Planes, No Kids and a Wedding

So we ventured off to the east coast without our children for my brother Marcus' and darling new sis-in-law Chelsea's wedding....I'm still suffering from jet lag. I thought I could be a big girl about it and leave our kids but I found out I'm a whimp. I had a couple bouts with separation anxiety but overall it was a grand trip and the following pictures capture just a few moments. As I look at the pictures I realized that I didn't take pictures of key ingredients of our trip. For example our wonderful rental mini van, the navigation GPS system that was key to getting around the east coast, the beautiful Delaware countryside and the mansion we stayed in thanks to Marcus' branch president. All these things I didn't capture on film. But I did get Tom eating a juicy, meaty burger and some other sights and family of course! Yeah and the picture of the Statue of Liberty, that is as close as we got.

Quick Time Line
Wed 18th flew to Philadelphia. As soon as we arrived I was ready to hop on the next flight back to Utah. But I stuck it out and we drove to New York City arrived at 3 am. We checked into our hotel room in the heart of the city. We traveled with Dan/Kyla and Sariah/Neum. The six of us made a great traveling team.

Thurs 19th up and out the door to New York City. It was spectacular. Rode the subway, saw the sights and ate! Left New York that evening and drove to Delaware. We met up with the rest of my family. We checked into the branch presidents mansion. Slept. We didn't really plan sleep into the schedule, meaning we didn't get much of it.

Fri 20th hung out, girls went to Philly to shop and guys went to a shooting range where Tom showed the guys the proper way to shoot a clay pigeon. Tom rules! A bunch of Marcus' buddies from Seattle came to the wedding so it was so fun catching up with them. Friday night was the reception, the night before the sealing which was different but a good idea. There we met up with Grama Bell, aunts/uncles and cousins. Great reception.

Saturday 21st headed to Wash DC for the sealing. Bright sunny day and the happy couple was off on the honeymoon. The rest of us saw the sights of DC.

Sun 22nd people started having flights home. We went to church and relaxed.

Mon 23rd flew home.

The happy bunch in Times SquareLove this picture of all of us on a street corner in NY


NY Stock Exchange - Wall St


At the reception

Us and the Nation's Capitol

YUMMY

Aunt Becky, Natalie, Shannon and Mom


Oh, so sweet! Linda and the kids made this cheery banner

My BABIES, love them.


The kids having a ball with Grandma! They love her. For several days after getting home I heard all about the great things Grandma did with them.

Our Secret Admirer...

Monday we opened the door to find mini cupcakes and candy hearts. Tuesday we came home and found a box of chocolates and giant Hershey's kiss. (By now I was on to this) Wednesday we found balloons and candy bars. Today we found Almond Roca.

So who is our secret admirer....

DADDY!!

Tom gets big, huge points for his thoughtfulness. Thanks for making Valentines last a whole week. Our children have delighted in the surprises! They still don't know it's you. We love you!

Nail Polish

Today Samantha painted her toe nails by herself. She painted mine too. I had a cotton ball with remover close by. She did very well. She also painted her fingernails, left hand included. I can barely paint my own left hand. She is definitely a do-it-herselfer.

A Trip to the Museum

The dinosaur bone dig
Our Planet Exhibit

The group of future scientists

Today we had playgroup at the Utah Natural History Museum on the U of U campus. The first Monday of each month admission is FREE so we gladly packed the kids up and headed to Salt Lake which is north of us about 25 minutes . It took about 20 minutes for everyone to find parking. We finally met up with everyone and off we went. It's a pretty good museum. There are great exhibits of minerals, crystals, insects, wildlife, and dinosaur skeletons. After we ate lunch at the campus bistro where I felt like we stuck out like a sore thumb with children, children, wild children. We all got lots of smiles. It was a fun trip and my kids zonked out on the way home.

Marcus & Chelsea - the Annoucement

My Little (6'5") brother Marcus is getting married. We got the annoucement over the weekend.

We are so happy for Marcus and Chelsea. Washington D.C. here we come!

Our Life

I've got to post, post, post. I definitely don't want blogging to consume my life, but I would like to be a blogger that keeps my readers in mind. I want to give all of our lovely readers something to read on a regular basis. Sometimes it feels like a dry spell, nothing to write or I feel like it's too much effort to write, even though I have alot to say.

We did a bedroom swap. Over the weekend we moved Samantha and Seth into the big room with Trey and Tom and I are in the small room. It is working out well other than our KING sized bed takes up most of the bedroom Tom and I are in. Sigh. Smile.

Sunday we traveled to Wellsville for nephew Reese's 5th birthday! Sariah, cute and pregnant, made a wonderful rib dinner. Yeah, forget corn dogs and nuggets, Reese requested ribs for his birthday dinner. Yummy.

Roadshow has consumed me. Poor Tom. I will blurt out random roadshow thoughts throughout the day. It's on my mind alot. I really like doing it though. As minor as roadshows are in the grand plan I really feel blessed and inspired as we have put together the script. Each roadshow has to have a moral, ours is "Be Yourself; Let Your Light So Shine" It's darling.

We had Stake Conference over the weekend. I will put a quote from it on later.

Let's see, do I have anything to rant about. Well I have been crafting a post in my head about our new U.S. president. I feel very sad that he is setting forth so much moral destruction in such a short time. In addition he is promoting these stimulus plans worth billions and billions and no one is being accountable for where it goes.

Art Work

Samantha's awesome art

Picture Tag

Picture Tag. A random picture from our many picture files. This was the picture in the first folder, first picture. Our darling Samantha when she was about 17 months old. We were living in Logan. Those were fun days.

Draper Temple Open House

The gorgeous temple above the Salt Lake Valley smog
The cookies at the end were a big hit