Grandma's Visit - Photo Special

Does it get any better than this??

Last week my grandma came to visit from Morehead City, North Carolina. She is very dear to me and I am always so excited when she comes!

We picked her up at the airport with enough time to go to lunch before picking Mindy up from her last day at school. Then we took her to experience my Dough Girl, and she was very much impressed. Of course. That is my favorite cookie place ever! Grandma bought more than a dozen cookies for us to bring home and share with everyone.

We relaxed at our house for a little while, then headed to Heber where we were all going to stay for the week. We stayed at my dad's house, which is the house I grew up in, though it is a lot more crowded these days. One of the nights, there were 15 of us sleeping there! 5 of those people were camping out back, but still! It was a really fun, family filled week, and I wanted to share some of my pictures so you could see what a picturesque world I live in. :)

Our first day in Heber, we went up to Wasatch State Park in Midway where we fed the ducks and the kids played on the playground. I love that place!

My Grandma's 84 and she's just as eager to get in the water as the kids! :) She's amazing!

It was unbelievably beautiful. The spring is a great time to visit the Heber Valley. But so is the fall... and the winter is fun too if you like snow.

I don't have any pictures of the rest of the day, but earlier that morning, my nurse called me and informed me that they got my lab work back and (surprise!) I had a bladder infection! What? I had no idea! So, that was a weird little detour we had to make to pick up some meds for me. I was glad I happened to have my checkup and that they caught it before it even really bothered me.

When I told the nurse that I was in Heber she said I had to go try the bread pudding at Daniels Summit Lodge. I've been wanting bread pudding for the longest time so we decided to go try it. My sister knew where it was, so we headed up there for lunch. It ended up being about 20 miles out of town, up in the mountains, so it was just beautiful. We had a good lunch, but found out that they don't have bread pudding there anymore! I was a little disappointed, but so full after lunch that it wasn't a big deal, and we were glad we'd gone up there anyway even just for the pretty drive.

The next day we just stayed at home and relaxed. We sat outside for a while and watched the kids play and the dogs run and just enjoyed the beautiful weather and the even more beautiful view.

I grew up with this view out my back door and totally took it for granted!

Here's me with my Grandma.

We made dinner for everyone that day. I made Baked Potato Soup and it was a huge hit! I shouldn't have halved it. That was really the only cooking I had to do all week, though. I was totally spoiled there! I also sat and watched the incredibly long BBC version of Persuasion because I was feeling pretty sick, but didn't want to nap because that tends to make me feel worse.

The next day, my brother and his wife and kids had joined the crew and we all went out to breakfast at Soldier Hollow. This is where they had the cross country skiing during the Olympics and where BAM is held, and there's also a golf course. I never realized there was a restaurant there, but my dad informed us they had good breakfast so of course we had to try it out. Going out to eat is what we do when my grandma's around! So fun!

Another beautiful view!

Heather and Aria

Baxter, Shane and Ethan

Elle, me (Hmmm, can you tell I was about puked on the way there?) and Ethan

Katie, Grandma and Mindy

Here's one more picture, from the next day, of the cute girls with their matching hair-dos. Awww, so cute!

Mindy, Elle, Aria

Friday afternoon, Pete rode his bike over a couple mountains, and most of the way to Heber so I went and picked him up in Provo Canyon. It was quite a ride, especially because he hasn't been out on his bike much this year. I was glad he made it in time to go out to eat with ALL of us to Tarahumara (our favorite!). I apologize to everyone I didn't get pictures of like my other sister and her husband, and my 2 new step-brothers who we got to know a little better during our stay. I wasn't really in tip top picture taking shape, and a lot of the time I wasn't much fun to be around (which Katie kept reminding me of), but I did have a good time considering the nausea!

The rest of the time it was pretty cold and rainy so we hung out at home a lot. Katie and I were pretty relieved that we weren't running the marathon anymore since we would have gotten rained on for most of it! That would have been 3 for 3 marathons in the rain for me. Provo canyon was really pretty, though, and I'm excited to do it next year. I just hope it doesn't rain! I did get a quick (Ok, not really quick, it was like 5 hours!) shopping trip in with my Grandma and Katie, and that was really fun! No maternity clothes yet, though! I'm going to try and hold off until the fall. I just really needed some summer shirts.

We went shopping in Provo and saw the last 3 marathoners still with 8 miles to go, and it had been almost 6 hours. WOW! I rolled my window down and cheered for them! One of them kind of smiled at me. I really hope they made it. That is such a long time!

I had a great trip to Heber, and I was really sad to come home and have to be in charge of cooking and cleaning and taking care of the kids again. I also just really miss Heber. It is so beautiful there (I know, you're probably think, "Ok, we've heard enough about how beautiful it is there already, geez!") and so much more relaxed. Of course, I only go there on vacation now so that could be adding to the relaxed feel, but not much. Maybe someday we'll get to move back there, but right now I'm just glad we have somewhere to go there to visit whenever we want, and at least we're only an hour away.

Amazingly, I've been feeling better the past few days. Well, maybe not today, but the 2 days before that, so I was able to get a lot done around the house, and I actually kicked my shoes off and ran around with the kids at the park yesterday! Maybe I'm almost through this yucky part!