Anson's blessing

We had a quick whirlwind trip to Utah in October to see both sides of the family, bless Anson, and see my brother open his mission call. It was fun but much too quick and not fun trying to share so little time with both families. (Although the time we do get with family never seems like enough.)

Here is my brother opening his call. He is going to be a great missionary! There was not a dry eye when he announced he would be serving Chinese-speaking. It was a very proud moment for my grand-dad and my mom's family.

Here are some pictures from the blessing. It was nice to have so much family together for Anson's blessing. It was the first time for a lot of the family to meet Little Red.

 

With Burke's parents:

With my parents:

A big thank you to all the family who was able to make it to the blessing. It was so good to see family members we haven't seen in over a year (or two!). And a big thank you to Trevor and Sheri for providing their house for the occasion. We love and miss you guys!

Goodbye Utah: Lavender fields 5K

Ever since I went to southern France, the lavender capital of the world, and found out there was a lavender field in Utah, I've wanted to go see it. After four years here, I hadn't been yet; thus, it was on our list of things to do before we leave Utah.

We also decided we needed something to get us back in our running routine, so we signed up for the 5K Run through the Lavender Fields in Mona, Utah--a great way to get us down to the Young Living Farms. We ran our race this morning.
The scenery was spectacular!
There were about 900 participants! Burke placed 114th, and I placed 221st; we did well. It was very crowded.
Burke did a great job pushing McKay in our jogger, and I . . . Got myself to the finish line.
We also saw our friends, Sarah (pink) and Scott, there.
We wish we could be here next year to do it again. It was a beautiful race.

Goodbye Utah, Part I

We only have two months left in Utah before we leave for Columbus, OH. I've been thinking about all the fun things I want to do before that time comes. I have compiled a list that I put on the whiteboard in the kitchen. It is titled "dates." Unfortunately, every time we get one thing done, I think of something else and add it to the list. Last night, I got to cross one of the things off.

We went to the Carillon Bell Tower concert at BYU.
We enjoyed a kfc picnic and listened to the beautiful music. It was one of my goals to learn to play the carillon bells at byu, but I never got to it. sad. . . .sidenote: McKay's new favorite toy entertains him for a full hour at a time. love it.
It was at this concert two years ago that we met one of Burke's mtc teachers. He was going into optometry. At that time, we were pre-med. We talked to JJ about it, and came home and started thinking seriously about optometry instead.

One year later, Burke had most of the prerequisites done, took the OAT, and applied for optometry schools.

This year, Burke and I are spending our last months in Provo before he attends optometry school. We are excited. It is crazy how quickly life passes sometimes. From one evening at a little carillon bell tower concert two years ago, we changed the direction of the rest of our lives, and we are so happy we did.

I'm going to miss a lot of things here. Utah has been a fun place to live with a lot of fun things to do. We are trying to make the best of the time we have left. Oh, and Burke is officially finished with school for the next three months. That is the longest break he's had since his first day of college. Wow! We finally get to spend our first real summer together with no classes and no homework. only work and play. bring it on!!!

No Baby, so a Weekend of Fun!

This weekend, of course, we anticipated a baby coming, but I guess he's not ready yet. (That's probably a good thing since Burke was under the weather all week.) So we enjoyed probably our last baby-free weekend together.

First, we went to temple number 10 of 12 in Utah--the Draper Temple. It was beautiful.
Saturday night we spent the evening with my two sisters, who were in town, at my aunt Jeanie's house. She is Palestinian and treated us with her specialty--Arabic food. We had stuffed grape leaves, stuffed cabbage, and stuffed zucchini. We also had Arabic style chicken, hummus, pita bread, and some other yummy dish with cucumber, green leafy stuff, and tomatoes. It was a delicious cultural night, and we enjoyed staying up late laughing and telling stories.
Now the baby is allowed to come. He's just about outworn his welcome in my tummy. Maybe tomorrow. . . . But I am grateful for the quiet, restful nights and the fact that he's hungry only when I'm hungry. It works out nicely. Plus, I still feel great, so I shouldn't complain.

Y Ball

This weekend I got asked to the Y Ball--the BYU married student dance. I came home from grocery shopping on Saturday and found a clever note and a trail of popcorn at the doorstep. Inside, Burke had written his name in popcorn on the floor. Luckily I had ice cream in my hand, so I gave it to him and said, "Ice cream YES!"We went out to dinner with our good friends and then went to the dance together. We had a great night, and not surprisingly, I wasn't the only pregnant one there. After the dance, we went to our friends' house and watched Madagascar 2. All in all, the night was a success and everyone had a great time.