Flowers Galore & Bree's Birthday

At least we've been able to enjoy a little spring this past week! Last Saturday, Jake and I went to the Salt Lake Temple to attend my mission companion, Camille's sealing. It was really nice, and I'm so happy for her! We served together for 6 months in Reutlingen, Germany when I was pretty much a greenie, and I know she had to use lots of patience on me! We served in a white-washed area in this adorable town where we did TONS of door to door, and rode everywhere on our beloved brown bikes. My bike's name was Hugo, and her's was Choco. We would fly down the hilly streets on Sunday morning to get to the train station, run and catch the train, ride to the next town and hop on a bus and then walk to the church. Whew! She taught me that we could eat real meals on the mission, instead of eating just soup and sandwiches. My first spaghetti and broccoli meal with her was heavenly. We made these applesauce zucchini muffins one P-Day, and took them on a hike up to the top of a hill in the middle of the city and did our companionship study up there. Then the whole way down, we took turns naming everything we were thankful for. Sounds cheesey, I know, but it was great. Every P-Day was a new adventure of hiking, biking, finding new castles, and exploring. We ran on a trail in the woods by our apartment almost every morning, and we learned SO many new German vocab words and memorized scriptures during all our tracting. We met and taught people from so many different countries, and a few of them went on to be baptized after we were both gone. But anyways, that was a random tangeant of the time I spent with my longest mission companion. :) And I'm happy she's married now. And it was a gorgeous day, as you can tell from the picture! We went to the wedding dinner that night at the Grand America Hotel in a huge ballroom with 200 plus people and enjoyed ourselves.

On Monday, we helped my sister Bree celebrate her 30th birthday! Woooohoo, Happy Birthday Schmee! We all met up at Pirate Island in Orem and enjoyed some yummy pizza and partying.

Cami fell asleep on the way down there, so she still had her binkie in her mouth and was a little disoriented at first.

It was a fun family night with my siblings and a few of Bree's friends.

They sang a rousing Happy Birthday pirate song.

And Cam enjoyed playing with this flower that my Mom sent in Bree's bday package. hehe

I set Ari and Cam's high chairs like this to let them interact a little more. I don't know how social of a mood Cami was in, but they still look cute together.

We perused the arcade after dinner and let Cam have a go at the Whac a Mole, then Jake and I played some skee ball (my favorite arcade game of all time) and won 1 tootsie roll each. Woooo!

I also went to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point this week, finally! The past couple years, I've seen the advertisements and have wanted to go but never did. My grandma mentioned that she wanted to go, so I said I would go with her and make it a date! We met up with my Aunt Chris and her cute little 2 year old Shea, and enjoyed a few hours at the gardens. Not sure why Cami is extending her arms in this picture....it usually means 1 of 3 things: Stretching, "Sooooo big", or "Toss it in the oven" for Patty Cake. :)

I loved all the different kinds of tulips and flowers!

We had to go on the one day this week that was decent before another snow storm came in, (ridiculous weather) but it was still really windy and about 50 degrees.

Mommy daughter picture!

Cam and Shea, hangin out like little buds. That's weird that she's my teensy little cousin!

We saved the big waterfall for last, which is always pretty. We had a lovely day out with Grandma Willes and her picnic lunch and abundant picture taking! She's such a cute lady.

So here's to May, a new month of spring and hopefully warmer weather and lots more flowers.