Once again, here I am playing catch-up so I don't forget the big events that have happened in the past six months. I know my pictures are not facing the right way and they came through in the wrong order, but imagine I am good at this and hopefully I will do better next time. So... in opposite order, here are a few highlights from August, and September...
My old friend and roomate, Kelly Southwick Small miraculously got tickets to Oprah last September and had an extra! I was lucky enough to get to tag along! I haven't ever taken a "girl trip" and had such a great time. The show was probably my least favorite of the season, but it was fun to be in the actual studio and see Oprah in real life. We ate great food, saw beautiful architecture, strolled along Michigan Avenue and Navy Pier, took a riverboat tour of Chicago and just had a great time!
This is Brock's third birthday. My baby is no longer a baby! He requested a snake cake and I am pretty impressed with what I came up with. I love this little boy! He is so full of life and passionate about all he does. Our home wouldn't be the same without him!
This is the Bryce Canyon Rim run. Jeff and I ran the five mile race and Britton and Emily ran the one mile kids race. It was a beautiful loop along the canyon rim and through the ponderosa forests of Bryce Canyon. The biggest shocker was that I won my age division! I am usually happy to finish in the top half, but this summer I started to feel like a real runner.
Jeff and I traveled to Dallas Texas in September to watch BYU beat Oklahoma in the new Dallas Cowboys stadium. It was a quick trip, but we had a blast. We went to six flags all day before the game and rode roller coaster after roller coaster (we realized we might be getting too old for this stuff...), and walked over to the stadium early to buy tickets from scalpers. We were there for an hour before we found a person selling tickets, and we bought them without looking very closely at what we were getting. One of the tickets was in the stadium and one was in the box seats, which could have been a disaster, but we used that one box seat ticket to find Jeff's parents in their box seats, and they snuck us in, so we watched the game in leather seats with a buffet behind us a drinks in our hand. It was the most exciting football game I have ever been to! The stadium was incredible, and the game was even better! I didn't ever think I would ever really enjoy football, but the more I learn, the more I love it. I think I am an official fan.
This is our new home! We are so happy to be in and settled! Although the process of building was much more time and labor intensive then I had anticipated, I love being in a home that functions the way I want it to function and feels the way I want it to feel. We love being so close to the canyon and so close to Jeff's work. We love feeling like we can start to settle in to the community and start putting some roots down. I feel like I'm home.
The kids and Kennedy! (side note: one of the biggest changes of the last few months is that our niece, Kennedy came to live with us! We initiated her into the family by taking a trip to Disneyland a few days after she came to live with us. We couldn't have done it without her! We love having her fun-loving personality in our home. She is in 8th grade and is doing well. We are doing our best to be parents to a teenager with an active social life and a busy schedule!)
