Home from Vacation

Let me just say...

I finished Breaking Dawn and I'm glad...decent story...way, way too long...

I ate way, way too many brownies tonight...

I shouldn't title this post "home from vacation" as if we just got back....it's been a week. I really am trying to get into this blog more often...I just changed the layout, added some elements, and hopefully I can get myself posting more often...what a funny thing---posting on a blog, thinking people care to read about you...

We spent 5 days with Andy's family in Idaho last week, and really had a great time. It was a short trip, but it's all Andy wanted to take off...with the baby coming...we (read--Andy and the girls---I'm 7 months pregnant) did our favorite things...water skiied, 4-wheeled, boated, tubed, and visited with family (I participated in that last one). We were able to fit a lot into a short trip...

Our really close friends, Jon and Becky Jenkins (fresh from med school in Mexico) came and spent a day with us on the lake...they brought their 3 girls, we added our 2...and we had a great time, as we always do with them...Andy and Jon were roommates at Utah State, and Becky and I are great friends...and it's been so fun to keep in touch and watch the female population swell between our 2 families...our little boy will greatly be outnumbered...we can't wait till they are done with school and settled so that we can vacation together more often!

Kate, Marissa, Lauren and Lauren...

My sister Laura came and spent the day with us also...she lives in Logan now, newly graduated from Utah State, and we were lucky that she had some time off work while we were there...

Lauren and Kate had a great time on the boat...
You might notice that in many, many pictures...Kate usually has her Bobo Bunny with her...

Andy and his dad took the girls out on the scenic boat for a picnic and to feed the ducks...Lauren thought she had died and gone to heaven...



Lauren and Kate with their Great-grandma Thorpe and Andy's uncle Tim
Andy with Grandma Thorpe...

Taya, Madison, Kate and Lauren---Madison is a great-granddaughter of Andy's parents---the other 3 girls are cousins---grandkids...by the time that our boy is born in 2 months, my in-laws will have 2 great-grandchildren older than him (a grandchild) with 2 more great-grandkids to follow within a few months--the benefits of having 6 kids--lots of posterity...

A cousin favorite--Jaxon--we have SO many pictures of these 2 every time they're together...we keep waiting for Jaxon to get sick of his little girl cousin (he's a few years older) but he seems to love being with Lauren as much as she LOVES to follow him around...

Here are Lauren and Jaxon last summer, in almost the same pictures...


I spent a morning in Logan with my sister Laura--she introduced me to Costa Vida (very good) and then we got Aggie ice cream up on campus...(this might be as close as I get to a belly shot right now...)

We all sit around and eat on the deck a lot...all these kids are cousins...

Lauren got stuck in Andy's water ski...she was wailing until I finally figured out that she honestly couldn't get out...

I'd crop the picture in, but then you might notice that my face is filling out---ha!
Me with Andy's mom...I can't believe we didn't take a picture with Andy and his mom...

So, we're back, and into reality again...the front yard is coming along...it took the guy several extra days to get all the concrete out in the front---I guess our driveway was 8 inches thick near the back, which broke the jack hammer and caused delays...sorry Javier. Andy's going to kill the lawn this week where we're putting in a new brick walkway and planters...I'm sure glad my dad is here to walk us through this...it'll be nice when it's done. We have been painting for 3 days straight, trying to finish up the living room, dining room, baby's room and hallways---we will soon have the entire house freshly painted--my mom is the work horse behind all this...you'd think this was her house the way she takes ownership in the projects---we love it and appreciate all she is doing...she puts catalogs in front of me and tells me to pick out rods, talks blinds and window treatments, crawls into our extremely deep hall closets to paint them, spends our money on new light fixtures and cabinet knobs...then hands me the receipts ("well you're not putting those ugly knobs back on the cupboards I just painted!")---she's amazing and we are so lucky to have such a good initiator when we feel burned out...more pictures to follow...