Boston, dance class #3, house guests, fun weekend

6/16: I was downstairs on the computer and Jared was taking a nap on the couch when the girls woke up from their nap.  They took all of the stuff off their beds (which is a lot!) and made themselves comfortable in the bathtub!

6/18-6/21: Savage ALC (Annual Leadership Conference) 2014 in Boston. We took the subway from the airport to the hotel (the Boston Park Plaza Hotel) and it was crazy; we took a taxi when we went back to the airport, ha ha. We also took the subway several other times but it wasn't as bad as it was with luggage--but I was in heels some of the time and there are lots of stairs to take to get around the subway! On our way back from the Symphony Hall to the hotel Fri. night, our subway was PACKED!!! Jared barely fit on and we were standing on the steps, with my face in some lady's chest, ha ha!

Here are some of the things we did:
Wed. night: a big dinner, including lobster
Thurs.: a big meeting (there were over 700 people there--all the Savage managers and spouses/guests; service projects at various places (our was at the Boston Food Bank, where we helped sort through donated items); Duck Tours, then a tour of Fenway Park and dinner (hot dogs, sliders, lobster rolls, ice cream, etc.) in one of the clubs there
Fri.: managers had a meeting, the spouses joined them for a history panel in Faneuil Hall, the managers were on their own for lunch while the spouses/guests were taken to lunch at Durgin Park Restaurant; dinner and concert by the Boston Pops Symphony at Symphony Hall.
Sat.: Jared and I at breakfast in the beautiful Boston Public Garden, then we went and walked around and bought gifts; we were way too tired to do much else, so we just went back to the hotel and rested for a bit before we headed to the airport

It was a fun but exhausting trip and we missed the girls so much. Thanks to Grandma and Kiki for tending the girls while we were away!!!

I got to drive the Duck Tour while we were in the water!

Beautiful Boston on the water part of our Duck Tour

A tour, then dinner at Fenway Park

Jared attended a business meeting, then we had a history panel in the historic Faneuil Hall

Dinner and a concert by the Boston Pops Symphony in the gorgeous Symphony Hall 

We sat and ate breakfast in the beautiful Boston Public Garden Sat. morning

 

6/24: Yay, Makenna went to dance class! [Remember, she was sick the first week, then refused to go in the second week.] And she LOVED it! We could hear her squealing in there. TOOOOO CUTE to see both of them in there having a blast!

 

 

 

Here are videos from the dance class.  I didn't cut/edit any of them, so you can watch it all or skip around:

6/24-6/26: I'm so glad I had the chance to have Cintia and Jeremy Mallett (from Louisiana) stay with us before he went into the MTC on Wed. They flew in Tues. evening; I took them to Bridal Veil Falls and past Deer Creek Reservoir before going to eat at Wendy's, then to the MTC. After that, I kept Cintia occupied by taking her past Mount Timp Temple and shopping at Deseret Book, then we went to my ward Relief Society craft night. Cintia flew out Thurs. morning, so it was a quick trip. It was great hanging out with Cintia!

Bridal Veil Falls

Provo Temple

MTC

Mount Timpanogos Temple

 

 

 The crafts I made Wed. night:

 

6/26: All we have to do to get the wind kicked up around here is make plans to have a weenie roast in the backyard. Guess I'll make other plans for dinner.

Since it was windy/rainy Thursday evening, we waited and did our weenie/s'mores roast Fri. night:

Makenna eating her hot dog from the top, instead of the end, ha ha!

 

 

 

 

 6/28: Jared took the girls to the Lehi Round Up parade Sat. morning and they had a blast (I wasn't feeling up to going and needed to get a few things done before a wedding that afternoon, anyway):

 

 

The girls had fun dancing at the wedding reception and I had fun chatting with people from Louisiana, including my bishop when I was a young single adult.

The wedding started at 2:00, which is when the girls usually go down for their nap; they fell asleep on the way home, so we just put them in bed when we got home around 4:30 and they slept until 8:00! So they didn't go to bed until 10:00 last night.  They skipped their nap today, due to church, but they did pretty well all day today.  I had choir practice this morning and the choir sang in church; the piano music we did today was harder than usual and I was so nervous.  I had a couple of little mess-ups but it went pretty well.  Our choir is pretty awesome. 

Jared will be home for another week+, so we will hopefully get out and do some fun stuff this week!

Dance class #2, family reunion, Father's Day

I started feeling a little better last Monday but I am STILL coughing a bit.  Not enough to keep me from going to church today, though, so that's good.  Last week was pretty busy. I spent most of Monday cleaning the house after being sick for almost a week.

My brother, Tim, came over on Monday night and we stayed up until 3am talking and he ended up staying until Wed. evening.  The girls had dance on Tues. (more on that below)

Jared was supposed to fly home Tues. night but his flight from Minot, ND to Denver was cancelled and he had to stay there an extra 24 hours, so he didn't get home until 12:30 Wed. night.  I had planned on having Jared watch the girls while I cleaned, shopped, and prepared for Bunco but Kiki stepped in and took them from lunch until the next day!  So Jared and I got to sleep in a bit Thurs. morning and the girls were happy when he was there to pick them up from Kiki's; and, of course, they had a blast having another sleepover at her house!  Jared brought the girls with him to get his haircut, pick up some prescriptions, and fill up my car.  I spent that afternoon shopping for clothes for our trip to Boston this week (I got 3 dresses, 2 skirts, a pair of slacks, and a shirt!), then I went shopping again Fri. evening.  Jared had come home from his trip with some fingernail paint for the girls and a Victoria's Secret gift card for me, which I went and used on a bra, and I also went and bought some jeans and other stuff.  Jared spend a lot of time working on the yard and such.   

6/10: Makenna missed her second dance class. No, she's not sick again, she just wouldn't go in without me and parents aren't allowed in the room during classtime. So frustrating. I was begging, pleading, bribing with a Frosty, showing her how much fun the other girls were having, trying to reason with her ("we pay for these classes!"), etc. Nothing worked. AAAAARGH!!!! Maybe next time.

At least Avery had a blast; she didn't worry about me one single bit. However, she was the one kid who would be off in her own little world, facing the opposite direction than every else, distracting another girl (they were sitting in a circle, supposed to be stretching or something, and Avery crawled right up into another girl's face), etc. I was like, great, I have the problem kids, ha ha!

 

 

Makenna was happy and excited about dance class--until we actually walked in.

Uncle Timmy

Avery doing her own thing during stretch time

 

Learning 1st position

6/12: Jared got home late last night. He was supposed to get home the previous night but his flight from Minot, ND was cancelled so he had to stay another night and day there. I had Bunco at my house, which was so much fun, while the twins stayed at Kiki's again. She is the BEST!!

6/13: Staying up way too late hemming pants that are too long, after finally remembering (re-figuring out) how to do a blind hem (it's been a while). Sucks to have to hem petite length pants! #shortgirlproblems


Yesterday (Sat., 6/14), we went to a Lingmann family reunion at Reed & Carrie's house (Jared's uncle).  It was a western theme party and Carrie went all out!  Cute decorations, a big inflatable water slide, little tents and a felt fire, stick horses, wooden horses to lasso, little gift bags for all the kids with bandanas, stick-on mustaches, mustache rings, treats, sheriff badge stickers, etc., and she had TONS of food--everything from sloppy joes, chips, pasta salad, strawberry jello salad, baked beans, cookies, candy bars, etc.  It was all so awesome.  And the girls also had fun jumpimg on their trampoline and getting in the hot tub.  Here are some of pictures:

Riding stick horses

Dipping their feet in the pool--they didn't stay in very long because it was a little chilly and windy that day

Jumping on the trampoline with a cousin

Cowgirl Grandma

We brought our box of balloons and pump that was left over from their 3rd birthday party and all the kids (and adults) had fun playing with them and twisting them into things

The cute tents and felt campfire

Cute decorations on the table for Spencer and Alyssa's baby shower

Avery blowing on the fire

Makenna warming up her hands

Avery sleeping in a tent

Makenna just hanging out in a tent

Riding horses again, this time with the bandanas and mustaches from their treat bags (they wouldn't put the mustaches on their faces, so we put them on their shirts)

Cowboy Jared

Spencer had more fun going down the water slide than any of the kids :)

Playing with Katie

Panning for gold

Relaxin' in the hot tub

The girls didn't want to go down the slide when it was wet, but once the pool was taken off and the slide dried off, all the kids had a blast going on it over and over again at the end of the party

Jared had fun dropping the kids down the slide

Colleen got in on the fun, too

We had so much fun yesterday but it was a LONG day!  We were there for 8 hours and the girls didn't get their nap.  They fell asleep in the car on the way home and we just put them in bed when we got home.  Avery woke up with a tummy ache and Jared put her on the potty--she just needed to poop but she ended up sleeping on the couch with him.  We were all still feeling run-down this morning before church and we all took a nap on the couch afterward, so we didn't do much for Father's Day.  I did get some pics of Jared and the girls before we left for church:

The girls "sang" with the Primary in sacrament meeting.  Makenna went right up and Avery started going up but panicked a little in the stampeded of kids and started crying, so I went to bring her up on the stand but she didn't go so the Primary president told me to just go up and hold her.  So I stood on the stand with all the kids and held Avery, who just waved at Jared most of the time.  I couldn't see Makenna but, apparently, she waved at Jared a lot, too, and yelled, "Hi, Daddy!" during the song, ha ha!  Avery game the theme in Primary.  I didn't really work with her on it, so she didn't have it memorized but she went up there without me or Jared--we were standing outside the door and peeked in to watch her.  We weren't sure if she would go up without one of us bringing her but she did great!  Didn't show one ounce of shyness.  You just never know what those little stinkers are gonna do!  They came home with a questionnaire about Jared.  I'll have to post their answers later.

Jared and I have a busy week coming up.  We're leaving for Boston on Wed.!  Woohooooo!