Nate, Telisha, and company :)

For Labor Day weekend Sean and I took a trip to Columbus, Ohio to see Sean's brother Nate, his wife Telisha, and their adorable kids.  The drive up there wasn't as bad as I was expecting and seeing them was  definitely worth the 15 hours in the car.  We had SOOO much fun!  I'm really glad we decided to go up and visit them.  We haven't seen them since last summer, I can't believe it's been over a year!  Sidney, Owen, and Tanner were so big! 

Uncle Sean reading to Sid and Tanner

I couldn't believe how big Tanner has gotten.  The last time we saw him he was still a newborn!

While we were there we went to the zoo.  The kids loved looking at the "fishies".

 

Owen would freak out every time a shark would come by the window, so cute.

I love Owen!

We got the kids a few little gifts.  It was hilarious watching them open up the presents (video to come later).

 

This is probably the best picture of the whole trip.  Sean and I weren't really expecting much of a reaction from Tanner because he's so little, but he had the best reaction of them all!  This picture doesn't even do it justice, he started trembling and screaming with excitement.  Awesome.

Owen kept screaming, "open it Dad, open it!!"

"Bubbles!"  "Princess stuff!"

Haha!!

Sidney with her purple princess shirt (purple is her favorite color, that was pure luck!)

Owen couldn't say 'cars' so he kept screaming "TARS!"...love him :)

Seriously?  Are these not the cutest kids that you've ever seen? 

 So we got the boys some bubbles with their cars, and basically I saw this going a lot differently in my head.  Haha, they were doing anything but running and making bubbles.  Mostly they were crying/screaming, pouring them out, chasing each other around the yard with them, hitting the ball with the bubble stick, etc.  Well, I tried. 

 

"T-ball" with the bubble stick 

 

This picture pretty much sums up how the bubbles went.

Girls Weekend!

Sean and I have been married a little over two years.  I've never been on a trip with out him, but a few weeks ago I had a short girls weekend with Chelse and Rachel, two of my best friends from college.  We went to San Francisco, and it was so much fun!  I haven't been there in a long time, so it was fun to see the city as an adult.  It's a really neat city, a lot different from Texas!  It was really good to see both of them again, it makes me sad that none of us live by each other...sigh, maybe one day :)  I love being married, but it's always nice to get a little girl time in (love you Sean).

As you can see from this picture and the first one, we went to Lombard Street.  It's supposed to be the most crooked street, it was pretty cool. 

These houses were on Lombard street too, I just thought they looked neat. 

We went to Ghiradelli Square, and got a lot of free samples..totally worth it! 

We went to a few different piers, including Pier 39 and saw Alcatraz Island. 

Love them. 

We had some amazing meals, including this breakfast.

We waited for some buses that never came.. 

We went to the Golden Gate Park, so pretty. 

Our rainbows :)

took a bunch of pictures.. 

I miss them already!

Concrete jungle where dreams are made of...

Sean has never been out to the east coast and one of my best friends Rachel lives in New York City, so it seemed like the perfect time while Sean had a break from school to take a trip to NYC.  I took a few days off of work, we got some cheap standby tickets (beh..standby), and headed out to the east coast.  We had a lot of fun while we were there, and got to see some really fun stuff.  The last time I had been to NYC was three years ago, right before I started dental hygiene school and right when Rachel first moved there.  New York is such a cool city, so I was really excited to get back.  I will just apologize in advance for all the pictures, trust me there were a lot more.  I tried really hard to condense them into some of the highlights of the trip. 

The first night we were there we went and walked the Brooklyn Bridge.  When I went to visit Rach three years ago, it was both of our first times walking the bridge (interesting story).  Rachel says it's still one of her favorite things to do in the city.  :)

One of my favorite pics of the whole trip

Rach took us to this sweet little pizza place under the Brooklyn Bridge..delicious!

Empire State Building 

Sean found one of his relatives on a tombstone in some random graveyard in the city..cool huh?

Ferry ridge..as you can clearly see from my hair 

The Statue of Liberty 

Definitely Sean's favorite part of the trip...Yankee's game.  I will say,  it was a pretty sweet stadium.

We had horrible seats, but it was still really fun.

So this is basically the only time Sean takes pictures, at sporting events.  And more importantly the only time he will willingly participate/smile in pictures. 

Like I said... 

Canal Street...always one of my favorite stops in NYC.  I probably spent our life saving here.

Central Park

The reservoir in  Central Park that Rachel took us too, it was a long walk..but totally worth it :) 

Manhattan LDS Temple

Doesn't it look like a regular building?  The first time I saw it I just walked right past it! 

 Yes, we're THOSE dumb tourists on the red double-decker tour buses, it was actually really fun.  And yes, that is my favorite store conveniently located in Times Square.

Madison Square Garden, another picture taken by Sean. 

Ground Zero 

This is exactly what it looks like, serenity.  It was so hot in the city and none of the subways were air conditioned..so this is what happened every time a fan was spotted. 

Too funny not to put in, a break dancer on the subway dancing for cash.  Yes, I'm a sucker and gave him a dollar..it looked like hard work! 

Our last night we saw WICKED on Broadway!!! 

I had wanted to see it for a really long time and it was totally worth the wait. 

The show was just as everyone says, AMAZING.

Home to Chicago

About a month ago Sean and I went back to my parent's house for my little brother Dan's graduation open house.  It was only a quick weekend trip, but it was fun to be there, and I'm sure my parents really appreciated our help.  So according to Sean the idea of a graduation open house seems unnecessary and kind of ridiculous, but where I'm from it's a really big deal.  All of the high school graduates send out invitations, plan their party around all their friends', and basically have a big party with a bunch of food where everyone who comes brings you money.  It's awesome.  But, on the flip side for the family hosting it's a lot of work and strategic planning.  This time being my mom's fifth and final open house, she basically had it down.  She just needed work horses (Sean and me) to carry out all the delegations.

 Dan with a few of his friends

Besties

So, it's been a while since I've blogged.  We've taken a few trips in the last couple of months and I'll start with our first one. 

On Memorial Day weekend we went to Clinton, Mississippi to see my best friend Noel.  Noel and I have been best friends since we were 15 years old.  That's over 9 years!  Since our meeting at a stake dance we've been through a lot together.  Just a few things that come to mind are multiple bad/good boyfriends, school dances, high school, tons of all-nighters, our first cars, summers at the beach,  rooming together at BYU-Idaho, bridesmaids at each others weddings, plenty of tears, and even more laughing.  Noel has since passed me in the growing up phase-she now has two beautiful kids, Hyrum and Elizabeth.  Which brings us to our most recent visit to Mississippi, to see baby Elizabeth Paige!

Noel, Hyrum, Elizabeth, and me.

We had a lot of fun while we were there.  Joey took us fishing, we went bowling, went to a 'southern barbeque', and hung out with tons of family!

I caught a fish!  Hyrum really liked all the fish :)