I thought I'd start off this post with a super cute picture of Becca taking a bath in the sink. She's a doll! Anyway, I am currently in Sandy, Utah visiting my lovely family! My visit is half way over so I thought I would write about some of the things I've been up to so I don't feel inclined to write about everything when I get home. Emma, Becca, and I flew in on Monday morning. It was an adventure flying with two kids all by my lonesome! Luckily, Ben was able to take time away from his studies in order to drive me to the airport and help me get my luggage checked. We parted ways at the security check and Emma cried like crazy when she had to say good bye to daddy. It was sweet, really. Anyway, a nice airport information worker felt sorry for her and gave her a wing sticker which she insisted on wearing on her forehead. Everything else went very smoothly actually, except for when Emma had to walk through the metal detector. She was absolutely terrified! They wanted her to walk through separately from me and she was just scared to death. She screamed for mommy and made quite a sad little scene. But we survived and I remedied her sadness afterwards with some fruit snacks while watching the planes take off out the window. Emma and Becca were great on the plane. Becca slept in my arms the whole way and Emma sat nicely in her seat next me coloring
and looking out the window. Towards the end of the flight, Emma was looking at the safety pamphlet and noticed the the picture of an airplane in the water (in the section talking about what to do in case the airplane crashed in the water... frightening!)... well, Emma got all nervous and said "Oh no! Airplane in the water!" and then just before landing, she could see the Salt Lake out the window and yelled to me "I don't want the airplane in the water!". It was hillarious really... the nice man sitting next to me was laughing. Thank goodness we didn't really land in the water! :/
So, on Tuesday was Sarah's high school graduation. Hooray for Sarah (aka: the infamous "Muffin")! She
is now a proud graduate of Jordan High School, Home of the Beetdiggers! I, as well, am a proud alumni of this treasured school. This next year is the 100th anniversary for the school! Thankfully, they aren't in the same building they were 100 years ago... I would feel sad for the students, if that were the case. In fact, I was in the first graduating class to attend the newly built Jordan High for all three years. How interesting. ;) Anyway, Sarah looked lovely in her silver graduation gown! Yippee!!
Oh, and going back, on Monday evening we went to the new Draper IKEA and had dinner and shopped around. How exciting to have an IKEA in Utah now... my family is so thrilled! On Wednesday we spent some time in Provo making visits. First we went to Peter and Lacy's new apartment. It's so cute! They are doing a great job filling it up with super fun antique furniture... how very Dangerfield-like of them. he, he. After our visit with them, we met up with my super fun brother Aaron at Noodles for a late lunch. He recently started up as a newbee BYU student... how fun for him! I look forward to Friday when Aaron will be coming to stay for the weekend.
Today we spent the afternoon visiting my grandparents. We had pizza for lunch and were able to enjoy each others company and catch up on recent events. Emma especially loved all the birds in their backyard. They live in the avenues in Salt Lake and have a huge backyard just filled with animal life... they get amusing visits from deer, rabbits, fox, and even porcupines! Emma also noticed that grandpa had a red tool shed in the backyard. To her it looked like a small barn... so she said that there must be a cow in there. Well, my dad took her out to see the shed more closely and opened the door for her to show her that there wasn't a cow. Now, Emma keeps telling everyone that "the cow is gone!". She's turning into quite the source of entertainment lately with her funny comments!
What a lovely past couple of days we've had! Ben and I had a little getaway last night to The Boulders Resort and Spa in Carefree, AZ. Ben's parents took Emma overnight (woohoo!) and we kept Rebecca with us. She was a dream, though, and slept through most of it! We kept busy during our short stay. We arrived at about 4:00 yesterday and spent the late afternoon and 
evening relaxing in our wonderful room, reading, eating out at a great restaurant (The Spotted Donkey), swimming at the pool (which we had all to ourselves!), and watching the stars from our private porch. The views from our room were fantastic. The desert picture posted above was taken from the porch. So beautiful! This morning, we played some tennis, and then went swimming again. After that it was time to check out, pick up Emma, and head home. So, our retreat was short-lived, but absolutely wonderful!
