Sunday, June 29, 2008

LONDON!

What an awesome trip Dan and I had to London! As everyone probably knows, I'm not a traveler, so to go to London twice in my lifetime is near miraculous. Dan had a research conference in Hull, England this year and I couldn't miss the opportunity to go along so that I could visit my brother Josh and his family in London. We had such a fantastic trip! It is an interesting kind of trip to be visiting family without actually taking my own kids. We were able to hang out with our cute nieces and nephew and it was a ton of fun. Here are a bunch of highlights from the trip:

This is us on the train going to church with Brooklyn and Makenna.



Conference at Hull... Not too exciting, but I got to relax (seriously... I slept until 3:00 in the afternoon one day!) I was glad they had shopping malls all over so I could shop. The only things I got were for Cali... I missed her a ton! This is a picture of us outside the cool aquarium that BP took us to for dinner.



It's been a lot of years since my paper route days, but turns out I can still ride a bike! We went on the Fat Tire Bike tour of London one day and it was awesome. All the parks are SO green and huge. It was also cool to have a guide take us to all the London sights. Definitely a highlight for me!



Biking through Hyde Park



This is in Trafalgar Square with Big Ben in the background.



All I can say is... Fantastic!!!



This is us playing Nertz and eating junk with J&A. We felt so bad keeping them up until 2:00 and 4:00 am. every night... especially since Josh still had to get up early and go to work! It definitely reminded us of our Provo days. Maybe it's a good thing we don't still live close so that we get more sleep! What can we say... we like to party!


Learning how to ride scooters... Brooklyn and Makenna totally kicked our cans though.



Dan LOVED putting the girls to bed at night.


We didn't get a whole lot of pictures with Mr. Z - I guess because he likes his mama! But he was a lot of fun. Always smiling and just doing his own thing.



We played at the park by their house on our last night. We flew a kite, rode scooters, and played little kids games - this is me catching Makenna in Colored Eggs


The girls got a lot of piggy back rides :)



This is in front J&A's house before we left. We had a lot of fun staying with them and are so glad we had the chance to see them in London before they move back. Thanks guys!



Finally, the woman who made it all possible. My mom is amazing! I don't know how many grandmas would take care of my four little munchkins for 8 whole days. They had so much fun with Grandma... they are still talking about everything they did with her. And I think I'll never hear the end of "but Grandma let us do it..."

Max's last day of preschool!

Friday was Max's last day of preschool. I can't believe he has finished two years of daily preschool. It has been so great and I hope he's ready for kindergarten! We will miss Teacher Nelly so much! She is seriously the most amazing woman ever and she is the reason Max had such a great preschool experience.


Max with his class at graduation



Max with his sweet teacher Nelly.



This is Max with his best friend Gavin at Lake Don Castro for their field trip. Max loved playing in the water, but he was so wild in the beginning that it totally wiped him out!



He had to settle for playing in the sand the rest of the time. This is him with cute Ellie.

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Doman & friends at the Steam Trains

The weekend after Doman's birthday we invited all of his little Sunbeam friends to celebrate with him doing one of his absolute favorite things... taking a ride on the steam trains! It ended up being a super cold day, but we managed to have cake (thanks to Kendra!), some entertainment from Max on the side, and finally a fun little ride on the trains.



This is the great train cake Kendra and Owen made for Doman. It even had a cute little picture of Doman at the front driving it. He loved it!



Max's story was that Owen and Karsten were doing their business so Max decided to join them. Problem is, Max was standing there for quite a few minutes and gave everyone plenty of time to witness it. My camera couldn't get a shot that far away so thanks to Mike we got a couple great pictures. And don't worry, we had a good talk about emergencies later that night!



Going through the tunnel on the steam trains... you can see Doman
and Abby are having a good time.



Isn't this such a sweet picture of Doman and Ellie?!


Thank you to everyone who was able to come with us... it absolutely made Doman's day!

Friday, June 27, 2008

Tag time

I honestly do have an excuse for not blogging in a while. We left our camera cord in London and one is on its way in the mail. So posts are coming soon! But a few days ago I was tagged by Alex, so I guess the least I could do is follow-up on that since it doesn't require any pictures. So, here goes:

1. What were you doing 10 years ago?
I had just finished my Junior year of high school so I was working hard at Wilson's Sporting Goods for the summer while desperately missing my boyfriend who'd left for BYU! ;)

2. What are five things on your list today?
Clean (of course, it never ends!), make hooded towels with Rachel, pick Max up from his very last day ever of Preschool, play at the park, make dinner, and finally go to Fentons with the gals for ice-cream. Should be a fun day!

3. What snacks do you enjoy?
Pastries, chips, Red vines, and anything with chocolate and peanut butter!

4. What would you do if you were a billionaire?
Buy a big house and nice car then go on a gigantic shopping spree! And of course I'd give lots of money to the church and charity. Then I'd invest the rest! :) Oh, and I think I'd have Dan join me a lot at home raising the kids while they were young.

5. What places have you lived in?
This is a pretty short list, but nonetheless it is complete:
Clearfield, UT
Rexburg, ID
Provo, UT
Berkeley, CA

Tag, you're it!: Jen Mac, Britney, and Rebecca