Utah Trip part 2

7/12--We left my MIL's house and drove to Kiki's house. Jared stayed a couple of hours then drove to the airport to fly home. I just hung out with Kiki and the kids all day (and played Lego Indian Jones with Judson) then Nikki and Levi came over and ate dinner with us. Judson loves playing with Wyatt and Wyatt ADORES his big brother!:

7/13--I just hung out at home all day with the Kiki and the kids. Carma told me the Bolt story and said I was "the best girl in the world". She cracks me up!


7/14--Another day of hanging out. Kiki and the kids and I had ice cream cones and Wyatt enjoyed playing in a basket:

7/15--I went with Kiki to Carma's dance class. It was so funny to watch 3- & 4- yr.-olds tap dance and do ballet! Carma was SOOOO cute in her tutu!!! She was also in her own little world most of the time, ha ha!


When we got home, I did a quick photo session with Carma outside in her tutu:
7/16--Wyatt enjoyed a Push Up popsicle that morning:
One of Kiki's mission companions, Angela and her three kids and her teenage niece and her friend (the niece and friend live in England) had come to stay at Kiki's for a few days. They arrived late Monday night (7/13) and left Friday morning (7/17). On Thursday, two of my and Kiki's friends and their 4 kids plus a couple of friends of Angela's and their 4 kids came over to hang out. At one point, there were 6 women, 12 kids age 6 and younger (Judson was at a friend's house) and 2 teenage girls. It was kind of hectic but mostly fun. Kiki and I stayed up late every night talking with Angela after all the kids went to bed. It was so fun to hang out with her but it was nice to have peace and quiet in the house after they were all gone, too. There were a couple of times when I thought I was gonna lose my mind but it was mostly fun. That night, Carma danced for us--she loves the song "Boom Boom Pow" by the Black Eyed Peas, ha ha:

7/17--I had lunch at Winger's with Nikki and Levi. Wyatt started crawling on his hands and knees (instead of just doing the army crawl on his belly). He also had fun skinny dipping (or "chunky dunking" as Michael would say) in the baby pool that evening. Kiki and I made a black, white, and pink tutu for Carma. It came out so cute!!!
7/18--Kiki and I went and ate at Tucano's for lunch then did some grocery shopping--Kiki has turned into a major savvy shopper with a huge coupon binder and everything! Wyatt got to take a dip in the baby pool in the backyard and loved it:

7/19--Went to church but I came home in the third hour to stay home with Wyatt, whom Kiki brought home to nap. He was just way too tired and miserable to stay at church. Carma ate dinner naked at the table; don't ask me why she did that but it was hilarious. Nikki and Levi came over later and we played Settlers.

7/20--Kiki and Michael left in the afternoon to go to Park City for the night for their anniversary and I stayed with the kids. They were so good for me. Judson went and played for a little while at a friend's house after his karate class and Carma had a friend over--it was cute to watch them play together. That evening, Wyatt found a piece of gum somewhere and was actually chewing it; you can really see him chewing towards the end of this video:

It was so cute and funny! Carma told me for probably the 1ooth time, "Nonnie, you're my friend!"

He went down really easily for all of his naps but it wasn't so easy that night. I was up with him 'til 1am. Anytime I would rock him in his room he would cry but he was fine as soon as I took him downstairs. We figured out the next night that it was probably because it gets too hot in his room. Thankfully, however, he slept until 8 the next morning so I got plenty of sleep!

7/21--I made the kids clean up a little--Judson put dishes in the dishwasher away and Carma put away shoes that were in the front room. As she was doing so she exclaimed, "I can't handle this, Nonnie!" Ha ha ha! She's so funny!!! She also informed me later that day that sharks like cheese with their people. Wyatt sucked on another Push Up and I got this cute video:

I also did a photo session with Carma in the tutu Kiki and I made. How cute is she?!

That evening, Kiki glittered our toenails--mine in purple, of course, hers in turquoise and Carma's in pink. Nikki did hers that night in purple, as well.
Judson actually let me take a picture of him. He's such a handsome boy!
I did laundry that night and forgot that I had put my cell phone in my pants pocket before I took them off to throw them in the wash. I remembered after the washing machine started filling with water. I ran to the laundry room when it occured to me what I had done and frantically fished my cell phone out of the pants pocket. It got a little bit of water on it but it was OK--I got it out just in time!

7/22--Nikki brought me to the airport that morning. I had started getting sick the previous couple of days and was coughing quite a bit by that morning. It was really embarrassing on the plane! But I finally stopped coughing after taking some extra medicine and sucking on quite a few cough drops. Jared and I were supposed to do something that night and the next day to celebrate our anniversary but I just did't feel well. It was probably the worst anniversary yet and it was our 10th! Sad--but we'll celebrate with dinner out another night and we'll eventually go shopping for a new mattress! Oh and Jared gave me a LSU baseball cap and a LSU Pez dispenser. I made a card for him. We weren't supposed to do gifts since we are getting a mattress but Jared is a stinker like that. :) I would also like to get professional pictures done of us in the next couple of weeks. We'll see. Anyway, Happy Anniversary to me and Jared! 10 years, can you believe it?!!

Utah Trip part 1

[There are WAY to many pics to put pics of every activity so I just picked a few and I don't really feel like editing photos today so they are all straight out of my camera.]

7/3--We flew out in the afternoon; when we got to Salt Lake, we picked up our rental car and went out to eat, then we went back to the airport and picked up my SIL, Stephanie (who flew in from Tampa), then we headed to my MIL's house.

7/4--We got up early to go Grandpa Crittenden's for the breakfast at the annual Crittenden camp-out reunion. We stayed there for a while and got to hang out with lots of cousins, aunts and uncles.

7/5--My Birthday!!! We went to church, then drove (with a BIL, 2 SIL's and a niece) to my sister's house to have pizza and cake and ice cream. I brought the Wii MarioKart game Jared gave me for my birthday and we all played it, as well as Guitar Hero. Jared also gave me some perfume and cologne (for him to wear, ha ha) and an LSU wallet. My MIL had bought me a yummy birthday cake (even though she was down in AZ helping one my SILs) and my sister made a DELICIOUS chocolate torte cake and gave me a LSU pillowcase she made with her kids. My other sister and her DH were also there. Jared brought some fireworks that his mom transported from Louisiana to Utah for him a couple of summers ago. They were so big and loud! Some little girls next door had come out on the driveway to watch and one of the fireworks shot all the way from the road to right where they were standing. Thankfully no one was hurt but I was stopped breathing for a minute or two as the fireworks went off right at their little feet. Poor things! Some of us shot off Roman candles, too. The fireworks were illegal in Utah and a cop pulled up and told Jared that he could pay $1000 fine and get up to 6 months in jail but just gave him a warning. Whew! It was a great birthday and I had so much fun hanging out with family, despite the scare, ha ha.

7/6--Another SIL and her three kids had arrived late the previous night; we hung out at my MIL's house and played with all the kids and hung out with SILs. That night, Jason (Jared's little brother) was ordained a priest (I still can't believe he's 16!). Here's Jared, Jason, and their Grandpa Lingmann:

7/7--Jared and I got up at 5:30 to go fishing with Grandpa Crittenden at Rockport Reservoir. Grandpa sure knows what he's doing! We caught our limit (4 fish each) fairly quickly and even hooked a few that got away and let one go. It was so fun and the scenery was beautiful:
Jared and Grandpa gutted and cleaned the fish at the cleaning station at the dock then Jared and I went home and buttered and seasoned them and wrapped them in foil to freeze them and have them ready to cook on the camping trip. Later that afternoon, we went with Jason and Steph and her DH to Echo Reservoir for the boys to swing on a rope swing. The scenery there was also beautiful:
That night, everyone else had already gone up to ID to stay at a SIL's house so we took my MIL out to eat at Ruby River in Park City.

7/8--We woke up at 4am to drive to a SIL's house in ID. From there, we drove to Targhee National Forest, in WY, right off the border of ID. Our camping spot was so beautiful:
We had sandwiches for lunch and set up camp and had our fish that night for dinner. They were so yummy! Here's Jared eating one:
And, of course, we had s'mores for dessert! It got so cold at night, BTW! I was enjoying the nice weather during the days, though.

7/9--Jared went into town that morning to buy a fishing license and I went on a hike with all the kids and all the SILs and a BIL. The scenery was amazing:
That afternoon, we all painted white t-shirts. There was some amazing creativeness going on! Here's Jared's shirt:

And here's mine:

Jared went with everyone else to take the kids wading in the stream while I lay down because I was having back spasms. That night we did skits. Jared and I did "The Bucket Song". There were some pretty funny skits by others.

7/10--Jared got up really early and went fishing with all of the guys. That afternoon, all of the kids and a couple of adults (Jared included) made boats for a boat race. Jared's was really cool!:
That evening there were some more skits, all of the "big boys" shot a very big, very loud potato gun, we played a game of charades, and we had a talent show (I played "The Entertainer" on my clarinet).

7/11--We saw a mama moose and her baby moose (I wasn't able to get a clear picture, though). We took down camp, cleaned up and took family pictures. Here's Jared with his mom and siblings:
Here's some scenery leaving the Nat'l Forest:
We ended up stopping at both of my SIL's houses in ID before heading back to my MIL's house in UT. We were supposed to go and stay the night at my sister's house but we got back too late and were just too exhausted to drive another hour to her house.

So that's the first 1/2 of my Utah trip. The camping trip was so much fun. It was a joy to be around all the nieces and nephews and watch all the babies eat rocks and dirt, ha ha. We have the most adorable nieces and nephews in the world! :)

2nd Half of June

Warning: long, picture-filled post (pictures are SOC--I'm too lazy to edit my pics)

A week after camp, I watched Belle & Brenna one day and we had a lot of fun watching "The Incredibles", playing my marimba, trumpet, and piano, waving pom-poms and playing with Praia:
{Belle was playing outside with Praia and watching the koi fish; Brenna wanted to go outside but it was WAY too hot!}:

{A cute clip of Brenna being amused by big sis}:

The next day (6/20), we had a ward talent show. I was in a skit with the young women (the same skit we did for camp), I played the piano for one of my young woman's vocal solo, and I played my marimba. It all went really well and the ward activity was really fun! We, the Young Women, did the decorating and it looked so good, if I do say so myself! :)

The next day (6/21), we went to my parents' house after church for Father's Day. My dad smoked some chicken and Mom made baked beans and potato salad, yum! I made brownies. We watched Glen Beck's conversion story, which is really cool. He's a great speaker! We gave my dad a Valkyrie (sp?) DVD--he loves that movie.

{Brenna really enjoyed the food!}:

{And Belle was posing for pictures}:

And the next day (6/22--we had a lot of stuff all in a row, huh?), my family came over to our house to watch LSU play the first game in the College World Series Championship and to celebrate my birthday (early, since I'll be in Utah on my birthday). We made ham poboys and had chips and cake. I got some great presents: LSU flip-flops and an LSU baseball-style t-shirt from Ben & Becky; money from my parents; Wii Mario Kart game from Jared.

{Brenna wore the pink LSU outfit we gave her for her birthday}:

{My awesome LSU birthday cake}:

{My new MarioKart game}:LSU beat Texas that night but lost the next night. Then, they beat them again Wed. night to win the national championship. GEAUX TIGERS!!!

That Thursday (6/25), I took one of the young women to the LSU Baseball National Champions Celebration. It was hot as heck but pretty fun to celebrate with all the other Tiger fans. Some of the players spoke--one from each class: Mikie Mahtook for the freshmen, Anthony Ranaudo for the sophomores, Jared Mitchell for the Juniors, and Louis Coleman for Seniors. And the AD and Coach Mainieri both spoke, as well.

{Me & Alyssa}:

{Louis Coleman}:{Coach Mainieri}:{The new (6th) National Championship banner was raised. Woohoo!}:{And of course, I HAD to buy a t-shirt!}:

That sums up the end of June. The past week, I've mainly been getting stuff ready for our trip to Utah (and having a couple over last night for dinner and Guitar Hero). We leave tomorrow afternoon and I can't wait! I probably won't post anything until I get to my sister's house on the 12th. We'll spend the 1st week with Jared's family, except for Sunday--we're going to Kiki's house for my birthday. On the 4th, we'll be at a family reunion (Jared's dad's side of the family). The end of next week, we'll be camping with Jared's siblings and all their kids. I can't wait!

I hope everyone has a safe and fun 4th of July!!!