Home Sweet Home

Kelly and I were talking about what home really means. Is it where the heart is? Or, as Kelly said, is it where your stuff is? Either way I find myself very confused. Even as I find myself tearing up at the thought of leaving Utah once again, I truly enjoy my "new" job and living in Texas with a great family. I look forward to friends and family visiting, but find myself wishing I still lived close by. I hate missing the little things with my nieces and nephews, but I can't deny my need for gainful employment.

Well I tried to forget all of that on my last trip home. I just wanted to enjoy the weekend and take some good memories (and pictures) back to my other home. And for the most part I did. I definitely crammed a lot of fun, family and friends...despite the fact that US Airways can't seem to get a working plane (or any plane) in the air.

After getting home very late on Friday, Matthew, Morgan, mom, dad and I spent some time talking. And I got my new camera!!! All of the pictures featured are off my new camera. This weekend was definitely not restful - we stayed up late and got up early. But the next morning we went up to Brigham city bright and early to see Emmy's and Natalie's Soccer games.

Emily's action shot...there were some of those but also a few of her wandering around and enjoying the scenery

Natalie and I hanging out before heading to her game

Robert trying on Grandpa's sunglasses

Natalie is quite good and quite aggressive. She needs a little help finding her soccer clothes though...


On the way back, we dropped in on Grandma who gave us a scare! She had the back door open so we knew she hadn't left...but she wasn't answering our calls and we couldn't find her. I thought maybe she was in the basement, so I went down, but apparently she didn't hear me calling and I scared her as much as she had scared us! LOL. At least she was OK! We dropped by Melody's later to see cute new little baby Andrew Lance and he is a doll! Sami seems to like being a big sister as long as it doesn't take attention off of her!!

the rest of the day I spent with friends...going to the temple (it truly is a blessing to have one close by. I'm starting to really understand that now that I don't!) We saw Star Trek (really good by the way. Chris Pine is yummy.)We ate at Paradise - my favorite, and spent some quality time just hanging out at the house I left behind. I really do love that place!

Sunday, I got to sub in Kelly's class at Primary...and it was somewhat gratifying that so many people in my ward were hoping I was home for good. that really is a great ward!

Our family party celebrating May B-day's was a blast. It included not only my family, but all the cousins as well. We don't get together much anymore and they all have such cute families. I really enjoy spending time with them.

Later that night - we played 5 Crowns (of course). It was awesome and only missing the Pazookie...although we're planning some serious pazookie-ing for family trip here in Texas - Woo Hoo!!

Mom and I - getting ready to try to beat Matthew...

Jenn and Andrew - really not even coming close to beating Matthew

Me - getting ready to cheat in order to beat Matthew...

Matthew - thinking for just a second that he might get beat...He won. Of Course.

Because of the craziness with US Airways, I was able to negotiate a better flight home. I was going to leave at 7AM, but instead I had almost the whole day to play before heading out. And I made the most of it. I played my piano and packed in the morning, then headed out to the zoo with Mom and my cute nephews (and their mom of course!)

Braxton and Lizzie measuring their heads against the Elephant Skull. I don't know - I think it's close...what do you think? (Isn't Braxton cute in his little sunglasses??)

Playing by the Elephants and Rhinos. Did you know that an Elephant's gestational period is over 18 months??

Mom spent a long time getting a picture of those teensy tinsy brand new babies on the mama tamarin Monkey. I thought it should be in here after all the effort. Plus - CUTE!

On the train...How super cute is my little Cayden kid, huh? Oh -and the chicas are pretty cute too. lol

Cooling off at the water ball. Yes, that's it's technical name.


Well as you can guess, my flight was a mess on the way home. I lost my car in the parking lot and had bad directions home. So yeah...kind of a lame ending to a great weekend, but the worst part was that it was over. But coming back to reality wasn't bad, so I think I can survive a few more trips to my home, and back to my Texas home...as long as they'll have me! Home Sweet Home!

How Lucky Am I??

Yeah - I have 2 of the cutest nieces ever. And I just happen to be staying with a family that has 2 other very cute girls. For the first time this weekend, the 2 houses combined and what we had was a weekend of fun, sun and...oh yeah I was pretty much superfluous. In a good way. Except I missed the extra attention I usually get when I keep the girls. (pictured above - Savannah, Emily and Mikayla making a Katie Taco)

The kids arrived on Friday evening -not a lot of time to do more than, oh I don't know, meet up at the Galleria, eat lots of frozen yogurt, play bball and red light/green light and races in the gym and watch Enchanted in the theater. I knew this was going to be a late night, but I'm pretty sure they stayed awake later than I did.

Mikayla sleeping on my floor - she just looked so cute and snuggly!


Savannah and Emily doing the mosaic craft for Mother's day (while Mikayla slept)


They found the beach ball Emily Eyre gave me for my birthday. And they found the perfect place to play - the storage room. I know I know, we played ball all the time in our storage room while I was growing up. Except we didn't because we didn't have room to toss the ball in there. Since it's a closet. Hahaha


Finally we got to the pool. There was much lounging, swimming, jumping off the side, sliding down the slide - it was awesome.



Mikayla of course found the dogs. Their names are T.J. and Maxx - think their owner loves to shop? (hint:yes!!)


On Sunday, we went to early church, then while we waited for Melissa to come to celebrate Mother's Day and her Birthday, Katie helped Mikayla make a Mother's Day card...and everyone painted their toenails. We were so beautiful!



Celebrating Melissa's big 30. Yeah her shirt is cute and yeah I made her necklace. I know - it's awesome. LOL


It was such a fun weekend, I love having the girls, and I have always wanted to be a mom and this gets as close as possible right now. So...why is it that when they left, i breathed just a tiny sigh of relief as I collapsed on my couch in my house full silence...?

I love you guys!!

Vacation!!

Ok - it's been a week since I got home, but since I didn't have my computer cord or very many pics on my camera, I had to wait.
So basically this is the run-down. Kelly and I both left to meet up with the family who had already been exploring Florida for like 3 days. We left on saturday and met in dallas and then flew to orlando. After a very long day - with delayed flights from weather, crazy lines at the toll booths etc. etc, we arrived at the hotel and started our vacation - officially. The next morning (Happy Birthday to ME), we boarded the Disney Cruise ship WONDER.


It was quite a bit smaller than the ship that took us to Alaska...but as they say on Disney "they might have a bigger house, but they don't have the mouse!" We started off with a dance party on deck that included lots of kids and some confetti and waving at the little workers on shore wearing the big white Mickey hand. Mom made sure to (festively) tie confetti to my hair to make sure everyone knew it was my birthday.



After the deck party, we went down to our rooms and discovered two really cool things. One was that mom had decorated our room for my birthday - isn't she sweet? Two is that she had (SURPRISE!) upgraded all of us from Inside rooms to Outside with awesome giant portal windows!!! we had all decided on inside rooms b/c of cost, but seriously a cruise is made so much cooler when you have a window. And not only that but, except for the handicap room we had to Alaska, this was actually the biggest room I've seen. And it was cute and fun and isn't mom AWESOME??



We did our emergency training (the word for it has completely slipped my mind) inside the air conditioned theater room while seating rather than standing all stacked against each other outside as usual. That was nice.


At dinner that first night, I got some presents, a cake with a chocolate ship on it, a pin saying it was my birthday and lots of singing.

No - I did not really eat the whole thing! Gross!



We had a couple of stops on our cruise. The first - Nassah Bahamas...yeah not my favorite placce. We explored this resort called Atlantis over on paradise Island and it was pretty cool, But I like disney's private Island Castaway Cay a lot better. there we biked, snorkled, fed stingrays and swam. It was beautiful. The Flying Dutchman from Pirates of the Carribean was there and it was just a beautiful day.

Leaving the boat

Flying Dutchman

Stingrays

Biking

Snorkeling


Back on the ship, we had a lot of wonderful meals, some great waiters, some fun in the sun...it was super relaxing.

Sunning ourselves during lunch on our cruising day


As the "youngsters" of the group - we joined in for the dance and limbo after dinner!


Mom and Dad as pirates on Pirate Day


Our waiters at the black and white dinner...this is after it all turned color...obviously


i think I was about as done getting pictures taken as I am right now of posting them!!



There are like a million more pictures. I was too overwhelmed to try and put a lot more on here. So I'll just move this story up to the last three days. We got off the ship and booked ourselved up to Orlando where we could hit three parks in 2 1/2 days and stay at the Disney Resort Pop Century. It was awesome! Animal Kingdom, then Epcot, then Magic Kingdom. Considering this was Kelly's first foray into the world of Disneyland, I'd say we got her good and immersed.

Animal Kingdom - getting ready to ride the train and my parents take pictures of a dude making faces behind my back...well...what else is new??

Morroco at Epcot...why am I the one serving??

Magic Kingdom - the Disney Castle. Doesn't it look like we're really in a fairy-tale?


I think the only thing I was asking myself at the end of this vacation was...why didn't we do Disney World first, and then the cruise. I was SO TIREd at the end that I wanted another vacation to recover. And I had it easy! Poor Kelly's flight got cancelled and she spent the ENTIRE DAY in Chicago - yuck!

But all in all a great time! Thanks Kelly and family!