BYU Softball team a few years ago so we also showed them her old apartment. Fun stuff!

Patrick's mom is an AMAZING singer! She has been singing with the same barber shop group since Patrick was a kid. At this year's competition they won FIRST place at the NATIONALS competition! Wow! So, I loved to hear her sing to Cal... he loved it too!

One morning we got up and headed to the Canyon to make breakfast. Why does everything taste so good when it's cooked outside?? Eggs with sausage, OJ and fruit... YUM!

(I forgot to get a picture of us eating... I think I was too hungry:)

After Breakfast we went to Sundance to ride the ski lift. Here's a picture of Patrick and his Dad.

It was gorgeous- the only problem was that about half was up it started hailing- BRRR! But we girls snuggled up close and had a great time! Can you see Cal? He's bundled up safe in my Baby Bjorn carrier. He loved it too!

Afterwards we went to Cascade Springs. We had hoped that the rain would let up, but no such luck! It was chilly but pretty nonetheless!

We decided to warm up at a family favorite, The Brick Oven. The pizza is excellent and the homemade root beer is even better! It was the perfect ending to a great day!

I love this video clip... This is Cal 'dancing' on the table with daddy's help at the restaurant. It makes me smile!

It just so happened that very weekend was the air show up in Ogden. Patrick's love for airplanes comes from his sweet dad. When Patrick was born his dad bought him his first airplane and Patrick has been hooked ever since! :) I LOVE that they were able to spend the entire day looking at all the different planes and get to see them fly by. They came home with sunburned faces and HUGE smiles! Patrick said to me, "That was a PERFECT day!" One he will treasure forever! We girls decided to go shopping instead. We also went to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving point- it was awesome! (No pictures cuz the boys had the cameras)
On Sunday we went to my sister's house. It was Emma's first time to play pool and we discovered that she is quite the pool shark! She totally beat me! Good Job Emma!

We did so many fun things- but my favorite was just hanging out together. These girls are so polite and well behaved- what a joy to have them visit us! They were so cute with Calan! They are super cousins!

Grandma and Grandpa, Emma and Lilli... we miss you like crazy! Thank you for spending time with us! We love you so much!

Girls Night Out

As our final bit of our Cali trip I have to mention our super duper Girls Night Out. Every year the boys have their over night campout and that is when the girls have their time to play. I was thrilled to get to join in the fun! Cal didn't seem to mind he was the only boy, actually, he slept most of the time. He'll join the boys the a couple years!

Claire made a list of all the things we wanted to do...

Our first item of business was getting a pedicure. It was very fun, but not as relaxing as I had remembered. It has been years since I have had a professional pedicure and I seemed to have forgotten how ticklish my feet are- yikes!
Next we headed to dinner at the Rain Forrest Cafe. Yum-O!

Claire was not a fan of the "Rain Storm" that hit every once in a while. Next we went to the Mall for some shopping time. I found some great deals for Cal- I just couldn't resist! After each event Claire would check it off her list...

Only one more stop...
Crepes for dessert- again... YUM-O! We shared 2 huge crepes. They were so, so good!

And we licked the plate clean!

Thank you Mindy and Claire for letting us tag along with you for your annual Girls Night Out.

We had a BLAST!

Our Cali Trip... Continued

My whole life I have been blessed with great friends.

Growing up there was a big group of us "Mormons kids" that loved hanging out and having good clean fun. Every weekend we would travel to a different youth Stake dance to meet cute boys. It was so much fun!! I always felt lucky to have such a good group of friends to hang out with, but never realized what a blessing it was till I was a bit older to appreciate what we really had... friends with high standards that were a good example to me. My parents never had to worry that we were out doing bad things because as a group we would never let another friend make a dumb choice. :) We were far from perfect and on more than one occasion told to remove our ice blocks from the hill at the park, but for the most part, in our little group it was "cool" to stand up for what we believed and "CTR"... Choose the Right.

While in California I was able to meet up with some of my closest childhood friends, Rebecca, Heather and Melissa. They now have several children, but as we had lunch together it was as though we were still in high school laughing about silly things- as if no time had passed at all. Our good friend Shannon was in Spain with her husband (lucky girl!!) but we will catch her next time!

I loved introducing little Cal to them... it was so much fun!

E.J. is quite the baseball player. We were able to go to his game- watch him pitch for an inning and even hit one way into outfield. He kept telling me before the game that he was going to play his best for Cal... and he did!

My parents were lucky enough to find a cruise for an INCREDIBLE price that week- the only bummer is that they were not with us for the first couple days of our visit. As soon as they returned Grammy would not share Cal with anyone- smile! She said that she had to catch up on her snuggle time... and she did! Both My mom and dad could not believe how much Cal had grown in such a short amount of time.

My mom's best friend Silvija has always been like an Aunt to our family. She loves us just like family! We were thrilled that she could drive up with her husband, Ron, from San Diego to meet our Calan. She knit the adorable hat Cal has on in this picture and found a lovely baby book for adoptive families- how great is that? She also gave me a sweet figurine of a mother and baby- I love it!

Before too long it was time to pack up and head home. Our trip went by much too quickly, but we enjoyed every minute of it!

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We were so impressed with Cal... he traveled like a champ! He slept most of the way but when he did wake up he would look at me with the facial expression "Am I still in this crazy car seat?" What a trooper!

Happy first Road Trip Little Man!

Cal's first trip to Cali

Patrick had some business in California and Cal and I were lucky enough to get to tag along... ROAD TRIP!!! We were extra excited because we would finally be able to introduce our little guy to my sister's family. While Patrick worked hard, we played and played!

Our first night there was E.J. and Claire's open house at school- it was so fun to see their classrooms and meet their teachers. They are both great students!
The very first morning I went downstairs to prepare Cal's bottle and asked E.J. to watch him for me. When I came back this is what I found... all 3 of the kids giving Cal cuddles. They sure love their new little cousin!

They all wanted a turn to feed him his bottle...

Claire

E.J.

Even Austin!

Every time we went somewhere there was a moment of begging to sit next to Calan in the car... at the restaurant... at home. He was quite the celebrity. Here we are at a yummy restaurant and E.J. was more interested in his little cousin than eating his food.
Cal loves when you sing to him. We sing songs all the time. When he is fussy, just start singing and he calms down... it works every time!

Check this out-


We sure love you guys! Thank you for a wonderful time! We can't wait to see you again soon!

There were lots of fun things that we did including a girls night out, time with Grammy and Grampy a visit with old friends that I will post soon...

Our visit with Family

I can't believe it's almost the end of January. This month has flown by! We had the most amazing visit with family this Christmas season, really it was a once in a life time opportunity!

The day after Christmas we loaded up the car and headed down to California. My brother and his family live in Kentucky, but they were able to fly out to spend some time with us. It was the first time we have been ALL together as siblings for a little while. We had a BLAST!! In fact, we were having so much fun that we didn't take any pictures... lame, I know! I depended on my mom, since she is the QUEEN of picture taking, and forgot to burn a CD before we left. It was such a fun filled couple of days! We ate non-stop, karaoke-ed until we were hoarse, ate some more, all of the adults were able to go to the Temple together for a very special day, talked, laughed, the kids swam, and we ate some more. It was the best!

My dad had done lots of genealogy and we had a special evening all together learning about our ancestors, seeing pictures and even passed around some old artifacts that belong to them. It was a very touching. My dad put so much work into making this evening special- and it really was amazing! Even the young children were attentive the entire time. Thanks dad... it was awesome!

Here is one of the family pictures that we took... I love it!

On New Year's Eve we got up early and drove to Vegas to catch a flight to Indiana. (it was the cheapest way to get there AND it was a non-stop flight, yippee!!) Patrick's entire family was going to be there and we couldn't wait to see them! We arrived at his parent's home about 20 minutes before midnight- phew! Perfect timing!

We partied like it was 1999!

We love games, the more the merrier! Apples to Apples anyone??

This was my 3rd trip to Indiana and we have some traditions that I love. James Dean is from the same small (tiny) town Patrick grew up in. It has the population of 3,200... only one traffic light, and everyone seem to know each other. It's a really neat place. I always request a visit to James Dean's Grave. It is covered in lipstick kisses.
Another stop is the Cumberland covered bridge. It is an original bridge from forever ago for horse and wagons. I love imagining what it was like to be there over 100 years ago... cool stuff!

We even made it to White Castle, the smallest burgers around, the greasiest too :)

We also did LOTS of Karaoke, played Wii till our Wii muscles were sore, ate lots, but best of all- we just enjoyed being together.

I LOVE that both sides of our family get along so well. The cousins love each other, the adults laugh like children and there is such a feeling of love. It is such a joy to be together.

Patrick's sister and her family live in Europe, so it could be a little while before we have a chance to be ALL together again. We loved every second it!
What an amazing blessing to be with both sides of our family within a 2 week period. We love you guys and we love spending time with you!

Thank you for your love and support!

We are so blessed!

Busy Little Elves

While in college Patrick and his buddy had a great idea to earn some extra money for Christmas. They bought a big box of real mistletoe, cut it into pieces and added a ribbon. What college student could resist some free kisses for just a few dollars? It was a huge success!

This year we mentioned this idea to my niece and nephew and they decided that they were up for the task. They are both involved in activities that can get quite expensive and this would help out nicely!

They showed up at our house bright and early and we got busy cuttin' and tyin'. We headed down to the college student housing and that's when the magic began...

They went door to door explaining that they were trying to raise money for dance and gymnastic competitions. We were so proud of them and their major salesmanship. Lonica did several back hand springs to get a sale, and Johnny did the same. He even walked down some stairs while in a hand-stand... very cool!

They included a handy "Mistletoe instruction" printout with each Mistletoe sale. This brought many smiles. This is what it said:

Mistletoe Instructions:
1) Hang mistletoe from any doorway.
2) Strategically position your “crush” under the hanging mistletoe.
3) Pucker up and enjoy the magic!

After a long day we came home and soaked in the hot tub!

Hee Haw! What a great day!

Good job guys, you're awesome!

Want to see Lonica dance? Check her out on Youtube... just click here to see her practice her latest dance solo. She's amazing, you won't believe she's only 9 years old! Johnny is equally amazing in gymnastics- already at a level 7, but my sis. still needs to put it on youtube.