Things We Do: Part I

*This post marks the first in a series of five to document the good times had by all while Lindsay, Kate, and Henry were here visiting from Chicago. When Linds comes, she tends to stay for several weeks, which is great since Brandt and I still have to make a living and can only come visit for the weekends. This time, bless her heart, she was here for SIX weeks! 

July 14-17: Utah

Brandt and I had the opportunity to go to Utah this past weekend for some festivities with my family. It was a super busy weekend and we were glad that we were able to make it and join in with all the fun.

On Thursday night, I went to Olive Garden for a Girls' Night Out Baby Shower that my two sisters put together for me. I had so much fun hanging out with the girls. I was definitely spoiled. We played a couple of games while waiting for our food; one game was to guess the prices on popular baby items. I didn't do too shabby except I was WAY off on the price of rice cereal (I guessed Six bucks - good to know it's only $1.99!) Everyone got a good laugh at my expense :) Brandt had a fun night as well - he hung out with his high school buddies.  They grabbed some dinner, went miniature golfing, and flirted (unsuccessfully) with girls in passing cars.

Friday was our family reunion. We spent the day at my Uncle Parley's house. They rented a huge water slide so we spent the majority of the day outside in the sun playing in the water, playing volleyball, and eating popsicles.  Brandt was good about taking a lot of the kids down that were too small to go by themselves. He said little Sara's heart was just pounding like crazy right before he would take her down, but she loved it!

I love those last two photos in the above collage. For some reason Syd and then Linds both fell out of the slide one right after the other. It was funny. Anywho, we had a ton of fun. My grandma and grandpa had 13 children, so needless to say our family is quite large and a good majority of the family was able to make it. My grandma wrote in her journal nearly every day of her life so after dinner my aunts and uncles took turns highlighting events from the 1950's that my grandma had written about.

Saturday was a random day. My cousin Lizzy got married so she came over bright and early that morning so Linds and Katie could do her hair and makeup. As I mentioned before, my family is quite large so obviously we couldn't all go to the sealing. So we went to the mall instead and got pedicures (Brandt opted out of that one - instead he "volunteered" to watch Henry for us). I think the highlight of the day for me was seeing the last Harry Potter movie. It was so good! I cried just a tad. That night we had the wedding reception and more hanging out and chatting with the family.

Sunday we were pretty low-key. They had another family dinner that night, but Brandt and I had to head back home before that (darn jobs get in the way of all the fun). We had such a good time. I feel so blessed to have such a fun, close-knit family. And Brandt fits right in. Our extended family is a lot closer than most, but I can't imagine it any other way. I love them all dearly and am so grateful to have them in my life.