A Quick Trip to Utah

 And we were lucky enough to stay with Jer's Grandma and Grandpa Jensen and play with the kids' favorite toy!

Oh if this porch swing could talk...the stories it would tell!

 They were so good to put up with all of our noisy late nights. We loved sitting out on their porch enjoying the amazing Utah weather, the view from their backyard and playing catch on their soft, green grass! 

And yes, we worked some magic with our rain dance.  The kids had a blast getting soaked running up and down the grassy hill in the pouring rain. 

 We got to see Barry and Emily who made us a delish pancake, bacon and hashbrown breakfast yum! 

Emily and I go waay back to our first year of teaching. We taught first grade for 3 years together and were practically inseparable during that time. She was an amazing friend during my fight with cancer. Some people don't know what to do or say in those situations, but she would always come visit anyway and she always had something up her sleeve for us to do if ever I felt up to it (oh the Christmas tree garland!). 

She was just there bringing happiness to me! Boy do I love her!

And she just promised me that she and her friend are coming to visit me this winter:) Yahoo!

 And here we are, 15 years later with 3 kids each. Beth and Jake are the same age, Ethan and Bree are the same age and Ellie and Luke are just a few years apart.  They all played together like they've been friends forever.

 And they gave Bree a cool pool bag and towel because they know where we live in the summer!
Thanks guys!

 And we zoomed up to Heber to see Uncle Mike, Jessi and Trudy.  
We got all caught up on their family and how big it's grown. 

 And we got to see my sister Deidre and her hubby Quentin. 
And their dogs who I think my kids might love more than their aunt and uncle. And Deidre took care of our kids all day while we went to the wedding, and she tooks some family pics of us too.  Basically took a whole day off  for us! Love her! 

After several failed attempts, we finally got a pic with everyone's eyes open (you know who you are:).
 And then we hit Zach's basketball game.

 There he is with the ball.  He's often mistaken for Justin Bieber.  He's a chick magnet.  He did awesome in his game, it went into overtime, and the Hawks pulled it off!

And we had to stop off and get some of Jake's new found favorite ice cream at the BYU creamery.  It's now everyone's new favorite.  We got to see some of the Mehlers and the Farleys but for some reason I didn't get any pics of those visits! I wish we would have had more time to see my old roomies and our friends from NY, but the time just got away from us!