Forth of July Festivities

We left utah at about noon on Wed June 30th. We drove 11 hours that day. With 2 or 3 5 min gas stops. The next day my mom kicked butt and drove 18 HOURS herself with only 4 five minute gas stops. She rocked it. We got home at 2 o'clock am on Friday morning. She is the best road trip driver ever (and I am the best co-pilot ever ;-)

After sleeping in on Friday I was able to get stuff ready for mike to come later than evening. I took a break from unpacking/repacking to go watch my dad and brother pole vault. My grandpa was a rocking pole vaulter in his day almost making it to the olympics. She my dad and brothers have all tried their hand at it. Andrew is pretty good. He can jump 14'6 and could go higher if he could practice year round like some can that have access to indoor pits. But anyways they entered a district track meet for anyone who wanted to sign up both so the were practicing for that.

My brother Andrew is such a STUD!

My dad missed this jump but at the track meet two weeks later he won his age group at 10 feet. Did I mention my dad is 50 years old? I think thats pretty tight he can still do that at his age!

He can also still do some pretty kick butt hand stands. He asked me to do one too...

This is what he got. LOL. I have never been able to do a hand stand or a cart-wheel. I am so ridiculously unathletic. That is why it is a pretty big deal that I can run more than a mile. Speaking of which....

I got my brother, sister and her friends to run the 4th of July 5k with me. There are some humbling stories to come out of this. First off katie told me the night before she was going to run. I told her she might not be able to make it since she hadn't trained and that it was a hard corse. She didn't care she wanted to do it. Andrew my super fit brother said "I'm doing this to spend time with you so I'l just run next to you and keep your pace the whole time." HA! So the gun sounds the start of the race and the first 200 yards are up a steep hill... Not good for me who avoids hills when running. This picture is taken at the mile 1 marker (Its so flattering I know) Notice Andrew is no were to be scene? Yeah, I didn't see him after the gun went off he finished in 26 min (he has never run distance before, so thats pretty good!)

What happened to katie and her friend one might ask? Well they were about 100 yard ahead of me the whole time. I committed to running as much as possible (even up the hills) so sometimes my pace was really slow, but they managed to stay ahead even with walking then running. I was so frustrated with myself-- but I was proud of them for doing so well. They finished 30 seconds before me. I got 36 min flat. That is 30 seconds slower than my last race. However, all races are not created equal... this was a rough corse with no shade in 90 degree weather and humidity. There were a serious of 5 or 6 large steep hills we would run up so I am calling it a victory anyways!

Mike, my loyal supporter. My mom is actually a pretty killer cheerleader too. When I was about 300 yards from the finish line she saw me and how rough I was looking. She ran the last part with me in her flip-flops and nice clothes. That is a good momma for you!!

All gross after the race!

After the race the guys went and played golf while the women sewed cloths for the trek they were going on for youth conference. Once everyone was home we headed back to the park for the festivities. They had a midway with games and food and entertainment. Mike tried this game and was one mile away from guessing how fast he could through the baseball (the threw it 52 miles and hour)

And of course what is First Town Days on the 4th of July without some good greasy food?

The fireworks were fun. For real, you haven't enjoyed fireworks to there fullest potential until you have done so with Andrews witty commentary of the whole thing. The kid is funny, but probably annoying to those who don't know him. The people on both sides of us got up and left before they were over. lol.

There were 1,000's of people at the park for the festivities so we had to wait a little while to leave. Of course that meant it was the perfect time for a photo shot? Right? Of course right!

Katie and Jessie 5k champs

My Aunt Becky and her grandson Tyler

Mom randomly popping up in a picture of mike and I

Mom's parents grandma and grandpa McNutt

My Andy-Roo

Studly Father

My wonderful Studly Grandfather

Sunday on the actual forth of July we went to church then went to a BBQ at our good family friends house. There were a ton of people from that ward that was fun to catch up with. And of course A LOT of good food. That night we broke out Catan and taught the kids how to play. We played a few games before Mike and I left on Monday and I remained the undefeated champion!! You would think that after spending almost a month at home that it would be easy to leave but it wasn't. I missed Mike so much while I was gone and I really missed the kids (the cats rosalie and epps) but it was hard to leave my family. I really miss being a part of there day to day lives. Oh well, I guess thats what eternity will be for ;-)

Trip gets an A+!

Day 10, 11, 12, 13: Sat, Sun, Mon, Tues June 26, 27, 28, 29th, 2010

Saturday June 26th- We went to my dad's old college friend Pete's house. Pete is a stud, he was on the BYU national championship team. He has 7 kids (2 sets of boy/girl twins... my dream... yes I'm so crazy.) Anyways we had a great time with his family. The girls made friends with his kids, they had a daughter my age who was visiting with her husband so it was fun to visit with her. That night Pete taught my parents how to play Settlers of Catan (I won.) They enjoyed it and it has quickly become a family favorite. It was just a really fun visit.

Sunday June 27th- was my 23rd birthday! It was fun to have my parents, sisters and in-laws all together. We went to church then came home and started preparations on a huge feast. We had over 20 people over for my birthday dinner (five of mike's siblings families, his aunt/uncle and one of his cousins plus all my family ...) I had a blast visiting with everyone. One of my favorite birthdays to date.

My two dads eyeing down the food.

Sisters Mel and Heather with their cute little boys.

Jess, the girls and three of Heather's kids having fun.

My favorite little baby girl, Madison.

The "kids" table

My birthday cake, Mike is on the other line of the phone singing "Happy Birthday" to me. He really felt left out while I was with his family for a week and he was at home alone.

KT and William. Such a cheese.

Me and Bri

My birthday loot.

On Monday June 28th we went down to BYU campus. We met up with my dads old mission companion Paul and had lunch with him. He is over the Music Education department at BYU so it was good for katie to meet him and ask him questions about it. After visiting with him we met up with my dear friend Mike Center, from high School. He took us to the Bean Museum where he works ad showed us some really cool animals. This little yellow lizard has a blue tongue. It was good to catch up with him and see some neat things. After BYU we went to the mall. My mom bought Settlers of Catan and I think the board has been set up on our table at home since she brought it home.

Tuesday was our last full day in Utah. We started the packing process (which is not fun) and did some errands to get us ready to leave. Then we headed down to yet another friend of my fathers office. It was pretty crazy because the family we visited was moving their medical practice from the 3rd floor to the 1st floor so they were pretty busy. They ordered pizza and us girls just sat around while my dad talked with his about his practice. Then we dropped my dad off at franks house so Frank could take him to the airport the next morning... So that we could start our drive back super early.

On our way back to the Jenson's that night we noticed the car was making weird noises when we pushed on the brakes. Knowing we wouldn't be able to make it home worrying about the brakes we decided we had to take it in to be looked at first thing in the morning. Since we knew we wouldn't be leaving at the crack of dawn the next morning that left time for something very exciting....

The midnight showing of The Twilight Sage: Eclipse.

It was fun to spend time with the girls doing something out of the norm. I loved the movie and the commentary that often comes when you see movies on premier nights. I have to say the thing that grabbed my attention the most... the Harry Potter 7 trailer... YAY!!

Day 7,8,9: Wed, Thur, Fri June 23, 24, 25th, 2010

Wednesday the we all went shopping to find mom some nice modest dresses (something done so much easier in Utah than out east.) Literally we spent ALL day out and shopping. We shopped till we dropped. The highlight of my day was Cafe Rio for dinner. However, the girls really let me down both of them complained about it... how can you not like Cafe Rio??

Thursday was a lot of fun. My dad flew in and we picked him up that morning. We went straight to Temple Square to show the girls (This was their first visit to Utah.) We did all the "big" things. Visitors center tour, Joseph Smith Building, Lion House for Lunch, Beehive house, Church Office building and tour of the Conference center.

This is the Christus statue of the creation. I love how the stars look like they twinkle.

This was my favorite. It is an exact replica of what the Salt Lake City temple looks like inside. What a great missionary tool.

View of the temple from the top of the Church Office Buildings.

Dad and the little girls

Dad and all his girls. This was on the roof of the Conference Center. I loved going on this tour because we had two non-member older women on the tour with us. They asked us so many gospel oriented question and it was so fun to share our beliefs with them. When we said good-bye to them they thanked us for being such good ministers to them. I thought it was pretty cool.

After temple square we met up with my dads dear friend Frank Child's (they roomed together in college for 3 years.) We went to Little Cottenwood Canyon for a cook out with him, his wife and daughter and her husband and son. We really enjoyed ourselves, it was fun to get to know them better and enjoy the beautiful weather and scenery. It really made me appreciate those Utah mountains even more. On our way up the canyon however, I had a little melt down. I could not stand seeing all the way down the canyon and being so close to the edge. HATED that actually.

The girls & Frank and dad

On Friday the girls went to Lagoon again, Dad was at his medical conference and mom and I hung out with the family a home. Just some good quality bonding time. That night mom joined dad at the conference where they had dinner with Suzan Summers and some other medical professionals that were speaking at the conference. While they were gone Joleen took the girls and I out on a little date. We went to Deseret Book, the girls were in AWW. They had never been in a store with so many mormon things before. They had to kick us out when it closed.

Then we went to the Bountiful temple. The girls had never been there before and they loved it!

We even took some pictures on the temple grounds. We will be going here for Mike's sister Becca's wedding in a week and a half!

I just love my little sisters.

After the temple we went to an AWESOME frozen custard place. On the way home we stopped at the place Becca is having her reception (it is beautiful!) I loved that my sister had that time to get to know my "other mom" so well. They absolutely love her and it is so much easier for them to accept that I have "another" family now that they know and love them like I do.

Day 4,5,6: Sun, Mon, Tues June 20,21,22nd, 2010

Sunday we drove 11 hours and Monday we drove the 4 hours to the Jenson's house in Farmington. It was so great to see family. My sisters hadn't met my sister-in-law Camille or Heathers kids. Monday was my nephew Nathan's birthday. We went to McDonald's and let the kids play in the play place and then we all went to Toy Story 3 (which I HIGHLY recommend.)

Little Nathan and Marcus LOVED Elizabeth within only an few hours they both wanted to hold her hand and go EVERYWHERE with her. It was so fun to have my two families mix so well together. That is such a huge deal to me, I love it!

We had a little birthday cake for the Nathan

My sisters met Nathan at the wedding and since then Katie had always been Nathan's "Girlfriend." That all changed when he was re-introduced to Elizabeth.

About 15 min after I walked in the door there was a special delivery for me. Mike had sent me flowers, a bracelet and chocolate covered strawberries... with a poem... :)

Tuesday mom and the girls went to Lagoon together. I stayed home to spend time with the family. I took the little kids to the park behind Mike's parents house.

I had so much fun with this cutie who is getting so big and such a fun personality!

Marcus was so funny. He was ALL over the park chasing a soccer ball these kids had brought. Typical Marcus.

Poor guy. He was having so much fun he had a little accident. Thank goodness I was able to take care and clean it up like a champ... maybe I will be a good mom and won't pass out when blow-outs and vomit come.

Speaking of good moms. Camille had her third baby on tuesday. It was pretty ridiculous how easy her delivery was and how AWESOME she looked in the end.

Little Madison, the first little niece (or nephew) I have ever gone to the hospital to see as a new baby. I feel in love with this little one. It even made me a little baby-hungry (I know you thought it would never happen, lol.)

Look at her... just as beautiful as ever (Both mother and daughter.)