Best. Day. Ever.

Saturday night, sometime after midnight, we picked up Steph, Jared and Shad from the airport.  We hadn't seen them since the beginning of January.

 

Sunday afternoon, after Church, Dave and I took Shad on a walk around the city.  The weather was in the 70's and the flowers were unbelievable.

I love this picture of Shad and Steph.

Then, we drove up north and had family pictures taken.  I'm excited to see how they turn out.  Ashley took them with her nice camera and is going to edit them first.


Then we all hung out at Holly and Cody's.  It was THE.BEST.DAY. ever!  All of my children, grandchildren and sons-in-law were there.  It probably won't happen for a very long time again.  So I ate up ever second of this time with them.

Jared and Shad.

Megan (Andrew's gf) came over, too.

Logan had to show me the cut on his knee after he biffed it on the cement.

Lils and her ride.

Jack-jack is a climber.

Livie is always just so sweet.

Gotta love James' gorgeous smile.

We celebrated Steph's birthday.  Holly made the cake.  It was a banana cream cake.  (Do a Pinterest search if you want the recipe.)  It was so good.

Codes, Al and Jud are always joking around.

Holls and Dave enjoying that yummy cake.

Trouble.

The Detroit Tiger.

Ash and our sweet little Brigs.

Swinging with my Brigham.

I know it will probably quite a few months, possibly not until December, when I will have my entire family together again.  I'm so glad the Lord gave me this happy, warm Spring evening to look back on until then.

Jolly good!

Thanks to a tip from our brother-in-law, Phil, we had a jolly good lunch today.  I met Dave at the London Market in downtown SLC.  The best Cornish Pasty we have ever eaten was in Kings Cross Station in London.  This was close. The best meat pie and the best scones and clotted cream we have ever eaten were in Covent Garden in London.  These were close. 

 

I forgot to get a picture of the mini cooper they have parked out front.  It is painted like the Union Jack.  It was like taking a little trip over to London and back for lunch today.  Fantastic!

Brigham's Blessing Day

 

It was a special day as we got to see our newst grandson recieve a name and blessing by his father, Jud, at church this past Sunday. 

 

 The Mason Family before church.

Brigham Stone Mason on his big day.  Their bishop's wife made his little booties.

This handsome little guy just melts my heart.

 

Olivia looked beautiful in her Easter dress.

Ashley and Jud had a wonderful lunch for us at their home after church.  Dave had to leave immediately after for a business trip.  The rest of us hung out for hours afterwards and enjoyed being together.  Things got a bit silly at times.

 

 

I spent the next two nights at Ash and Jud's.  Monday night I took Lily to gymnastics while Holly went to a training at her work.  Lils is getting really good.  She does exceptionally well on the uneven bars.

It was nice to be able to get in a lot of family time this past week.  I loved every minute of it.

Let the more loving one . . .

I read the following this morning  and it has been on my mind all day. 

 

"If equal affection cannot be/

Let the more loving one be me."

-W H Auden

 

Pride gets in the way of loving for all of us from time to time.  Not only can this saying be applied to very personal or family relationships.  It would be good to remember for neighbors, acquaintances, or even strangers we may come in contact with from day to day.  Anyway, it was something I needed to remember today.

Our Anniversary Trip - Part 4 - Miami again

Monday morning we thought we would have to wait in long lines to get off the ship.  But since we only had carry-on luggage we just walked right off.  We didn't even had to wait in customs. We just breezed right through it all.  So nice!

 

We took a cab back to our same hotel, the Richmond.  But it was only nine in the morning and we couldn't check in until 3 in the afternoon.  But they let us store our luggage and use the pool.  So we just schlepped around all day between the pool and the beach.  And we had to eat lunch and dinner, of course.

We went to bed fairly early because we had to catch an early morning flight.  Why we had to fly three hours to JFK before connecting to Salt Lake City is beyond me.  Then it was another almost 5 hours to fly home.  We were exhausted, but very, very happy.  Thank you, sweetheart, for a fantastic anniversary trip!

Our Anniversary Trip - Part 3 - Nassau

When we awoke the next morning we were in Nassau, Bahamas.  We had been here quite a few years ago but I seemed to notice more details this time around.

 

You have to barter at the Straw Market there.  I'm not a fan of bartering so I bought my Christmas ornament from Nassau at a shop instead.

I loved the giant conch shells around this fountain.

You have to check out the hat on the horse. Haha!

 

I have a thing for doors, so I had to get pics of a few of my favorites there.  There's a pink and green theme going on in this city.

 

We took a cab over to Paradise Island.  We didn't do any of the activities there.  We mostly just walked around.

 

There were three other cruise ships docked next to ours in Nassau.  This beast is supposedly the biggest cruise ship there is.  It is also a Royal Caribbean, like the one we were on.  This one was even bigger than the "Roo Cruise" we went on with Andrew.

 

This is the back of the ship.  In addition to the skating rink, flow rider, and zip line, there is also a ginormous outdoor theater in the back.  It dwarfed our ship.

 

After walking around for quite awhile we went back to our ship and ate at the Johnny Rocket's on board.  Because, honestly, can you ever have too much ice cream when you are on vacation? I don't think so.

For dinner that night I had two entrees - garlic shrimp and chicken marsala.  I'm not even kidding.  It was ridiculous, really.