Cassie's new bed

Less than a week before we left Provo, Cassie figured out how to climb out of her pack-n-play. (Yes, she slept in a pack-n-play. We were poor college students.) Oh, the joys of trying to keep her in her room. We inherited a toddler bed from my cousin and decided to set it up right after we moved, since Cassie was going to be wandering around her bedroom anyway. (Luckily, our new apartment has locks on all the doors. And when she figured out how to unlock the door, we bought a doorknob cover. And when she figured out how to pull the cover off, we super-glued it together. But I digress.) We decided check on her during her first night in the new bed, and it's become a nightly ritual. Why? Because she's hilarious:

We don't put her to bed with shoes and socks. Really.

I guess the floor is comfortable. (?)
That's an alphabet puzzle by her head. And those are the pieces, scattered all over the bed.
Who doesn't sleep with all their books piled on the bed?
And if not books, at least some toys.
Yup. Very comfortable.
This one's just sweet. She loves her Mother Goose book.
Well, she loves all her books.

Roommate Reunion

I think I am probably one of the luckiest people in the world when it comes to getting good roommates. Of course, my current roommate is my favorite, but I had some amazing roommates in college that have become some of my best friends. We were thrown together in the dorms our freshman year, and it's really miraculous how well we all got along. Our apartment number was 2010, so we joked about having a reunion during the corresponding year, hopefully in Paris. Unfortunately, Paris wasn't in our budgets this year, but a cabin in Kamas, Utah was! Our husbands/families were all very helpful and watched our children, and we had way too much fun.

Of our original six roommates, four were able to come, and we invited an honorary roommate as well (we're all friends with her and she lived in our same building freshman year, I lived with her at one point and most of us worked with her too).

Janelle (pregnant with twins! her fourth and fifth children. she is superwoman.) and Lisa (photographer extroirdinaire, and thanks to her detailed scrapbooks from our freshman year, we relived a lot of great moments)

Kristy (we've been friends since 9th grade! What would I do without her?) and Alicia (honorary roomie and we spent our entire college experience together- same major, same job)

And of course, what 2010 reunion would be complete without Utard hair?

I love these girls!

Family Reunion

Here I am again, playing more catch-up. Hopefully I can be more punctual...

In June we had a reunion with my mom's side of the family. We went "camping" in Heber Valley and had a lot of fun with my aunts, uncles, and cousins. (Okay, so we were staying in cabins with wooden bunks, we had flushing toilets about 50 yards away, and running water in our pavilion. So maybe camping isn't the best word to describe it.) I really wanted to document this so I could remember what a fun time we had.

First, let me describe my mom's family. She is the youngest of six kids (3 boys, 3 girls), and all of her siblings married and had lots of kids. :) There are 36 of us total, and all but 7 of us are married (1 engaged. Go Derek!). Between us cousins, we have 73 children. So, if everyone in our family showed up to a reunion, we would have 144 people. Of course, not everyone comes (we have them every other year), but we get a little different turnout each time, so I've seen nearly all of my cousins in the last 6 years.

This reunion was a lot of fun for me because I was able to stay the whole time, so I got to see everyone who made an appearance. Trevor and I had a lot of fun on the challenge courses (climbing tall things, going down zip lines, team-building activities, etc.) and playing games at night in the pavilion. Cassie loved putting on the helmets for the challenge courses and sleeping in a cabin (what fun!). I really loved hanging out with my cousins and their children that I rarely see.

Favorite moments:

• Giving Cassie a turn on a giant swing ("I bet she'll love this") and having her cling to me and urgently announce, "I'm all done!" before swinging at all.
• Getting 13 of us from a "sinking ship" to a tiny platform via rope swing. Including Cassie- Trevor held her while he swung. (Actually, that moment scared me, but it was really cool when it finally worked and no one was injured.)
• Playing "Who's got the button?" (or ring, in this case) and seeing it dangling from the string right next to Alysse's hands while her sisters try to get her to hide it.
• Watching everyone waddle with oranges between their knees and pie tins on their heads.
• Hearing everyone's memories of Grandma and Grandpa, especially Robert's memory of Grandma making him chew 24 times before swallowing. Classic.