Utah Here We Come!!

I just booked my flight and am excited to go to Utah for Christmas. This is the longest I have been away. It is going to be a full 6 months since the last visit and I am used to going back and forth every 3 months at least. I am leaving December 9th and will be returning January 14th. Sam will be coming when he finishes his finals and will stay for a couple of weeks. We can start planning the partying now!! I guess we could probably wait a few months before we start making the plans, if you want to.

I am flying Jet Blue which I love mainly for the tvs in front of each chair. I just get sooo bored on the long flight and a little HGTV makes it a little more bearable. Thank you Jet Blue!!

Back Home through NY

After hanging out in Maryland with Ginger's friend, we picked up Cami and Juan and headed back home. We stopped off in New York on the way.

Of course, I'm a BYU supporter, but out here when I wear a blue shirt with a "Y" on it, they all just think I'm wearing a Yale shirt, oh well.

This is the New York temple and it's great that I would post this picture and then warn you that if you have small children or a weak stomach, do not look at the next picture without preparing yourself...

This is the infamous "Naked Cowboy" at Times Square. Apparently he's well known for grabbing ladies in the bum while taking pictures with them and will often allow them to reciprocate the action. I'm a little suspicious as to why Ginger knows this little tidbit of information.

Cami and Juan come out to visit

Ginger's sister, Cami and her husband Juan, came out to visit last week. Their friends from BYU just recently moved out to Virginia, so being the benevolent people that we are, Ginger and I offered to drive them down to DC so that they could see them over the weekend, and we stayed with Ginger's old college roommate.

While we were there, we went to Arlington National Cemetary

This was the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It was one of the coolest things I have ever seen and that's coming from someone that has personally witnessed the world's largest Paul Bunyon.

This is obviously the Lincoln Memorial, luckily that lady's shirt is able to distract a little from my receding hairline.

I thought I'd get two DC landmarks in one. That's Ginger (black shirt and green Crocs) and her friend Marley reflecting in the Vietnam Memorial on the left.

If you've ever heard the stories about how the DC temple just rises up in front of the freeway as you're driving along, they're all true. We drove by at night while it was lit up and it looks like this glowing castle that just floats above the freeway, it was amazing.

Today just got a little bit better!!

I have just been surfing the internet this afternoon looking at different websites and trying to find cute decorations for our apartment. I love shopping at Roberts in Utah and I always go to their website every once in awhile just hoping they sell things online yet. Every time I look, I am always disappointed. This is the same thing with Adams and Company. I don't know if you have ever heard of this company but they make the cutest decorations ever!! If you have ever been to my apartment, most of my decorations are from there. I was introduced to them by my friend, Charity in St George. There was a store there. They have started to expand and sell their things in Roberts and Rod Works now. It is hard to buy things out in Utah and then try to find room in my suitcase to bring things back and there just aren't great stores out here to really make my apartment cute. My prayers have been answered and Adams & Co are online now! Can you believe it!!? You should all check them out. I just know you will fall in love just like I have!

Interesting!!

A couple of weeks ago when we were in Connecticut, we were driving through a Target parking lot and came across this sign. We were dying laughing. Connecticut sure has some strict laws!! Adrian also posted a different stop sign that is pretty funny on her blog. These kids are putting a lot of thought into their vandalism these days.

Visitors!!

Things have been pretty boring around here since Sam started school again last week. School is really slow right now so I have still been able to spend a lot of time with him. I am not looking forward to him getting busy again. I can survive 2 more years though!! We did have my nieces, Brooke and Natalie sleep over last weekend. We of course went swimming and played lots of board games. On Sunday they came to church with us and helped me in Nursery. They loved playing with the kids. The other 2 ladies were gone on vacation so we had some subs but it was nice to have extra helpers.

Cami and Juan (sister and bro-in-law) come to visit tomorrow which we are so excited about. They will be here until next Saturday. We are going to DC over the weekend and are just going to hang out with my sister, Kelly in New Hampshire the rest of the time. I took off all of next week of work so I will not have any distractions! We love visitors!!

Fun Times with Natalie, Zack and Carley

A couple of weeks ago Kelly (my sister) was at Girls camp so we had Natalie, Zack and Carley on July 24th & 25th. It was fun having them sleep over at our little apartment.

On Thursday, it was raining all day. We were stuck inside but we managed to have some fun watching movies, playing nintendo and aggravation and just hanging. We were going to see a movie in our town square. They project a movie on a screen put up on the gazebo. Our town has been doing this every Thursday all summer but it seems to rain a lot on Thursdays so they have had to cancel it the last few weeks.

On Friday it was the perfect outside. We took the kids to the pool at our apartment and they were lucky being the only ones there. They even have a lifeguard there.
After swimming we went to play on the playground. We tried to see if we could find some amazing playground in the area but were unsuccessful so we settled on the one at our apartment. We may as well get as much out of our $1100/month rent. The kids still loved it. I made them pose in all these cheesy pictures.
I also taught Carley to swing across the monkey bars. She is so independent so once I told her she just had to swing herself to get the the next bar, she could do it all on her own.

We had a fabulous time. I wasn't totally sick of them when they left so that must mean I am ready to have my own kids! If I can handle a couple days, what's a lifetime! Hahaha