I love my nieces!

I stinkin love my cute nieces! I'm glad my sis Molly and I still live close enough to each other, and that we see each other often.
Russ and I watched the girls a couple weekends ago while Molly and Tom took a short trip to Zion's. It was a CRAZY weekend, but we had fun! I love these girls.

Sophia is 1 yr and so much fun! Three things I love about her:

*Her laugh! (It cracks me up)

*When she "kisses" me (she leans in with her lips to my cheek)
*Her snuggles (She is so precious)

Evelyn is almost 4 yrs old. She has been my little buddy since she was teeny. I truly love my Evie.
Three things I love about her:

*She is so smart/ when she asks questions
*The way she talks ( I wish I could capture her little voice

in a bottle...I think my sis, Molly has said that or
something like that before)

*She is a sweet pea!

Russell was teaching Evie how to be "cool". It was so funny! Ev totally played along.

I am glad my nieces have Russell in their life as well.

Thank you Molly for sharing your girls with us!

Church History Tour 2009: Part I

Two Saturdays ago Russell and I went on a church history tour downtown Salt Lake. (I know we live about 15 mins away, but it was still fun.) Russ planned the tour and we only ended up going to about half of the places, because we were pooped by the end.

We started our day doing a session at the Draper temple. It is such a beautiful temple and we had never done a session there before.

We ate at a yummy Thai restaurant named Thai Lotus then started our tour. We spent quite a while at the Church History Museum, which is great. There is a lot to learn there.
The original death masks of Joseph and Hyrum Smith. One of the workers told us that "back then" they took molds of people's faces when they died to preserve how they looked. They didn't have photographs.

This desk was used by several of the past prophets
A pulpit like the one used in the Conference CenterThis was neat. A page of Pres. Hinckley's notes before giving a talk.
We went to see the Christus statue at the Visitor's Center
We walked past the Conference Center and the Tabernacle
We went to the cemetery in Federal Heights to visit Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley's grave

This was on the back of the monumentWe also ended up seeing the gravesites of Pres. John Taylor, Pres. David O. McKay, Pres. Heber J. Grant, J. Golden Kimball, and (I think) Orson Pratt.It was fun spending the day downtown with my hubby and learning more about our church's history.

BRAZILIAN CELEBRATION!!

Wednesday was my brother, max's ONE YEAR mark on his mission! It's hard to believe he has been there for a year! I guess it's downhill from here. It sounds like he has been a great missionary! We're so proud of you Max!

My family celebrated by going to a Brazilian Steak House called Braza Grill. It's down near Salt Lake. Everyone met at our apartment and we had fun hanging out for a bit.

Pa and the girls

Oh Ad, you're so cute

We enjoyed the great weather outside

Sophie was so smart and found a way to crawl without scraping up her knees. So cute! She looks like a little elephant.
At the restaurant

It was an all-you-can-eat buffet. This wooden post is to let the men with skewers know whether or not to keep bringing you a variety of meats.
Green-bring on the meat
Red- hold it for now
Lay it flat- I give up!
Crazy Bub!

The food was delicious and we had a fun time!

Cruise food

Let me just clarify about the food on the cruise.. So, the pictures I showed were of very small appetizers. The entrees were a lot bigger! Plus you could order multiple appetizers, entrees, and desserts! Way too much food! Plus they did have food available all night long. Russ loved the room service! (I seriously wonder how much weight we all gained.. shhh)

Plus, all the food was included in the price of the cruise!

Our Bahamas Getaway!

August 23-27 Russ and I went on a cruise to the Bahamas! My in-laws Doug and Heidi and our friends, Dave and Jessica went as well. We had such a great time!

We flew into the Orlando airport on August 22. We ate a delicious dinner and spent that night in a hotel.

After our cruise, we spent Thursday in Orlando. We went to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. It was a lot of fun!

We flew home on Friday. Thanks to Russell for planning so much of the trip! We had a great time!

Our Camping Adventure!

Last weekend, Russ and I thought it would be fun to go camping! The only camping we've done since we've been married, has been in our living room (we set up our tent and everything). We got a group of people together and set out... (We went with our neighbor Tyler, Mitch and Stacie Dorius, Ryan Oldroyd and Alicia Watterson).

It took quite a while for all of us to meet up near East Canyon Reservoir. That was just the first delay to our campout. Plans kept falling through and it was about 10:30 by the time we started setting up camp. (We were still determined to have a campout) There was already a family camping in the area we were, but they said they were going to bed and we could use their fire. So, we started setting our tents up on bumpy ground and we were pretty close to the family's tent. We had planned to set up a fire further away so we could be louder...

While we were setting up, the dad of the family came and told us that allergies were hitting him so bad, they they were leaving. I felt bad for the family, but we ended up with a great campsite. We dragged our tents over and got our things set up. Even though it was late, we still roasted weenie's and had a good time!

Mitch and Stacie Dorius

We spent the next day at the lake (East Canyon Reservoir). Mitch's brother was so nice to let us use his 4-person jet ski. It was awesome! It was big enough to pull us on waterski's.

Cute Stacie and her pregnant belly

Nice Russ!

Russ, Mitch, and Tyler

Me water skiing


Here is a video of Russ doing the AIR CHAIR. It was the craziest looking thing! It was like a pogo stick in water!

Bell Canyon Lake

Russ, me, Tyler, Dan

Two weeks ago Russ and I went on another adventure. We took Tyler and Russ' friend Dan with us and went on a hike up to Bell Canyon Lake. It isn't too far from where we live. It was a great little hike and the lake was so pretty!

(Before the hike we went to WalMart to get some tubes to float on in the lake.) Once we were at the lake, we started to blow up our tubes. They were so much smaller than we thought they were going to be and we barely fit in them. Ha ha, it made us laugh. We had to balance on them in order to not flip into the water. The water was sooo cold! We got in anyway and had a good time!

Russ and I got into a little water fight. Brrrr!

Don't try this at home folks: We later found out from some friends that it is ILLEGAL to swim there! It is a water shed and I guess they get drinking water from it. (How bad could it be having a few humans in there? Tyler saw dead fish!) We still had fun..shhh, don't tell