September...October...Nowonder

So October turned into November and soon started the season of the absent husband. Poor husband J really made life hard on himself this semester. He had 3 really hard, time intensive and reading intensive classes. Federal Courts, Immigration Law, and Con Law II. Not only are these classes notorious for being really hard classes, but for the first time in his life as a law student he would need to prepare for 2 closed book tests. To add on to things J had been working on a paper for another class all semester and when he had completely finished the first draft of his paper he decided that he didn't like or agree with his topic and decided to start over. It was a really difficult thing to do, but I admired his integrity so much for this decision. He really could have just finished up his paper and most probably gotten an A according to his professor, but he wasn't looking for easy. He wanted to produce something really valuable. I'm sorry to brag, but I am really proud of him for choosing the hard road on this one because he wanted to create the best work product possible to contribute to the community of law.

 Anyway.... My beautiful cousin Becca was getting married in Salt Lake City in November and at first I didn't know if I was going to make it. It is a really hard time of year for J. But then I asked J if it would be beneficial to have the house to himself for a week to get some intense studying done. I've asked him this question before and he has NEVER said yes, but this time he said YES. I knew it had to be bad because ever since J's mission we don't like to take trips away from each other. So we decided that I would go to my cousin's wedding with out him. Before I left I had to take care of quite a few things. I was going to be gone for 2 weeks, and that is a hard thing to do when you are Relief Society President. But since I have such able counselors I knew that I was leaving things in good hands. Then I Packed up my car, packed up my kids. Put in our portable DVD player with 2 screens, one for Reese rear facing and one for Jif forward facing (a must have for car trips longer than an hour) and we drove to Las Vegas. The kids were excellent in the car. Even though Jif had been sick earlier that week. He is always sick for weddings, something I have just learned to accept.

 So I got to Las Vegas where my parents live and spent one night there. My parents decided that they need to stock up on grandparent toys to make their house more fun. So they got Reese a baby doll that she carried around the entire time and Jif a humongous car ramp. Their house is always fun though, Jif loves his grandmas and grandpas. This grandma gives him all the juice and cereal he wants, and he admires grandpa so much.  He follows him around all day and wants to do everything that Grandpa does.  Grandma and Grandpa also have a real doggy, which Jif has since put on his Christmas list. They also have 2 big pet stores that the kids just love to visit. So in the morning we all squeezed into one car and drove to Salt Lake City. The grandparents bought 3 new movies to watch on our road trip. Cars 2, Mater's Tall Tales, and ...He Man. Yes. He Man. 20 episodes which I was forced to watch. And now Jif is obsessed with He-man. Any given day, any given place (such as the grocery store) he bursts out as loud as he can "BY THE POWER OF GRAYSKULL- I HAVE THE POWER!!" He still asks me every day if we can watch He Man. At first it was torture, but then I got a little bit hooked on He man too. I mean they are so terrible, that they are almost entertaining. It would be a lot easier to watch if He Man were wearing a little more clothes. I just hope that Jif doesn't want to be He Man for next Halloween. At least the costume would be cheap.

So we drove up to Utah and the car ride went surprisingly fast seeing as I Was wedged between my two kiddos. We had good snacks and good conversation. We arrived in Salt Lake City just in time for my cousin's reception (which was before her wedding). She had a adorable little purple tutu for Reese and the most adorable suspenders, bow tie, and train conductor's hat for Jif. Maybe it was being cooped up in the car all day, but my children didn't last very long at the reception. They just wanted to cause havock, so after saying hello to everyone we went to get some dinner and had the best meatloaf we had ever tasted, hands down.

 The next day was Becca's temple sealing. I wanted to go in with her, but I didn't have a babysitter, so my parents went while me and the kiddos went to the Church History Museum at Temple Square. I didn't realize that they had a whole children's museum there, and the best part was we were the only people in the whole museum. My kids had a blast. We stuck magnets of quilt pieces on a wall, we played in a pirate ship (really Nephi's boat replica), we drove a car, we played in the garden. It was a blast. We made our way back to the temple and got ready to take pictures.

 My kids were perfect angels for me at the children's museum, but when we got to the temple they decided not to behave. One of the pictures was with the bride and groom and all of the children in their outfits. All of the kids were so well behaved, except for mine. I can't wait to get that picture because half a dozen kids are smiling with the bride and groom, Jif is running as fast as he can up and down the temple steps and Reese is mooning the camera with her little tutu tooshie.

 After pictures we had a wonderful family luncheon and then we headed to Provo to see Aunt Jacket. It was so good to see Aunt Jacket, but I am still sad that I went all the way to Utah where my sister the massage therapist lives and I didn't even get a massage. Oh well, that just means I get two next time I see her. Huh Jacket? I call her Jacket because that's what Jif calls her. We had a fun evening of Brick Oven Pizza and talking. However, Jif was having some pretty bad asthma so we had to leave their apartment early and it was a good thing we did because we left as a snow storm was starting. Oh! Utah is so cold. Before we left Uncle Matt taught us how to do chocolate bombs. Basically the concept is that you make a cup of hot chocolate and you take a chocolate cookie and bite the top end and bottom end off it. Then you suck the hot chocolate though the cookie like a straw until the cookie dissolvesa nd then you quickly pop it in your mouth. He describes it as an explosion of chocolate. It was pretty fun.

The next day we met Jacket and Matt for breakfast at my parent's favorite restaurant. IHOPs. I love IHOP too! Jacket and Matt gave the kids a little Cheetah that sings "Wild Thing". Reese and Jif did the cutest dance when the Cheetah sings. Reese shakes her head while looking at the ground back and forth as fast as she can while shaking the rest of her body. Jif just jumps up and down. Where do they learn these things? Then we drove back up to Las Vegas.

 Then I got to hang out at my parent's house with them until J flew in Wednesday night. My parents worked a lot of the time, but I got to see them a fair amount too. We played with the doggy, played with some more toys that my parents added to their grandparent's toy collection, some foam letters and a ball and hammer toy that Jif loved. We watched a lot of He Man. I did some Christmas shopping. We played at the pet store. Jif still loves the fish the best and Reese loves the dogs. I visited my Aunt and hung out with her family a little bit. It was great. One of the things that I love about staying with my parents is the food. They always have about 3 or 4 different vegetables for dinner. It's such a great habbit, one that I try to imply with at least 2 different vegetables per dinner.   Then on Wednesday Aunt Charli arrived and that’s when all the real fun began :)