Utah Visit

A few weeks ago, Andy and I were able to visit Utah for my oldest niece's baptism. I can't believe she is already 8... I wish I had gotten pictures of her, because she looked so beautiful all in white. More about that in a little bit.

So we flew in on Wednesday night and got there around 10:30. We HAD to head straight to Meg's house to see her and for Andy to meet baby Aidyn. Oh.My.Gosh! He is the cutest little boy and he was just so sweet the whole time. He loved Andy immediately. Meg said that he is not a snuggler, but he snuggled right up to Andy. I loved it!

Sweet baby snuggles

We were lucky enough to get to sleep on a wonderful air mattress while we were there, so you know we got some GOOD sleep. Haha! But that's okay, we don't expect to sleep much whenever we visit family and friends. The next morning we woke up and little Gracie and Benson were running around and playing. It was so fun to have them at Mom and Dad's house while we were there so that we could play with them all the time. Gracie was scared of Andy pretty much the whole time...He's probably just too big and bearded - I'm not sure. 

What we woke up to each morning. Benson in his diaper, hanging on Uncle Rich!

We went to lunch with Rich's girlfriend, Amy. It was so nice to finally meet her! We went to Chili's and it was delicious. I really miss having a Chili's around here. Amy was super sweet and I really like her. It's so cute to see her and Rich together...holding hands...but I missed out on any kissing scenes...dang her shyness!! After lunch we headed to Dave and Shell's house and played with the kids. They have a trampoline! And it was amazing! It was pretty tiring to jump on, though. I really don't remember ever getting tired from jumping - guess I'm just an old, out of shape, lady now. 

Mr. Krue! He has gotten so big; he looks so grown up from when I saw him in December

Sweet baby snuggles for Aunt Kellie. Mommy was jealous...

On Friday, we went to Rian and Paige's Kindergarten graduation. They sang such cute songs, with cute hand actions...it was adorable! 

So hard to get pictures when every other person in the room is also trying to get pictures!

Cute cousins playing with each other

After the graduation, Andy, Meg, Aidyn, and I headed down to Salt Lake to meet up with Jan and Spencer. We ate some German food at a place that they love and then headed to the new City Creek shopping center. Meg and I had some fun at the sunglass shop. They have some ridiculous looking and ridiculously priced sunglasses there.  

Lookin' so fine

We did some shopping and I bought a few things. We tried to get Meg to buy a few things...but the things she bought, she eventually ended up hating. Except one shirt, maybe... But either way, we all had fun. It was so much fun to hang out with my friends and my sister. Because that used to never happen! Whit eventually made it down to Salt Lake and after a little more shopping, we headed to Jan and Spencer's house to just hang out and Andy left to hang out with Derek and Brian. We had some good laughs at some old memories and shared secrets. Haha! Whit also brought her waxing stuff. I told her I didn't have anything to wax...but she found something! My nose!!! I didn't even know that was possible, and I thought it would be the most painful...but it didn't even hurt one tiny bit!

The girls

The boys...Andy was the only loner who didn't wax. He sure missed out!

Saturday rolled around and we had family pictures (see post here). It was a fun time, as always. We got them done pretty quick and that was a good thing. They really turned out well! Now I just need to get them printed for our house. We headed to Jade's baptism after that. It was so neat...I love baby blessings and baptism. The spirit is always so strong! I think it even brought Andy to tears (and that just doesn't happen very often anymore). Jade was so sweet and was trying so hard to be reverent and really feel the importance of this day. She did such a good job. After the baptism, Jade and her parents and grandparents all went to dinner and guess who got to babysit the other kids?? Andy and me! And only Andy and me! It was amazing...and so much fun. So we had Canyon, Rian and Paige. They were so cute, and so good! At first when Dave asked us to babysit, for some reason I was imagining having all 5 kids. I was a little overwhelmed, but more than willing to do it. But when you take out Jade and the baby, that only leaves 3 and that's more manageable. They were seriously so much fun and they love their Uncle Andy so much! They kept laying on him on the tramp and calling him "their comfy couch". After dinner, everyone came back over and we watched a movie outside. I love Utah summers! The weather was so perfect and hot and wonderful! I was in heaven.

Rich moved up to Logan the same weekend we were there, so we drove up to Logan to see his new apartment. He'll be there for 2 months while he takes a few summer classes. I was so happy for him to be a real bachelor and have his own place! He was pretty nervous on Friday when he moved, but once he got there and got everything just how he liked it, he didn't seem too nervous anymore. 

Doing his first load of laundry

Kitchen

Closet and bathroom

Sweet view...he has horses as neighbors

Silly Andy...can't ever smile normal

Cute Richard! So excited to be doing laundry

We took a scenic route home, driving by the new Brigham City temple, and down old North Plain City road. It was really fun to just take our time getting home and enjoying the country feel.

We had a family get together on Sunday, complete with a delicious meal of Hawaiian haystacks. Yum! It was so much fun to be together as an entire family. It was not very hard to say goodbye to everyone, because we still had one more day in Utah. But, since it was Monday...everyone was going back to work, Rich had school, and we had to pack. So Andy and I just took the day for ourselves. We ate at Training Table...and it was fat, and delicious. We went and watched Snow White & the Huntsman, it was really good. And then we headed to pick up mom so that she could take us to the airport. 

I tell ya, the man cannot smile normally

Just a little sleepy looking

I cried after we left the house, saying goodbye to Judy, Benson and Gracie. It was really hard for me this time...I just really missed everyone and we had so much fun together. But lucky for us, Mom and Dad are coming to visit in October! Yay!!! So I hope that the time goes by fast.