Summertime visits from "the fam"

As I mentioned previously, my Mom came to visit in May. That was an unusual occurrence in and of itself. In all of my years of living in Utah-the only time my family ever came to visit was for my BYU graduation in 2005 and 2 of my brothers’ weddings in 2004 and 2008. In the weeks just following my Mom’s visit, I had a slew of visits from everyone in the family. (well, except Dad, but I got to see him the weekend after my annual trip to the Nauvoo pageant…details to come).

I was able to see Kevin & Amy, who came up from Las Vegas while my Mom was here for Amy’s baby shower. (This is a picture of them now with their new baby, Isaac-born July 22nd).

A couple of weeks later, James & Krista popped in on their way back to California after James’ Ironman in Coeur-d’Alene, Idaho. Lily and Iris stayed at my house, while everyone else stayed with some family friends. I took the day off work and we all hiked Timpanogos Cave together. So cool!

A few days after that, Martin & Breckann were in town from Kansas for her family’s reunion. We celebrated my nephew, Davin’s, first birthday while they were here. I swear he is the cutest kid ever.

Jonathan and Cassie were in town from Kansas a few weeks later to visit her family and for Jonathan’s mission reunion. It was really good to spend time with them! They are in the process of moving to Philadelphia, PA so I won’t get to see them when I go home anymore.

I love my family. They are the coolest people. We always have so much fun together and I’m really grateful for the awesome relationship I have with every single one of them. I consider myself so lucky to have them in my life!

June flashback

A group of people from my ward and such got together at the end of June for a weekend rafting excursion on the Snake River in Jackson Hole, WY. One of the guys owns his own raft, so he makes an annual trip out of the whole sha-bang. Because it was so early in the season, the water was still pretty high (and cold) so we delighted in the idea of wetsuit rentals.
I was really grateful Cassie and Stacey accepted the invite to come along. It was nice to spend time together. My co-worker Kelly joined us as well. We drove together, camped together, rafted together and pretty much chilled just the 4 of us together the whole time.
I had been placed on “make breakfast duty.” Actually, I somehow had a moment of weakness and volunteered to do it before we all left. Little did I know it would include; menu-making, grocery shopping, preparing everything, waking up way too early and cooking everything all on my own for 20 people. Argh! But everyone said it was super yummy, so that at least made my heart smile. (Thanks to Kasey for lending us her dutch ovens and for her cooking tips and helpful hint of using an oven bag to avoid a messy clean-up).


Scones, biscuits & gravy, bagels, and Mountain Man meal: (eggs, bacon, onions & potatoes)

The river was great! The rapids were just enough to get my heart racing, but not so much to lead to an anxiety attack.

We all went into Jackson for dinner that night and overall just had a great trip!