Angie's Surprise!

I've decided kidnapping friends for their birthdays is the way to go. My friend Angie just had her birthday and some friends and I decided to kidnap her and take her out, with the help of her husband.

We headed to Target, where Angie was shopping. Her husband had let us know which section they were in, so the hunt began. We had to speed down aisles so she wouldn't see us, which was awesome. If only the Mission Impossible theme song were being played! Angie's husband saw us so was ready to help when we attacked. We walked up quietly behind them and Steve, Angie's husband, scooped her up and stuck her in the cart we were pushing around. I blind folded her and the night began.

We headed to Chevy's for dinner and made her stay blindfolded until another friend showed up. It was great to make her wait so long.

After dinner, we went bowling. And it was glow bowl which was way more fun. Lucky I had glow sticks at home to bring, right? Our first game, we played a real game. The second one, we tried to spice things up by having to bowl each round a certain way, aka spinning around, dance walking, bowling through the legs etc. The last couple of rounds were our speed rounds since we were running out of time. So we tried to see who could throw the ball the fastest. Fittingly, Angie threw a 16.1 mph ball, winning.

It was a fun night and we ended with a group picture. We were trying to be hard core but we had trouble and didn't know there was a double flash. Here's what happened.

Ha!  I love it so much.  And then we took a normal one, ready this time, for the double flash. 

Happy Birthday, my super friend Angie!

We Drove to Utah

Yes, we actually drove to Utah. It was a very quick trip. We left the Wednesday before the 4th of July, and came home the following Monday. I'd heard that my sis-in-law, Liz, and her kids, who are currently living in Germany, were going to be in Provo, so Dave and I decided to make the trip to visit them and some of his brothers. I wasn't too worried about Jocelyn. We had plenty of things to distract her. It was Emma I was worried about. But she did fantastic. Both girls were great! Yes, we heard, "Are we there yet?" a few times and Emma had to cry herself to sleep a couple times but that was as bad as it got.

So now to the fun stuff. We started right away. The night we got there, we headed to my old roommates house, where three other roommates met as well, and we got all caught up. We ate, we laughed, we chatted. It was so fun to see them. I miss our fun times we had in college!

The next day we met up with one of Dave's roommate and had breakfast at the amazing Kneaders. Afterwards, we got to see my sis-in-law and her four kids. They are so cute and we had a blast. We first stopped at Ashley and Sara's soccer camp and watched their games. Then we walked around BYU to reminisce, of course making sure to eat some of their famous mint brownies. We hung out at Liz's childhood home and then headed to her sister's house to swim. After we were worn out, we went back to Liz's to eat dinner and play games.

The next day, we headed to Provo's 4th of July parade. Thankfully Liz's family are parade fanatics and were really prepared with a tent so we weren't burning in the sun! After the parade, we went to Liz's so the kids could take naps and then the little ones played in the water and played dress up, naturally!

We had a BBQ at Liz's sister's house and then watched them set off some fireworks.

Ashley's patriotic fruit dish.

We said our goodbyes, and headed to Dave's brother, Josh's house for the remainder of our stay.  Dan and Mike live nearby so they joined in the fun and dad and dad's girlfriend, Teri, also made the trip out to Utah. To finish off with the 4th of July, Josh and Tara's neighbors put off a good fireworks show so we didn't have to travel anywhere.

The next day we went to the aquarium. The girls loved it. We did have a slight scare for a couple minutes when we lost Jocelyn, but luckily, she was still at the whale play area where some nice people were helping her to find us. She didn't know we had moved on and we didn't know she wasn't following.

Emma had her face to the glass anytime she could.  She loved being so close.

I was so proud of Jocey.  She wasn't scared at all of walking on the rope bridge.

Teri and the girls.

This is the play area where we accidentally left Jocey. :(

On Sunday, we went to church and got to be there for Josh's ordination to High Priest. He became a High Councilor. We spent the rest of the day playing games and eating and just enjoying each others company. Monday, we headed back home and made good time. We were home for dinner and FHE and then headed to bed EARLY!

It was so great to see so many family and friends. We miss being close to so many of them. Until next time!