Back from Utah - Time to Move

After an emergency landing, an evening in Detroit, and barely making a connection in Dallas, Ryan finally made it back to LA Friday afternoon. It was a crazy 24 hours for him and I'm just happy he was able to get on a functioning plane (after American insisted they could fix the busted engine... and then didn't) and get home safely. Westin and I arrived back in LA just a few hours later. We were all exhausted and just happy to be in our own beds. You know that feeling... it's amazing.


Alright, now on to the highlights of our trip to Utah.


We headed there on Thursday the 20th - our 5 year anniversary, as you may recall. Since we have a trip planned to Maui later this summer (so excited!), we didn't mind that we'd be traveling to Utah on the actual day of our anniversary. However, Ryan scored big points with a surprise bouquet of roses delivered to my mom's house for when we arrived that afternoon.

Absolutely gorgeous! You did good, babe!

The next day was Ryan's brother's wedding at the Salt Lake Temple. My mom watched Westin the entire day so we could attend the events child-free. So lovely. Thank you, mom!

The happy, beautiful couple - Shalice and Trevor Rich
It's not often these days that we get a picture of just the two of us
Lindsay, Camille and me (Jan, we missed you!)

Lily and Miranda

After the temple ceremony, we headed up to Park City for the reception at Glenwilde County Club. The location was stunning - hidden in the mountains among incredibly huge homes. The evening was really nice - cocktail hour, dinner, speeches, Trev & Shalice sharing some funny stories in a video, cake cutting, and dancing... lots of dancing...

Lily, Gemma, & Miranda - these girls were hilarious - especially Gemma (age 2) who refused to get off the dance floor

Here's Lindsay making an attempt to get Gemma off the dance floor and off to bed (this was around 10:00 - Gemma refused and kept dancing until about 10:30 when she finally crashed)

Who are these two crazy kids?

This is Ryan's cousin, Abby. She and I were among the last on the dance floor. You may not know this about me, but I love to dance at weddings. I'm not good, but I love it. We had a blast!

While we attended the wedding festivities all day, my mom entertained Westin. The big event of the day for them - feeding the ducks at Sugar House Park. Reports from this activity: the ducks were really nice and polite, while the geese were rather rude and overbearing. Once the geese realized my mom, Kenzie and W were throwing out bread, the scary little birds practically started chasing them around the pond.

Aunt Kenzie showing W how to feed the ducks

Westin getting the hang of it

Another funny story from this activity - Westin would hold a piece of bread in one hand, but throw with his other hand (the empty one). We're currently working on coordination.

Sunday morning we had a nice breakfast with my mom, Kenzie and Trevor, and then headed to Lindsay's house to meet up with Ryan's family for the rest of the day.

Westin loves his cousins and likes to do whatever they're doing. Here he is playing the piano with Lily (who is an excellent piano player!)

Westin with Lily and Gemma

That evening, we returned to my mom's house to have a belated birthday celebration for me - basically, it was just a reason to try a new cake recipe. This one was a blackberry, raspberry chocolate truffle cake. Sounds amazing, right? It tasted amazing. Nice work, mom!

Ryan and Chris, ready to help me blow out the candles
Kenzie and me

For whatever reason, Westin loved getting into the toy bins. Sometimes he'd want us to fill them up with toys, and at other times he wanted us to push him around in them. What a life!

One morning while my mom and I were at the gym, Uncle Chris built Westin his first box tunnel (Mandy, note how I did not say box "fort" - that is still for you to do)

Loving the box idea! Way to go, Chris.

Later in the week I joined my mom and her girlfriends for lunch. This group of women is particularly special to me because I've known them since I was in 5th grade. I used to babysit their kids, and now their kids are old enough to babysit my child. Where did time go? Anyway, the girls were getting together to celebrate a couple birthdays, so Westin and I decided to tag along. Westin did pretty well, but was eager to get out of his high chair and explore the patio. Luckily, it was gated and W could walk around without making an escape. In fact, he walked along the curb next to the gate so peacefully. He would also occasionally walk up to another table, tap someone there on the leg, look up at them with a smile, and then walk away.

Lunch with Grandma Di and the ladies

That same evening, was a surprise party for my dad's 55th birthday. It took a whole group of us to help pull off the surprise, but we did it and my dad was certainly surprised.

Chris had to "borrow" my dad's car to keep him from coming home early. He knew Westin and I were coming over for dinner, so he kept asking if we could come earlier (even though I told him a half dozen times I couldn't come until 6:30) and he would leave work early to hang out with us.

Even that night he was calling me asking me what time I was coming. I finally had to tell him I was stuck in traffic so that he wouldn't try to go home too early.

Loni did a tremendous job with everything.

Westin with "papa" - that's what W started calling him this trip

Showing us all that he's still got the lung capacity of a 20-year-old... just took one breath

Kenzie, Chris, Westin, me, dad, Loni and Trev

My cousin Zac, his daughter Taryn, dad, W and me

Some of you may already know that my mom invented a board game - 2, in fact - Huggermugger and Huggermugger Jr. She did this at my age (geez, I'm such a loser, what have I done with my life?). Anyway, this is a sweatshirt from the Huggermugger days that she's saved and gave to Westin. Still a little big, but he'll grow into and keep the Huggermugger name alive!

Grandma Di with her two babies :)

Just enjoying the morning

Helping grandma Di clean before we left

One last visit to see some baby chicks (Westin now says "peep peep")

I'm sure I'm forgetting some exciting stories, but all I can think about now is everything I have to do for our move that starts Tuesday. At least we have one more day to play before things get crazy.