Ashley's wedding

Two days after my brother's family left, I headed out on a quick solo trip (SOLO TRIP!) to Utah for my cousin Ashley's wedding. Flying on the airplane by myself was pretty great. I read a lot and tried to sleep, but then the head-bob started and I hate that, so I read some more.

I arrived late Thursday night. My parents picked me up and whisked me away to Iceberg - a Utah place that makes super thick, super huge shakes. You know me. You know I love shakes. This shake was so big that I could only eat the shake that was sticking out above the rim. It was sticking out like 5 inches above the rim. I hardly scratched the surface. As as shake lover, I felt kind of bad that I couldn't conquer that thing...

We stayed at my uncle's house (his family was out of town). I stayed in my cousin's room. She's got a deer head on the wall. That was the first time I've slept in a room with a deer head. I thought it would be hard to sleep, but I got used to it. She also loves Jimmer, so Jimmer was staring at me all night, too. Love you, Katie! Thanks for letting me stay in your room!

Friday morning I took a walk around their neighborhood in Sandy, Utah. It was so nice out. Low humidity. I took advantage and straightened my hair. My hair never looks that good in Houston!

Anyway, Friday morning we headed to the Bountiful, Utah Temple for the ceremony. It was beautiful. Ashley and Mason are super cute together.

 Aunt Diane and Uncle Karl w/ the beautiful bride.

After the sealing we headed over to the Lion House, one of Brigham Young's houses, for a really nice luncheon.

 Aunt Colleen, Ashley, me.

 You asked for it, Lisa! (Ashley's pretty sister.)

Uncle Karl had us all crying with a lovely speech he made. The food was really good. I felt like I was going to pop. So Mom, Dad, and I walked over to the new City Creek Center outdoor mall and stretched our legs for a while. Then we headed back to my uncle's house to chat with my other cousins who had just come up from Provo.

Last, we headed to Thanksgiving Point for a gorgeous outdoor reception.

 Cute cousins: Michael, Lisa, Tyler.

 More adorable cousins. Jen and David (in the middle) are my cousins. They're flanked by Phe (Jen's beau) and Meegan (David's wife).

I had to get in on the action. Even though I was significant other-less.

 I didn't try to match the wedding colors on purpose, but it's a good thing I brought a spare dress because in true klutz fashion, I spilled on my first outfit at the luncheon.

 It was a beautiful day!

Driving out of Sandy on Saturday, I had to snap a (bad) picture of the largest house I've even seen with my own eyes. So ridiculous. And I think the wings on the far sides even got cut off.

It was such a fun trip. I'm so glad I got to go. Thanks, Gretchen, for watching the kids on Friday, and thanks to Dan for taking care of them while I was gone!

Afton's two!

Well, our baby is two.

Friday we woke up, had breakfast, and I asked Afton what she wanted to do on her birthday.

Go to the gym? No.
Go to the pool? No.
Go to the mall playground? Yes.

So after baking a cake and getting some other things done, we headed out to meet Gretchen, Carter, and Wendy at the mall. (Thankfully they were free! I'm glad G was there to keep me company.)

There was a boy there that basically chased Sam and Carter around the entire time and kept egging them on by pretending to his them and then slapping them. So then our boys would hit back. It was really annoying.

We came home for lunch (A had chicken nuggets with ketchup, but she really just loves the ketchup) and then naps. Both of the kids slept great which allowed me to get the cake done.

Next we went to HEB (the grocery store) for a few last minute items and to get the kids balloons. I thought they would really love it. Afton loved it until she had to sit with it in her face on the way home from the store. She flipped out. So now the balloon is clipped to the back of her highchair. She likes it that way.

Then we had dinner, opened presents, and ate cake.

 

 She let Sam and her cousins help her open her presents.

Thanks to everyone who made her birthday a special day!

More family fun

The day that I got back from Virginia, my brother Ryan and his wife Teresa came with their two kids (Zoey and Aiden) for a quick visit. They stayed with Kirk since I was completely unprepared for company, but I tried to see them as much as I could.

Sunday dinner and visiting. Kids ate first. And Sam mined for gold.

 Men talked sports.

After dinner, kids played Elephun. Which is really only fun for Sam because he gets the most butterflies and then flaunts it in all the other kids' faces.

Carter got sick of that pretty fast.

Monday morning we hit the Houston Children's Museum. It was really fun. Face painting station.

 Fishing off the Ivory Coast.

 Carter and Sam to the rescue!

 The museum has a really awesome little grocery store. These two girls on the right in the red aprons were really cute checking out all the customers.

After naps we went swimming and then had dinner at our place. (But Gretchen made it b/c I hadn't had a chance to go grocery shopping yet. Thanks, G!)

Tuesday R, T, Z and A were heading home, so we went with them part of the way and stopped at the Bluebell Factory for a tour. They don't allow cameras on the tour, so you get before and afters. Afton was on one.

 After the tour we each got a giant scoop of ice cream.

 Afton got chocolate. She liked it, despite this picture.

 Sam chose vanilla. I got cookies and cream. We are a very adventurous bunch.

 Did I mention that Afton was on one?

After this picture we parted ways and Ryan, Teresa, Zoey and Aiden began their three-day (or four-day?) drive back to California.

We had so much fun with you guys! Thanks for coming to see us!

Family Fun

Last Monday the kids and I flew to Virginia to spend some time with my parents, sister, and niece (who had flown in from Nebraska). We had a great time!

Tuesday we went to the Virginia Safari park. Sam snuggled me on the way and I loved it.

We got to drive around and feed some animals from the car, which was really fun. I just have videos of that.

After the Safari Park, we stopped by Foamhenge - a full-scale replica of Stonehenge. I've wanted to see it for some time. I can now die happy.

Each day after a morning activity, we'd come home for naps and then hang out at the house the rest of the afternoon.

Wednesday we hit the Bounce and Play.

And Bodo's for lunch. Thursday we went to the splash pad. Sam loved it. Afton hung out at the park. She likes to be held in deep water, but she doesn't like to be splashed.

 Forgot I was in "manual." Overexposed, but still cute.

We then went to Chick-fil-a because Candice doesn't have one in Omaha. Then we went home for naps and after that, the kids raided Grandma's dress-up box. Sam tranformed himself into a vampire/magician/pirate.

We considered hiding his baton/maraca thing because he kept waving it in everyone's face.

At night we'd stay up and chat or watch the olympics. And one night we watched Mirror, Mirror.

Friday we went to a different splash pad.

Another stop at Bodo's. Later that night we walked up my parents' street to take pictures with the beautiful Blue Ridge mountains behind us.

Afton's really good at the Chris Farley face.

We had such a fun vacation. We also made girly hairthings, played w/ playdoh, I visited with old co-workers, and we went and got the best slurpees ever! Seriously so good. We don't have any 7-11's, so I had been wanting one forever. Did not disappoint.

The kids miss their G&G Cheney. We'll have to make it a yearly tradition!