Sunday, July 4, 2010

Highlights from our Utah Visit

We got to visit Ben's family in Utah for about a week and a half. It was SO much fun! Makes me want to live closer or better yet, for everyone to move out by us!

We left at midnight on a Thursday and drove straight through! Ben pretty much did all of the driving and didn't even sleep. I slept for a few of hours and then did the last four hours of the drive.

My favorite part of the trip was seeing all of the family. There are about 20 cousins for my kids to play with. I seriously felt like I didn't see my kids for days. I basically fed and clothed them and that was it. Pretty much like heaven!

We were very, very busy always on the go doing something. I was exhausted every day and even had to take some naps to survive, but I loved every minute of it!

Here our some HIGHLIGHTS in no particular order:

SONIC-Since moving to California, we have missed Sonic and their lemon berry slushes. No one loves slushes like we do. We had to get one of these!

No one.
DI-It's funny how awesome DI is now that we have moved away. While living in Utah, we only occasionally went to DI. Now that we have moved, it's one of our stops.
FRIENDS-We were lucky to see the Crenshaws and the Wootens. The Crenshaws are long time friends that we met while living in Orem. The Wootens are friends from Alameda who just happened to move to Pleasant Grove around the same time we moved to Concord. For some reason, I didn't bring my camera at either time. Lucky for me, I do have pictures of the Wootens. They just happen to be one of my favorite families to photograph. Loved visiting with all of our friends even if our visits were short.

FAMILY-We got to visit my Aunt, Uncle, cousin and her husband up in Bountiful. I loved catching up with them. My Aunt Patty reminds me of my Mom in so many ways. The way she talks and the way she looks makes me homesick for my Mother! My sister Autumn was also able to visit us and brought goodies for all of the kids and Ben and I. I think she's working at becoming the "favorite aunt". She's off to a good start!

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Toy Story 3-We watched Toy Story 3 with all of Ben's family, aunt and uncles, grandma and grandpas and the Wootens. It was a very special treat to have so many people there for Ben. We all cheered when we saw his name in the credits! Zoey even fell asleep and so I got to stay the entire time!
My Ring-For over a year I have had a missing diamond on my wedding band. I decided to take it in and get it cleaned and rhodium (is that right?)

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Cousins-Our kids had SO much playing and playing and playing with their cousins. One day they all got together and made bottlecap necklaces (Thanks Sarah!) and played on the slip and slide (Thanks Hannah!). I just love all my nieces and nephews.

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Check out those cute bums!

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The sky in Eagle Mountain was so beautiful, but not as beautiful as this little girl!

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We roasted gigantic marshmellows. I don't know if you can tell by the picture, but the marshmellows were enormous to say the least.


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Thanks to Joe and Andy for letting us stay practically the entire time at their house. We had tons of fun staying with you!

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PIZZA-I thought Ben was pretty obsessed with pizza until I found out that Joe has a pizza day every week. They had a pizza cook off and made some delicious pizza. I think it should be a tradition every time we come into town. Who won? And Joe, what's up with that look on your face? Is that your Rico Suave look?

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PICTURES-I got to take family pictures and wedding pictures for Ben's family and sister. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed taking their pictures and how nervous I was. You would think I wouldn't be as nervous taking pictures for family, but I was.

After processing the wedding pics, I can work on these:
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WEDDING-What a treat it was to be there when Abby and Kameron got married in the temple. I loved seeing all of the family gathered together, it brought tears to my eyes. When you marry someone, you marry their family. I feel blessed to have married this family of great people.

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Oh the pictures I still have to process. Next on my list are the reception. Here are a couple of my favs.

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We had such a great time visiting with everyone! Let's do it again!

5 comments:

Andy Porter said...

Can I just hire you as my personal photographer to follow my kids around every day and take cool pictures of them.

My fav pizza was the one cooked on the pan with holes so the bottom was crunch. YUM!!

It was so much FUN having you here. If Ben didn't have such a cool job, we'd be trying harder to convince you to move back. Dang him.

Andy Porter said...

I meant to put a question mark at the end of the first sentence and a "y" after crunch.... Actually crunch sounds pretty cool on its own. "That was totally crunch." OK, forget the "Y".

Kathy said...

WOW VAL!!!!!! Every time I see one of those pictures I am totally amazed by how great they are. We hired?... the right person to do pictures for sure!
Thanks a million. Can't wait to see them all.

Sarah said...

Oops! Scott brought his tan slacks and then forgot he was supposed to wear them and wore his dark pants. We didn't even notice until the night was over. Sorry if we ruined the pics! It was SO fun to see you guys--I love your cute family!

Abby Watson said...

LOOOOOOOOVE those pictures too! Especially the one with all the girls! You're amazing!