in review.

calvin and i are now 2 days back from a wonderful trip out to utah to visit my parents, sister alisa and husband ryan, and little brother adam. (yes, i still call him "little") i will try and give a quick re-cap of what we did but i don't want to leave anything out...

it begins a couple months ago when travis approached me with a possible dental trip down to mexico leaving calvin and me alone in cold, old boston for 10 days on our own. believe me, i talked to everyone i knew trying to convince them to come for a visit and had a couple other possible takers by the time my begging had ended. the thought of spending that amount of time without a daddy coming home to us every night sounded too lonely for this mama. (although, i'm pretty sure my friends were planning how to take good care of me if that were to happen) anyway, just a couple weeks before the big trip my parents invited me and calvin to make a trip out to them for 2 weeks to help the time pass. we had such a great time hanging out with grandma and papa, taking daily trips doing whatever my mom and i wanted that day, a few trips down to provo (including a byu game, dinners with alisa, intramural flag football and even yoga), cafe rio, jamba juice (x3), and lots, lots more. yes, we were spoiled. it's not every grandchild on my family's side who gets special one-on-one time with grandma and grandpa! (calvin is #15 out of a current 20 cousins with 3 on the way)! we have a lot of pictures but it's hard to choose just a few. and, for a little list of some of our utah trip favorites:

• grandma's bedtime back tickles
• trip to the park and canyon with papa
• looking at all the big trucks utah has to offer
• did i mention jamba juice?
• sleepover with alisa (including HSM2 movie night)
• "papa!! pray!!"-calvin, every. single. night.
• hold tight with grandma
• lots of cars and balls with whoever was around
• finally some good country radio again
• sunday night dinners and game playing
• re-learning how to sew
• etc., etc., etc.
  

birthday celebrations

calvin and adam have birthdays right next to each other, adam's on the 2nd and calvin's on the 3rd. we happened to fly in on adam's b-day and got to celebrate the two birthday boys together.

byu football

it was so fun to go to a game in lavell edwards stadium again. i have so many memories of games here. this time was nice, though since i got to sit in my dad's seats with all the "extras" that go along with them!

alisa, liz, dad, adam

sunday night games (and eating. alot)
both sundays we were there these three came up from provo to eat dinner and play games. adam introduced us to a really fun game call "mau" that we played for hours. we also decided to bring back mother goose popcorn finishing and ended up eating the entire bowl.

cars
this is how calvin spent his free time. he woke up in the morning. cars. got home from the store. cars. after his nap? cars.

grandpa's knees
this is a great memory of mine growing up. we used to all line up to wait for our turn to stand on my dad's knees. the older we got the harder it became because my dad would let go of our hands and start moving his knees.

grandma
my mom quickly became calvin's best friend. she was so helpful to me during the entire 2 weeks not only getting him ready to go but playing with him whenever he needed a friend.

aunt alisa
even though it took a little warming up every time we saw her, calvin became quickly attached to my twin sister. i guess alisa is a hard name to say because every time calvin needed to get her attention he would yell "ras!" i love that two of my very favorite people already have a special bond! we had fun going to visit alisa and her class. we got there near the end of the day so only got in on a little bit of her teaching but those kids love her! and this is what calvin did while she entered grades into the computer. back and forth...

we love you ras!

old friends
one day two of my best friends from freshman year came up to bountiful for a visit. i am so lucky to have such great friends from college who still stay in touch (more or less)after all this time. it is hard to believe that just 7 years ago we were silly freshman girls running around byu campus...

jenae, liz, janelle

and now look what we've done!

calvin, hazel (janelle), ashlin and rachel (jenae)

and the classic picture of us and our kiddos!

yoga
friday night calvin and i went down to provo to watch adam in one of his games and then to spend the night with alisa while ryan was away for an interview. we woke up the next morning, watched another one of adam's games and then all 5 of us went to a yoga class! let's just say that niether mom, dad, nor adam had ever taken a class and i have only taken one (oh, and i'm 7.5 months pregnant). you can only imagine! but we all gave it our best and woke up just a little more sore than normal in the morning.

"hold tight"
as calvin so appropriately calls it, "hold tight" was one of his favorite games to play with grandma. it was not unusual to see my mom carrying calvin on her back while trying to make dinner, walking down the stairs, or just hanging around.

and let's not forget grandpa, too!

tramp time

my latest project

ever since i found out we were having another baby i really wanted to re-do my infant car seat cover. it wasn't that bad but i wanted something fresh and new for this one since we had been given the car seat from some friends. here's the finished product. not too bad for a non-sewer, eh?

thanks again, mom and dad for such a great two weeks. we miss you already and are trying to adjust back to small apartment living and me having to learn how to do things all on my own again! and, look forward to a future post from travis about his trip down to mexico...(hint, hint trav)