Dad's Wedding and the Beginning of our Trip!

We just got back from our amazing and memorable trip home. It was a bit of a whirl wind, and I can't believe we're already back. We took LOTS of photos, so I'm doing a few posts. Brace yourselves for cuteness overload! 

Kayla has already traveled quite a bit in her young life and has generally done pretty well. This was her first time flying when she was old enough to know what was happening very well and she was so excited!! She loved watching the planes at the airport and watching the clouds in the air. She kept saying that she was flying like a birdie! Tyson did great, but he's at the perfect age to travel. 

We debated about what to take to make transporting the kids easiest. We couldn't fit the double stroller and didn't want the hassle, so the kids shared the single stroller. Kayla thought it was cool but Tyson didn't love Kayla grabbing him and bugging him. 

                 

                    

     

We arrived in SLC at 12:30 AM, which was 1:30 Texas time. Rachel picked us up and we stayed at their house for a day. The kids did pretty well in spite of the crazy hours and lack of sleep. 

We were watching the weather quite closely because the day we flew out, there was a big storm. We had to quickly change our packing plans and find warmer clothes for the kids. It was all worth it though, when Kayla got to build a snowman with Daddy and her cousin Dallin. She loved building Olaf and didn't seem too bothered by the cold! When he melted that afternoon, she kept saying that "Olaf fell down." :(

 

Kayla and Jake are about 7 months apart and quickly formed a love/hate relationship! There was a struggle over toys but I loved watching Kayla get to spend time with her cousins.  They got to play dress-up, dance, read books, and Kayla got spoiled by all the attention. We really wish we lived closer to family!

 

   

We went to Provo for lunch on Thursday and met up with several of Brett's friends from school. It was fun seeing them and catching up, but I didn't think to snap a photo, unfortunately. We were excited though because one of his friends is likely moving close to us! 

 

Haley took a day off work and headed down to SLC to bring us up to Idaho. We were so thankful! Thanks to FaceTime, Kayla knows everyone pretty well, making the trip that much better because she warmed up to everyone pretty quickly. We stopped at Maddox in Brigham City, as we always do and it didn't disappoint!  When we arrived in Pocatello, we went to Tastee Treat to meet Grandpa Kelly's fiance! We enjoyed the best ice cream around and fell in love with Sheryl. She's such a sweetheart and we are so happy for her and my dad!

  

 

I went out with my sister that evening to get my hair highlighted and cut while Brett got the kids all ready for the wedding on Saturday. Brett's mom is living in the house she grew up in and it was neat that Tyson was bathed by Grandma Jean in the same tub she was bathed in as a baby!

 

We drove to Logan on Saturday morning for the sealing of my dad and Sheryl. It was a lovely ceremony and we were so grateful to be able to be there. Our friends Mark and Emily came over to the temple to watch the kids while we went inside and we loved visiting with them. Kayla loves their son Noah and followed him around like a puppy! It was a year ago that she was following him around the same temple grounds for Haley's wedding. :)

Noah and Kayla now 

Noah and Kayla 1 year ago

We got to see a lot of my dad's family, which was wonderful. Unfortunately, I didn't snap many photos. 

After the sealing, we had a great visit with Great Grandma Renie! She's such a sweet lady and loves to spoil the kids. I'm glad they've both gotten to meet and spend time with her. 

We then headed back to Pocatello for a little celebration with Sheryl's family and ours. It was wonderful to get to know her family. Kayla had fun with the other kids but was terrified of their little dog. She also had fun getting in lots of cuddle time with Aunt Haley and Uncle Jon. 

 

Cutting the cake!

On Sunday, we headed to Soda for a quick trip to drop my mom's car off to her. We caught the end of her Stake Conference and had lunch in Soda. On our way out, we stopped to see the Geyser. Kayla loved the big fountain! She warmed up to Grandma's kitty a little bit after being really nervous. 

        

I really love my hometown!! Its a small farming/mining community but it has a lot of uniquely wonderful attractions! How many people can say they have a geyser?

We headed back to Pocatello that afternoon and were able to spend some time with Brett's family in Pocatello. His cousin Ashley has kids that are both 5 weeks older than our two kids so that is fun! Kayla and Kate had some fun together. 

More Idaho fun to be continued.......

San Antonio Temple Trip

This last weekend was obviously special as it was Easter. Its a special holiday on its own, but this year we had an experience I'll never forget. Everyone is out of school here for Good Friday, so we were able to plan a temple trip for our entire stake youth group. It was a lot of work and planning. We challenged each youth to find their own names. They each had to find 10 names to be able to attend. The temple is about 4 hours from McAllen. So many of the youth and ward youth leaders didn't have much experience doing family history, but the excitement that developed and the work that was done was inspiring for me! 

Brett was off work so we decided to take the whole family. I'm still nursing Tyson, so I couldn't leave him anyway. We decided to make a family trip of it. We drove down the day before and went to the temple to pick up the names that the youth had submitted. There were over 800 names to have their baptisms and confirmations done! These are all family names from our youth and they worked hard to find these names. 

We decided to go to the San Antonio Zoo as well. Kayla is at such a fun age. She knows all the animals and is so full of excitement at experiencing new things. The Zoo was a hit for all of us!

These hippos were awesome! They were right up against the glass and were moving all over. They backed up right against the glass with their giant bums and Kayla thought it was hilarious. 

Thanks to a good friend, Kayla knows how to make an elephant sound and its hilarious. She was really excited to see the elephants. 

Tyson, as always, was a champ. He's such a blessing with his mild nature and big smiley face. I just that boy so much!

Family photo!

 

Brett took Kayla on the carousel and she was probably the happiest kid on the earth! She was quite upset when it was over and she ran right through the gates to get back on. She's really getting fun and more adventurous. She loves being independent and I love watching her grow up. 

They had a petting portion with pigs and goats and Kayla had a ball! She was much more happy about the goats than the pigs though. 

We had dinner at Steak and Shake, which Brett loves. Tyson was very determined to get in on the shake eating! I haven't started him on any food yet because I'm waiting until after our trip, but I think he'll be pretty excited when he can start eating food. :)

 

The next morning started off early for us, but not as early as the rest of our group! They left McAllen at 3:15 AM! We all met at a local Stake Center and used that as our base. 

We had an action packed day. We divided the 109 youth into 10 groups. They then took turns doing Baptisms at the temple, doing a service project on the temple grounds, and doing activities back at the stake center. We did a lot of shuffling kids back and forth and trying to keep everyone organized. 

We were also on food duty. We ordered pizza from Costco and completely filled the car! We left Tyson at the church with other leaders and its a good thing because he wouldn't have fit!

                            

I was so grateful to everyone that helped take care of the kids. I was so busy and Brett ended up spending the whole second half of the day in the temple so I had a lot of help. Kayla is recently potty trained so I was nervous she'd have an accident with all the driving and with different people taking care of her but she did great! 

I felt like I only saw Tyson when I needed to feed him. He had a good time being taken care of by a variety of people. Everyone kept complimenting me on how great of a baby he is. I'm grateful our kids are such troopers!

One of the best things was driving the youth back and forth and hearing their experiences doing temple work for their own ancestors. It makes all the work and planning completely worth it. I'm so proud of our youth taking Elder Andersen's temple challenge seriously. I pray they will continue to take their own names for temple trips and set that goal. 

We snapped one group photo as we were all getting ready to leave and I will cherish it. I'm so blessed to have the calling I do and the memories it gives me. My own testimony continues to grow as I watch these youth learn and grow testimonies of their own. The future of the church is in good hands!