Our Weekend Getaway

   At the beginning of June, Grant and I went up to Utah for a weekend.  It was so great to see everyone.  This was the first time I had taken any time off from work since finding out I was pregnant, so it was a much needed vacation.  Sadly, it only lasted a few days before I had the wake up with reality and had to come back to work.  Even though I only took one day off of work, it took me a full week to recover from the vacation and late night chats.  

     Grant and I left right after we got off work on Thursday (around 4:00 pm) and didn't get to my parents house until 3:00 am.  We were driving because we sold our Nissan Sentra to Marianne and wanted to give her door to door delivery.  Grant was great and put it in auto-pilot and drove the entire time, while I got to take several little naps throughout the trip.  At one point, he did force me to sleep when my speech started to slur.  It didn't take much convincing to get me to take a nap.   

     So that first night (Friday), my mom and sisters threw me a baby shower.  Since Grant and I moved to Phoenix two years ago, this was actually the first time I got to see a some of my aunts and cousins, so it was great catching up with everyone.  I am grateful to mom, Kris, and Marianne for all the work they put into the baby shower.  It was great because we played one quick game, ate lots of yummy food, sat around and chatted, and then opened gifts.  I know that having it Friday night made it a little harder for some to come to the shower, but Grant and me were busy all day Saturday and then had to leave Sunday, so there wasn't any other time to do the baby shower.  I am so grateful to all my aunts and cousins who were able to make it and completely understand for those who it just didn't work out for.  My mother-in-law, Peggy, surprised me when I found out she was going to be there because school in Montana got out that same day at noon.  She, however, with her determination was not going to let that stop here from being at the shower, and even though I know she must have been running on very little sleep, made it to the airport, and flew in to Salt Lake by 4:30 pm and drove to Orem for the shower at 5:30 pm with my three sister-in-laws.  Grant and me have commented several times to each other, how lucky we are to have so much family that cares so much about us and give us so much support.  

This is a diaper cake from Karlie and Marianne!  It turned out so cute!

Zachary and Rebecca were huge helps for opening and organizing my gifts!

This is a diaper bag that my mom and sister made for me

 then filled it with all of the necessities of baby hygiene.

A few of the people who made the shower so much fun!  

   You might be wondering where all the men are, or you may not, considering this is a baby shower and is generally only for women.  However, the men entertained themselves by going up to Salt Lake and meeting going to see Kung Fu Panda, which apparently is a hilarious movie because every time an ad comes on for it, Grant still laughs at the jokes!  

   So the next day, one of the whole reasons we came to Utah was to be with Grant's family on Saturday because Tanner (Grant's younger brother) and wife, Lupe, were being sealed in the Bountiful temple.  It was quite an adventure just getting there!  As we were hurrying along on I-15, no need to mention our speed, our tire didn't just go flat, but pretty much blew up!  I am grateful that Grant was driving and even more grateful that he knows how to change a spare tire.  I have to admit that I barely had time to realize what had happened before Grant had pulled the car over to the side of the freeway and was already tearing his suit coat and tie off and rolling up his sleeves.  He was already in the backseat getting the spare tire before I could suggest calling someone, not that anyone would be able to help us since they were all up at the Bountiful temple already.  Due to Grant's amazing Nascar skills, though he had the spare tire changed in seven minutes!  I was amazed at how quickly the car was moving up and then back down with the spare tire on.  We were back on the road and had hardly lost any time!  I admit had it been just me, I would have been calling a cab because I wouldn't know the first thing about changing a tire.  We got to the temple on time and thankfully we still able to be there for the actual sealing.   It was such a nice ceremony.  

Tanner and Lupe outside the temple after the sealing.

All of Grant's family outside the temple doors.  

    Later that night we had a party for Tanner and Lupe's ward to celebrate their sealing and then got to spend more time with them after church the next day before heading back.  It was such a great weekend!  Its after weekends like this that make it hard for me to live away from family where these weekends are too few and too far in between!