Our Trip Out West

We survived the trip out west and even decided that it would be okay to get in the car and come back home. The kids actually did pretty good considering that it took us 25 hours to get out there...6 hours to go down to Blanding, UT to the Olson Family Reunion...and then 26 hours to come back home. I got tired of the car, so I can only imagine the way they felt. On the way out there we had the kids on the sides of the seat so we could climb back to be with them if they needed us. About every couple of hours they needed us so one of us would climb back there. It sure was a tight fit between two car seats, but we managed to squeeze our way out. Brendan looks really happy in this picture, huh? It was taken somewhere in the middle of Nebraska. Nebraska has to be one of the not-so-pretty parts of the country...maybe it is just that it took so long to get through it that I don't like it too much.
We made the trip in 2 days. On the first day we traveled until almost 3:00 am EST, but it was only 1:00 am local time in Paxton, NE. We made it just inside the Mountain Time Zone before stopping. If we ever drive again, Paxton was too far. We will stop in Kearny instead. The kids slept okay in the hotel room and we were on the road again at 9:00 am. We were able to pull into Riverton around 7:oo pm and that was nice because it was still light outside and the kids were able to see what we had traveled so far to see. It really was exciting to see that Brendan remembered people. We had been practicing by looking at pictures every day and when he saw people coming towards him, he pointed his finger at them (just like we do at the pictures on the computer) with a look like, "I remember you!" He sure does have a good time with all of his cousins and aunts and uncles and grandmas and grandpas!
Sara and Brandon got married on July 21st in the Salt Lake temple. It was such a nice day. They both looked beautiful. Sealing room B seems to be a popular one in the Erickson family because everyone has been sealed there...John and Jessica, Neil and I and now Sara and Brandon. That week before the wedding was busy! The part that I enjoyed the most was being able to go to the temple so many times. Brandon went through on Wednesday, Sara on Thursday and then they were sealed on Saturday. The feeling of the temple was amazing. I am so grateful to live on the earth when we have temples. It gave me some time to reflect and ponder on the love that our Heavenly Father has for me. I love the temple.
These boys were so handsome...don't you think so?
Grandma Erickson made this beautiful dress for Eliza. Earlier in the night she had a cute peach ribbon in her hair, but it fell out and we couldn't find it anymore. She sure did love being dressed like a princess though. Her and Uncle John became good friends that night.
After the wedding on Saturday, Jamie, Adam, Kaleb, Lindi, Ryan, and Anna came down from Rexburg on Sunday. It was so fun to see them all and to let the kids get to know each other again. On Monday we went to Temple Square in Salt Lake City. We watched the movie about Joseph Smith in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. The funny thing is that we ran into the Kilians while we were there. They were getting ready to go down to the reunion in Blanding, too and had come early to spend some time in Salt Lake. This is such a small world. Brendan and Ryan gave each other bumps along the reflection pool.
Ryan was so cute to Eliza and let her ride in his cool stroller. He kept on coming up and saying, "Silly Beliza!" I thought that it was so cute. He is so grown up and it was fun to see him again. The boy cousins needed to take a break from the hot sun. Kaleb was so cute. I loved his chubby cheeks. On Tuesday we celebrated the 24th and Neil's, Nicole's and John's (but John wasn't able to come that night) birthdays with a family get together at the park. Uncle Jeff and Aunt Sue were able to come and see us and we were able to spend more time with Neil's extended family. We did fireworks that night and had a really good time. Neil's mom was so good to let us invite everyone over to her house even though she had had all of those people at the wedding reception just a few days earlier. I didn't really give her a lot of time to recuperate before we planned another get together. If nothing else, we helped get rid of some wedding cake!Brendan liked the fireworks!On Wednesday we wanted to get pictures taken with all of the cousins. Trey and Tye met us at JCPenneys and we tried to take pictures. There were a lot of other people trying to take pictures and they really rushed with us and we were not really impressed. But we managed to get a cute picture...I guess it isn't really tough when we all have cute kids.
After taking pictures we started for Blanding, UT. Brendan was really excited about the big swing that he saw when we got to Lynn and Lynette's house. He has a lot of fun on swings...but that wasn't all that there was to have fun with....Brendan had fun with the dirt... the rocks...
the horses... well, I don't know about this horse, the real one...the water...and cousin Ryan...
The four wheeler...
and Grandma and Grandpa...

And Eliza loved getting to meet everyone for the first time...(cousins, aunts, uncles, grandpa Bedke, and so many more people...)

Eliza with Kylie (above) and Alyssa (below)

Eliza loved lying on the floor......and she took really good naps while we were there, too. That must be why we have more pictures of Brendan than of her. :) And Brendan made his way into this picture, too.
Eliza did her showing off though by standing on Daddy's hand and really hammed it up! We had fun taking the cousin's picture...
Who do you think is the oldest one?
We sure are grateful for the legacy that Grandma and Grandpa Olson have set for us. They are good people and we are glad that Brendan and Eliza got to meet them. We love you guys!
And then we started our road trip home. This time Brendan sat in the middle. We didn't have to climb into the back seat at all on our trip home. I still think it is a long way to travel...but at least we had a car and not a covered wagon. :)

When are we going to get home?


We finally made it home...we survived...and miss everyone terribly. We are determined to someday make it so we are closer (distance wise) to our family. We love you all!

Life these days

Eliza is growing up so fast. She already weighs over 15 pounds. The doctor said that she might be able to start on some rice...so we tried some...just a little bit. I am going to have to find the patience to keep on putting food back into her mouth every time that she spits it out. She just hasn't figured out how to use her tongue to make the food go back to the back of her mouth yet. One thing she has figured out is grabbing the spoon out of mom and dad's hand. So we have to let her hold her own spoon, while we feed her with the other. She does like eating though! We are trying to start an enrichment group for the young mothers in our branch at church. We decided that it would be fun to go to the park. This month it was only the Bradleys and us. Hopefully we can attract a few more friends to come with us next month. But we were able to go to Baker Park. The parks here are really nice here. Brendan's favorite things are the swings, the slides, and the merry-go-rounds. Here is a picture of the three: Ryan and Alyssa Bradley and Brendan. The babies were pretty good for us as well. We enjoy our friends!
Mom's favorite time of day is when everyone settles down for a nap. Coordinating naps so that everyone is asleep at the same time is a little bit tricky sometimes, but for the most part we do pretty good. When Neil is at home he is such a big help. He likes to put Brendan to sleep for his afternoon nap. Can anyone guess why? Daddy works so hard and deserves a good nap every once in a while, too. :) We are getting ready to go out of town by taking a very LONG road trip out to Utah. Neil's sister Sara is getting married on the 21st and then on the following weekend the Olson Family is having a reunion in Blanding, Utah. We are just praying that these cute children of ours will be just as cute in the car for the 23 hour drive to Utah and then the ride home... Pray for us, Mom and Dad, to see their cuteness along the way!

We are so excited to be able to see everyone...meet our new cousins Kaleb and Anna and play more with Ryan. We are excited to see all of our aunts and uncles and Grandmas and Grandpas, too. Until then...

The Third and Seventh

Ohhh...look at the fireworks...

Brendan's expression during our own fireworks show on July 3rd. We had to celebrate it one day early because Daddy was going to be working on the 4th. I had bought a small package of fireworks last year and we never set them off...we had to make sure that we used them this year for sure-even if it meant that we had to set them off a day early!
It was a good thing that we set ours off on the 3rd because it rained cats and dogs on the 4th of July. The city cancelled their fireworks show on the fourth and rescheduled it for the 7th. We were excited about this because Neil was able to take us to the park to watch them. We parked on the side of the road and waited for them to start. Brendan was more interested in the cars that kept on passing...even after the fireworks started. All he wanted to do was look out the window at the car headlights that were going by. It never ceases to amaze us at the simple things in life that are so fascinating to him.
The city put on quite a show--too bad that Brendan wasn't even interested. Hopefully he will discover the beauties of the not so simple things, too.

Looking out the car window...saw nothing...except headlights. But if I would have just turned my head, I would have been able to see...Happy Fourth of July!!!!

We are so grateful to all the men and women who serve and have served this great country in preserving our freedoms. May God continue to hear the prayers of the righteous upon this land and may we always remember the many blessings He has blessed us with. Especially the blessing of freedom to worship the way that our conscious dictates. God BLESS America!!!

Look at the surprise Eliza had waiting for us when we came into the living room. We just had to snap a picture of this because she was so proud of herself...can't you see it written all over her face?

We love good friends

This past weekend we were able to go and visit some friends in North West Indiana that Neil knows from his mission. We love going to visit with them because they just make us feel so good. We were able to visit with Denise and she lives right next to her grandson, Aaron, who is four years old. Aaron was so cute with both Eliza and Brendan. He keeps on telling his mom that he wants a little baby, but so far hasn't been able to convince her! So for right now, we'll just have to keep on visiting a lot so that he can get his "baby fix" :)

The first day that we were there, Aaron and Brendan played outside all day long. I think that we are going to have to invest some money into a swing set one of these days...one with a slide so that Brendan will keep himself occupied going up and down the slide. After a long day's work digging holes in the gravel driveway with screw-drivers and hammers, talking in the garden, and sliding, they had to sit down and unwind to nothing else but Toy Story. Any other child would fall asleep during the movie because they had had a long day, but not Brendan. He watched the whole thing...even when we were in the other room for most of the movie. I kept on going in to check on him to see if he had magically fallen asleep, but nope! He was quoting the movie, dancing and singing to all of the songs and waiting for Woody to say, "Ah-hah, Ah-hah!" I think our kid is going to fit in just right at the kitchen table at Grandma and Grandpa Erickson's house when they start quoting movies! He isn't even 2 yet, but Toy Story and Shrek can keep his attention. Anyway, Aaron laid down on the bed to start the movie and put his hands under his chin to hold his head up. This was something Brendan wanted to join in on. So he laid down next to Aaron and tried to figure out how to put his hands the exact same way so that his head would be supported. It was so cute to watch him watch Aaron. This is why we love good friends.


And of particular note, Eliza is becoming quite the balancer. She is following in her brother's footsteps and standing on daddy's hand. She gets such a kick out of it. We had to show off her talents to everyone there. I have to say that Dad is pretty proud of his kids when they perform this amazing feat! Thanks for letting us come and visit. It was fun to see everyone and we hope to see you all again soon.