Our new addition

Thanks to my parents and Gram P for helping us to get this little baby. She is old, she is a little worn, but she sounds wonderful and will provide a great learning opportunity for our whole family. We love her!

Baby your Baby

Ada has developed a LOVE for baby dolls. It is so darling. She has a particular baby doll from the dollar store that she could hold and talk to all day. It is almost decapitated and the stuffing is falling out, but she loves it anyway. She loves almost any baby doll and will scoot across the house to reach one. She loves to coo to them, hold them, slobber kiss them, and sleep with them. Neither of our other girls exhibited such a love for baby dolls, especially at such a young age. I can already tell that Ada has a very nurturing nature.

Fun!

Our July vacation was, if nothing else, totally fun! We were able to do so many fun things listed below, but not limited to:

-Attending our niece's baby blessing
-Swimming at the new Lindon pool with awesome wave pool
-Swimming at the Village Pool
-Playing with cousins on both sides
-Dressing up in matching clothes with Lizzie
-Brunching with my wonderful grandparents in Highland

-Swimming/birthday party with recently moved friends
-Chatting with my wonderful published companion from the mission and her sweet baby girl
-Preforming temple work with the bot in the Draper temple
-Getting a haircut and brow wax at Shep Studio
-Lunching with friends from grad school
-Visiting OSH and the great staff of CPPA
-Chatting with my stylish landscape designing friend into the early am

-Vacationing to Logan to visit  the extended family
-Enjoying the Logan zoo
-Feeding ducks at the dam
-Visiting a REAL kindergarten room with my lovely aunt Carol
-Brunching at my aunt Ann's lovely home
-Chatting with aunt Lee and cousin Kylee at their home
-Watching the Sound of Music opera in Logan

-Attending church at the MTC and seeing my parents in action
-Visiting with my awesome high school running friend
-Dining with my brothers and sister and seeing my wonderful sister-in-law Court
-Observing my dad in action at the local courthouse
-Eating with another high school running friend and chatting about our shared callings

-Picking raspberries in the Grandparent's garden of Eden
-Trekking to California with 5 kids, my great in-laws and two sister-in laws
-Living in a gigantic beach house in San Diego for a whole week with J's family
-Swimming in the beautiful Pacific Ocean
-Smiling for the camera while getting beautiful family pictures taken
-Visiting with another mission companion and her awesome little boy
-Enjoying the cousin play time and adult visiting time
-Hot tubbing almost every night
-Loving Sea World, the awesome shows and amazing animals
-Touring the San Diego Zoo and seeing all the animals
-Boogie Boarding for hours on end
-Eating wonderful food and snacks
-Appreciating the time for everyone in J's family to be together

It was a wonderful trip and I'm so glad we could create such wonderful memories with the people we love!

Burgers

Thanks to Hays for telling me about this AWESOME food blog. I love it, and everything I've tried on it so far has been excellent. We especially love THESE . Southwest chipotle burgers. It doesn't get better than that.

Family

The best part of our trip was getting to spend some great quality time with our families! J drove us up to Utah and stayed the weekend, then left me and the girls there for two weeks until he met up with us again in CA. I got to spend a lot of time with my parents, saw my sister and brothers, visited my grandparents and went on a trip to Logan to see some of my extended family there.  I also stayed with J's parents, saw all but one of his siblings and traveled with them to a beach house in San Diego for a week long family reunion.

I loved visiting with my parents and having good discussions with them every night. My girls were loved and cared for completely by their grandparents on both sides. I was grateful for the many [FREE] babysitting moments and appreciated my Mom for offering to watch my kids whenever and wherever. I don't think there is anything better than giving my kids the opportunity to get to know their family members and seeing those relationships develop. Thanks to both mine and J's parents for being such gracious and accommodating hosts to us and for taking such good care of us. We love you so much!

Friends

Since our vacation was long and relaxing I decided to take some time to catch up with friends from about every stage of my life. Pictured are about half of the great people I got to catch up with, and the other half were lucky enough to escape a picture with me.

[NOTE: I understand that there were friends I did not get to see and apologize for any negligence on my part. When I am in town next,  I'll see you!]

It was awesome to catch up with so many people who have influenced my life for good and helped me in the various stages of my life. Friends from childhood, high school, college, my mission, grad school, and my married and motherhood life are people that I look up to and who continue to give me support and perspective. Thanks to all of you for accommodating my schedule and taking time to visit with me. I loved every minute of it!

Toe Jam

What! I'm just minding my own business shuffling laundry back and forth when I clumsily whack my toe on our computer chair.

KILLER.

I thought it was broken, but after some internet self-doctoring (definitely to be recommended), I think the ligament/tendon is just badly bruised.

That's what I get for being a klutz.