4th of July

I didn't have any appointments the weekend of the 4th, and Kyle needed to take a test for school which he can do for free at BYU (he has to pay $60 to take them here) so we headed to Utah to surprise his family. We planned it so that we would arrive in time for our nephew Ezra's first birthday party, and it was perfect timing because we stepped into the backyard as his family was blessing the food. When they opened their eyes, we were there! We had only 2 full days, but we managed to fit a lot in. After Kyle's test and Ezra's party, the sister-in-laws went to a late showing of Eclipse. But not just the girls-some of our husbands came also, including.....are you sitting down?.....MINE! The next day we attempted to go boating but it lasted about ten minutes once we realized the water was way too choppy. Instead we went to the Lindon Aquatic Center. The boys had fun on the "flowrider" which is like surfing in a pool. Next we followed the Haskell family 4th of July tradition which is eating KFC at a park in Springville and playing softball and kickball. The boys also kept up their tradition of having a homerun derby. After THAT....we went to Stadium of Fire and saw Carrie Underwood! Andy and Amber had 4 tickets and Justin and Leslie were going to go with them but when they learned how much I love Carrie Underwood they offered the tickets to us. They are so sweet and we appreciated that so much. It was my first time at Stadium of Fire and I LOVED it. For those that don't know, Provo puts on a huge patriotic show at the BYU football stadium every year and they always feature someone famous. At the end they put off really great fireworks. One of my favorite parts was when members from each branch of the military walked onto the field and they had members in the crowd stand also. The other was the National Anthem. Right after Carrie Underwood finished singing it, 4 jets flew over the stadium really close together. I was fighting back tears almost the whole show, but that's what really got me. Then one of the pilots came on the big screen, saluted us and talked to us while he was in the air. Even if they didn't put on a concert, I would want to go every year just for the show and the fireworks. Thanks again to Justin, Leslie, Andy and Amber. It was amazing.

On Sunday we surprised my best friend Ashley, in Orangeville, which is almost 2 hours from Payson. Her husband knew I was coming but she had no idea. When we arrived she happened to be at her mom's house grabbing something. She came back home and found me sitting on her couch. We just stayed for a couple hours, but it was so great to see her and her family. I always forget to take pictures when I go there.

After that we had dinner at Andy and Amber's, and then headed up to the cabin for the night with some of the fam. We love it up there. The next morning we were able to see Kyle's best friend Benny and his new wife Tacy on our way out of town. 6 hours later we arrived in Vegas and found that it was going to be bumper to bumper traffic probably the rest of the way home, and decided to stay the night there. Ryan, Stacy and their kids happened to be staying the week in Vegas while Ryan worked and they invited us to stay the night with them at the Excalibur. It was my first night staying in Vegas so I was excited. And of course we're always up for more time with our family. It was such a fun-filled weekend. I'm hoping we can make it back again before Kyle starts student teaching. Fingers crossed that I have another weekend with no appointments-preferably Labor Day weekend when my cousin Anna gets baptized!

The simple pleasures in life

I'm very appreciative of the beautiful world we live in and I feel that I'm pretty good at recognizing the beauty of my surroundings. In Michigan I loved the lakes, the green grass and all of the trees-especially in the fall. In Utah I absolutely loved the mountains, and here, I LOVE the palm trees, the beaches, the mountains, and the sunsets. I realized the other day, however, that I don't notice the small things enough.

Like the parrots we have flying around outside of our apartment. Every night.

The lady that lives behind us mentioned once that since she moved in 25 years ago, there have been parrots flying around. Apparently a couple of them escaped an Aviary, mated, and have made lots and lots of baby parrots. Anyway, we forgot that she told us that until a few days ago. We are pretty used to the loud birds here, (we have crows that wake us up every morning-they like to play right outside our bedroom window) but we don't pay much attention to them. However, the other day there were some really loud ones outside and Kyle was watching them out the window and noted that they looked "kinda funky". We had a couple over for dinner and I think it was Chad that realized they were parrots. There were tons, it was crazy! (Imagine our surprise had we not heard about them first) They're so pretty-mostly green and a couple other colors. Sorry about the bad picture. I have been trying to capture a close-up but have so far failed. It's so weird, they come around at the same time every night-between about 7:15 and 7:45. I've never even noticed them before and now I can't wait to see them every night. I think we're officially the coolest aunt and uncle ever-we live near Disneyland AND we have about 100 pet parrots. :) If only our nieces and nephews were close by to show them off to...

Random updates

We have been wanting to go on a late honeymoon since we never really did. The last we talked about it, we agreed to maybe go to San Fransisco for a couple of days instead. However, long story short- Kyle kind of surprised me the other day and booked a five day all inclusive trip to CANCUN!! We leave on August 16, which is Kyle's birthday. We're so excited! We've been looking at pictures online and it looks beautiful. It will be our last little hurrah before Kyle starts his student teaching. He's going to be crazy busy at that point-teaching all day and selling insurance until dark.

This isn't very exciting, but it's the only other thing that I can think of that is new with us. I finally brushed up on an old card game my cousins and siblings and I used to love playing. It's called Hand and Foot. I taught it to Kyle and we've been playing it in our spare time Like, literally, we play it every night. That and Skip-Bo. He had NEVER played Skip-Bo until last week. That is just crazy to me. We are still making more friends which has been fun. They are mostly from church. There's a new couple that moved in recently that we've been hanging with and another new couple that just moved in are coming over Friday night for games and dessert.

I've also been reading a lot. I sort of go in spurts with reading and I hadn't been for a long time-not since Breaking Dawn and before that it was probably New Moon. When my family came to visit in March, my mom brought books with her and I remembered that I liked to read too. So I've picked up on it again. My favorite author is Nicholas Sparks and right now I'm reading "Three Weeks with my Brother". It's a true story about a trip around the world that he takes with his brother and they reminisce about their childhood. It's really good-I highly recommend it. Work is still pretty slow, but getting a little better for me. Kyle's doing well. He recently switched to a new insurance company and it's working out great. We are still loving it here, despite the heat. It's been over 100 degrees AND humid here. And our so-called swamp cooler isn't making our apartment very cool. We love all the friends we have and all the fun things to do. Today I went with a couple girls and their kids to a fun pool that's just $2 to get in to. Last Monday on my day off I went to the beach with Laura and her kids. My favorite thing about the beach is seeing dolphins. I'm not sure if I didn't notice them before, or if they just weren't as close to shore, but the last couple times I've been to the beach we've seen lots.

Since I don't have a picture to go with this randomness, I'll post a picture of the pretty sunflowers Kyle just brought home for me. Have I mentioned how sweet my husband is??

I just remembered...I DO have a picture for this post. In fact, it's perfect because it's of us playing cards outside one night because we couldn't stand the heat in our apartment. No matter how hot it is during the day, it always cools way down in the evenings. Thank goodness for that and for our patio!

Sundays

As you can probably tell, blogging doesn't come easily for me. You could say I'm lazy, or that I just find other things to do with my time. And time is something I do have plenty of, so I can't use that as an excuse. Anyways, I suddenly felt like blogging just now, so I thought I better post something before my mood changes. And I suppose I should start posting things other than our trips we go on. Since I haven't been so great at journaling and this is the next best thing, maybe I should write about the little everyday things.

I've always loved Sundays. Not only because of church, but because it's the one day of the week that is completely spent with loved ones. Growing up we came home from church and had a late lunch (usually pancakes-sometimes mom would suggest something nicer but we would opt for pancakes) and then just spend the day being lazy. It would almost always end with us all in the living room watching a movie together. In college it was the same-my roommates and I would usually eat together after church. Sometimes we'd plan a meal together, but usually it ended up a shmorgishborg (sp? I actually googled the word to find the right spelling and this is what it showed but I don't know...) with random food that we each contributed from our own cupboards and parts of the refrigerator. And after naps, or visiting family, or hanging with boys, etc, we'd usually end up in the living room together, if only for a few minutes to catch up from the day. While I love Sundays just as much as I did before, they've actually become more eventful and not as relaxing as they were before it was just Kyle and I. We've been so lucky to move into such a friendly ward and make so many friends. Every Sunday is spent with at least one or two families. We usually do dinner with a family and then spend the evenings with Cody and Laura playing games. Sometimes it's hard to be away from family but we're grateful to have such great friends here and to truly feel at home even when our family is so far away.

We invited the sweetest man from our ward over for dinner tonight. His name is Stanley and he's an 83 year old African American that looks and acts about 70. I love him. He was a Jehovah's Witness and joined our church just a few months ago after the missionaries knocked on his door and started teaching him. He literally has a twinkle in his eye and his happiness is contagious. He has 10 children and we learned tonight that he has 159 grandchildren (including great and great-great). He enlisted in WWII in 1945, lying that he was 18 when he was really 16. He said they didn't find out until he was being released 4 years later and they saw on his birth certificate that he was born in 29. He had us laughing so much.

The rest of this night is going to end with a movie like old times. We love playing games with Cody and Laura but it's been a busy weekend and we're both ready to just relax. I just love hanging with my hubby. Even when we're 83 like Stanley, I'm going to love relaxing with him on Sundays. I hope we have lots and lots of grandchildren to play with also. Kyle had a meeting at church tonight and before he left he told me, "You can pick out any movie you want and we'll watch it when I get back." I stared at him with my mouth hanging open (I'm sure I've mentioned how he feels about chick flicks-words like that do NOT come out of his mouth.) Then, as he's walking out the door, "But it comes with parameters. I was like, "What does that mean?" He answered, "I'll have to see what movie it is first."

VaCaTioN!!

We were lucky to take a 12 day vacation last month and it was fabulous. The original plan was to go to Utah for our nephew Stockton's baptism, then to MI for a week, and then back to Utah for Kyle's best friend's wedding. Our trip was extended, however, when Kyle's brother Tyler and his wife Ashley invited us to join them in Lake Powell with Ashley's family for a few days. It was my first time and it was even better than I hoped. The pictures don't do it justice, but you can get the idea. I was in heaven, I think I could have stayed there all summer.

Next we were in Utah for just a day for Stockton's baptism. He was the first grandchild to be baptized. He looked so darn handsome, and I didn't get a picture of him to post.

That same afternoon we flew from Salt Lake to Detroit. My day was complete after snuggling with my precious new niece. It was love at first sight, and that love grew every day that week. It was really hard to leave her. I don't even want to think about how big she's going to be next time I see her. Gracie was blessed the day after we flew in. We were happy to be there for that and thankful that Steph and Mitch planned it for when we would be there. I saw my my really good friend Katie and her twin boys so that was exciting. I hadn't seen the boys in a long time. I also spent a lot of time with my Grandma Vibber who I have always been really close to. I lived with her for a year in 2007 and it's been hard to live so far away from her after growing up in the same town and then living with her. It's just as hard to leave her as it is to leave my parents, siblings, and nieces. We spent the rest of the week at my parents spending time with the fam and playing with Skyler. Kyle was so great with her. She absolutely adores him. I was hoping to take Kyle to Lake Michigan one day, but we didn't have a hot day. It stayed around 70 and would have been pretty chilly. We just went to Higgin's Lake instead which is one of our family's favorite lake. It's about an hour north of Alma. My family has spent a lot of time at this lake-my uncle's family has a cabin there and we've stayed with them several summers, and we've also camped at the state park. It's a really clean lake, and different than most. You have to walk out forever before it gets deep. You can tell in the pictures where it gets really deep-where the water changes from light blue to dark blue. It was pretty chilly there the day we went. None of us really got in the water. But Kyle and Skyler were warm enough to build a pretty cool sand castle.

We visited my Aunt Daisy who is turning 107 next month. She's amazing.

My best friend from High School and her daughter Reese.

We attempted a picture of my grandma with her great-grandchildren but it was impossible to get them all to cooperate.

Legoland

We were thrilled to have Kyle's brother Andy and his family stay with us for a few days last month. (I know, I'm way behind) We did lots of fun things, and spent quality time with Andy and Amber and the kids. Andy is a big Mariners fan and usually schedules his vacations around games. He and Kyle went to a game the day the arrived. Us girls and the kids just stayed around here and hung out. Our evening ended with a good chick flick so we were happy. The next day we went to Laguna Beach which was really fun. We saw so many dolphins! They just kept swimming by close to shore. One time we counted around 8 or 10 together. We also went to Legoland one day which was really fun. Our nephew Stockton turned 8 that weekend and he loves legos, so he was in heaven. As adults, our favorite part was the "Mini land" that had tons of cities built out of legos, including San Fransisco, Chinatown, Vegas, DC, Hollywood, New York, New Orleans, etc. So cool! Some of the legos were built out of 300,000 legos. They looked so real. I've fooled several people with the pictures. We had so much fun with them. I love when we have family visit because we get so much one on one time with them.

I thought of my mom when we saw these giraffes made of legos. She loves giraffes. They were so cool-their heads moved from side to side.

Peyton is just two and was sad he couldn't ride on the horses. Uncle Kyle made it all better by volunteering to be a horsie for him.

The faces were all out of legos