A very fun weekend

We journeyed to Salt Lake this past weekend for a friend reunion with Davids friends from high school. While we were there we had so much fun. Since we moved, we have missed our friends and family in Salt Lake so much. We haven't been able to travel up as often as we wish we could and so it was extra fun to be able to spend a weekend basking in friendships.
We started out Friday morning and got to Salt Lake in the early afternoon. We were planning to take Mckinley to the zoo but it was raining so we hung out at Alan and Melissa's house, who were so wonderful to let us stay for the weekend. Mckinley had so much fun playing with Canyon and getting up on to the top bunk bed by herself (she could only go up, not down.) that she didn't even notice that she was going to have to wait until Saturday to go to the zoo.
We made Gioza that night and it reminded us of when we lived up there and used to have huge Gioza parties and make tons of it. I should never be considered responsible enough to make the rice when we are with friends. I always either burn it or don't cook it long enough. This time around, it was pretty mushy and everyone was very nice about lying that that was the way they like it.
Alan told Mckinley that this was a hat. She wasn't quite sure since she had seen Canyon sitting in it earlier.
After eating dinner, we played a game of Yahtzee, and then David and I taught everyone how to play Old Mexico, which is a dice game that is a lot like BS. They had so much fun playing it, that they stayed up until 2 am playing. Do you ever remember the lame girl that you would always invite to slumber parties who would fall asleep at like 9 o clock? That was me this time. I went downstairs to put Mckinley to sleep at 11:30, with good intentions to come back and keep playing, but I fell fast asleep, probably before Mckinley did.
In the morning we woke up and Melissa took us to the Farmers Market at Pioneer Park. There was something for everyone there. We sampled a bunch of things, I bought some fresh cherries, and bought a really cute headband after I watched the lady in line ahead of me buy the one I really wanted. (the one I got is cuter anyway though. I really bought one because Melissa looked so gorgeous in hers :)Mckinley just wanted a snow cone but she didn't want any flavoring in it. Whatever.
Downtown, there is an amazing place just across the street from Pioneer park that sells authentic Belgium waffles that are to die for. They are really nothing like the American version. I cant even remember the name of the place but wow. Thanks Melissa for bringing them into my life. I might starve to death if I have to eat my own home made waffles now. Haha.
Then we went to the Zoo. You know what the first thing we did was? This: The ever important drink from the lions mouth.
Then on to the monkeys.
Then to the Rhinos. One of the Rhinos escaped and we learned an important lesson: You don't have to run faster than the Rhino. You just have to run faster than Murph. Haha.
Zebras! Mckinley says they are black with white stripes.
Mckinley was so excited to see the Elephants. She got to watch part of the Elephant show from the best seat in the house.
Mckinley has a stuffed giraffe that she sleeps with every night named "Giraffee." When we got to the giraffe place she was so amazed. I think she would have spent an hour or more just looking at the giraffes if we would have let her.

The cherry on top was the famous train ride. What fun. I'm always a little worried about riding over the rickety bridge and next to the "don't call them Buffalo, these are American Bison." But we survived yet again.

After the zoo, Mckinley took a nap in the car as we drove out to Jeremy and Mary's to see Dawson, their new baby. I'm so mad that I didn't take any pictures while we were there. He is so cute, and little. It was fun to hold him.

The final event of the day was the reunion up Millcreek canyon. It was so much fun to see everyone and their growing families. Some of the baby's we hadn't seen yet and it was fun to meet them. Mckinley had so much fun playing with Isabel.(Yay a little girl to play with!!)It was fun to watch them together.


After everyone but the Campbells, Murph and us had left, Murph took out his guitar and played some songs. This was him playing "part of your world," from Little Mermaid for Mckinley. He had her full interest as soon as she recognized the words. And we were all laughing about his rendition of the song. It was pretty cute.

The next morning we met Sunni and Shawn for Breakfast at the Original Pancake House. The plan was to go to Ruth's Diner but there was a two hour wait for breakfast! It was fun to see them and catch up. That was a lot of food.

We had so much fun on this trip. Thanks especially to Melissa and Alan for giving three homeless folks a place to stay. Can't wait for next time.

It's a....

This pregnancy has been as different as night and day from what my pregnancy with Mckinley was like. With Mckinley I had pretty bad morning sickness and didn't really feel very good until halfway through the second trimester. With this one, I have had almost no sick days. There have been maybe a couple of days where I was feeling morning sickness to the point where I actually noticed it, but I never threw up or even felt like I was going to. The one hint that made the pregnancy noticeable to me was feeling tired a lot. This has been so Lucky for me because I have needed to work as much as I could because of Davids lay off.
Because I have felt so different this time around we were pretty positive that we must be having a boy. We were pretty surprized when the ultrasound technician told us that it was a 90% chance of being a girl! David had his hopes up for a boy and said he was going to the playhouse bar after he dropped me off after the appointment. Haha. I keep telling him that we are working our way up to 12 dancing princesses. I'm pretty relieved because we have everything that we need and don't have to buy all new stuff this time. And I'm really glad that Mckinley will have a little friend to play with. Mckinley is very adamant that she is having a baby brother. But she still refers to her as a "She." She doesn't quite understand why we have to wait so long to see her. She came to my check up today and said to my Dr. "I want to see my baby brother baby sister, please."
We are so excited! Our due date is November 15 which will make the holidays really fun with our new member of the family. We don't have a middle name picked out for sure yet but we are thinking about naming her Lucky. (Everyone has told us that this is a better name for a three legged dog but I love it.) I put this clip on because I love that you can see her heart beating.

Our Baby

We went in for our 19 week ultrasound today for a look at our baby. (If you didn't know that we are having another baby this is our announcement: we are having another baby.) We got a good look at the baby and even a few ultrasound videos that are pretty funny to watch. This one is our favorite. The funny part about this is that it seems like this little beast is kicking the living crap out of me but I really can't feel it that much. It just feels like little taps when you're as tough as I am. (You can't hurt steel baby.) Any way this was just a fun little clip, and now if you want you can guess what we are having. I'll give everyone the answer the next time I post. Until then, enjoy this clip of our soccer player.

A street party and a wedding

Last Saturday was my parents street party. As I was growing up, we never had a street party but the neighbors began having one a few years ago and each year it seems to get better and better. It was so much fun to see all of my old neighbors together and there was so much food. They also had a live band, some of the neighbors danced, hula hoops everywhere, a bounce castle (Mckinley's favorite.) and my dad's dutch oven cooking. It was pretty cold and windy but it really didn't stop a lot of people from coming and even staying late to listen to the band.

Then on Sunday, we went to a wedding up in Beaver canyon. The bride is one of my mom's students and so my mom and I did a musical number during their ceremony. It was a Christian wedding that reminded me so much of when I was a little girl marrying off my Barbie dolls. They really couldn't have picked a better spot for an outdoor wedding. The picnic area was so beautiful and sheltered from the wind. There is a bridge over a pretty big river that we had to cross to get to the place where they held the ceremony, and you could hear the river rushing the entire time we were there. It was really so beautiful, I'm so mad I forgot my camera, but it's ok because we are going back for an overnight camping trip with JJ and Valeena when it warms up. (They just don't know it yet haha.)
After the ceremony, a dinner was served. It was very different from any other wedding dinner I've been to because the food was a long line of authentic Mexican food. The grooms family made the food and they were each standing by, serving their specialty. They served things I had never tried, like two different kinds of Mole, (David and I loved the green kind.) Rolled Tacos that they were deep frying in a huge fry pot over coals, Spanish and sweet rice, Enchiladas, homemade guacamole, and homemade flan which was amazing. There were a lot of things we didn't know the names for, but we tasted just about everything and loved it all. It was a lot of fun.

Mckinley getting kicked out of primary Part 2

I'm not smiling as I'm writing this. I'm documenting this very well so that when Mckinley has children of her own that are hellions, I can refer her to this post, (And all the ones we have to look forward to I'm sure.) and show her how naughty she was as a three year old.
Yesterday Mckinley was taken out of primary by the primary president not once, but twice. The first time she was jumping around from chair to chair, and being very noisy, so the Primary president took her out kicking and screaming(that's the part I'm most embarrassed about. The primary president seemed pretty shocked at the fight that a little three year old can put up. It is pretty impressive, I admit.) into the hall and talked to her about being reverant in primary. After she had calmed down, she asked Mckinley if she could be reverant if they went back in and of course, Mckinley responded "yes." So they went back in where Mckinley immediately violated the agreement by behaving in the exact same way.
So the Primary President came to Relief Society and Mckinley yelled for me through the door to get my attention. Mckinley was anything but remorseful when I came out. She was happy and smiling, just as if she was saying, "Hey mom! There is a PARTY going on in there! You should come check it out! " I told the primary president that Mckinley gets this behavior from the same person who gave her red hair. Haha! Apparently, I am meant to be a permanent fixture in primary now. At least until my child learns to be reverant.....which could take a very long time:(

Late Memorial Day update

I know it was a week ago now, but I wanted to write a quick note about Memorial day. In my family, we always have a BBQ where all my cousins, Aunts, Uncles and Grandparents get together. The food is always really good of course and it's so fun to catch up when everyone is all together. My cousin Caleb was at the grill this time around and did a good job with hamburgers and hot dogs. My dad cooked some great dutch oven potatoes, and my Aunt Vicky always makes baked beans that would make anyone who hates baked beans change their mind.
My cousin Annie and her Husband Nick had just gotten back from a Carribean Cruise the day before, without their two boys. Their youngest boy, Ian, who is four or five, was mad at them for leaving him for a week, and said he wanted to get his parents recycled. So Annie and Nick were working on building back up their friendship with Ian and were taking their boys to "Night at the Museum 2." But before they could go, Ian had to eat this hot dog. I thought these pictures were so funny, especially because they were taken a few minutes apart. If you look at the hot dog, it hasn't changed much in any of the pictures and you can just see Ian's five year old mind trying to figure a way out of this mess.