Our Utah trip was all planned because my lovely, we'll call her my aunt victoria threw me a baby shower! My sister Rachel and another relative Stacey also helped throw the shower. Victoria is so amazing and put so much work into the it. I appreciate her, Rachel, and Stacey for letting us use her house, and for all they did sooo much!
That was one week that I did not want to end. I got to sit around with my family for a whole week, and not do a thing. It was perfect.. well almost. Kyle did not fly in until Thursday morning so it would have been absolutely perfect if he was there all week. We all had tons of fun. The week started in Salt Lake with my family and then Kyle and I went down to Provo after my baby shower and stayed with Josh and Mia, and hung out with the Sipherd family.
My mom, dad, Tonya, Logan and I drove to Elko and stayed there on Sunday night... Funny side note when I walked into the entrance to the lobby of our hotel I smelled a very familiar smell. I looked up and there on the wall was an Aire-Master deodorizer.. ya Aire-Master works like a charm!.. Then the next morning we got up and drove to SLC and meet up with Rachel and her babies at the Little America Hotel. That was a wonderful reunion because I have not seen them since last summer. We all stayed in two rooms that had two full beds..
lets just say that 5 adults + 5 kids + 4 full beds= not the best nights sleep for anyone. But it was still fun.
We went swimming at least 2 times a day the whole time we were there. They had a really nice pool and exercise room, that we all used frequently.
Me and the Bear
Coralee, me and Lanny pants
Logan in his floaty by himself for the first time ever. He LOVES swimming
Carson and Grandpa.. Cars does not love swimming as much as Logan or his siblings
Tuesday morning my mom, dad, Rachel, and Tonya went to a session in the Salt Lake Temple, I can't really sit there for that long and not get hot and uncomfortable. They had a wonderful time. That night we all went to Texas Roadhouse to eat. I got to see Scott and Heather for the first time in a long time! It was soo good to see them. They let me live with them for a month before Kyle and I got married. I love them!
Wednesday we all kinda did our own things, mom and dad went to welfare square, while Rach and Tonya went swimming, and so I walked to Temple Square. I was going to meet up with Annie and Daviana, two of my wonderful mission companions! On my way there I stumbled across the most amazing store called Two Thousand Villiages, lets just say I fell in love with this place! To sum it up it is a non profit organization that buys handcrafted pieces from countries all over the world. The store workers are all volunteers, and the money is given back to the villages they buy the pieces from. Love it!! I found some amazing crafted animals that I am going to use in Luke's room.
This picture took me ages to actually get on here... but I love this monkey. When Luke has his own room we are going to hang this in a corner. It was made in the Philippines.
The elephant was made in Pakistan, Sara bought this for me!
This Hippo was made in Peru
THIS DOES NOT MEAN THAT HIS ROOM WILL BE JUNGLE THEMED. IT IS MORE OF AN ECLIPTIC THEME IN MY MIND RIGHT NOW.
After my amazing finds I met up with my mom and we met up with Annie! She was one of my mission companions. We went and walked around the new mall across from Temple Square, it is amazing! We went to the food court to eat, and Daviana, another companion, came and we all got to chat for a while. It was so good to see those lovely ladies.
Davi, me and Annie
Davi had to leave so Annie, my mom and I met up with the rest of the fam bam and we went and walked around temple square. We all then went to the Joseph Smith Museum to see Annie's painting that the church bought, she is soooo talented that it is crazy. I'm going to brag about her a little. There were 2,000 entries in the competition for the church. They picked 200 paintings for the competition, and then the church bought 15 of them... one being Annies.. so talented! Her painting is so beautiful, it's called Balm of Gilead, I love it! We all had a good time walking around.
Wednesday night we went to the temple again to do some family sealings. Megan Winder is a saint and watched all the kids for us. It was such a spiritual evening. Our sealer was in the temple presidency, and it was amazing! He praised my parents for raising a faithful family in the gospel, and us girls for being strong members of the church. He shared amazing insights about doing family sealings, and my mom shared her story about how she got into doing family history work. There is a book that a deceased relative on my mom's side wrote. My mom found that book, after a lot of work, and it has helped her to get a lot of work done for her family. The story is a little more detailed than that, but we'll leave it there for now. That night we sealed that relative to her family. It was glorious!!
Now I will admit that I got a little cranky at times because I missed my sweet husband, but Thursday morning I picked Kyle and Sara up at the airport. That was the longest Kyle and I have ever been apart, and I am not a fan of being away from him. Before we had to leave for Provo Me, Kyle, Sara and Billy, who drove in a little earlier, all walked around the mall again.
I missed my little boy!
We went into Deseret Book to show Sara some of Annie's paintings that are there, and guess who is sitting there signing her paintings and the book that she illustrated.. ya Annie. So like her not to tell me that she was going to be there like a celebrity. It was so cool to see her, and we got to see more of her paintings.. again.. she is soooo talented!! The Book she illustrated is called A Piece of Silver, and it's by Rich Burbide. It's a wonderful Christmas story about the Savior. Her website is
anniehenrie.com
Annie
Billy had to prove to his friends that he really knows Annie
Annie is one of Kyle and I's favorite people in the world!
We had to leave in hurry to make it on time to help set up for my baby shower. First we all ate at Zupas, and Karly met us there. The Shower started at 7:00, and a lot of people came and showed their love for me, Kyle and our little man Luke. We have some amazing friends, and family members who spoiled us like crazy.
The adorable table and amazing food Victoria put together.
Me and Cora
Me getting spoiled
Amy and Kenzie's babies. Kia's face is covered.. and so is Jacobs.. but they are cute babies.
Two more lovely ladies from the mission. Nicole, who is having a girl, and Kirsten.
The Stakers. Love this family
Our great friend, and family member Courtney
The Sloan family. I was so happy they all came!!
WE LOVE VICTORIA
The ladies who put this wonderful night together
This is Luke's booty. The blanket Annie made for us is in the left hand corner. I have to say that my favorite clothes are the swimming trunks at the right bottom corner... soo adorable. He is going to be a little water rat like his parents.
Rachel and other got a bunch of onesies and had everyone who came decorate one for Luke. The onesie with the elephant on it is one someone made for Luke. Victoria also made me an amazing bracelet where she stamped the initials of everyone who came so that they can all be with me when I go into labor and have Luke. It was so thoughtful of her to do that for me. And I can't say enough how much I love them!
After the shower Kyle and I headed over to Josh and Mia's house to stay with them for a couple of days. Friday we went over to Victoria and Nate's and hung out with them for a while. Then me, Kyle, Karly, and Sara went and played some tennis, and later some other friends joined us to play a little ultimate frisbee. I even played and may have overexerted myself a little, I ran to catch a frisbee... for a goal, and I made the mistake of jumping one time, that did not feel so great. We love playing ultimate! And after that we ate dinner and Texas Roadhouse, and Sean and Courtney met us there. We miss those two.
Josh, Mia, Karly, Sara, me and my baby
Saturday Karly, Sara, Kyle and I all drove back up to Salt Lake where we met up with my family and watched general conference. We walked around the mall some more, and then met up with my family to eat at the Olive Garden before the Priesthood session. I love general conference, and being on temple square is always such a wonderful experience. I especially love seeing all those men walking around in their white shirts and ties going into priesthood, and I love even more that Kyle is among them. He just makes me soooo happy! After the priesthood session got out we all went to Jamba Juice, and then after that Kyle and I had to drive back to Provo to get some sleep before we had to go home.
My beautiful sisters, mother and niece
Sipherd family
Sorensen family
That night we all played games at Josh and Mia's. The girls won.
Sadly our trip had to end. After Kyle and Josh played video games till 4 AM Kyle crawled in bed and then had to wake up about 3.5 hours later to start our trek home. The drive home was me, mom, dad, Kyle, Tonya, and Logan all stuffed into Tonya's car along with all the crap we had to haul home. It was a tight fit, but we made it. And on top of that guess who got a semi flu on the way home... me. That was miserable! We were a little tired, and not too cranky from the 9 hour car ride. We loved our vacation, but it sure was amazing to sleep in our own beds.
This was a long post, but I loved this trip. And it was my last trip without having a baby.... wow.
