A few more photos from California

While I was in California visiting my Aunt and Uncle I asked if they would take some pictures of Katy and I because they are such talented photographers! The pictures were taken at a park down the street from them, it was difficult to get Katy to look at the camera because there were too many other things and people to look at! We even enlisted the help of a couple kids there to get her to smile! They were all such wonderful pictures, so I will try to give you a sampling of all the pictures!

 Thanks for such wonderful pictures!

Off to Utah....

 After our trip to California, Katy and I flew to Salt Lake and my sister Jenn-Lee picked me up. All her girls were SO excited to meet Katy for the first time....Katy wasn't so sure what to do with all the attention from so many girls at once. Jack drove from Denver to Salt Lake the same day to meet us there. We stayed with my sister for a couple nights and spent some time with their family. We had not really ever spent any time with them before, so it was a lot of fun for the cousins to play. Tyler has been really into Pokemon lately and felt very special that his cousin Anakha-Marie took him along to her Pokemon club at the local comic book store down the street. The boys occasionally got bored and said their excuse was that "there were no boy toys!" HA. (Now that baby boy Tobin has arrived, that should change in a year or two).

One of the days we decided to get the kids out of the apartment and take them to the park for a picnic. They had a lot of fun running a pretend store and yelling at the top of their lungs advertising for said store.

Serious shot.

Silly shot... "Aaarrrgghhh!"

Baby Tobin provided the perfect seat for Katy haha!

I am not really sure why, but until the last evening we were there, Katy screamed anytime Daniel (aka. Uncle Dragon) would walk anywhere near her. It was pretty funny and reminded us of how Jacob used to react to Uncle Jimmy. So, this is the last night when she let him get close enough to pick her up. As you can see from her arm reaching, "Some one save me!", she still wasn't completely warmed up to him.

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While in North Salt Lake we took the kids to Temple Square for the first time. We also met up with some long time friends "2nd parents" if you will, of Jack. The Cooks lived down the street from Jack in Delaware when he was growing up and they were great examples to him. They had many sons, one was Jack's age. It is nice to catch up with them every now and then. They are so lucky that they live across the street from Temple Square!

 I was so excited to meet up with my old room mate, the OH SO talented and beautiful, Jana for dinner at the Lion House cafe. Tyler developed a little crush on Jana that evening, and even asked for her number as we were leaving HA!

We always enjoy our time at Temple Square. There is a peace there that can only come from being on the Holy ground of the temple. I am glad we were finally able to take our kids to where we have so many great memories of when we were dating. They were in awe of how big this temple was compared to others they have seen.

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After our visit with my sister we went to our friends house in West Jordan, the Fillmore's. They might sound familiar, Sherrie was one of my best friends and her son was one of Tyler's in Omaha. They moved from Omaha to UT about a month after we did. It was really fun to see them again and let all the kids play! One day we went to Wheeler Farm with them. We ate some lunch and then walked around looking at all the animals. (We were so lucky to have near perfect weather while we were in UT!)

 Katy absolutely LOVED the animals! She was constantly smiling, laughing, and clapping for them!

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Rise and Shout the Cougars are out....

When we decided to plan a trip to UT we instantly looked up if our Cougars would be in town for a game, and they were! Since they'd be in town we decided it be a perfect chance to take the boys to their first football game, Cougar football at that. We also sent out an email to as many of our college friends as we had information for to invite them all to have a little reunion at the game. A lot of people didn't live in UT, so weren't able to make it, but we did have quite the turn out. It was so much fun to see everyone again for the first time in 6-7 years and to meet some of their kids. Our team crushed the other team that day, so it was fun to have many, many chances to teach the boys Rise and Shout!

The Emigs- he was our Bishop at church when we were at BYU

While on campus we also met up with the wonderful "babysitter Catie", we sure miss her and are excited when we get to see her!

It was so fun to visit campus again and see how much has changed. The boys thought it was pretty cool to see where mommy and daddy went to school, worked, and where we met.

Go COUGARS!

Trip to Cali and a few Randoms

A few randoms before I get to my trip to Cali...

 A short trip to the park after school one day. I just LOVE the sky in this picture, SO many different types of clouds, and 6 cute little {crazy} kids as well.

 I was sitting in the drop-off lane waiting to drop off Tyler at school one day and for some reason the flags blowing in the wind captured my attention. Love seeing the flags flying high and proud.

 I had the wonderful opportunity to attend Time Out for Women with a few ladies from church. I learned and grew so much. More on that to come later. This was me with my sisters good friend, Chrislyn, who is now the director for TOFW.

NOW, for my trip to California!

This trip was WAY overdue. I am SO glad that I had the opportunity to spend a few days with my dad's family in Livermore, CA in mid-October. I stayed with my Uncle Stephen and Aunt Kathy. Katy was a bit shy at first, warmed up pretty quick to Steve and slowly but surely to Kathy as well. She wasn't sure what to think of their dog Izzy, and stayed very close to me at first, but slowly warmed up to Izzy as well and was soon following her around (at a distance) very curious what she was up to.

 I loved seeing this at their house in the backyard- it is the hand prints of my two oldest sisters and my two cousins, Matthew and Christopher, many years ago.

 It was so nice to see my Grandma and Grandpa, and Uncle Robert as well. It was fun to be able to have them meet Katy for the first time. My Grandma is amazing at making quilts. I will forever cherish the quilt she made us when we got married, and each of the quilts my kids have received when they were born. I'm hoping I inherited some of these skills, but since I just know that this is not the season in my life to be making quilts we'll have to wait and see.

 My Uncle is an amazing chef, I wish we lived near him so I could learn a thing or two about cooking...I've got baking down, just not the cooking part....and have a LONG way to go in that department.

 Katy hadn't quite warmed up to Grandma yet...as you can see by her face haha.

 It was so nice to see my Grandpa as well, though hard. My Grandpa has Alzheimer's. The last time I saw him was about 2 years before at my brothers wedding. He has gotten a lot worse since then. When we went to see him he was pretty out of it and had an extremely hard time staying awake. At first it was hard to keep the tears down, missing his old self so much, but once I can to terms with it I really enjoyed my time with him. Every time he would wake up and open his eyes he'd instantly look at Katy and his face would LIGHT up and try to get her to come to him. The next day my grandma went to see him and asked if he remembered his granddaughter and great-granddaughter coming to visit the day before, he didn't remember me, but he did remember Katy and said she was so cute and little. It meant so much to me that he remembered seeing her, that she was able to bring a little sunshine to his day that day. I really miss him and am so sad and ashamed that I have not visited more often and stayed in touch with them better. I will always remember him for his silly jokes and never ending love and kindness, just like my dad. I pray everyday that the research for finding a cure, or at least a better slowing agent, continues toward success one day. It is such a heartbreaking thing to have to watch and be a part of. I can only imagine how hard it is on my grandma to see her love drifting away, but still be there. She is a strong woman and a great example to me.

Thanks guys for having us in your home, and for the wonderful time!

After California, Katy and I headed off to Utah!......

Garden of the Gods

Early in October we decided it was high time we started doing some sight seeing in this beautiful state of Colorado. I really wanted to go to the mountains, but we felt since it was so last minute we should do a little smaller type trip. So after doing a little looking around on the Internet we decided on a quick trip to Colorado Springs, about 45 min south of us, to Garden of the Gods. We took the kids on their first "hike" (it was really just a walk, but whatever gets kids to keep going right?). We chose a short loop near the "Kissing Camels" and enjoyed some of the nice weather we were having. The rock formations were beautiful, as always. The boys were super excited to see some rock climbers too!

 The start of our hike...when Jacobs legs were still working.

 I even had a little fun practicing my photography skills- I LOVE this shot.

 Daddy was a trooper, as always, carrying more than his fair share of the load.

 I did a little climbing with the boys (and had my heart drop to my stomach a few times as they were a little more independent and brave on the rocks than I would have liked) by the balancing rock. Jack took these pictures at the bottom by the car.

It was a fun little trip and made us appreciate even more our new home state. We LOVE Colorado and are so glad we moved here, and can't wait to continue to explore it!