Happy 7th Anniversary! I am the luckiest!

Can it really be 7 years this year?  In some senses, it feels like we've known each other and been married forever, and then other times it feels like we were just newlyweds!  This year, we had a great time celebrating our anniversary!

This year I was in charge of planning the activities for us!  My mom and dad were so nice to watch the kids...they had one sleepless night and my dad told me "I don't know how you do it day in & day out!"  It was sweet of them to offer and it was so nice to get away and not have to worry about the children, as much as we love them!

First, we went to Cheesecake Factory for dinner.  We sat on the patio, it was a gorgeous night!  We enjoyed talking without interruptions...ah hem.  The food was great like always!  I ate fish and chips (I guess I've been inspired by watching all of the olympics lately, since that's a favorite in London!) and Dave had a burger.  Then we were stuffed after eating just part of our meal, so we saved the rest and got dessert to go.  We ate it later that night, we got the Black Out chocolate cake and the caramel apple cheesecake.  So rich and so good!

Then we checked into our room at the Inn at Snowbird!  That night, we got our pass, which included unlimited Alpine Slide, Sky Ride, Peruvian Chair Lift, Tram, trampolines, rock climbing wall, jump toys, mechanical bull and more!  We walked along the nature path and then went swimming at the pool, the hot tub, and then went to the sauna for a while.  It was so hot in there I could barely breathe!

The view from our room - magnificent!

The next morning, we slept in, went to the buffet breakfast, and then we went to do all of the fun stuff!  It was such a fun day doing all of these things together!  Seriously, we needed to be just together so bad and this was just what the doctor ordered!

Once we got to the top of the chair lift, we went through the tunnel to the other side of the mountain and explored!

I even did some flips, woot woot!

Probably our favorite thing was the Alpine Slide...we only got video of it, no pictures.  But we had a blast!

Thanks, hon, for the good times!  I love you and had so much fun with you!!

On our actual anniversary, we had a family date!  The theme was "Viva Las Vegas", since this is our lucky 7 anniversary and we were thinking about going to Las Vegas, but that wasn't really an option because of our limited time.  I played the song by Elvis on the way downtown, where we saw the fountains.  They weren't Bellagio, but they were still good.  Then we went to the gardens, that definitely beat out any of the gardens in LV.

After we went to the gardens, we went to the Timber Creek buffet, because you can't go to Vegas without going to a buffet!  It was okay food.  Then we went home, and partied there.  This has a King at the top and a queen at the bottom for Dave & I, and then the cards are 8 and 10 and 5...it took Dave a while to figure out it's the date of our anniversary, 08/10/2005.  :)

Dave gave me this beautiful mirror and a card, and part of it said: "Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the fairest one of all?"  "Melanie of course".  No one compares to her beauty, intellect, wisdom, charm, kindness, compassion, thoughtfulness and choice spirit."  Awwww, he's so sweet and I love him so much!

Then we watched a Terry Fator DVD, which is what show we'd see if we went there.  We love him and have seen him once, he's so talented and amazing!

Thank you, Babe for these amazing 7 years, the years of my life!  I really am the luckiest to have you!

Saying Goodbyes

The weekend before we left Utah, we said some last goodbyes to our families and friends.

First, on Saturday morning, we met up with the Yangs at Village Inn for some breakfast.  They were so sweet and brought little gifts for all of the kids!  That's the thing with them, they are so giving and generous always to everyone!  They brought Lucy this puppy, which she loves and carries around all over the place.  "Doggy", "Puppy" she'll always say.  Ewan and Lucy were feeding food to each other.

 The trouble-makers: Cal and Ana!  Too bad arranged marriages aren't in anymore, or we'd match these two up!  Ha ha!

 The girls - Emma loves, loves Elisha!

Goodbye, Yangs!  Thanks for the fun time!

Then we went swimming with Jerry & Stacy and kids up to North Shore Aquatics center.  We bought these passes a while ago and wanted to go together, but what we didn't know is that it was free day - ahhhh!  So it was super crowded there!  But that didn't stop our fun!

"Come to Mama!"

These girls know how to have a good time together!

We felt like sardines in this pool, it was so, so crazy!

  

So, since it was so crowded that day and we still had our passes we didn't need to use, we went two days later with them again!  It was way better the second time we went.  Plenty of room, plenty of quiet!  The kids loved the lazy river, splash pad, slides, and I even went off the high-dive for the first time!

"Yoohoo, I love to swim!!"

Lucy with Daddy, we had a hard time getting this girl out of the water!

Kaison toweling off

Snacking

 Cousins!!

Me & Stacy saying goodbye!

 Before we left, we had a little family recital so Emma could practice performing in front of others, because her last recital was over a year ago!

Grandma helping Emma. Emma's been so fortunate to be able to have lessons with Grandma instead of Mom this summer...something Emma always begs for!  My mom is the best piano teacher out there!

Tayla turning the page for her

Emma did a great job and played Schools Out, In Our Car, Hop Stop Flop & Alouette.

 We were so glad everyone came out!

 Then we opened the floor to anyone else who wanted to do anything.  Kaison tinkered around on the piano a bit and then he and Cal sand "I Am a Child of God".

 Then the girls sang "I Love to See the Temple"

And then they danced to Mama Mia!

 Lucy was danging a long with them!

Stacy and Lucy

Then my mom and I played a piece by CPE Bach, Concerto in D

The gracious audience members

Thanks everyone for coming!

Trying to get her to take a bow

After the recital, we had a bunch of cookies and bars, sugar rush!

Then we did some important things, like playing dodge ball!

And doing a hair comparison shot. Yep, I still think Dave has the most hair...yessss!

And socializing.  It was fun to have everyone there!  Here's Ryan & Julie, ow ow!  JK, Julie!

The babies, they are too cute!

Then the night before we left, we went to Paces Dairy Ann to go get some rainbows and give our last hugs goodbye!

Em & Am

 Lucy was mad because she didn't want the ice-cream we got for her, she wanted Grandpa's popsicle.  Of course, he obliged.

Ice-cream and family, what could be better?

 "It feels good to stand" as my dad always says.

The girlies!

 Kolby with Lucy & Cal - Kolb and Am are going to be great parents some day!

Playing - they all wanted to do piggy backs!

 Bye, Amber!

 Grandpa holds a soft place in his heart for his grandkids and kept teasing them that he was going to sneak into one of our suitcases to go home with us.  "Silly Grandpa!"

 Then, that night, most of the Ryerse's came over and we said our goodbyes!  We will miss everyone so much!  It was so great to be able to see everyone so much this summer! Thank you all for everything!  Before we left, Dave asked his dad for a father's blessing.  I've never heard Dave get a blessing (except for being set-apart) and it was so neat to hear his dad give him one.  He is truly inspired and we are so appreciative for the way he leads his life and the example he sets as patriarch of the family.  Sue did all of our laundry the day before we left and helped get everything cleaned up, which was so sweet of her!  Wednesday morning, we packed up, held back tears, and rolled out back home.

"I have a family here on earth, they are so good to me.  I want to share my life with them through all eternity."

We drove about 6ish hours to Emmett, ID to go see Grandma Carol and Grandpa Chuck.  They're so great!  We also got to see Kael and Kelley.  The kids loved playing there but there are so many breakables, it was hard to keep their little fingers off those things!  But we enjoyed being together for the night, we had pizza for dinner, and then talked and hung out, slept over and in the morning, had breakfast, chatted some more.  It was nice to break up the trip and to travel this direction.  We usually go up through the other side of ID and through Montana, which is faster.  But this drive was so much prettier! We saw lots of wildfires on the way there.  It was sad how much ground was burnt up!

Dave with Grandma Carol and Grandpa Chuck!

And now we're back in the regular groove (kind of, still enjoying summer and staying up late and going to fun places and all that goes along with it).  But it's good to get back to life as we know it!