Tuscon Temple Open House

We were lucky enough to go to Arizona to attend the open house for the Tuscon Arizona temple! I was so happy to make it down there because my grandparents used to live in that area and I've always wanted to visit. A new temple gave me the excuse I needed to beg Clark to make a family trip out of it.




A little miracle happened while there--we were directed to one part of the parking lot but, when we got there, were told the lot was full and we'd have to go to the overflow. No big deal, it was just across the street. We pulled in, parked, and left the car. As we were exiting the lot, I recognized one of the volunteers just as he recognized me: it was Adam Clark, who I knew from Alta and who married one of my old roommate Christina! We took a moment to catch up and marvel at the chances of seeing each other and then I joined the rest of my family on the tour.

What a beautiful building! I love its unique architecture and I hope I can go back in the next few years.

N111 Reunion!

I am so, SO grateful that I was able to meet up with Lyndsy, Marcie, Rachel, and Allison! Rachel got married in the middle of the summer and we had an online discussion about the fact that it had been FOREVER since getting together--turns out it had been about ten years! We'd seen individuals on occasion but never as a group. 

We met up in American Fork and had a really great lunch. We got to catch up about children, jobs, marriage, family, living in and out of Utah, etc. It was a highlight of my weekend! I really hope that we can meet up again before another ten years passes by.

Roommate Anniversary Dinner!

To celebrate our fifth anniversary (and Kerry's fourth, and Emily's golden birthday) we went down to Utah to party it up all weekend long and began the festivities with dinner at India Palace. Happily, Kendel was in town for BYU's Education Week and he came along, too! We really enjoyed the meal and the company and even though we were there for a few hours, the time was too short. I wish we lived closer so we could visit with these awesome people more often!

Saturday is a Special Day

Saturday was definitely our "Utah Errand Day." We had about 400 miles left on our car warranty, so we needed to take it in to the dealership that morning to make sure some maintenance got taken care of. In addition, the girls have been participating in a program called "Help Me Grow" which encourages play and monitors development stages. They were having an event at UVU with some fun activities and a few freebies, so instead of making the girls wait at the dealership for an hour or two, I took them to the event while Clark took the car in. They had some really fun stations set up (ball pit, building block corner, puppet show stage, etc.) and even had cotton candy, popcorn, and an hourly animal show going on. The girls did all right for a while but the car appointment ended up taking forever and after being confined to the same room for two and a half hours, the girls were DONE. :)

 Afterward, Michelle had an open house BBQ at her home to have an excuse for some of us to come over and see her place (she's lived there for ten months, lol). It was GREAT to see the old roomies and visit with Caryn, too. We all stayed way too long, but it really is fantastic to get together with these ladies and doesn't happen as often as we'd like it to.

Utah trip - part two

 After the wedding, our family headed over to Hogle Zoo to entertain the girls. They were SO HAPPY to "go see elephants? Go see giraffes?" :) It was quite a bit windy, which meant several exhibits were temporarily closed or moved for the day but the girls still saw lots of animals and got to ride on the carousel so they loved every moment we were there. :)

 After the zoo we headed to the reception, which was at an adorable location (small reception hall of some sort) which had the most adorable doilies hanging from the ceiling, very intimate table settings, and a milk and cookie bar. :)

Saturday was our day to run errands in Provo and visit friends we missed in February. This time, we got a few of my old roommates together to have lunch at Zupas and to celebrate Michelle's pregnancy. I'm so happy we got to see Michelle, Emmett, Emily, Kyle, and Kerry (plus Abigail). Afterward, we were able to watch the second half of the BYU men's basketball game with the Tracys. I'm so grateful we've been able to develop relationships and friendships with such wonderful people and I miss everyone in Utah every day!

Reception and Roommates

We had the opportunity to go to a reception down in Provo tonight, and, because it was Katie from the 56th ward, it was like a miniature ward reunion. It was wonderful to see everyone, even though we missed the Nichols and the Tracys. Azucena even made a few friends. :D
Lund was also in town, which gave us an excuse to try out "The Chocolate" in Orem. Delicious!

India Palace!

We had a few things to celebrate last night: Heather is getting her bachelor's degree! Becca is nearly finished with her thesis! And (the whole reason we got together) Michelle is getting married! So we had an engagement/graduation dinner at our favorite restaurant: India Palace. (Well, hey, I'm giving free advertising what with the name and phone number RIGHT THERE in the picture, lol!)

I love these ladies. Even almost three years after no longer being roommates we still see each other a few times a year and meddle in one another's affairs even more often. So grateful for each of you ladies!

Temple Trip!

Birthday week continues!

I asked my roommates if they would be able to make it up to the Jordan River temple to go through a session together before everyone starts to move away and more children are born. :) We all agreed that today would be a great day to go but, at the last minute, Becca was unable to make it due to illness. :( BUT! Five us were still able to go through the temple (with two husbands in tow) and I'm still very grateful that we were able to share such a wonderful experience!

Note: I am not that much shorter than everyone else. In fact, I'm taller than Emily. I was just doing something weird where my bottom half of me was about two feet away from the other girls, so I was leaning quite a bit. The end.

Clark and Kyle didn't want to be left out of the picture-taking extravaganza. :D

Saturday is a Special Day

Saturday was kind of a crazy day! Because we were planning on being in Provo for a couple of things, it meant that we ended up doing a TON of stuff because we don't live there anymore.

We had planned to participate in the Easter Egg Hunt that BYU/Provo city were planning but, honestly, there were about 12,000 people there and by the time we got down to Provo, Azucena had fallen asleep and we didn't want to fight the crowds, so we just went into the stadium early for the spring football game.

 

It also turned out that Brady had a meet at UVU that afternoon, so we headed up there to cheer on Azucena's favorite uncle. He was part of the spring medley team and they were hoping to qualify for state. They needed to race in under 3:39. I'll let you figure out whether or not they qualified . . . :D

As always, we took a little time to visit our ex-neighbors, the Carters, and their sweet little girl who is only four days, ten minutes younger than our Adelaide. I can't believe how much these two have grown!

You can just tell that they're holding hands. How adorable!

Little Catherine Norah

{Not pictured} We then headed to Emily and Michelle's house to enjoy the last Twilight film with RiffTrax. It feels good to 1) never have to watch those horrible movies again and 2) laugh ridiculous amounts with good friends. I'm so grateful for each one of them!

Alta Reunion (July 22)

Neil wanted to have an apartment reunion, so he set it up so a bunch of us could get together. I know I get to see some of these folks WAY more often than others (for which I am grateful) and I know how lucky that makes me. I also love that four years after being a family home evening assignment, we're still friends. LOVE. Good roommates are the only reason I am ever sad that I am married and have children. But I kind of get the best of both worlds now. :D

(Also, ladies, I will have you know I had another picture in which I do *not* look like a hunchback crazy lady, but I sacrificed my vanity because each of you look much better in this shot. :D)

Some of Clark's best friends. :)

July 15 - Bridal Shower

Thursday night was my bridal shower! I was so happy to see so many good friends that night. Lots of Clark's family was able to make it (mom, grandmas, aunts, cousins) and my Aunt Julie and four of my cousins, plus lots of old roommates, friends from old wards and jobs and girls from my current ward. I'm sorry I don't have many pictures--my roommate was in charge of those and she's been gone all weekend. I'll steal from her later. :)

There was eating:

Scrapbooking for my new recipe book:

And group participation in a Mad Libs game (that Michelle has somewhere):
We also played the candy bar game and interviewed Clark (I think I got three questions right).

July 5th - the Parade!

Since Utah declared July 5th to be the real holiday, the Provo parade was held off until Monday morning. Unlike last year, I participated by holding a banner for the White Peaks Centennial Pipe Band (the group that Clark and several of my roommates are a part of).

Here are the shortest and tallest members of the group. :)

Michelle and I borrowed some T-shirts from the group so we could look a little more official for our job.

My old roommate Erin took this picture (which is why I'm able to be in it). I stole it from Facebook. :D

Had to get a shot of me and Clark after the parade while he still had his kilt on. :)

The rest of the day was spent cleaning up and participating in a Jack Black marathon (Nacho Libre, Kung Fu Panda and School of Rock) which *would've* been awesome except for that fact that I was running on minimum sleep. Turns out Jack Black helped fix that by letting me sleep through 1 1/2 of the first two films.

And what holiday would be properly celebrated without a little RockBand, eh? Hooray for gold starring a few more songs!

Shopping!

Considering I have only ten weeks before I get married, I have to take care of a lot of details in the next couple of weeks and, since my roommates (and ex-roommates) are awesome people, they insisted I start working on finding a dress. We went by Alysse's Bridal Shop on Wednesday and here are two of my favorite pictures (just overall, not because of the actual dresses I'm wearing).

My birthday!

This year, our ward closing social/Talent show was the night before my birthday. This meant that "we" "had" to come up with a "talent" to share. I was talked into performing "Reptilia" by the Strokes with Jon, Clark and Michelle. Here is a picture of us singing along to Tyler Potts, on the piano:


Afterward, I had some time to just hang out with my room-roommates, Michelle and Erin, and we had a great chat and I was gifted a cheese grater (which is AWESOME since that's been my want and need for over a year).


On Sunday, my actual birthday, I woke up early (a sin) and went to Clark's cousin's baby blessing. It was so special (it's been years since I've been in attendance for one) and, afterward, we were able to go to a family party and just enjoy the day.

When we got back to Provo, Clark and I had a reading party and, a little later, I decided I was going to make homemade tamales. While making those, his home teachers came by and gave me a "birthday brownie" which looked like this:

It was really good. :D

They sang to me while they handed it over. I was also sung to by the Potts family, my mom and brothers, the girls of apartment 210, Jessica Leatham, Nick Potts, Clinton Blanco and members of my ward at ward prayer. It was a very special day and I'm so grateful to all my friends who took the time to say hi or leave me a message or give me a hug.