Month of May recap

I suppose I'd better write a little about what's been going on around here before the summer is completely gone.

May was a fantastic month!  We celebrated Hakan's 7th birthday with an overnight trip to Splash Universe, a lovely Mother's Day (despite the fact that I had to speak in church that day), I got a much anticipated visit from my best friend, Lisa, and took a little vacation of my own to Florida for my cousin Ashton's wedding. 

Each of those events deserves its own blog post, but since I'm trying to catch up I'll just add some of my favorite photos.

Splash Universe is an indoor water park with a hotel attached that's less than an hour away from us.  We went down on a Friday afternoon and checked into our hotel room, hit the water park for a couple of hours, went back to the room for some food and rest then played a little more before bedtime.  We got a good sleep before playing some more the next day and then heading home.  We had a great time and the kids have been asking to go back ever since.  I just wish we'd thought to do this in the dead of winter when we were all in need of some summertime fun!

The kids were thrilled to find that our room was equipped with two sets of bunk beds and their very own TV!

 

I had a lovely Mother's Day, complete with my annual photo with the kids.

They made me this pretty apron in Primary, which I wear proudly.

(Had to include a couple of outtakes.)

I cannot figure out why this is the only picture I took of the two of us while Lisa was here, but this is us in the airport at the end of her visit, waiting to get on our planes.  She was heading home to Idaho and Rowan and I were on our way to Florida.  We had SUCH a great time while she was here.  We made a trip to Ikea (Lisa's first ever!), went thrift store shopping, made jewelry (see our matching necklaces??) had a nice dinner downtown by ourselves and went for walks in the evenings around the neighborhood.  It was so great to see her and I can't wait to get together again!

Rowan has become quite the little frequent flyer-- two plane trips in one month!



I haven't been back to Florida in over 15 years, so it was comforting to see that some things hadn't changed.

Ashton and Jack were sealed in the LDS temple in Orlando on a beautiful Thursday morning. 

I felt so privileged to be in the room with them and so many others who love them, and watch this new little family begin. 

Rowan was missing his Daddy while we were away, but he managed to find a couple of suitable stand-ins with Trevor and Uncle Chris.

This was my little contribution to the couples' reception: a tree that the guests would "sign" with their fingerprints.

Their reception was so much stinking fun, I had a blast dancing like a fool and trying not to care that it was being video taped.  :)

The next day several of us decided to head over to the beach.  I've missed the warm Atlantic ocean and couldn't wait to get there!

Jennifer, me, Kelli, Jordan, Emma, Kimberly and Trevor all had SUCH  a great day at the beach! 

We spent a lot of our time neck-deep in the water searching for sand dollars with our toes.

What a great chance to spend some time with my darling little sisters.

I was going to add more to this post, but I think it's long enough already.  I'll try not to take so long with the next update!