Cristy's Baby Shower

 Cristy Diana Maria Theresa Lowe-Rose! Ok, so that's not her name, but I used to tease her as I was tickled by the idea of having so many cute names. Cristy, who often goes by Diana, was the one I went to Italy with for the first time. My old roommate from a lifetime ago was in town visiting her family and they threw her a baby shower. So fun! She has been living all over the country, lately in San Diego and Boston, so to have her in Utah was a real treat. She and her husband John are expecting a boy any day now! Julie and I drove up with Eleanor to attend her shower on September 7th. 

Eleanor (Who is wearing her puffiest slip under a dress that does not work with a slip. Pick your battles, right?) had a great time playing with other little girls at the shower, but joined us for one of the games, the Toilet-Paper Guessing Game- it's where you pass around the toilet paper roll and tear off how much you imagine will fit around Cristy's waist. Eleanor piped up that she wanted 9 squares. I don't think she knew what we were doing, she wasn't exactly paying attention, but when the roll came around, she kept demanding 9 squares. Ok. Well, guess who was the only on to be exactly on? Little E. I told them she doesn't count, but they wanted her to win, so she got the bag of chocolate almonds. Ha ha. 

Here she is hugging her prize.

 With cute Cristy!

 Old roommates all together! Diana, me, Cristy and Julie! The last time we all saw each other was at my baby shower for Eleanor, nearly 5 years ago!

 Eleanor mugging it up with Diana.

 Me and my goose.

 Another awesome surprise was getting to see Annie! She has lived in NYC, London and recently Nashville and was just super-randomly in town at the same time. I went to Italy with her too on that trip with Cristy. She is just coolest person and I haven't seen her in nearly 10 years! P.S. She is just as hot as ever, if anything, she just got better looking. Eh, what can you do?

Greencrest Reunion 2013

 Awwwww, oh man. I love these guys! On the first weekend in August, we had a miracle of schedules lining up. The Phillips were going to be in town from Wisconsin, Angela and her boys were in town from Toronto freaking Canada for her brother's wedding (Timmy had to be back at work, so he was the only one not able to be there) and the Oversons were able to come up from Cedar City, the Stevens from Salt Lake, the Seedall's hosted at their new home in Logan and we drove up from Provo. It was a short magical visit, but so so worth it!

They set up the projector for the kids to watch Rise of the Guardians all together. 

 Eleanor quickly reconnected with her old sweet neighbors.

Sisters Ainsley and Emmaline make an Eleanor sandwich. 

(The Stevens never technically lived on Greencrest Ave, despite our constant harassment to do so, but they were always a part of our group and all of our activities.)

 All the girls! Angela (and Bennett), me, Ashley, Lexie, Ruth and Ann. The best friends you could ever accidentally live next to! I know Heavenly Father sent us to that street to meet these people, they were the best support system during our three years at law school!

 Most of the kids!

 All? of the kids! From left: Eliza, Lauren, Wesley, Jasmine, Sophie, Miles, Nora, Winston, Maddy, Eleanor, Spencer, Benny, Zach, Bennett and my Grant. Missing is Ainsley, Emmaline and Wells.

 Group shots weren't enough for our little model, so I took a few more.

 I never get "real" smiles! Usually it's some weird closed-eye, squinting thing that she explains is her "magic face" or "superhero eyes." So it's nice to occasionally get a few normal ones in.

Lamely, I was having too good of a time to take more pictures. We had awesome pies from Mmmm? I can't remember. I'll have to ask Clayton when he gets home. Ruth made her awesome cinnamon rolls and there were countless bags and plates of goodies. It all went to fast as the Stevens had to go home early, the Phillips had to continue on with their trip etc... etc... I loved it all though, and can't wait to see any of them again!

Postal Service

 For Mother's Day/ Swearing in as a lawyer, we got tickets to go see the Postal Service at Salt Air. The concert was originally scheduled for May 29th, and we dutifully drove up, only to find that Ben Gibbard had gotten sick that day and they cancelled the concert. Boo. That's ok, we had an awesome dinner at Chunga's and went to a movie instead. You just don't waste a babysitter night. Thanks, mom and dad!

The band rescheduled, so on July 13th we tried again! I was very much in the middle of my "morning" sickness phase, so I packed a purse full of Wheat Thins, and we found a spot against the banister upstairs for us to stay the entire show. It was great. It was the ten year reunion of the release of the album "Give Up", and the song "Brand New Colony" was one of the ones we used on our wedding video, so they are a special band to us. I have to admit, that we don't enjoy concerts as much as we used to. We're too old, I'm too pregnant etc... I just tend to get irritated at the bad manners of people around me. Don't get me wrong, we had a nice evening, and a great time people watching, but we nixed going to see the National when they hit Salt Lake a week or so later, and they are one of our favorite bands. I think Radiohead and Sigur Ros might be the only two we would make the effort for again, but you never know. 

Outside before the concert, it was a lovely evening. The concert hall juts right up against the southern edge of the lake. Sometimes it's dry as a bone and other times you have waves up to the shore, this night was just puddley. Salt Air is where our first official date was too. We saw Franz Ferdinand on September 28th 2005! Wow, what fun the last 8 years have been!

Aww, I love us.

 Jenny Lewis was on tour with them! For some reason I thought it'd just be Ben and Jimmy Tamberello. I was stoked that she came too, we are both fans of her band, Rilo Kiley, and she is just plain cool, and gorgeous. She was amazing and they all sounded just like they did 10 years ago.

 Our spot was pretty good, even though my pictures don't quite show it. We could see everything without straining, and I didn't throw up! Hooray! I did get a bit queasy  for the last half hour, but I ate my crackers and waited for "our" song. Of course it was the last one of the encore, but still, so so awesome.

Bowles Quick Visit!

 Oh my goodness. I love this family. Our sweet friends from Michigan, the Bowles, have been living in San Diego for the past year and we were lucky enough to get them for a few hours while they were on a visit to Utah. Liya and Eleanor quickly cemented themselves back together and we got a few pictures. Hilariously, the pictures of their initial reunion were so dramatic that they wrestled each other to the ground in mega-hugging. I would post the pictures, but their dresses were all over the place and I like to be a bit careful in posting nakey pictures of our little ones. Anyhow, these other ones show how happy they were to be together. I felt the same way to reunite with Kim for a few good hours of conversation!

Here is the only one without bunners showing, ha ha.

Cuties.

 Lovey love!

 Working on projects together.

 They had a good time playing in this bin for about 25 minutes.

 Winston wanted to be involved too, well, to an extent. He is still the age that likes to play near his friends, not with them.

OH! This just hurts. Such an awesome family! They have moved again for Justin's work and are now deep in the forests of California where Justin teaches emergency survival and stuff along with his medical work. For a doctor, he gets to do the coolest stuff with the military. 

Justin, Liya, Kim, Charlie and Michael.

4th of July 2013

 Alright! Let's do this! Blog catch up with lots of pictures and minimal journaling! Ready, go!

4th of July- we went to Tom and Jenni's. That's about all you need to know. Here is our little fam.

 Again!

 My boys!

 Little Winston was all tuckered out from all of the running around at night, so he just plopped right down to look at the stars.

 A super over-flashed picture of my brother Tom, a very sunburned Megan and Shane and E. Megan and Shane had gone boating and ended up spending another 4 hours helping out a stranded boat, so what was supposed to be a 2 hour jaunt turned into a horrible day without enough sunscreen.

 Clayton's brother Tyler, his wife Rachel and their Audrey were in town and got to play with us that night. Here are Ty and E.

 Rachel and Audrey.

 Eleanor helping "teach Audrey to walk". Ha ha, she loves to think she is helping littler kids learn new skills and words. She cracks us up.

Fun weekend as usual. More to come!