St. George - Walker Getaway Weekend

Around Christmas-time, Melissa started talking about getting everyone together to go on a Walker Family trip. Things were a little complicated because Matt and Brooklyn live in California, Jenna is getting ready to move to Iowa, and we are planning for a baby to join us in June and couldn't commit to a solid summer date. Thank goodness that Melissa kept pushing, even though the rest of us were being fairly non-committal (even though we all thought it would be great!). We finally found a weekend when most of us could make it and we decided to just go for it. Instead of going somewhere big, we just decided to escape the cold for a little bit and head down to St. George for the weekend. It was perfect! Exactly the escape that we needed. David wasn't able to come #busyseason - but maybe that's why it was extra needed in my case. We've had a fine busy season, but it's starting to drag, and this was exactly the thing that I needed to get us through the rest of the way. 

Our trip wasn't incredibly long or fancy, but it was just SO nice to spend some time with my family. We left on a Friday morning and caravanned down, stopping at the Cedar City temple for a couple of minutes. (We were planning to eat lunch there but it was still too cold.)

We spend the rest of Friday playing at a super-fun park in St. George where the weather was beautiful! Then we headed to a little house just outside of St. George that Melissa and Blake were able to rent through Blake's work. It's like an Airbnb but Blake's work keeps it for employees to rent. It had plenty of bedrooms for all of us and was the perfect place to stay on our trip! The best part about this day was that Matt and Brooklyn surprised us by coming! We didn't think that they were going to be able to come (California and all that) - but last minute they decided to take the days off of work and just come. It was such a happy surprise! They just walked up to us while we were at the park and we could hardly believe that they were there. We spent the night playing games and eating lots of food. 

The next morning we got up went exploring for a little bit and then went out to breakfast at Hash House a Go Go, which has pancakes that are literally the size of a steering wheel. It was such a fun place to eat. Going out to eat with three kids (plus their three cousins) isn't exactly peaceful - but they did well for the most part and the food was delicious so I will chalk it up to a win. We went on a hike, went swimming in the afternoon, went exploring around some cool rock formations close to the house, and played games together. It was a perfect sunny day, minus the brief time when I almost ran out of gas in the middle of nowhere as I drove along an abandoned back road trying to get to the nearest gas station. (#reallife)

Hiking at 26 weeks pregnant while carrying my 2 year old in the carrier - go me! I was also the one who made everyone turn around and head back before the adults were really ready to be done because if I have learned anything as a mother it is the fact that you have to make sure to save enough energy to get your kids back. You have to stop before they are halfway tired because they have to walk all the way back and getting back often takes more energy than getting there. It worked out though, we all had fun and the kids only started dragging at the very end - so pretty much perfect timing.

Exploring the rock formations near where we stayed. Melissa and Blake came with us to walk around before bedtime. 

My dad had already committed to helping my Grandpa on the ranch this weekend, so he wasn't going to be able to come either - but then right before bedtime, he surprised us by showing up, too! It was so neat to have all of my siblings, both of my parents, and all of their spouses there. 

The only person who was missing was David. I missed him a lot, and I know that he wanted to be there. He felt so bad that he couldn't come, but he really just couldn't make it work. Even though he couldn't come, and I missed him badly, I was so grateful all weekend that he was so supportive of me coming with the kids, both emotionally and financially, even though he wouldn't be able to come and enjoy with us. It means a lot to me that he was so encouraging to me and the kids even though he had to stay home and work. I am grateful every day that I married that man. 

Sunday we got up, ate a delicious breakfast (I made aebleskivers and Matt and Brooklyn made homemade bagels, yum!) and then went to a local ward for Church. Then we went to the temple grounds and walked around and took pictures. 

Before we headed home, we stopped at the St. George Cemetary where Grandma and Grandma Blanche and Ed McAllister are buried. #familyhistory

My little brother Jacob rode home with us, which the kids loved. We stopped at the Payson Temple for a little break. That brought the temple count on this trip up to 3. (We drove past the City Center and Provo temples, too - so if you count that - 5!) We have recently printed out pictures of all of the temples in Utah and hung them up on our big Utah Map. We want to go to all of them. After we go, then we can color them in - that's the plan.)  

I love my family. 

I am so grateful for the relationships that we share. We had such a great time on this trip and I'm just still basking in the glow of the summer-sunshine (which is just so needed in March!) and the glow of spending the weekend with some of the people that I love most in life. (The only thing that could have made it better is if David had been able to come, too.) Pretty soon Jenna will be off in Iowa, Matt and Brooklyn will be back in California, and things will be a little different. But this weekend was wonderful and the sunshine will be coming to Lehi soon, and after such a great weekend everything feels like it's going to be okay. (And thank heavens for Marco Polo that will be able to keep my family connected no matter where they are.) Huge shoutout to Melissa for making this happen, I'm incredibly grateful to her because this weekend was exactly what I needed. 

(Also, of note - I made a video of this trip using small clips that I took throughout the weekend. It turned out so great and was so fun. I'm not uploading it on here because it won't transfer into the book - but it's been so fun to watch because it really captures the feeling of this weekend.) 

Sister Watercolors

I love my sisters. I'm so blessed to have two sisters and to have them live so close to me. I have a different relationship with each one and those relationships have evolved over the years and I'm so grateful to be so close to them. We decided to get together and have Melissa teach us how to watercolor (she's incredibly talented!) It was a great night of painting, talking, and laughing. Melis helped me outline a portrait of David and I and I love the way it turned out. Jenna is going to be moving soon, probably, and I'm glad that we were able to get together just as sisters before she's a million miles away. 

Now we fancy ourselves as artists. Ha. I'd actually really like to learn more and spend more time doing watercolors. Art is something I've never been particularly good at but the more I explore it the more I enjoy it.

Doctor Who?

So, here's the deal. Sometimes David and I can be a little nerdy. For the most part we are a fairly normal family who, although they might be a little awkward at times, does fairly normal things. However, a while back my family started really getting into Doctor Who. We'd occasionally walk in while they were watching an episode and we determined it was the lamest show in the world. It was weird, super British, low budget, and (did I mention) really really weird.  We swore we would never watch it and resisted all attempts of my siblings to get us to join in. As time passed, it got to the point that I could barely understand what my siblings were talking about because everything was riddled with references to "The Doctor", jokes about "blinking", and sonic screwdrivers. I finally gave in and told David that I was just going to watch it so that I could understand what was going on and become part of my family again. I wasn't terribly happy about it and had a sort of martyr-attitude going into it. By the time I hit the second season, I was hooked! Five netflix-seasons later - I felt like a whole new world had opened up with friends and adventures I could never have dreamed of! I told David that he needed to watch it with me, and after some hesitation on his part - he agreed. What I realized, and have since told all others that I've recommended the show to, is that you have to commit to watch the entire first season and the first episode of the second season before making any judgements. By then - you are in. Of course David loved it and we quickly became (arguably) the biggest Doctor Who fans in the family. (I should also mention that my dad grew up watching the old black and white Doctor Who series and he's really the one that instilled the love into his children. He's pretty awesome.)

Our love of The Doctor and his big blue box has spread, and we decided that for the Season Seven Premier - we were going to have a Doctor Who party and invite all of the people around us who love The Doctor as much as we do. That is how our front door ended up looking like this:  

And our kitchen ended up being filled with treats like this: 

Lydia was beyond excited for "the party". She'd been a big helper getting everything ready and she knew two things: 1-her "friends" were coming over to play, and 2-she got to eat a marshmallow treat at "the party". She could barely stand it and spent much of the beginning of the party running around and giggling out of sheer happiness.  Poor girl was devastated when we took her upstairs and put her to bed. So, so, so sad. 

We hadn't really planned to do much more than watch the new season-opener, but our nephews, Josh and Daniel, had found this awesome instructional sheet on how to write in Gallifrey-ian. So we decided to give everyone the opportunity to learn to write their names using The Doctor's native language. It was pretty awesome and it turned out to be really fun.  

We got our food and everyone got ready to meet the new Doctor. 

Did I mention that the show is about a man who travels through space and time and occasionally almost-dies and regenerates into an entirely new person who is completely different, but exactly the same? As crazy as it sounds - it's full of wonderful people who travel around doing as much good as possible while saving the world/universe. What's not to love? Plus, we certainly loved sharing it with these awesome people: 

From left to right: Josh and Daniel started watching in the "Matt Smith" seasons and it took much convincing to make them go back and watch from the beginning (starting with Christopher Eccleston). They were one of the main reasons for the party- mostly because we told them that they couldn't come unless they went back and started over. Matthew, my brother, has been a huge Who fan for years. Garret and Karli Shields got sucked in when we convinced them to start watching, and although Garret is more of a fan than Karli is - she was still a great sport. Melissa taught me that you can still be cool and love Doctor Who - and is slowly convincing Blake of the same thing. 

If you want to come to our next Doctor Who party - you can start watching on Netflix. Remember though, the whole first season and the first episode of the second season. Commit to it before you start. Also, don't ever tell me that you like Matt Smith more than David Tennant. Not that I'm worried that you would - no one makes a better Doctor than David Tennant. (Also, I should mention that they've introduced a few new characters that we don't love. We kept hoping that it was just a short-term thing, but they were in the newest episode and if they don't phase out soon our love for Doctor Who will be seriously diminished - or at least limited to certain seasons.) 

Happy time-traveling, friends. Allons-y!