Friday, August 10, 2012

Friends

Fifteen years ago, my life was changed forever when I met these people:

Robbie, Ben ("Bean"), Amy ("Simmons"), Jacob ("Beastie"), Jolie, and Jessica ("Faber").

It is no use to try to explain why our high school friends are the best friends ever, or why our friendship with this group surpasses all definitions of friendship.  No one ever quite "gets" it or even believes us!  Let's just say that none of us are surprised that we are still close and tight-knit, 12 years after graduation.  It was not difficult to convince everyone to fly in from all over the country (Boston, Philadelphia, Florida, California) to get together.  WHY?  Because we have SO MUCH FUN together.  We get each other's jokes and laugh harder than ever when we're together.  After several years, we don't have to try to get reacquainted because we all helped each other become the people we are.  I love these people!

It also helps a lot that Ben and I got married.  We owe our relationship to the foundation of friendship that we built in this group.  It is SO fun to have 15 years of memories together and to have the same best friends. Ben and I have lots of inside jokes that go way back to our crazy days with our high school friends.  

If you didn't notice, we are all in the prime of our lives!  Just look at us!  We were really proud of ourselves for going hiking up Adams Canyon for our 30-year combined birthday celebration.  I guess it shouldn't be a surprise, since we are the same people who frolicked about at Disneyland and Six Flags chanting "Healthy Kids Unite! Healthy Kids Unite!" for no apparent reason.  We did a lot of crazy things that we should probably be embarrassed about now.  But we aren't.

A lovely post-hike brunch at Jacob's parents' home.  We thought about having our reunion at some cool destination, but why would we want to do that, when we can hang out at our parents' houses for free?  I believe it was at this table that we realized 6 out of 7 of us are still on our parents' cell phone plan.  Or maybe it was 7 out of 7? How's that for independence?

A LOT of laughing happened during this interlude.

Seriously, a lot.  

Think several episodes of everyone busting up until they cried.  We were looking at pictures, reading journal entries, and holding our "Relic of the Past" gift exchange.

Here is one of the funniest pictures: Robbie trying to stay warm on the Europe trip.

This is the relic I scored in the gift exchange.  We wore these shirts on our California choir trip, and then in the 4th of July parade.  Can you believe we made a float that said "Tracy's Kids: a Cancer Foundation" and on the other side "Tracy's Kids: the Famous Septuplets," neither of which are remotely true?  Tracy (Jolie's mom, who made the t-shirts and rode her unicycle proudly in the parade) had several people congratulate her on doing something so generous as creating a foundation for children with cancer.

We met up with Tyler/Alison, Justin/Diane, and Jenni/Troye (plus David Choules) for a delicious dinner.

The next day, the kids were invited, and we swam at Robbie's pool.  


My kids had a blast playing with Jenni's kids.  I'm really wishing Jenni had made it to the hike/brunch the day before, because she should have been in all of those pictures!

We jumped at the trampoline park (joined by Tiffany and kids!)

and met Jolie's dogs.  Jolie entertained the kids by showing lots of dog tricks.  My kids were terrified in the moment, but now they talk about Comet and Savvy all the time as if it was the highlight of their trip to Utah.

We had a great picnic at the park and lingered as long as we could.  We schemed about our next get together, which needs to be sooner rather than later.  We had way too much fun together to go very long before doing this again!

Tuesday, August 07, 2012

Summer in Utah: Part 2

It was super hot in Utah while we were with my family, so we spent a LOT of our time in the water.

Henry took swimming lessons with Ivan.  I think this was one of my favorite parts of the trip, because I got to spend time every day talking to Kati while we watched the swimmers.  Did I mention that our 2-week swim session was $35?  We would pay $90 for a similar session in MA, so we felt like it was a great deal too.

Water slide in the back yard (thanks to the Rileys for lending it to us!)

See a tiny bit of trepidation on that face?

Sam is the perfect age to hate everyone who is not his mom or dad.  He eventually warmed up to our parents, but it took him a little while before anyone else could hold him!

Cherry Hill!  We had season passes as kids and went to this water park all the time.  It was fun to share the excitement with the kids!

I just love everything about this picture.

Ellis was absolutely crazy about the water slides . . . as long as somebody (like Grandpa) went with him.

I love trying to cram as many boys as possible into one picture . . .

 . . . It kind of gives you an idea of the amount of energy that exists when mine and Kati's boys get together.

And let's not forget the babies!  They waited very patiently for the few fun things they were allowed to do.

Lagoon!  Henry has never forgotten our trip to Lagoon three years ago.  He has begged and begged to go again!  Lucky boy.  We really had a fun time.

Ellis and Ivan

Carousel pics

One of Sam's only rides!  What a patient boy he was!  He and Max both lasted until past 10pm (and Sam with no nap!).  He's a trooper.

It was so fun to be with these babies and see how much they have grown!

James, Sam, & Max

Brady and McCall were awesome and came and played with us every day that they could.  We played lots of games and laughed a lot!

Look how cute McCall and James are!


Ben and his dad showing off their beards on the day they got back from Alaska.  Ben was gone for 10 days, and I missed him a lot -- but it was MUCH easier to have him gone while I was with my family!  I was so glad to have him return though.  Ellis prayed every night that Dad would be safe "and won't get eaten by anything."  I think my prayers were pretty similar . . .


Upgraded to smart phones!  Yep, still free riding on the old family plan!



Visited Mary and Chad in their new house!  Mary has twins in her belly!

And now, for a bunch of pictures of cute kids.  Starting with Sam.

Isn't it just adorable to have this many boys???  My mom has one grand-daughter (the oldest) and EIGHT grandsons!  In this picture they are playing Guess Who, and Sam is sad because he wants to play too!

One of Henry's favorite things about Utah is that people have trampolines in the ground.  This is part of why he wants to move to Utah (also for the houses with "parking garages" and finished basements).  Ellis wants to move to Utah "because Utah is just SO much more funner!"

Grandpa and Max

Sophie (the one lucky grand-daughter) - who is an amazing, angelic girl.  Sam LOVED her!

Sam, Max, Ellis, Milo

The Nerf Gun game my mom came up with to get the kids outside!



Henry, Ivan, Isaac (love this action shot)

Oh, yes.  The biggest news is that Sam learned to walk on this trip.  Finally, at 16 months!  Hooray!


Thanks to both of our families for the amazing time we had in Utah.  It was an absolute dream!

Summer in Utah: Part 1

We were lucky enough to get to spend almost the whole month of July in Utah.  We had an amazing time!  Here are a few pictures that capture some of the good times we had with Ben's family:

Grandma tells the BEST stories!
Great Salt Lake Nature Conservancy.  I loved the wide open spaces, long grasses, mountain skyline, and beautiful skies.  Utah has so much beauty.





It was much hotter than it looks in the pictures!  We got Rainbow Floats from Pace's afterward.

Tracy Aviary with cousins Sierra and Zach (Ellis had the ultimate grumpy day - we almost had to leave after an hour because he was so moody).


Playing on the iPad with Grandma
A few days after our trip, Ellis remarked, "Henwy, the only good things about Utah were the iPad at Grandma Iverson's and the Wii at Grandma Lori's."  I'm pretty sure he meant that those were some of his favorite things - not the only good things.  :)


3 Men in a Tub

"sniffing beans" with Grandpa

Our Cousin Olympics - on the day of the opening ceremonies




Track

Long Jump: Henry told me that he would be most interested in doing long jump when he gets "old enough for the Olympics."


Weight Lifting

Archery


Gold Medals for all!



Camp-out in the back yard

Visiting Promontory Point - where the "wedding of the rails" took place

Ellis was really proud of this moment, when he got to hold a "golden spike."


Can you tell that it was a hundred degrees?  We were pretty hot, but it was a fun outing!  Henry was in heaven, as you can see from the picture.