Utah Trip Day 4

On Saturday I woke up before both girls so I jumped in the shower and got ready for the day.  It was so nice.  Once the girls where awake we ate breakfast and then I put Alisha and Gwenevere to work shucking corn.  It took us an hour to shuck 40 pieces of corn.

Slight Digression:  Last year I read the book Coraline (Laura Ingel's Mother's story, from the Little House on the Prairie.)  Anyway, the story is how Coraline and Mr. Ingels meet.  They have a big corn shucking party where the whole village comes out to help one family shuck their corn harvest.  The whole village spends all day shucking corn and at the end of the day they have a big feast and dance.  It's where Mr. Ingels flirts with Mrs Ingels for the first time.  I guess shucking 40 pieces of corn reminded me of that.

After shucking corn we went to babies r us for some water shoes for Grace.  Gwenevere had fallen asleep in the car so Alisha stayed in the car with her while I ran into the store.  It was nice to have Alisha around again.  After Babies R Us we went to Mac Donald's for lunch and then to Savers (Value Village) for some thrifty shopping.

After running errands we went to Kristi's house to say hi and then to Aunite Grace's work for the grand tour.

The tour was impressive.  We walked one of Grace's news secments she was editing and the toured the studio.  I'll the the pictures tell the rest.

All the BYU channels live

the dressing room

the kitchen/everything stage

The news stage

The green screen

Just three of the many cool high tech cameras

the super Mama

for their live audience recording studio

The ques to help the audience

Grace walked us out the our car and sad goodbye but before we drove off we took a few pictures by the BYU broadcasting building.

After our grand tour we drove to West Valley to visit our most beloved friends the Bohmans.  They patiently waited for us to arrive before having dinner.  Super cool family.  We are so blessed to have them as our friends.  Gwenevere hugged Aliya and the two of them started playing as if they had never been separated.  Abram gave me a big hug and a huge smile as if to say "I've missed you".  It was go good visit with Tanya and Kevin again.  The girls played outside on the trampoline while we talked.  We even got Kevin to do a few back flips for us.

We stayed up watching "PS I love you"  while the girls watched "Tinker Bell".  It was perfect.

The next morning we got up and ready for church we said our goodbyes and drove down to Mapleton for Dagny's blessing.

Thanks Tanya for the wonderful visit, the perfect birthday gift and the best friendship I could ever imagine.  Love Ya!

Utah Trip day 3

Friday morning we woke up ate breakfast and then I took Jenn and Karly to the airport.  They where flying down to Arizona to be with Luke and the boys.   I left Gwenevere at Kristi's and Haini's house so she could play with all her cousins.  Mark and Laura with their family were their and Daniel and Dalynn were on their way.  It was a party.

When I returned from the airport Kristi and I went to Target to get a few things we needed and then we went to Papa Murphy's to get Pizza for everyone.

Cousins in the picture from clockwise: Anabelle, Maren, Mika, Gwenevere, Ember, Sitani (maybe Elijah, I can't really tell), and Marley from behind.  

Grace loved playing peek a boo with Katara.  Katara on the other hand just gave Grace strange faces as if to say get out of my personal space.  LOL

Katara and Dagny meeting for the first time.

After dinner Auntie Grace came over to babysit 7 nieces and nephews while Kristi. Laura and I went grocery shopping for the reunion.  Two hours later we had everything we needed to feed 50 sum people for an entire week.  Thanks Laura for being super organized.  That was quiet the shopping trip.
We returned home to Auntie Grace's apartment exhausted and ready for bed.

Utah trip day two

We woke up at 3am to start the long drive from Tigard to Orem.  Luke brought Jenn and Karly to Tessha's apartment and by 4:15 we where off.  I owe Jenn and Karly a big thanks.  They made the drive enjoyable.  We made it to Pendleton OR before getting breakfast at Burger King.  Karly played with the girls and kept them entertained the whole way.  

the high light of the drive was eating suckers.

Grace was very proud of her first sucker

All the excitement made her sleepy

We arrived in Orem around 9pm all the cousins where awake still so we stopped by Kristi's house to play for a bit.  Then we drove to Grace and Alisha's apartment where we crashed for the night.  We made it to Utah safe and sound.

Trip to Utah day one

Okay so the title of this post is a little misleading since the first day of our vacation we went to Portland.  But to make things simple let's just call it day one anyway.

Wednesday morning we went to the Children's museum with James it was the perfect way to say goodbye. I'm so glad James had work off.

After the children's museum we drove down to Portland to drop off Stephanie and Lexi and to pick up Jenn and Karly for our road trip to Utah.

We met Todd at the Portland Temple.  Lexi and Stephanie where so glad to see him.  After we said our goodbyes.  I called up Grandpa Roemhildt and decided to meet up.  It was a beautiful day and I'm glad I had the chance to walk around the temple with my beautiful little girls.

We took this picture for Uncle Will and Aunt Jenni.  This is their love tree.  

I'm eternally grateful for my beautiful family

This girls is Happy.  

Gwenevere was happy to be in her Uncle Dano's arms

Grace looked up at the statue of Jesus, and smiled and reached out to him.

The reflection pond was just too tempting.

"I'm only getting wet a little"

"Uncle Dano fallow me."

After visiting the temple we drove to desert book store and bought an animated book of Mormon to read on our vaction.  Then we stopped by Red Grandma's house for dinner and then we went to Aunt Tessha's house for the night.  I put the girls to bed and repacked our stuff for Utah.  Sleep felt so good.  I awoke at 3am and the adventure to Utah began.

Thanks Tessha and Patrick for letting us stay at your place.  It was perfect.

Visitors

James' cousin Stephanie and her two year old daughter Lexi came for a visit.  We had so much fun.  They took the train up from Portland Saturday morning and we picked them up at the train station here in Tacoma Saturday afternoon.  We went home got settled in ate lunch and then went swimming.  I forgot to bring my camera to the swimming pool but we had a blast.  the girls swam for 1.5 hours.  Grace was in heaven, and Gwenevere enjoyed it as long as she was in control: no jumping off the pool edge for Gwenevere but Lexi and Grace loved it.  

Sunday we went to church together, Gwenevere had fun with Lexi in Nursery and then we went to Owen's beach for a BBQ dinner and some mother nature enjoyment.  

 We also pulled out Gwenevere's play house and let the girls go wild.  It was very entertaining.

Monday morning we rolled around in our PJs for a while then got ready for Mommy and Me Book club.

We read Mouse Paint and talked about colors

We let all the kids mix paint colors and paint.  It was a hit.

 After book club we ran over to the zoo to get the sister missionaries into the zoo and have a picnic lunch.

of course a trip to zoo wouldn't be complete without a carousel ride.

This picture of Gwenevere reminds me of one of the dogs in Lady and the Tramp.  You know the gray female dog that sing about the Tramp.  LOL.

Later that evening we did a little water coloring. 

Tuesday we went to Mac Donald's for Lunch.  then we dropped Grace off at the sitters and we took Lexi and Gwenevere to go see Madagascar 3.  

At Mac Donald's

The theater was amazing.  

Super comfy reclining chairs, lots of snacks and funny movie.

It was perfect.

After the show the girls wanted to take pictures by all the Brave posters in the theater.  

They also wanted to check out the arcade 

 I have an adorable movie of the girls doing Dance Dance revolution.   

James had the day off on Wednesday so we loaded up my car for Utah and then went to the Children's Museum.  Lexi started out in the water room while Gwenevere had a tea party with Papa.  

Then Gwenevere made her way to the water room while Lexi played with the balls.

Grace also enjoyed the water room and all the balls that go with it.

But by far Grace's favorite thing it this rocking boat. 

The girls also had fun getting stuck in the tubes.  

Once the kids where thoroughly exhausted we ate lunch said goodbyes to Papa and started our long drive to Portland.

Saying goodbye to Papa was the hardest part.

Thanks Stephanie and Lexi for coming to play.  And thanks Todd for letting them stay so long. We are excited to meet little Kaiden (not sure how you spell it).  I'm so glad we decided to make this a summer tradition.