Eternity: Mike, Sundee & Baby Van

Mothers Day weekend we were blessed to witness the sealing of my sister and her cute family in the Las Vegas LDS Temple. We are so happy for them! If you are not familiar with the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, I invite you to learn more here.


We brought our girls with us on the trip, and stayed at a hotel for the first time. I was anxious that it was going to be horrible... kids up all night crying, etc. But it turned out to be really fun, and the girls did better than I could have ever imagined.

We drove up to Vegas Friday day and attended the temple that night with Sundee to receive her endowment. Then Saturday (at 8am, holy early...no pun intended), we attended their sealing. The spirit was so strong as we witnessed this cute family be sealed together for eternity. Such a special day. Something I will always remember.

Some of the outtakes. Feel free to make up your own captions.

Afterward we took the girls to play at Tivoli Village and wasted time until we met up with more family for a luncheon at Mimi's.

Then over to Sundee's for some afternoon swimming. Both of my girls love the water, and had a blast. I really need to get them into swimming lessons!

For dinner we ate at Cafe Rio (Braden: "It tastes better here because it's closer to Utah." *thick sarcasm*) and then went back to Tivoli Village to play and have a treat.

With so much playing the girls fell asleep as soon as their heads hit their pillows.

Sunday was Mothers Day so we went with my parents to Hash House for a deliciously huge breakfast. Man alive, I love that place.   Then we hit the road back to California.

No trip would be complete without some teasing from my papa.

I hope all of you awesome moms had a fabulous Mother's Day. I am truly inspired by each of you and am blessed to have you all in my life! For real.

It was a great trip, and am so happy we were able to go!

September in Pictures

Just a quick run down of things we did in September.

 Lots of playing together.

Playing in the rain.

My van got backed into. Yes, another accident. Go ahead, make jokes. The girl was driving her boyfriends car. She didn't want her mom to find out, so they paid us cash instead of going through insurance. I'm pretty sure I took their whole life savings, including a dollar coin. Funny story.  I met the boyfriend at a park where I was having a meeting Tot Lot so that he could give me the money.  It totally looked like a drug deal with this skater kid handing me a envelope full of cash. I quickly counted it, pocketed it, and departed. Oops!

Brighton had her first field trip (she's not in the picture, she was way too scared). But they had Prehistoric Pets come and show the kids a bunch of snakes, turtles, frogs, etc. It was fun, and Boston even got to come. 

We had our first family movie theater experience. We saw The Lion King. Boston was in awe. She sat through 90% of it. A quick walk up and down the stairs and then she ate fruit snacks on my lap until the end.

We've entered the awkward smile phase.

These girls love baths. Boston is a fish. She loves to lay down, and then flip over (almost drowning herself) and then sit up and repeat.

A VERY rare picture. After lunch at Chick Fil A and then the Aquarium with an old friend.

Movie night in mommies bed. I've been waiting for these evenings for a long time. So much fun.

Play dates with our bestie Adalie.

Bachelorette GNO with Kristy and the other sister-in-laws. Sorry, I don't have any pictures of Darrel and Kristy's wedding!

This munchkin does not leave home without her blankie and baba.She is 100% hooked.

I don't really let her drag it all over, but she tries!

 **HOLD UP** Is she sleeping? On the floor? Not in a bed? YES she is! (I think I heard angels singing when I saw this). This is the first, I repeat first time Brighton has ever fallen asleep around the house. As Braden and I were starring at her he says, "We finally have a normal child".

The only picture I somehow took while at the aquarium.

And last, we got a few cute and sassy outfits from Nana and Grandma.  Thank you!

Girls Trip - Vegas 09

I was waiting for more pictures from my mom before I did this post. I got the CD in the mail yesterday with all 471 pictures! About 400 of them being of Brighton! So here's the overview... This might get out of hand:

B and I left at about 3:30 am Thursday morning (5/28) with about 3 hours of sleep under my belt, and headed east. She slept until State Line and was pretty good the last 30 minutes. We got to my sister Sundee's about 2 minutes after my mom and other sisters, so it worked out perfect.

We ate some Yogurt Parfaits, unloaded our cars, and then worked out while Brighton took her morning nap. Then the girls went swimming and Brighton got her first taste of the pool. First outing of our trip was pedicures. Brighton even got her toes done! Then we surprised Sundee's hubby Mike with some balloons at work for his birthday (which Brighton enjoyed) and hit up Cafe Rio (yes, they have one in Vegas now) for lunch. For dinner we took Mike out for a birthday dinner to Red Lobster. He felt so loved being there with his 3 wives and 3 daughters. Brighton really enjoyed the cheese biscuits, and Sundee and I shared some scrumptious coconut shrimp. After a quick trip to wal-mart... oh wait, the Wal-mart there was seriously out of control. I've never seen so many people at a Wal-mart, or any store for that matter, in my entire life. Especially on a Thursday night. Anyway, after Wal-mart, we hit the sack. I was running on fumes.






Friday, after working out of course, my mom, Sundee and I hit up the Paris Hotel Breakfast Buffet at the recommendation of Amy. She told me it would change our lives, and it sure did! So, so, delicous, and only $15! I seriously keep thinking about it randomly throughout the day. I definitely recommend it. The best part was we were on the late side for breakfast (about 10:30), so while we were still there they started setting out the lunch stuff, including dessert. They were phenomenal. (All except for that lemon thing...click, click ;)


That afternoon we hit up the Vegas Premium Outlets (Charelston & I15). They have every baby clothing store outlet you can think of! Gymboree, Childrens Place, Gap, Carters, OshKosh, Stride Rite, etc. Brighton got some new Carter's sleepers from me, and a cute dress and romper from Sundee and Grandma from Gymboree. Morgan and I got a steal on some new sunglasses, and Tiara got this cool nail polish decorating set. We cooled off with some DQ icecream cones and then back to Sundee's for an evening BBQ and some hot tubbing.



Saturday we did another morning workout, then headed to the pool so that Brighton could test out her new raft. It was a hit. Well, all except for when my Mom convinced me to let her dunk Brighton. She blew in her face so she was holding her breath, but she still didn't like it too much. After getting ready, I put Brighton down for her afternoon nap. The girl was exhausted. My mom stayed with her while just us sisters went over to the Strip. Morgan and Tiara wanted to ride the New York, New York roller coaster, and then after we went and saw the Lions at the MGM. Brighton and my mom met us over at Town Square afterward. It is this really cute kind of shopping "city". It's all shops and restaurants, but it has streets all throughout. Brighton was seriously a CHAMP while we ate at CPK, and then shopped for about 3 1/2 more hours! Before I knew it it was 7pm! I got a bargain on some Tanks at Old Navy ($3), and Grandma spoiled Brighton ... some more ... with a new Hello Kitty.



Morgan, Tiara, Brighton and I headed home to get B to bed while Sundee and Mom went and picked up a few groceries and some Baskin Robbins for us. When they got back, Sundee said, "um, the keys are in the door!?!"... "Oops! That was me" I said. Then they proceeded to mock me because I had my v-neck shirt on backwards too. I guess I was really out of it! We ate our dessert and made some bracelet watches. I made a clear one this time, and am loving it!



Sunday, we went to church, and then Sundee made some delicious pesto chicken pita pockets for lunch. We headed to the Bellagio for some touristy site seeing, and enjoyed the water show too. Brighton was in love with all of the flowers (she seriously loves flowers), but the water cannons got a little scary for her. Last we browsed around FAO Schwarz Toy Store and took more pictures. My mom, Morgan and Tiara then headed back to Cedar, and Sundee and I enjoyed Kona Sushi for dinner. Brighton flirted with the manager and got herself some free avocado slices and a scoop of icecream! Little stinker.




B and I headed home Monday morning during her naptime. We stopped in Barstow to stretch our legs and eat some lunch, and made it home about 2pm. Phew! It was seriously such a fun trip. Brighton loved roaming around Sundee's cute apartment perfecting her crawl. So many laughs, so many giggles, SO many pictures and so many fun memories! Brighton just loved all of her Aunts...and Grandma especially. Thanks girls! See you in July.



PS. And some how I lost 3 pounds.

What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas

More to come