Family Reunion and Anniversary

The last week was busy and fun-filled. Here's a recap of what we did:

June 20th was our 6th anniversary! It's gone so fast, and we've done so much in those 6 years: we've had two sweet kids, we both graduated college (Joel's almost done with his graduate degree- just 5 more weeks!), went to Mexico, bought our first house, had a cat, owned countless cars (we counted the other day, and I'm kind of embarrassed to admit the number), enjoyed some callings at church together, shed a few tears, and laughed a lot (mostly at each other). In short, it's been wonderful! I gave Joel a card and I wanted to share what was written inside:

I'm so glad

our life isn't about

seeking perfection.

Instead, we find happiness

in everyday moments

and real satisfaction

in our home,

our love,

and our family.

Sometimes life

can get a little messy,

a little crazy around the edges.

but that's okay.

It's still wonderful...

and there's no one

I'd rather be sharing it with

than you, amazing you.

It's a little cheesy, I know, but I liked it (I'm not just a little bit cheesy myself). Happy anniversary Joel. I love you!

For our anniversary we won a trip to St. George! After, of course, we attended a grueling presentation on how if you don't own time share you're not living by the Proclamation of the Family. We almost didn't survive. But, hey! We got a "free" trip out of it- if you don't include the $50 in taxes or the $80 upgrade so we wouldn't be staying in a cardboard box just off the St. George freeway exit. That bumped us up to nice hotel that for peasant folk costs $71 dollars a night. So, the nice people at Windham got us a $12 discount. How kind. In all fairness, they did give us gas cards, which we didn't use considering Joel's car is natural gas, but it only cost us pennies of our own money even to drive all the way down to St. George. They also gave us a gift card for the Olive Garden. Ha! Like we've never eaten there before. Thank heaven Darden Restaurants also owns Red Lobster. There's no way in you know where that Joel would be going to the place he works on his vacation. So, anyway, that was our "free" trip. All mockingness aside, though, we're grateful to Windham. "Free" or not, they got us out the door.

Actually, our hotel was in a great place, and despite it's disappointing outward appearance, the inside had obviously been remodeled recently, very well in fact. I have no complaints, except for the fact that the pool was conveniently located right next to busy St. George Boulevard. They couldn't put it in back, where it would be peaceful and quiet? No, I can definitely see how zooming cars and honking horns would be much more relaxing. (Sorry for the sarcasm. I'm not
quite sure where that's coming from. Actually, yes I do. I'm reading Shannon Hale, and she always gets me in touch with my sarcastic side, at least her adult novels anyway.)

Whoa! This narrative about the accommodations is getting quite lengthy. I'll try to speed things along. Here are some pictures from our getaway. I didn't take that many because I know how irksome it is to Joel.

Here we are in our new favorite restaurant. We ate there for lunch, dinner, and the next day's breakfast. It's called 25 Main, and it's heavenly. The place was young and hip, and the food there was beautiful looking and scrumptiously tasty. My first meal was a turkey artichoke panini with grilled onions with perfectly seasoned potatoes on the side. For dinner I had a white pizza with Alfredo sauce, grilled chicken, tomatoes, broccoli, and onion panchetta. Mmmmm...my mouth is watering....
This place is famous for their cupcakes. I know what your thinking. What's so special about a cupcake? We had the same unenlightened thoughts, until we sunk our teeth into one. The creator of 25 Main has somehow put heaven in a paper cup. Oh, my goodness, they were good! One of my favorites (I sampled many during our three visits) was Peanut Butter Cup- a moist chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting, and Joel's was Strawberry Lemonade (pictured above)- a lemon cake with strawberry frosting (they put real fruit in their frosting). I think I would drive all the way down to St. George just eat ONE of those cupcakes. But since that's not very realistic, I'm going to try (try being the keyword) to recreate those delectable wonders myself. If I succeed, I'll need help eating them or Joel will be rolling me around town.

The morning we left we did one last thing. We decided to do sealings at the St. George Temple. We thought that was fitting since we were celebrating our anniversary. It was, of course, wonderful, and the temple is as beautiful inside as it is outside. We were very glad we went.

We tried to get a picture of us with the temple behind us, but the sun was so blinding, we could not get a decent shot. I just kept laughing with every vain attempt to look at that camera without squinting. The picture above is the best we got.

Some of the other activities we did include:

• enjoy not having to get a babysitter and being able to do whatever and whenever we wanted. (You're probably wondering where the kids were. Our nieces, Kiri and Cali, came up to our house and stayed with the kids. They did such a great job, and we're so grateful to them.)
• going to a movie
• walking to a quaint used bookstore, where I got a first edition copy of "Stuart Little" to read to Noah and Joel got an old copy of Shakespeare plays. They had some fun treasures.
• walking around town and peaking in shops
• going to the outlet mall
• driving around scenic southern Utah
• being lazy
• swimming in the noisy pool (actually, once you got in the pool, you didn't notice it's odd location)
• reading
• relaxing
• listening to Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
• basically, just enjoying the chance to be together without kids. (It was a little weird at first, but we quickly got used to it. Not too much, though. I was very excited to see the kids again!)

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Last Friday and Saturday, before our anniversary trip, we had a Mark Orton Family Reunion. It just up the canyon at a stake camp. That was also a lot of fun. I saw Noah about 5 times during it. He was always off with his cousins, exploring and being a kid. In short, he was in heaven. We all were- any chance to be with family for that long a time is heaven to me.

I won't go into too much detail about the events at the reunion, but I do want to share what Clara did at the talent show. Before I get to that, however, I want to say again, "Wonderful job!" to my sister-in-law, Sharise, for getting out of her comfort zone and singing a Mozart art song in front of her family. It was beautiful.

Clara also performed. Sharise suggested that I take her up to the "stage" and have her show off her sign language skills. I wasn't sure if she'd do it, since she can be so anti people looking at her, but she did it! I asked her to say dog, eat, please, flower, cookie, cracker, and some others. She did them all, and she did such a good job. It was the cutest thing ever! But, even cuter was when everyone clapped for her she smiled big and started clapping too. She definitely likes to perform, the cutie.

Here are some other highlights from the reunion:

Noah burned his hand on a hot dog stick. Poor guy.

Noah was going around, proudly displaying his "ugly worm" right in everyone's faces. Aren't ALL worms ugly?

This is Tevya, Fallon and Clara. What cute girls! Fallon just loves Clara and was always trying to help take care of her. What cute mommies they'll all be someday.

Hooray! I discovered a way to get Clara to sleep when she's not at home. Apparently she is just fine being laid down right in the open where she can see and hear everybody. I tried it, hoping for the best, and in a few minutes she was a goner. She slept a good hour or more with kids running around hootin' and hollerin'. It didn't bother her at all. Yay! Hopefully I can use this trick on our next vacation coming up next week.

Some other highlights of the weekend were:

• making beaded bracelets with the girls
• watching the kids, young and old, make fruit loop necklaces
• eating yummy food
• roasting marshmallows
• watching the kids play
• talking, laughing and enjoying each other's company

I'm so grateful for family and times like these where we get spend time together and making lifelong memories. Now I get to get ready and do it all again next week. Yay for summer!