Wednesday, May 9, 2012

"The Little Girls" come home for a visit!


We have enjoyed having Brooke and Ashley home for a couple of weeks.
Brooke just finished her freshman year at BYU 
and Ashley just returned from a semester abroad to Jerusalem.
We had lots of fun, there was a lot of laughter and late nights, 
which usually ended with Dad saying in his "harsh voice", 
"Everyone out of my room!  It's time for bed!  Someone has to go to work in the morning!"
Poor Dad he hates to miss out on the fun and it about killed him 
to have to go to work everyday when the girls were home!
We squeezed in as much as we could with these two!
It was as if the little girls had never left home... just like the good old days!
There was stuff left on the kitchen counter and books 
and shoes piled up on the stairs... and I'm happy to say that I didn't mind at all!
We had to buy more milk midweek and Dad had someone to share his late night snack with.
I loved going to bed and hearing the girls laughing and talking right outside my door.
It was a great visit, even if it was way too short!
Natalie surprised Brooke at the airport on Thursday night!
We took Brooke and her friend, Allison, to the Kings game on Friday,
where they met up with Ariel, a friend from high school.
 We all dressed up for Steve, our next door neighbor's 50th birthday party.
It was a blast and the girls had so much fun visiting and catching up 
with so many of their Granite Bay friends and neighbors.
 After the party, we went to the drive-in with the little girls and saw The Vow.
Dad is a good sport to go to a "chick flick" with us girls! 
Gotta love that dad of ours!  He didn't complain at all!
We held Family Home Evening out on the boat on Monday night.
There is nothing better than eating a Surfin' Bird from Beach Hut Deli out on Folsom Lake! 
Since we sold Mom's SUV last summer, 
we were happy to see that Dad's car can pull the boat out of the lake:)!
And kids, look how high the lake is this year!! 
We enjoyed the beautiful sunset at Folsom Lake!
Brooke had her wisdom teeth pulled and as you can see, is trying to get some sympathy:)!
Dad made this attractive contraption to hold the ice packs on her cheeks!
She laid in bed, watched TV and held her bear for the next few days,
and of course, got a lot of sympathy and attention from all of us!
 While Brooke was recovering, Ashley went lunching with one of her favorite teachers, Ms. Wachs.
 And hung out with Aubrey, her favorite ginger cousin!
 We had some late night visits to NuYo.  Yum!!
And grabbed take out from some of the girls favorite restaurants, like Dos Coyotes!
Their caesar salad is one of Ashley's favorites!
 Once the swelling went down, Brooke and I went to the GBHS track meet to see Natalie race.
And cheer for her cousin, Weston, who PRed in the mile that week with a time of 4:45.  
Congrats Weston!
And on Saturday, Ashley waited for her dear friend, Carlie and her husband, Porter
 to come out of the temple, where they were sealed for time and all eternity.
I love the photo on the left, which I took of these two girls almost 5 years ago
and the beautiful photo of the two of them together on Carlie's wedding day is precious!
On Sunday afternoon, we had some of our some of our favorite friends come over
 to play in the backyard and we made ice cream sundaes.
It was so fun to have little ones playing on the swing set and jumping on the trampoline.
It was a lovely warm afternoon and it was the perfect way to spend a sunny day.

The next morning, Ashley left for Utah to take care of my sweet sister, Mary Ann 
and her two little girls for the next few weeks.
Thank you Ash for being so willing to help out!  I'm sure Megan and Molly are having a blast with you!
Then Ashley will be on her way to DC, where she will be interning this summer at  Roots of Development,
 an NGO that helps communities in Haiti do sustainable, lasting development work.
On Friday, Brooke flew to New York City, where she will be living this summer.
She will be busy with two part-time internships, running, training 
and hanging out with Kimber and Brett!
So I'm back to being an empty nester!  I'm not sure that I'll ever get used to it!
But I'll try to continue to embrace this stage of life 
and completely enjoy when the kids do come home to visit us in Granite Bay!

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