Hello Again

Well, another six months has gone by. Wowsers! It has been a crazy six months. Let me try and sum it up for you:

 

In January, Mom and I started rehearsals for My Fair Lady at Terrace Playhouse. It was such a great experience. This was my very first time on stage and I was nervous about it, but my good friend, Char, was an awesome director and I met so many great people. It was awesome hanging out with my mom so much too.

We celebrated Lauren's 14th birthday. This girl is crazy, goofy, and fantastic all rolled into one pretty daughter.

Also, in January, we took a quick road trip to Newport Beach. It was a nice, relaxing weekend. We spent most of our time playing games and watching movies in the condo, walking on the beach, and lounging by the pool. We did spend half a day at Magic Mountain, but there was absolutely NO DISNEYLAND on this trip (can you believe it?)!

February brought us Ethan's eighth birthday and a quick trip up to Logan. My babies keep getting bigger and bigger and I can't stop it! Oh we'll, I guess I'll embrace it.

At the end of Feb, My Fair Lady finally opened! What a ride! I honestly loved every minute of it! Ryan and the kids were so supportive of me and were thrilled to see a lifelong dream of mine come true.

Here are just a few amazing people who came out to see me in my gigantic hat:

March meant Ethan's baptism!! It was a great day filled with all of the people I love!

Also in March, Katie started working at Bowmans, the local grocery store. She loves it! Isn't she cute?!?!

And, she became a mom....for a weekend!

Ryan and I slipped away to Scottsdale for a weekend. It rained and was so cold the whole time! Oh well, at least we were together.

April brought us to Lauren's 14th birthday trip to Chicago!! It was so freakin' cold but we had a blast! This kid is cooky and so fun to be around (when she's not hormonal!).

April also meant that we celebrated more birthdays. My Katie turned 16!!!!! Holy Moly! She is such a beautiful girl, inside and out!! I honestly couldn't ask for a better kid!! So, she's now driving everywhere and went on her first date!! It's such an exciting time for her and its fun to see her grow up.

In May, Ryan, Denise, and I went to Boston. None of us had ever been there and we loved it!! We went to the temple, Lexington and Concord, John Adams' birthplace, and downtown Boston. What a great city!! Definitely a new favorite place! And, I HAD to take a picture of the best lobster roll I have EVER eaten!! When we went to Boston, my mom flew out to Georgia to see the Gittins and took the boys with her!! It was a fun trip for them and they played with the cousins nonstop!

 

In May, I turned a year older and spent the day with my family. We enjoyed a tea party with Geneal and Tenille, then dinner with the other birthday girls, Mom and Denise. The older I get, the more I realize how blessed I am!!

The end of May brought the end of school. Katie is now a Junior, Lauren a freshman, and Braiden and Ethan are 5th and 3rd graders. Wow!

So, that brings us to the present.

 

SUMMER!! Glorious Summer!!

 

We have a busy one planned (surprised?).

 

We've got girls camp in two weeks (I'm going as a leader). It will be up beautiful Logan Canyon and I know we will have a blast!

 

Jessica and the whole Gittins Gang is hanging out for a few weeks and Jason is coming into town as well so we'll all be together again!!! This makes me so happy!!

 

In July, the girls are going on Pioneer Trek. I'm sad I'm not going with them this time. It is an amazing experience! Then, Katie and her friends are going to the One Direction concert!! She has been planning on this for over a year now!

 

Right after the concert, we are going on a little family trip.

 

Just a tiny one.

 

To a place called ENGLAND!!

 

We are going with Blair and Geneal and will be gone for two weeks! I'm over the moon excited about it! We will spend four days in London, go to the Harry Potter movie studios, then head over to Bath, up to Stratford-Upon-Avon, Oxford, Liverpool, York, and spend a final four days in Scotland!! I cannot wait for this amazing, once in a lifetime trip with my family!

Well, that gets me caught up!! I was so far behind on this blogging thing, which made me feel guilty, which made me get farther behind. I've decided to let go of the guilt and blog about the present. If the posts are few and far between, it just means I'm busy with my family. I'll just pick up where I am and try not to worry about it. If anyone still reads this blog, know that I love you and your support.

 

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NYC!

We started a tradition that we copied from our friends. Some people may think we are nuts, but that's OK.  We decided to take each child, when they turn fourteen, on a weekend trip of their choice. So, when Katie's birthday loomed near, she chose the Big Apple.  She also wanted to invite her grandparents along for the ride!  We were all so excited to go! 

Our first adventure took us to Brooklyn on the Subway.  Here's Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridge once we got there.

We ate at Grimaldi's for lunch. Pizza was great, and the company was even greater.  We sat by and talked to some great New Yorkers.  They were so funny!

Next, we ate yummy ice cream at Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory and started to make our way back to the city across the beautiful Brooklyn Bridge.  It was so cool!

We stopped by Grand Central Station.  It was neat.  I've always described my house as Grand Central Station when my kids come home from school and all of their friends show up, and now that I've seen the real place, my description of home is pretty accurate!

Then, we finally caught up with Grandma and Grandpa and took a bus tour of the city.  It was nice to sit and see a lot of this amazing city!

The next day we went down to Battery Park to see Lady Liberty and Ellis Island.  Both were so great!  We also met up with our friends from home!

Our next stop took us on a hunt to find the best Lobster Roll in NYC.  I haven't tried all of them to know, but the ones we ate were SO GOOD!!! I ate mine so fast, that I didn't get a picture.  It started to rain pretty hard at this point, so Grandma and Grandpa went to the hotel, our friends went shopping, and Katie, Ryan and I went to the WTC museum.  It was so moving and I'm so glad that Katie could see it.  That night, we went out to a fancy dinner with Grandma and Grandpa to celebrate Katie's birthday trip. The three of us then went to Top of the Rock to see the city at night.  Our pictures didn't turn out great, but it was neat to see this amazing city from up above all lit up.

The next day we went up again, this time to the top of the Empire State Building.  Again, what a beautiful city!!  It was so neat to experience that with the people I love!

Afterwards, we shopped and shopped and shopped at the historic Macy's and along 5th Avenue.  We wore Grandma and Grandpa right out, so we went to Central Park and they went to chill.  Central Park was great!  Perfect weather and people watching!  The ice cream was good, too.

Then it was time to get ready for Broadway!!  Katie chose to see the musical Phantom of the Opera. It was a great show in a great theater!

So, that's our trip to the Big Apple in a nutshell.  We had a blast, and I'm glad we started this tradition with our kids. Braiden is already brainstorming over where he wants to go!

Summer Time!!

Hello there!  Now that it's twenty twelve, I'm planning on hitting the ground running!  I'm going to catch up on my memories, so I'm overviewing the wonderful Summer we had.

In July,

-We had a blast at Hogle Zoo with Grandma and the Gittins (that sounds like it should be some sort of crazy rock band name, doesn't it? "Grandma and the Gittins" has a nice ring to it!)

-We attended our cousin Emily's baby blessing

-We celebrated Independence Day in Oakley with the Rodeo, Parade, Food, and Family!

I love, love, love this picture!

-We had to leave the Oakley festivities early to head down to San Diego for the Bar Convention (we watched the fireworks from the freeway). We went with friends from the firm and had a great time in Sunny CA!

-We played at the beach

-We went to Lego Land.  Disneyland it ain't, but we still had fun.  The best part was the mini cities they built.

-We had a blast at SeaWorld



  -Our last day in San Diego was spent touring the USS Midway. It was really neat!

-Jen went to Park City for the weekend for a Girls Only Trip with Denise, Jill, and MomNancy. We had a blast zip lining, alpine sledding, hiking, shopping, and eating!

-We went to a Bees Game with the whole family

-We celebrated Jason's birthday at the Spaghetti Factory (surprise, surprise!)

-We went to Lagoon for Harper's birthday

-We said goodbye to the Gittins family. We miss them so much!

-Ryan and I hiked up to Adam's Canyon's waterfall with Amanda and Jay

-We celebrated Grandpa Blair's birthday up in the canyon and roasted hot dogs and S'Mores

-We enjoyed our annual neighbor/friends fireworks night in our front yard

-Braiden enjoyed basketball camp at the SportsPlex

-Ryan and I saw Idina Menzel in concert up at Deer Valley!

In August,

-Had a great backyard BBQ at our house with friends from the firm

-Katie and Lauren had a blast at Girls Camp

-We took the girls to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at Hale Center.  It was awesome!

-We did lots of school shopping (two teenage girls, one picky sports loving boy, and one kid who outgrows everything in a matter of weeks....you do the math!)

-We saw the "UP" house at the Parade of Homes with Amanda and Jay.  It was so cute!

-Soccer started back up again for the boys

-The kids got all dressed up for the first day of ninth, seventh, third, and first grades!!



-Ryan completely surprised me with a trip for our 16th wedding anniversary.  He has tried to surprise me many times before, but always unsuccessfully. This time he pulled it off!  We went to Disneyland for a few days and had a wonderful time just being together

-We had a fun-filled FHE with the Dawson family!

Whew!!  What a fun summer we had!  We made a lot of great memories. What a great family I have!  I am so grateful for all of the wonderful people I share my life with!