a short trip home

This past Friday I went out to Utah.

I landed at 10:45am and left on the midnight red eye, so I was there for just over twelve hours.

My little brother, Shane, was going to the temple so it was a special family day.

Mom picked me up from the airport and we went shopping for some things for Shane and grabbed some lunch.

 {the Mt. Timpanogos temple}

 {Daddy came to take Shane to the temple a little earlier than everyone else had to be there}

{I got to play a round of candyland and chutes and ladders with this little one in the mean time}

Afterwards we went to Cold Stone for ice cream.

 {me and momma}

 {Shane and a friend who joined us afterwards}

 {Shane and momma}

 {David and Kelsi}

 {Daddy and Lane}

 {Nin brought her girls and joined us too}

 {Londynn and Melynda}

{Brielle and Momma}

{Lane and Kinsey}

Daddy and I then went to stop by and see Jann (who had just gotten off work) and then to drop me off at the airport.

Short and sweet.

Phoenix

On Friday, August 12th (Shane's 16th birthday) Evie and I flew into Phoenix for a quick weekend visit to my grandparents.

Not coincidentally, Mom and Shane were there for a visit too.

Mom makes traveling with any of the kids so easy. She picked us up from the airport, had a car seat for Evie, and had brought down kiddie pool toys for her to play with.

 

{grandpa's grapefruit trees, they produce the best grapefruits in the winter}

While there I was poking around some old stuff grandma has in a display case.

She has a newspaper from New York at the time of the civil war {!}

She says that her mother was visiting her grandmother and noticed that they were being used as tinder for starting fires...needless to say she confiscated any remaining and here we have it.

Grandma's house holds some of my strongest childhood memories.

Her house just has this good smell, and the scent of the pool water on the surrounding concrete, and the neighborhood desert plant smells, and the sound of the cooing doves.

And grandma's yummy food and her stocked ice cream freezer and soda fridge. 

And grandpa's loud belly laugh and the card game trash talking.

Some things I love intensely.

Sunday morning I made everyone sit for some pictures.

{four generations}

{Mom and Shane}

 {Grandma and Grandpa}

I flew home Sunday afternoon thankful for the time I got to spend there.

Curt had held down the fort admirably.

He took the boys to a wedding reception, a high school football game, the neighborhood pool, and had wrangled them at church (and still played the organ). 

Superman right there.

Great Trek 2012: part IV, Utah again

 

After Yellowstone we all headed back down to Salt Lake for a special weekend.
Little Londynn was getting blessed and Shane turned 12 and was ordained a deacon.

First though, an update on the home that is being built for mom in Saratoga Springs.
While I was in Utah they dug the hole...
(The hole doesn't look like a hole because she has a walk out basement)
 

 

...but as of Friday the house looks like this...

...yeah I'm shocked at the speed they're building too..

 

She has awesome views like this...

(um, this is the view from the basement...*shaking of head in amazement*)

 

...it's a pretty good incline, so even when the lot behind her is built up the view of the lake will be there.

 

She closed on the West Jordan house a little bit after I left, so she and all of her stuff are at Melynda's until this one is done.

 

 

At any rate, back to the summary of the last shin dig at the house I spent my teenage years in...

 

Since everyone was dressed up I tried to get pictures

(with varying success, some people were just a bit fast at changing out of their nice duds)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kinsey is the major reason I have any pictures of me from all of this trip...Thanks Kins.

 



 

 

 

The little ginger baby...so adorable.

 

 

As I mentioned, it was a special day for Shaners, turning 12 and receiving the priesthood.

 

 

 

 

He had requested homemade ice cream instead of a cake, but we still needed candle blowing...so I improvised with some cookies.

...but then we brought out a surprise cake for mom.

She doesn't turn the big 5-0 until September 30th, but I won't be in Utah then and wanted to be there for something.  A cake will have to do. 



 

 

Just one more leg of this big long trip of mine to go...

 

 





Family Visits in July

So, back at the end of June/beginning of July a bunch of my family came out to stay for a couple weeks.

Which I loved.

A lot.

{come back please}

So this post is the part of their trip that we were hanging around our house in Michigan.

It's a bit long.

We flew back from Nina's wedding in Vegas with her baby in tow and got her all to ourselves while Mom, David, Lane, and Shane  drove from Vegas to Michigan.

She's pretty dang cute.

The driving portion of the family arrived the night of David's 22nd birthday, so I had a cake waiting.

Most of us don't like frosting if you are wondering about the cake decor.

Although I think there's a lot to say for my laziness too.

Yep, definitely a factor.

I am in love with the following picture of Curt holding Ellie.

I don't know, maybe it's just that she's such a little person. Maybe it's the perfect way her itty bitty bum fits on his arm. Maybe it's the way she has her arm thrown over his shoulder and is grinning at Mom. Maybe it's her pigtails.

At any rate, I just can't get over it.

So, we bought a high chair at a neighbor's yard sale earlier in the summer.

I think it was a good idea. 

Spaghetti + Ellie wouldn't have worked well without it.

Since we had the two weeks off of work, Curt thought it would be a good time to try out the totally shaved look.

It took some getting used to but I like it.

On the 4th of July we did some fireworks.

By "some" fireworks I mean some snakes and sparklers, pretty minimal, but it made Shaners happy.

By the end the boys may or may not have been bored enough to actually take my suggestion of reading a book. :)

I'm not quite sure how they ended up being related to me and not being avid readers, I mean, come on.

But they took the suggestion good naturedly enough, and even took the books home to finish.

But they did get to do some cool stuff.

Curt took all of the boys to a tour of a Ford factory that puts together the F-150.

And everyone but me and Ellie went to a Detroit Tiger's game. 

And then they drove home to Utah.

With a one year old in the back seat.

Did I mention that is a 24 hour drive?

Yeah, they did it straight.  Left at Ellie's nap time one day and made it home the next afternoon.

The crazies.

But I miss them.

{come back}

Thanks for the visit guys.

Love ya.