Retirement party on the railroad!

I'm still playing catch up on my blog. I couldn't let this fun trip slip through the cracks! Darren's Dad just retired in June after working for the railroad for 48 years. Can you believe that?! It's incredible to me. Anyway, to celebrate, Darren's Mom put together this wonderful train trip and we had quite the party with as much family as could make it to Hood River, Oregon. Carol gave all the kids engineer caps, and the rest of the fam got bandanas, so we were styling! Check out these future engineers:Then we took a beautiful train ride up to a little town in the mountains and had a nice picnic before heading back down. The boys thought the train ride was so exciting and hung out with Grandpa most of the time. What a cool grandpa for a little boy; one who knows everything there is to know about trains!Here are some pics I stole from Carol (thanks!) of our picnicking. She also brought a pinata that was the highlight of the kids' lunch.It was so great to see so much family and have time to chat with them on the train. We love you all. A huge congrats to Bruce and thank you Carol for the great day! We love you and we hope to see more of you at our house now.

Justin is 3!

It was a fire truck birthday in Utah for Justin! It was so fun to celebrate with so much family. The only bad part was that Darren was home in Seattle working a deadline. We missed him. But the rest of us had a great big party. We had pizza for dinner, had cake and ice cream and opened presents. I wish I could say I made this beautiful cake, but instead I have to thank my mom for ordering it for Justin. He was thrilled with it.
Mommy and the birthday boy.Thanks, Dad, for putting this fire truck together for me.Wow. 3 years old. Love you, buddy!

Utah, Part 2

Here's a little more in pictures of the fun things we did while we were in Utah, post-wedding. Grandma has a great backyard for fun in the sun! We put the sprinkler under the trampoline, had a slide going into a kiddie pool and put up a slip and slide and it was fun for all. And I do mean all. This is Alexis on the slip and slide right before Darren's turn popped a hole in it. Oops.Thanks to my parents, my sisters and I enjoyed a lovely overnight vacation sans kids in Park City. Thanks for letting us enjoy your time share with you, Michelle! We hit the outlet malls, ate yummy food and watched chick flicks all night. It was great.Then the kids joined us and we practically lived in our swimsuits and hopped from the pool to the hot tubs all day. The kids were in heaven and didn't want to leave. We also enjoyed swimming at Grandma and Grandpa Mangum's pool. Michelle's ingenious idea to get my boys these floatie rings made them right at home in the pool.Joseph and Alexis with their great grandparents.Storytime with Grandpa. My dad took my boys to a movie and to McDonald's while my mom and I shopped one morning and he had to rescue Justin at the top of the tubes at the playplace! Justin still talks about how his brave Grandpa came to his rescue.We had too much fun at the Strawberry Days fair in Pleasant Grove. The kids loved the rides!


Joseph was brave enough to get on the ferris wheel, but came off looking white as a sheet. We plopped him right down on a bench next to the garbage can until his color came back. Poor kid. The kids got tattoos on our way out of the park and they were very proud of them. Transformers for Joseph, Hello Kitty for Alexis and Batman for Justin.Grandma and Grandpa, you spoil us too much. Thanks for the great time!

Taylor and Melissa's Wedding

We had such a great time in Utah! And my brother's wedding was the highlight of the trip. I'm so glad the Timpanogos temple was closed the weekend they wanted to get married because it was so incredible to be at the Salt Lake temple and feel the spirit on temple square with my boys. I had never been inside the Salt Lake temple and it was magnificent! The sealing was especially neat because it was performed by the bride's Guatamalan grandfather in spanish! The spirit was so strong even though I wasn't understanding much of it. My boys enjoyed their first trip to temple square.The beautiful bride and her handsome husband fresh out of the temple!Melissa's parents and my parents.The reception was beautiful and so much fun. It was held outside in perfect weather. Justin had a great time with his cousin Elle messing with the decor.My other sibs.Joseph and Alexis were best buddies all night, so happy to be reunited.Joseph is like his mama. He loves to cut a rug. When he found out there was going to be dancing, he immediately responded, "I'm going to dance with Alexis." Alexis was happy to oblige and Joseph escorted her to the dance floor like a real gentleman. Elle chose a good dance partner as well.Here's our family photo of the night.And a candid one with grandma and grandpa.Taylor and Melissa: we love you! Congrats and thanks for the great day and the great party!

It's a Girl!

If you haven't already heard, we're having a baby girl in October! Pretty exciting! It's still sinking in. I had a moment in Old Navy today, looking at the tiny little ruffly pink things there that will now be allowed in my home. It's gonna be fun!

Can't wait to meet her.

All about Joseph

Happy birthday, Joseph! Well, my baby boy is six. We had a whole lot of birthday celebration around here. On his birthday, we spent the day with good friends at a farm. Check out these cuties.I think Joseph is lecturing on some aspect of nature that he knows everything about.Then we went home for some present opening and cake eating. Classic faces of pure joy at his presents. Gotta love it. Then on the weekend we enjoyed a way-too-quick visit from the Portland Jolley's. Hooray for Kellen and Caleb! These boys can never get enough of each other. We brought them along to cheer Joseph on at his T-ball game. Go Ice Wizards!It's a base hit! Because they're all base hits! In T-ball, everyone advances one base and the last batter gets to hit a grand slam. It's pretty adorable. His favorite position to play: 1st base. They get to see the most action.Then came the big bowling party. We had birthday kids on their own lane, a few little kids on one side and a few adults on the other. It was a good time! Love you, Joseph!

The Big Apple

Thanks to Ernst & Young and my wonderful mother-in-law who stayed with our boys, Darren and I went on the most fun and relaxing vacation to New York City! Well, it was relaxing for me. I didn't have to go to the conference Darren went to. I just got to play play play! But before the conference, we played together and saw all the sites. The Statue of Liberty,Ground Zero, which is now a new monument building under construction,and Times Square. We just so happened to be there the very night of the car bomb that didn't go off. Thank goodness it didn't go off! We were on the sidelines kinda early while nobody knew what was going on. It wasn't until we made it back to our hotel and turned on the tv that we understood the gravity of the situation. We walked Central Park and went to the top of the Empire State Building too. What a beautiful city! It was so great to be a tourist with my husband and spend so much time together. When Darren had to go to his conference outside of the city, I rode the train in and enjoyed the MOMA and the Guggenheim art museums and shopped like crazy. After being a tourist for two days, it was fun to try and feel like a New Yorker, navigating Grand Central Station, riding the subway and hailing taxi cabs. What a rush. A huge thank you to Grandma Jolley who made it possible for us to go and took such good care of my kids they didn't even miss me!