Draper Temple Open House and More

We were in Utah for 9 days at the end of February and the beginning of March. We had so much fun while we were there and spent a good mixture of time doing fun things, relaxing a little bit and being really busy. We were there because Mary's brother, Kristopher, got married in the Mt. Timpanogas temple on March 5th. While we were in Utah, we stayed with our good friends, the Bergeson's, with whom we had visited for a week in '07 as well. They were so accomodating as we treated their place a little like a hotel for a few days while we were busy with family stuff and the wedding. We so enjoyed spending the evenings with them and playing games and chatting later into the night. It was awesome that we were able to spend some good time with Adam, who is in his orthopedic residency at U of U. He actually had both weekends off and Monday and Tuesday, which is definitely a rarity for him and we/I was grateful that we got to enjoy some time with him around as well as Kari and the kids. THANK YOU SO MUCH BERGESON'S!

Anyway, on the Monday of that week we traveled down to Draper for the Draper Temple open house, which was so nice. It was great to be in this house of the Lord, particularly with our family, and to be able to see the unique aspects of each building while also feeling God's presence in His Holy House. The kids loved the little bus-ride that we took from a local meetinghouse to the temple... Nathan especially enjoyed he and I playing a version of "corners" with each other on the ride back. I so love being in the temple with my family! Sarah was a trooper for the pictures as it was pretty cold and windy.




We also went to Red Robin for lunch after the Temple open house. This is a place that the kids really enjoy. Nathan was pretty scared of "Red" when he first saw him and didn't want to cooperate with a picture as he was a little leary of this character. I don't think he understood that it was a person in a costume. He warmed up eventually.

Later that evening, we had dinner with my H.S. friend Angie, and her husband, David, and their son, Parker. We enjoyed dinner, Family Night, and catching up before heading home after a long day. It was nice to reconnect with Angie and to get to know David better. We appreciated their hospitality.

Christmas Eve '08

So on Christmas Eve in mid-afternoon, we were out delivering the last of our goodies to friends. We dropped by one family that we haven't spent a lot of time with but have been wanting to get to know more and who have watched our kids on occasion for Mary during the day. Anyway, when we stopped by they spontaneously invited us over for Christmas Eve dinner. Being lonely and missing company (family) and knowing that they were kind of in the same boat (used to big gatherings) we were excited to spend the evening with them. Instead of a simple yummy broccoli cheese soup for dinner, we had that plus ham, potatoes, homemade rolls and all the other good stuff. Their family does a pinata on Christmas Eve and so we had fun doing that with them and just being around them. Nathan loved just playing by himself with all their Thomas the Train stuff (a preview of sorts for him!) in the other room. Sarah loved being around their girls who are mostly a few years older. We enjoyed hanging out with DeRay and Emily. DeRay was preparing to go kayaking on Jan 1st (CRAZY!). Anyway, it was great fun and filled our need to spend some of Christmas with others. They were great surrogate family and it was so kind of them to have us over on short notice!

Here's Nathan swinging for the homemade pinata. He really enjoyed this (and so did Daddy!)

Here's Sarah giving it a good thump. She almost got hit one time diving in for candy a little too soon.

After spending time with our friends we went home and let the kids open their traditional new set of PJ's on Christmas Eve. They were both excited!

Jane did get some new PJ's as well but they don't quite fit her but they do match a pair that Sarah wore, so that'll be fun when they can wear them together. Jane was just as happpy with the tinsel and the bows! What a doll!
We got a little Nativity set from some friends in our Church earlier in the day and the kids had fun playing with that in their new jammies before bedtime. It was a nice Christmas Eve for our family.

Visit from the Stimmel's

So, as I mentioned previously, the Stimmel's dropped by for a brief visit on their way back to Portland from SLC. Taylor has been my best friend since early in my childhood and his family now lives right in front of my parents and they share a driveway. It was a quickly planned visit, but it was so much fun! They got here around 8 pm on Tues and left the next morning aroun 11 am. We let Nathan and Sarah stay up later and play with them and then we didn't send Sarah to school the next day and I went into work late. The kids had so much fun together and you wouldn't know that they've hardly ever played with each other. Taylor and Leah just moved back to the mainland after Taylor finished his Bachelor's at BYU-Hawaii. He started Chiropractic school the day after they got back to Portland. Anyway, we got our kids down around 10 and then we stayed up until 2 AM. I haven't stayed up that long in a while and the time just flew and Mary and I loved all of our great conversations and the personal meaning they held for each of us. It was a therapeutic conversation for me. I wish they could've stayed here longer, but we certainly made the most out of the time we had with them! We hope to find more reasons to be able to meet up with them in the future... but at least Leah blogs a lot!

Here is a pic of the Stimmel's. Such a cute little family and their kids are adorable!
Jane and Paysen really enjoyed looking and making noises at each other. They're only a few weeks apart. Paysen has an adorable little laugh!
Growing up, I would almost always sleep over at Taylor's house and Taylor's wonderful Mom would almost always make us French Toast in the morning for breakfast. It was heaven. When we were able to make it work for them to visit us and when I found out they'd be here for breakfast, I had to make French Toast for Taylor and his family. I really enjoyed that!

Here is a picture of Adi, Sarah and Nathan. Adi loved wearing Sarah's robe and they had a lot of fun together. Sarah, and the rest of us, were very sad to see them go! I know that they took more pics so look for them (soon?) on Leah's blog.