All Together Again!

Dan picked us up from the airport this last Wednesday afternoon and we were so glad see him again. It was a weird sensation as we drove into Erie on the way home from the airport. Everything seemed kind of familiar yet kind of foreign. Instead of feeling like I was coming home I felt like I was on vacation to somewhere I had been before. But as soon we got settled in (unpacking, laundry, going through the endless piles of mail, emergency grocery shopping, etc.) I realized that this was no vacation…we are back to life as usual. *sigh*

But it is not all bad news…the weather here is GREAT! (finally). Our kids have discovered that we have two little girls that live next door. They have a swingset in their backyard and our kids BEG to go over there constantly. They are always peeking out the door to see if the girls are out. It is so fun that they can finally play outside.

 We also had fun spending time with Dan this weekend. Friday we took the kids to see Shrek the Third and get some ice cream. Saturday we headed to Presque Isle to hang out on “the beach” of Lake Erie. We went with Mark & Jen and their three boys. (Mark is a friend of Dan’s from school. Here are some pictures:

Today we had a BBQ to celebrate Father’s day we had Ashley and Ben over and another family in the ward. Dan cooked us up a delicious feast (as he always does).

We want to say Happy Father’s day to all of you dad’s out there. We hope you had a good one.

The Weekly Post

It was the best of weeks, it was the worst of weeks…

 This week we all went to St. George. Me, Ashley and Noah headed down there for a long awaited scrapbooking weekend with my dear sister-in-laws (Amanda, Candice, Ellen, Jen and some other friends). Amanda’s parents have a vacation home down there that they so generously let us use about once a year for our scrapbooking and relaxing pleasure. I will have to say however that this was not the best trip that I have had down there. Unfortunately, I had two root canals right before we left and I was in misery most of the time. The whole side of my face was swollen and I was hurting so bad (poor Ashley had to hear about for three days straight). I ended up going home earlier than planned. It wasn’t a total loss though, it was great to see my sis-in-laws, I got a little scrapbooking done, and I ate at Cafe Rio!

My kids were also in St. George this week. My dad had some kind of convention down there and my mom and Amy offered to take Gabe and Zoe down with them. They had a blast of course. Here are some pics:

 

 Another great thing happened this week…Noah slept through the night for the first time! (yeah…I know, he is 8 months, we have sleep issues). I don’t know if it is going to become a habit or not but I was celebrating all day the next day. Here is a picture of the cute boy:

And what has Dan been doing while we have been gone? As far as I can tell he has been a busy boy. There is school of course, I have heard him mention, golfing, going to movies and having friends over for video games. He was also just called to be the first counselor in the Young Men’s and they have put him right to work there. He has done two building projects for people while I have been gone also. He is always so willing to help people out.

Okay, and for all you Eltons out there. Here is an brief update on Mark’s kids and a picture of Matt going to the prom with his girlfriend. Matt just graduated this week. Karen is driving all over the place. Kaitlyn is playing soccer and softball? (forgive me Mark if I got that wrong) and will be visiting Jen in Pennsylvania again this summer.

Our time here in Utah has almost come to an end and next week I will be writing to you from Erie. It has been such a fun time here and I wouldn’t want to leave except for that I can’t stand another second without Dan. Thanks to everyone who spent time with us and make us feel like Utah is home.

Until next week…

Lake Powell!

We headed down to Lake Powell this past Saturday, Sunday and Monday. There were 15 of us in all, Honey, Papa, Amy, Tracy, Me, Gabe, Zoe, Noah, Rachel, Brandon, Tanner, Oaklee, Mason, Jeff and Chelsey. Now that is a boat full of people. But the good old “foup winds” had room for us all and we had a great time. Normally when we go down there we stay in a houseboat that my parents have a timeshare in. This year they are putting new engines in the house boat and it wasn’t ready in time for our trip. We ended up staying at the lodge at Bullfrog Marina. I can’t say that I was too dissapointed in having a warm shower and a clean comfortable bed every night. Everything went really smoothly this trip (which is not always the case at Lake Powell) Our only hitch was when my dad dropped his car keys in the water by the dock at the launch ramp. He was being kind of a pansy about diving down and retrieving them when cute little pregnant Chelsey jumped out of the boat and took charge. She dove down and had those keys in no time! Here are some picutres of our trip:

 

 

 

 Other things I wanted to mention about this week:

 * Noah is actually crawling now! He has been scooting for over a month and never even tried to crawl but just in the past couple of days he has really got it down.

 * Gabe and I had a talk about when we die and get ressurected. The conversation was going really well and I was surprised at how well he grasped the concept and how much interest he had in the subject. I had to laugh when he finally got to the heart of the matter that was bothering him. “Mom?” he asked “After we are ressurected and live with Heavenly Father on this earth…will my Xbox still be here?” He was pretty tearful when I had to answer truthfully…probably not. The fact that his family would be here with him consoled him a little, but I think we are going to have work on his attachment to that xbox!

*We miss Dan SOOOOO much. It has been so great to be in Utah but I think we have learned our lesson about planning the length of our future trips.

 Hope you all have a great week!