Anyway, after a few quick hours of sleep the first order of business was going with my brother Tyler as he went through the temple for the first time. He chose the Oquirrh Mountain Temple and asked Ryan to be his escort.
It was a very sweet time to spend with him and our family and I could see how touched he was by the powerful spirit of the temple.
He's now preparing his mission papers and is one awesome guy, we're so proud of him!
He's trying to figure out how to take his beloved car with him :)
The next day we were able to take him to the Salt Lake Temple for a session
which was also cool since that temple has a special place in our hearts (both grandparents, my parents, sister, and I were all married there) and we haven't been there in years.
Our other big event during this trip was Vanessa's graduation from Timpview High School!!
She is one smart cookie and we're so proud of her and excited for her future at BYU. It's been crazy to see her grow up right before our eyes, she had just turned 12 when Ryan and I met and now she's off to college!
Her initials are VW and seeing as Ryan was determined to embarrass her and I wouldn't let him paint his chest he came up with the tshirt idea. He designed and made these himself, pretty crafty...
The graduation was good, always fun to cheer her on, and the Senior's surprise was pretty entertaining, check it out!
The next day we had lunch at my new favorite place Zupa's and saw the new Pirates movie. Later we enjoyed a backyard campfire bbq with our niece and nephews. Look at these darling faces!
It was nice to spend time together to catch up, play, and just hang out. We also very much enjoyed playing with their big dog Daisy :)
The next morning I met my sister at Homestead in Midway for a little morning race. It was just a 5k but that's where I'm at right now. Her youngest decided she didn't want to stay back with her brother and sister so she came along with us to ring the cowbell :)
Good thing my sister was pushing her and not me!
It was a beautiful setting
and I love running with my sister, it makes it
I survived though and we did great and improved my time a lot!
*Home stretch*
Love my congratulatory hug from Mr Talmage :)
I even managed a 2nd place finish in my age category (still hoping there were more than 2 running in my group)!
Seeing as her kids are half fish we of course had to relax our muscles in the super warm pool afterwards.
These kids crack me up with their goofy little personalities!
The rest of the day was spent with the West's at a delicious BBQ then pedicures for the girls. Love those pedi's!
A bunch of us also went to see the movie Rio which naturally, Ryan and I LOVED because it reminded us so much of Brazil and even had portugese in it. Bringin that one home on DVD for sure!
I love the West's, they are such good people and I love this picture because it captures the silliness and the fun they have together.
I was grateful for a few minutes to stop and visit with my Grandpa. Sadly, age is catching up with him so I'm cherishing these times but they are bitter sweet...
Before we left we had one last BBQ with my family that included smores!
Don't you just want to eat her up?!
Talmage could not get enough of his Uncle Ryan which meant LOTS of sword fights :)
We also got to help the kids pick our their baby chickens for their new chicken coop my brother built them.
We really wanted to go camping with them but the weather didn't work out so we comprimised and slept in the RV in the driveway :)
Before we knew it we were back in Michigan. These trips seems to go by faster and faster as the years go by. We're so grateful for our families and for the ability to visit them even if it isn't as often as we or they would like. We're counting the days till November when the fun will resume :)
P.S. I almost forgot! Remember that drama I mentioned? Well the other part to the story was that the day after we arrived we got a call from our neighbor stating our neighbor who takes care of our dogs was in the hospital! While on a walk our naughty naughty mastiff saw another dog and ended up pulling him over and dragging him...yeah, he broke his PELVIS!! We felt absolutely awful and helpless as we were so far away. Thankfully, good friends and neighbors helped us out until we got home. He spent several days in the hospital and then the last few weeks recovering but is almost back to normal. Naughty mastiff...
