In case you were wondering, the whole reason behind our very short trip to UT, was to be at my niece Akira's baby blessing. It was the first time that I got to meet little Akira and I couldn't believe what an adorable little sweetheart she is. My brother Jake gave her a beautiful blessing and I had so much fun visiting with his friends and family. A highlight for me was hanging out with Scarlet's mother! She is one of the neatest, funniest, and fun women I have ever met, and I can't wait to see how her daughter and granddaughter follow in her footsteps :)
Being in PG for the baby blessing also meant that we got to spend a few days with the Uda Family... and that meant time with Grandpa and Grandma Uda!!! Lily adores both of her grandparents and was eating up all the attention she was getting with Brooklyn back home with Daddy.
She even got a whole day of Grandpa Uda to herself (something that is pretty much unheard of) and they were able to paint these beautiful rocks together!
We also got to visit Auntie Liz and Uncle Tony while we were in PG, where Lily was introduced to Liz's kitty, Saki! As you can tell from the picture, she is squealing the work "cuuuuuute!" She was a big fan of the kitty.
On the day we visited Tony and Liz, we also got to go to the movie with all the grand-kids to see Monsters University. Lily LOOOVED the movie, but something that surprised me more, was how much she loved my soda. My mom had purchased me a giant Pepsi for the movie and I had placed it between Lily and I. I wasn't very thirsty until almost the end of the movie, but when I reached down to get a drink, I realized that the cup was EMPTY! I looked down at Lily and she peeked up at me with a big smile and said, "Mom! I can take a drink without picking up the cup! Its so awesome!" Needless to say, she was bouncing off the walls for the rest of the day and had to go to the bathroom a hundred times :)
The day before we had to go back home was packed with fun and was the perfect way to say our goodbyes. We started off the day visiting a splash pad in Provo. Lily is a BIG fan of splash pads and she had tons of fun running through the water with her older cousins. She became especially fond of her oldest boy cousins, Joseph and David, while we were there...which was both adorable and surprising to me!
After the splash pad, we headed over to the Provo Town Center mall to see my brother Josh's new laser tag arena. It wasn't finished yet, but it was pretty cool seeing some of the stuff that Kevin helped to design, being put together.
When we were done touring the Command Deck, we all drove over to Los Hemanos for one last family dinner before I had to head home.
While we were waiting to be seated, Lily walked over to her uncle Tony, lifted her shirt to show him her piko (bellybutton) and then said, "Now show me yours!" Her auntie Liz then bent down and told her that she didn't want to see Uncle Tony's piko because his piko was humongous and it liked to eat little girls. Lily, of course, was horrified and quickly made her way back to mommy.
A few minutes later she had seemingly forgotten about her earlier interactions and went back to uncle Tony to request, once more, that he show her his piko. But this time, as soon as the words left her mouth, she started backing away slowly, and then she said, "Don't worry, I'll stand back here so your piko can't eat me!" It was seriously so funny, and uncle Tony was such a good sport :)
During dinner, we were all sharing funny horror stories of growing up with our brother Josh. We were all trying to decide who was tortured the most by him when Lily came to me with something in her mouth that she didn't want to suck on anymore...so naturally, I told her to put it down Josh's shirt whilst he was deep in conversation. It took him a second to realize, but once he did, we all had a grand laugh, until he bent down to Lily and said, "You don't know me very well little girl, do you?" ... Hahhaha :) I totally love my family!
After dinner we gave hugs and said our goodbyes, then it was off to have one more night of sleep before the plane ride home.
A ride, that of course, was magical and wonderful for my sweet little Lily, and a bit bittersweet for me.
But at least I got to leave having met 2 of my 3 new nieces, and my new nephew as well! What a wonderful blessing and an amazing opportunity!