Our Time in PG and the Main Reason for our Trip...

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!

Starved Rock!

While Lily and I were off in UT having a glorious time, Kevin made sure that he and Brooklyn also had tons of fun things to do! Along with baking, staying up late watching movies, and taking walks to the park, they also tagged along with my sister and brother-in-law and their kids to Starved Rock where Brooklyn got to spend the weekend hiking and camping with cousins, and Kevin got to stay up all night protecting the campground from unruly raccoons :)

Utah or Bust!

A few months back, my little brother informed me that he would be blessing his new daughter on August 11th, and he wanted us to come. The flight to UT for a family of 4 is pretty expensive, but with a little luck and 2 "almost free" tickets from Southwest, we decided that we would be able to send myself and one of our children. Since Brooklyn still had a lot to do to get ready to start school, we opted to send Lily out with me and have Brooklyn stay with friends during the day and with Daddy at night. It was a hard decision, but it ended up being a pretty neat experience!

But before we could head to UT, there was work to be done! I was about to see, for the first time, 3 of the 4 new babies born into our family this year, and I had some nephews with birthdays to celebrate! So I got to work making gifts for all my sweet nieces and nephews before we made the flight into family land!

But that's not all I was doing, between the 1st and the 6th of August, I crafted, babysat, performed at some crazy luaus, had a few awesome play dates, taught the Gospel Principles class at church, took Brooklyn to some Kindergarten dental appointments and eye appointments, and crafted some more! And on the day of my flight out, I was able to teach hula and babysit the cutest little boy in our ward named Mason. Brooklyn is obsessed with him and helped out a ton! She even told me that if we ever have  another kid, she wants to name him Mason :)

After hula practice, we packed up the car and headed to the airport. Lily was ecstatic (since this was the first time SHE could remember going on an airplane.) She told everyone at the airport that she was going to see her grandmas and grandpas, and made many friends in the process! And once we were on the plane, she cheered and squeeled with delight through the whole take off and landing!

Random-est moment at the airport: a woman kept staring at me and finally said "OK, I'm just gonna take a gamble...do you know Becca Rigg?" I had to laugh since this has been happening to me my whole life! Then I told her that I not only knew Becca, but I was her sister. It turns out that she was at the girls camp that Becca and I danced at the month before and had seen us both! Small world!

When we arrived in UT, Grandma and Grandpa Hanks picked us up at the airport and took us home to get some sleep. Then, the next morning, we were up and ready to play play play! First on the list of things to do, a trip to the local trampoline park with auntie Janna and Cousin Audrey. IT WAS AWESOME!

Later that day Grandpa took the girls for a ride in his bike trailer. Lily still tells everyone (including random strangers at the grocery store) about riding with grandpa on his stroller bike!

That afternoon, we were even privileged to watch Uncle Craig brush up on his bow staff skills with one of his old friends. It was very special :)

I wasn't able to get pictures of everything we did in Kaysville since I accidentally left my camera at HOME! but we were also able to watch the Lorax at the Kaysville theater, take a trip to the mall where grandma bought the girls some pretty awesome toys from the Disney store, and Uncle Tyler treated me to an amazing dinner at Red Lobster where we laughed a ton and took turns bantering with our poor waiter. And the next morning Tyler even made us stuffed french toast before we headed down to Pleasant Grove to see my family.

We had so much fun in Kaysville, despite the short visit, and the fact that Lily managed to puke on her poor Grandma before we left. My favorite part was watching Lily play with her cousin Audrey, who is about 3 weeks older than Lily. They both have such huge personalities and it was fun to see them interact!

Lily's favorite part was getting snuggles from her amazing grandparents and having some time with Mommy all to herself!

The Morton Arboretum

On July 26th, the Bishop's wife treated me and my friend Cary to a day at the Morton Arboretum! Mine and Cary's children are about the same age, and they all had so much fun playing in the wide open spaces together. The Arboretum was beautiful, relaxing, and tons of fun... and at the end of the day, we even managed to leave right before a giant rainstorm hit. It really was a perfect day!

July in Pictures...

July was a very fun and busy month for us, and not just because of the Independence Day holiday! Once the fireworks were long gone, we still had plenty of fun lined up on our schedule!

On July 13th we took our girls to the Taste of Westmont fair on Main Street. First up on our list of things to ride was the giant Ferris wheel.

The girls loved all the different rides and couldn't have been happier than they were when they got their faces painted. They even collected a LOT of free things just for being so cute!

And right before we left, they got to break boards with their bare hands (and a lot of help from the instructor). It was a blast!

On July 19th, the girls went to my sister Becca's house to celebrate cousin Brinley's birthday! They stayed the night so Auntie Becca could watch them the next day while mom and dad went to a baseball game, and while they were there, they even got to go to a pioneer day celebration!

On the 20th, Kevin and I got to drive downtown and attend our very first White Sox game! We were even lucky enough to be there on Star Wars day! It was so much fun to have a date with Kevin and share such a fun experience. Plus, it was FREE and we WON!

On July 23rd, Kevin and I drove out to Wisconsin to dance for our Church's Girls Camp! We met my sister Becca there and danced together for the first time in 9 years!

We also taught two of our ward's young women a Tahitian number that they performed. Then, while we were there, we taught the entire group of girls a dance. It was SO much fun and I wish we could have stayed all night!

But alas, we needed to get home to pick up our tired little girls at 1am from our friend's house. Our friend's little boy is the same age as Lily, and it appears that they had a very fun time together while they waited for us to come home.

On July 25th, a large group of moms from my ward met at the Brookfield Zoo for a little play date. The girls had so much fun checking out the animals and playing with their friends. And we even discovered the zoo has a splash pad!

And just for fun, during the month of July we decided to work on replacing the ugly fire pit in our backyard. Here are the before and after pictures for all who care to see :)

Kevin's Metric Century ride on the 4th of July!

On the 4th of July, our little family woke up early, hopped in the car, and drove an hour and a half out of town so Kevin could participate in a Metric Century ride! For those who don't know what that means... a regular Century is 100 miles, turn that over to the metric system and it becomes 63 miles! When we arrived we realized that it was more of an organized bike ride with a couple hundred friends then it was a race. Nonetheless, Kevin lined his bike with Gu packs, hooked up his iPhone, pumped his tires, and headed out on his long journey.

 But not before his number one fans gave him lots of hugs, snuggles, kisses, and encouragement!

Then he was off! Out of the parking lot and down the long empty road he went, and where he went after that will forever remain a mystery to us all...

It was exciting watching him ride down the long country road and then disappear of in the distance, but it also signaled the beginning of a new era...

The era of waiting... And we didn't know how long we would BE waiting! So we waited... and goofed off... and waited... and made friends... and waited... and explored our surroundings...

 ...and waited... and watched all the interesting people passing by... and waited some more...

Until FINALLY our ever buff and handsome hero returned from his long journey into nothingness! (About 3hours and 45 minutes after he began.)

Upon his triumphant arrival, Kevin was greeted with more hugs and snuggles and kisses, although this time they were a little sweaty-ish :)

And then we all went to meet the other people who had ridden with Kevin the entire way. Turns out Kevin is REALLY good at making new friends no matter what he happens to be doing when the opportunity presents itself :) And he is also really good at riding his fancy bike for very long periods of time!