Our trip to Utah, 2011 Edition

Congratulations to Karla! She graduated from high school and Ben & I got to be there for the happy occasion. We also got to celebrate her older brother Daniel's college graduation (sorry, no pictures of pretty much anything else from our trip. I know, I'm terrible.).

When we got to Salt Lake on Thursday night, we stayed at my mom's. As one would expect from my mother, she stocked the bathroom with brand new towels, spruced up the guest bed with adorable pillows, and filled the kitchen with all of Ben's favorite treats. And when we woke up in the morning, what else would be waiting for us but fresh crepes with all the fixings? Ahh, so good to be home.

That morning, however, we were whisked away with Ben's family to Indianola for some cabin-ing. We got to play games, ride ATV's, have ping pong throw-downs, hike around the back of the property while all the nieces gathered wild flowers, and enjoy all of the fabulous food everyone prepared. Admittedly, I should have gotten a good picture of Ben covered in piles of mud from an ATV ride. It will just have to suffice that I know it happened and we had to pre-soak and pre-scrub EVERYTHING he had on before they could actually be washed. D.I.R.T.Y. BOY. I also got in a couple nice relaxing runs out there. Pretty vistas like that need to be enjoyed. I think I also ran by a rattle snake while on one of those runs. Good news --- I was already running. The only thing that would have made the trip any better would have been if it had been warmer. But we expected rain all weekend and only got 1 day of it, so I won't complain too much. And the food was so good, I've decided for the Neu family reunion in August, we should just have the Young's come cook for us. French toast with fresh strawberries and buttermilk syrup, anyone? Mmmm.

I ended up leaving the cabin a day early because, tragically, I had finals the week we were gone and I needed to do some research for the papers I was working on. While Ben stayed, I came back on Monday to get down to business. I was surprised as I was leaving to realize that this would be the first time in a looooonnnnnggg time Ben and I had not slept in the same place -- probably since the first few months of our marriage when I was still traveling for Sharon Charles and had not moved out to Ohio. It felt a little strange.

My well-intentioned study plans were quickly averted when I called my parents to tell them I had arrive back a day early. They immediately swooped in to pick me up and drive me out to Kerrie & Laurent's where everyone was gathering and feasting for the holiday (I had forgotten May 31st was a holiday). I don't think they heard much of what I said after I stated that I was at their house. Later references to "it's just me and Ben's still at the cabin" and "I came back to work on my finals papers" were lost on them completely, as they were disappointed to see my husband was not in toe and didn't seem at all concerned with my homework. And, since I was so excited to see everyone and this was such a prime opportunity, I decided to ignore my homework for a while too. Robbie, my nephew, came up from Provo, and then Emilie & Dustin came with their kids as well. I finally got to meet the twins!!! As I suspected, they are adorable. We feasted, we chatted, I ate too much and I didn't get squat done on my homework until I came home that night. However, I didn't overeat as much as my niece, Camille, did. Holy freak! That girl can't be more than 20 lbs, and I am quite certain she ate her weight in rolls and fruited jello. She can totally pack it in. It defied all knowledge I had about the limits of a human's digestive system.

After that, however, I could have been anywhere, because all I saw was my laptop screen for the next couple of days, as I worked on my homework. Ben and I hung out with my folks and Laurent on Tuesday night when he got back from the cabin and had a throw-down in scrabble. Wednesday was a lot more of the same until I left to go to Provo to meet Chamaine and Mesha for dinner. So good to see them! There aren't a lot of people I talk to on a frequent basis. I can probably count them on one hand. So, it's a good thing I have friends that I can pick right up with wherever it was that we left off!

On Thursday, I got a run in with my nephew Christopher at 7:30am in Riverton. It was a milestone day. I have gone running with Chris a few times before. But he is now a robust, tall, athletic 16 or 17 year old. He not only kept pace with me for the entire 2.5 miles for the first time ever, but he smoked me at the end when he still had steam to sprint to the finish. I don't have steam of ay kind at 7:30am. It was definitely not like the old days.

After that, dear Karla graduated from high school. It must be noted, she's pretty much amazing and she is off to Happy Valley to study at BYU. Go Karla! PS -- I have a cute nephew that you should meet when he gets back from his mission in a couple years. wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Afterwards we had a good time hanging out at Ben's parents house, where there was, as always, delectable eats, fun games and lots of family around. Katrina made something I'd never had before -- lime zested sugar cookies. I was in love.

That night, we stopped by to see an old friend, Manny. He looked like he was doing really well and we had a good time catching up. Then we went back down to Provo to see Rachel & Jesse, Will and Adrian & Ty. There were so many people we love hanging out with in one place, it was a gold mine. We brought thai food and just talked and caught up and laughed and made fun of each other -- my favorite way to eat dinner.

Friday. What did we do Friday? We slept in. And then we went up to Emilie & Dustin's to see their new house. Also, Ben hadn't met the twins yet. And how can you say you've been on vacation and not have played any pinochle? So, we hung out there until we could detain their family no longer (around 1pm) and they left for THEIR vacation down to St. George. Their house is awesome. Ben and I are totally moving in. After that, we picked up a couple graduation presents and took off for Daniel's graduation party at their homestead. More yummy food. And lots of fun seeing family again.

We ducked out a little early to see an old friend with a new wife: dear Aaron and the new addition, Juliann. It's so good to see an old friend and to see he has found his perfect match -- WHICH was totally obvious. So fun to see them both. And they got us some of Hatch's chocolate pot de creme's for dessert. Oh my. Aaron, how I shall ever endeavor to deserve such a good friend.

I must confess, that we didn't stop there. We left Aaron's and ran back to Daniel & Gretchen's to play games. Ian was there too, so it was like old times before we had ever moved. We played Settler's. I can't remember who won, but it certainly wasn't me. That, however, was probably the only flaw of the evening. :)

Saturday (I swear I'm almost to the end of the trip): I woke up and got to go to my old stomping grounds, Sugar House Park, and got in a good run. And then I laid in the grass and reveled in my good fortune. While I reveled I did some push-ups and squats, so I was productive. When I came back from my run, Ben and I were greeted by crepes again for breakfast. I must confess, my mom fed us breakfasts pretty much every day that week. Did I mention my mom is amazing? But she made us crepes TWICE. And nobody does crepes quite like my mom, so I have to mention it.

Finally, we left to start out our day by going to visit an old friend, Blair. I got to meet his wife & kids. I met his daughter once before because we used to work together and he brought her to the office one day when daycare didn't work out. I tried to entertain her in my office for a little while. I was incredibly unsuccessful. This visit was much better. We read a disney princess book and a book about fairies. I like fairies. Apparently so does Regan. Oh, and we also got to catch up with Blair. Blair, Blair, Blair. He's just amazing. One of those people who should be doing book tours and giving motivational speeches. He's not your average bear. Needless to say, I enjoyed our visit. I think Ben did too.

After the visit, we went up to check on the studio in Park City. My studio is officially a bachelor pad. And for some reason, my renters are very bad at buying themselves proper light bulbs -- every one of them, out of 4 years of renting. It's uncanny. So, as a token of our gratitude for our fabulous renter, Eric, Ben and I did what he could not do for himself -- we went to Home Depot and got him all new light bulbs so the place would be well lit. Then we got some grub at El Chubasco, one of my all-time favorite Mexican eateries in Park City -- WHERE I ran into one of my old housing program clients, Rena. She is doing great! It was good to run into her. I tell ya. My luck is awesome.

At last, on Saturday night, I had my girl's night out -- something that would happen much more often if most of my old girlfriends did not live so far away. Tragically, Bethany did not get there. She was very missed. I guess we'll still have to plan a weekend getaway. How tragic. :) But I was more than filled with updates from Katie and Emery and gave back my fair share of down low information.

Sunday, we packed up and left. That was it. The trip out west was fabulous. Honestly, it felt like we never left Utah. When we started to prep for the airport, both Ben and I noted that we wouldn't mind if we never went back to Ohio. Is that terrible to say? It's not that we don't like Cincy. But we just don't have everybody there with us. However, work beckons both of us and I can only live off of a suitcase's worth of clothing and shoes for so long. :) And before we went, we got to do a few of our favorite things. And see a bunch of our favorite people. I was dismal at taking any pictures outside of Karla's graduation. But, luckily, some of our favorite people were in attendance there. Here's a picture:

We miss you already. Thanks for a fabulous trip!

What a FLAVULOUS Trip to London!!!

Is it gone already?! Ahh, it was so great. Great indeed. Here are the details about all the wonderfulness that was our November trip to London:

I love London. It loves me. That's all you need to know. But I'll share all the intimate details anyway. We arrived Thursday, Nov. 11th in the afternoon, found our way to our lovely hotel near Wembley Stadium, took a nap, showered (I probably would have held out for one more day, but Ben made me do it)and then went down to Covent Gardens to see all the Christmas decorations and grab a bite to eat at a local pub
Ben at the pub


One new thing I learned about London which makes me love it even more than before -- since they don't have Thanksgiving (not that I DON'T love that holiday), they start decorating and prepping and celebrating the Christmas Season right after Veteran's Day. AWESOME. Can't we Americans just skip the turkey decor and go for the glitter and lights? We could still celebrate Turkey Day, just forgo all the gourds. Right?!?!? Anyone else in on this?

Anywho, after the pub, we went to visit my brother Gerry and his family at their flat in London. Sadly, all the kiddies were in bed, but it was great to hang out with them. Laurent and Kerrie were already there as well. Good times. Traveling is great. Traveling with family is even better.

On Friday, we slept in. Ahhh. I LOVE vacation. And then we met up with Gerry & Rachel and Laurent & Kerrie at a fancy shmancy french restaurant named Pied a Terre. Yum. The amuse bouches at this restaurant were divine. They trumped some of the menu items I'd ordered (which could be a good or a bad thing, depending on how you look at it). Carrot mousse, Foie Gras between sesame wafers.... what's not to like? I still dream about that soup.

Then we took a walk over to my favorite museum in London -- the Tate Britain. Tragically the Lady of Shalott (my favorite there) was not on display, nor was April in Love and all of my other damsels in distress from the pre-raphaelite artists.

Lady of Shalott












April in Love

But I made friends with several other lovely paintings, so it's ok.













This picture, which is incredibly detailed, is actually this small:




















This is one of two large, decommissioned planes on display. This one, though you can't tell, had the painted pattern of feathers all over (very cool). But my biggest question was, "How on earth did they get it inside the museum?"

That night we went back to the flat and played Wii until more of the clan arrived. In came Jon & Anne and Emilie & Dustin (along with baby Camille) at last. Yeah!! We ordered Indian food and fried chicken and hung out till we were in danger of missing the last tube ride back to the hotel (around 12).

Saturday -- Th WEDDING DAY!!! I woke up incredibly early. I got up with inexplicable amounts of energy and went running around Wembley Stadium. Then we got ready. Subsequently, numerous hilarious events occurred that could have prevented many of us from making it to anywhere we needed to be. Miraculously, everyone made it to the hotel near Victoria Station for lunch (except the wedding couple, who were out taking pictures). New additions to the party who arrived that morning: Bob, my parents and Erika's parents. Lunch was lovely -- even though the hot chocolate was luke warm. I had a ravioli dish and other people had some kind of a filet mignon kind of dish. Yum.:)
Pictures of Lunch:

A few of my very good-looking brothers


More of the party


Camille, the little food thief under the table

Off to the train we went after lunch and traveled out to Surrey, where the London Temple is. At the temple we waited. And waited. We took an informal (and incomplete) family photo while we waited:


At last the lovely couple arrived and we took some pictures. Erika and Jeff looked cute and lovey. Camille took a special liking to me, for some reason, so I got to carry her around for a while as everyone posed for the photographers. Adorable and endearing. Except less adorable in the 4+ inch most painful and sparkly pair of shoes I've ever owned.See below (mine are the silver one's and Rachel's are the very sassy animal print -- almost as uncomfortable as far as I could tell, but just as fabulous).



Finally, the wedding ceremony! The temple ceremony was the shortest ceremony we have ever witnessed. It took all of 15 minutes. Talk about a quickie wedding! :) And suddenly, they were married. Tada!




Then back to the train to go to the fancy hotel for the wedding dinner/reception. A couple of Jeff's friends from law school arrived, which was delightful. And the food, as you can probably guess, was amazing. As Ben likes to remind me, when my family gets together it's all about the food. Jeff & Erika had a very pretty cake made with a Tiffany's box on top and cute little mini cakes all around.









By the end of the night I was completely crippled by my shoes and my family tortured me unduly by encouraging me to travel with them on the tube to get back to the hotel instead of taking a very civil taxi ride. I was convinced by them, for some unknown reason, and hobbled all the way home. And yes, despite this, I still really like those shoes. Boots are made for walking. Sparkly 4" heels are made for taxi rides.

Sunday, we walked to the church, stayed for sacrament meeting at Gerry's ward and then those of us that were staying at the hotel high-tailed it back so we could grab our bags from our rooms and check out before noon. Off to Gerry's flat we went to eat, nap and play for the rest of the day. Everyone else arrived and joined in too, of course-- just a little later. Then off to Gerry's rental flat, where we stayed for the rest of our trip.

On Monday, Ben & I went to the Tower of London to see all kinds of things. Among them -- the fancy crown jewels, the lawn where Ann Boleyn was beheaded (along with a host of other unlucky people) and the inside of a proper old church. You can't go to Europe and not step inside an old church.

Panorama of the Tower of London from the outside


A memorial at the tower green for everyone who'd lost their head there.




carvings made by the prisoners locked inside the towers.


Ben looking handsome at the Tower of London (he dressed up so we would be allowed in to the restaurant for lunch afterwards)

Then we met some family for lunch at Claridge's Gordon Ramsay restaurant. All about the food, all about the food. I ate pork belly and cheek for the first time.. and LIKED IT. Weird, I know. The rest of the meal wasn't so bad either. And the toilets were very pretty. If you ever go, don't miss visiting the loo. Later, we went shopping around Covent Gardens again with Jon & Anne and I bought a delightful knock-off Armani handbag. Yeah for useful & good-looking souvenirs!

I forgot to mention before, but we also went to go see Wicked that night. What a show!! Loved it. I want to see it again. Not just because it was good, but also because everyone we went with was comparing the cast we saw to previous casts they had seen. They made me incredibly curious about all these other casts they were talking about. Loved, loved, loved it though -- I'm more than happy to "need" to see it again. :)




Tuesday Ben and I went to Bath. William Wilberforce and Jane Austen used to live there (not together). We saw the roman baths (quite incredible).





This was over the temple inside the grounds of the Roman Baths; a tribute to Minerva.


Steam rising up from the baths below


Ben & I having a lovely time


These bricks were constructed like so underneath the floors to allow steam to pass through and heat the floor that would have been placed right overtop of the piles of brick.


One last look at the naturally steamy baths


A video of me giving an educational tutorial about the drain at the roman baths. I should be an educator. I'm so good at video tutorials.

We also ate soup & sandwiches in the Pump Room. And I had Egyptian peppermint tea. Mmmm.

Ben in the Pump Room

We also napped at the library (we were tired). We shopped. It was all very lovely. But then we realized we should have booked our departure train much earlier. We were done by 5 and couldn't leave until 8:30. And the shops were all closed by 6pm. What to do, what to do. We milled around and then got dinner. And then we at last went back. Not the best way to spend your last night in England, but oh well.

Wednesday -- you guessed it -- we traveled home. I got to see the movie, "Temple Grandin" on the flight home -- SO GOOD!! I also sat next to an older missionary lady who was traveling back from Africa. She was very nice. Unfortunately, she also smelled like old lady, so it took me the first couple hours of our 8 hour flight to stop noticing. Not so nice. You win some, you lose some.

And then we were back at work on Thursday. How quickly it comes and goes. It was so fun to see everyone. So nice to have a break. So nice to be back in London. I can't wait till we do it again!

Of course, I would have expected my co-blogger to post something on HIS trip to London, being that it WAS his wedding and all. However, he seems to be otherwise occupied. Go figure.

Mammoth Cave National Park

This past weekend, Ben and I drove down to Cave City, Kentucky as part of a general effort we are making to adventure and see the amazing sights around us in this new place called Ohio. Cave City is about a three hour drive south of Cincinnati, so we decided to leave Friday after work and stay in a hotel/motel for the night and see the sights on Saturday. As we drove into the ever-luxurious Econolodge late Friday night, we were a little shocked by the parking lot. First we saw this:



And when we got back to the parking area by our little room, we saw this:



I know what you're thinking. It's a sure sign the economy is in the dumps when all the corvette owners in the world have to stay at the EconoLodge. Alarming signs of the times, indeed! Well, take heart my dear friends. It just so happens this is probably just an indication of sold out rooms in plusher digs. It was the annual Corvette Show down in Cave City this past weekend. Who knew? Here's a great shot of one of the older beauties, taken the next morning:



Ben and I woke up early. We wake up early most days (though not so early for some people, I'm sure) to get to work on time. Unfortunately, we find more and more these days that this habit we've made dies hard on days even when we don't have work. Tragic. And since Kentucky is an hour earlier than we are (we're the last hanger's on to the East Coast time zone even though we're significantly far away from the coast) we found ourselves bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 6:30 am, rearing to go. We showered, got ourselves ready and went down to enjoy the free continental breakfast. I ate a bagel and Ben found his pancakes inedible, and the fruit juice was questionable, so we ended up doing less enjoying than we would have liked. We decided to supplement Ben's breakfast with McDonald's Egg McMuffins -- breakfast of champions.

And then off to Mammoth Cave! They had several tours starting early that we were excited to try out. We wanted to get there in plenty of time to get a ticket.

Ah, well, sometimes the best laid plans go to waste, and the not so well laid plans, well.... you can imagine. As it turns out the note at the bottom of the Mammoth Cave Website where it reads, "*Not available by reservation. Tickets can only be purchased the day of the tour at the visitor center," doesn't mean you can't buy tickets before. It just means the one tour on the list that has an asterisk of the 20 tours they have available can't be bought ahead of time. When we got there at 7:45, all the tours I had any interest in were sold out. I was devastated and, to be honest, totally ticked at their website information that was (in my humble opinion) misleading. I had driven 3 hours for this! All the good tours are gone!?!? Seriously?! I wanted to just turn around and go home. Ben, however, calmed me down just enough to buy a couple of tours worth of tickets to the less challenging, but still available. I was pretty certain I wasn't going to like them. But we were already there. And though I might not end up enjoying them, Ben might.

On our first cave tour, we had a nice small group of people and we were made aware of the reason for the Cave network's name. We already read on the website that the caves were the longest system in the world, with 360+ miles of caves inside. But the caves are not only extensive. Individually they're areas inside can be huge. The first room we were in was a 1/4 acre large. Here are a few cool pictures from our first tour:



Above is a picture of the "natural opening" to the cave. It's pretty huge.



When they were in the caves in the last 1700's, early 1800's they used it to mine saltpeter to make gun powder. You can see some of the equipment they brought down in this picture.





I think these two pictures above give you a good idea of how huge some parts of the inside of this cave are. Or they would if I could make them any larger. :)

Overall, aside from it's extensive and sometimes huge tunnels, there wasn't a whole lot more to see in this cave tour. Our guide, Bobby, reminded us that Mammmoth Cave is not famous for its stalactites, stalagmites or other amazing features in the cave. It is famous because of it's size. So there you go. We had all been made aware we could stop looking for more wonderment. And I found it relieving to know, despite the fact I wasn't in awe of the cave's beauty, I also "shouldn't" be in awe of it.

After this two hour tour, Ben managed to get me to go back for one more, through another area of the cave. I was trying to raise my spirits up to be enjoyable company, but I did a pretty crappy job, if I do say so myself. It wasn't terrible, but I'd say it may have potentially ben slightly reminiscent of pulling teeth for me.:) For a lot of the tour I just didn't say anything, so to minimize the negativity that might come out of my mouth. If you can't say something nice....

Looking back, I think I should have known I wouldn't like this very much. I don't know what I was thinking with all these guided tours. I don't even like being guided through aerobics class. And on our second tour, our group was so large that I felt like I was in a never-ending line for a ride at Disneyland, with the tour group of over 140 people. Only with cave tours, the line IS the ride. I'm used to caving where you get "down and dirty" and have to twist yourself into funny shapes so you can get out. I came out clean as a whistle from these two tours and I think I might have had to duck my head and shift my hips a couple times. Somehow, not quite the same effect.

Not to say it was all a waste. Or painful. On the bright side, The second tour ended up having some of the coolest formations we'd seen and 80% of the formations there are to see at Mammoth Cave (jackpot, I guess). Here are a few pictures of what they call Frozen Niagara:





Our pictures don't do this feature justice. It was much cooler in real life. One part of the tours I enjoyed (yes, I did end up enjoying at least one part. Maybe two.. I'll have to think about it) was a little bit of comic relief in the naming of various parts of the caves. For example, they had an area in one of the caves where they had installed toilets. The called this area the "The Great Hall of Relief". Below is a picture of an area they like to call "Fat Man's Misery."



He he he he. They make me laugh.



And here is a shot of how they would "smoke" their names into the ceiling. I checked one of the covers on the lights they had in the cave to see if the names weren't on the cover of the light instead of actually smoked onto the ceiling (so, I can be a little bit of a skeptic sometimes..). I got in trouble for that. You can't stray too far from the tour, apparently. Woops. I like getting into trouble sometimes.:)

I complained to Ben a couple times how we were doing family friendly vacations and we weren't even a whole family yet (meaning we have no children). He was a bit surprised I didn't like this activity as much as I didn't like it when I had honestly told him before that I had a good time at Mt. Rushmore, which is also very kid-friendly. I reminded him that when I went to Mt. Rushmore I WAS there with children -- my niece and nephews. See, if you take your kids to they little, shallow wave pool, you can very well have fun with them there. But you don't usually see a lot of adults hanging out by the little, shallow wave pool of their own volition, do you? No-- because it's not as fun to do kid stuff without the kids, in my opinion. And I was banished to the kiddie tours without having any kiddies. And I just didn't like it very much.

This, aside from a much anticipated, luxurious dinner, was the big event to celebrate Ben's and my 1st anniversary. I spent the activity sulking and complaining (with mild signs of amusement at times) while Ben tried to pacify me and enjoy himself. Sometimes, the best laid plans... you get the idea. Let's hope this isn't some foreshadowing of the eternity that awaits us. I think the celebratory event was very non-reflective of the year that preceded it, thankfully. And just maybe, next year, instead of the outdoors, I'm gonna suggest we check in at the Four Seasons and go on a shopping spree. I think that would be sure to elicit better moods from me. :)

It was so fun to see you guys!

Ben and I are now recovering from our all-too-brief visit to Utah where we didn't get to see 1/2 as many people as we wanted to, but relished the family and friends we WERE able to visit. What can I say? Five days is just not enough. I spent my first day there hanging out with my sister, which was fabulous, while Ben pruned his parents' yard. And that night we went out to dinner with our fabulous friends, Derrick & Brian. We wish Derrick all the best on his mission to Toulouse, France (I am so jealous), and promise to try our hardest to accidentally run into him while he's there.

The next day (Friday) Ben and I woke up and went to one of my favorite places in Salt Lake -- Nordstrom Rack. Yeah for shopping! Then I whisked my dearest friend Adrian away and dragged her along with me to visit Park City. Amongst our ventures there, we saw Jane from the Peace House. Jane is one of my all-time favorites. She's savvy, sassy and smart. What's not to like about that? But alas, I have neglected to take pictures up to this point, so all this itinerary is very uninteresting, to be sure. To make up for it, I am including a couple of short videos of animals that Ben and I took with our camera while visiting the Cincinnati Zoo in March, in hopes you may find that equally amusing:






At last, I got around to using my camera Friday night. We went to Mikol & Gerrit's wedding reception. She was gorgeous! It was lovely. And we loved seeing everybody there.



On Saturday morning, it was time for the EASTER EGG HUNT!!!














(a couple of shots of the avid hunters)
















The hunters were quite pleased with their findings. And who wouldn't be. With only 5 kids and over 180 eggs to find, everyone is bound to get a lot of booty!














So many eggs so little time. Don't worry. Not all the eggs had candy in them. Some had nickels and some had, well, nothing actually.



And here is my ever-growing nephew, Chris. So tall. When did that happen!?!?! He was in diapers, crawling around with a goofy grin yesterday, I swear.



After the hunt, it was off to Ben's brother Jeremy's and his wife Larene's, in Ogden. Here are his gorgeous twin sisters, Charity & Jessica, with two adorable little nieces, Emma and Breanna. Cute!



Karla had the delightful experience of being mistaken for a human jungle gym by her nephews.



And here are a few of the Young boys relishing in one of their favorite pastimes.... video games. Daniel is sporting his new do. I must say, he looks very distinguished as a baldy.



This picture i absolutely LOVE. Ben rarely lets me take pictures of him. And when he does, he has to review them and insists I delete them because he doesn't like them. So I just started flashing pictures at him without really aiming, to be sly and stealth-like. And wadda ya know? Doesn't he look cute?



Here's Mom Young with a sleeping Kayla in her arms. You would never guess by her angelic, restful face that she will be a teenage girl with all the craziness that comes with it in just a few short years. I'm sure you're really excited about that, Larene. :)





And here are a couple of shots of one of the cutest little girls ever, Emma, being held by her mother Gretchen who is responsible for her daughter's good looks. Look at those dimples! To die for.










These are just a couple of my favorite shots of the day. May have something to do with them being a couple of my favorite people. But they just look... good.








Are you still here? Wow, you're dedicated. Last but not least, a cute shot of Dad Young playing games on Sunday with his grandsons, Carter and Henry, at Aunt Kathy's house.

We really loved seeing everybody! We miss you!