Jane's Blessing Weekend

Mary has already posted some great pics of Jane in her blessing dress (see here). So I thought I'd give a little blurb about the weekend overall. It's amazing how much fun we had and time we enjoyed in about 48 hours exactly! My parents arrived on Friday early afternoon with my brother Robb and his two daughters, Hailey and Emma. We just enjoyed chatting that afternoon and had a yummy baked-potato bar for dinner. We got the kids to bed at a reasonable hour and then enjoyed playing Ticket to Ride: Europe. Mary's brother, Kris, arrived about 10 pm or so... just in time for some excellent homemade guacamole and homemade salsa with chips. That occupied everyone until about mid-night... along with some simple conversation. On Saturday, I made pancakes for willing and happy kiddos and then made the quinoa, avocado, cucumber, tomato, lime healthy breakfast for any willing adults... some enjoyed it, some ate the left-over pancakes. We then eventually got ready and headed out for the dunes (previously posted here) which, again, were a lot of fun!

After the dunes I caught the guys, me excluded :*( napping in various locations of the house (some quietly, some not so quietly).

Dad got the futon all to himself.
Robb got the bigger couch

Kris got the little couch

We then got our pool out and pumped up and threw the kids in the pool. I joined them for a while... but you know how that works... it looks nice, you start feeling a little hot, you decide to get on your swimsuit and you go to get in the water and it's like the water is way colder than you thought and the weather has suddenly made a sudden shift... anyway I stood in the pool for a while and allowed some of the kids to splash me a little. It really wasn't that warm so we definitely had some kids shivering (particularly Nathan) but it was an excuse for them to get in the pool and get some of that sand off of them... they didn't seem to mind!

I think at this point we went inside and finished prepping for dinner... which was DELISH... homemade Cafe Rio Salad. I think most would agree that it was super good and that Mary did an excellent job on the rice, meat and dressing in particular! This is now my request for my Father's Day meal... can't wait! After dinner, which was a little late, we sang Happy B-Day to Robb to celebrate his upcoming birthday (June 9th) with a delicious ice-cream cake made by my mom! This was one of the better one's that my mom has made in recent memory! We then got the kids down to bed.

Since I showered on Saturday, I also shaved, so I could look respectable for the blessing the next morning. Of course, I had to have some transition so I enjoyed this cut for the night... though I had already trimmed the length with buzzers at this point, so it wasn't quite as cool as it otherwise would've been.

Then, my dad, mom and I played Alhambra (another board game... mom won) while Mary mopped Kris and Robb up at Ticket to Ride: Switzerland (I've never beat her head-to-head in like 10+ tries!). We enjoyed the evening and got to bed a little earlier due to the difficult 8 AM CHURCH! Ahhhhhhhhh!

We, of course, wanted to be to church early which is no small feat with just our own little family... but with 6 adults and 4 (+ Jane) kids with one bathroom in the house... this seemed nearly impossible. But it worked... we were all at church 15 mins early! AMAZING! How? You ask? Me, Robb and Kris showered Saturday evening. Mary, Dad and Mom showered Sunday AM. I made pancakes for the kids (kids wolf these things down!) for breakfast. Everyone just did great. We really appreciated everyone's effort this early in the morning (this was 7 AM for those from WA!) to get to church so early. Mary had gone to church around 7:15 to nurse Jane there and have her ready for the blessing. I think that everyone got some semblance of breakfast too! Here is a pic of those who came and participated in the blessing after church. It would have been nicer if it was a little more close-up... oh well!

For lunch after church we had veggie pasta salad, which was delicious also. We enjoyed some more ice-cream cake. I played Alhambra again with my dad and Kris (I won this time) and then it was time for everyone to go. Sarah and Nathan were so sad to see their cousins go, but it was such a fun time. I'm so glad that it worked out for Robb to come with Hailey and Emma and that Kris made the trip up from Provo. Of course, my parents had the longest trip of everyone and it was so wonderful to have them here with us.

Opa holding his newest granddaughter! He complained a lot about "cramps" in his arms from holding her.