A great weekend

I am taking advantage of a rare quiet moment to update about our fabulous weekend. With lots of Dr. Pepper in my system to keep me awake, we picked up my sister-in-law Shawn and her son Ethan from the airport on Thursday. Kevin was in town for work, so they decided to join him for the weekend. The kids were beyond excited to finally see Ethan. I had told them about how cute he was, and they couldn't wait to smother him with kisses. He and his mommy spent Thursday afternoon here and Kev came over after work. He and Shawn are such a great Uncle and Aunt. They jumped on the trampoline with the kids and Kevin took Trent to swimming lessons. We then got Cafe Rio for the grown ups for dinner and the kids were ecstatic to have Del Taco. While we were visiting, Rachel decided to put my cell phone in my cup of water. Yeah, those two things don't go so well together, in case you didn't know.
Elise is totally enamoured with Shawn and followed her everywhere, asking her all kinds of questions, which Shawn very patiently answered. They left for their hotel around 7 pm, and you would have thought it was the end of the world, Elise was so upset.

Friday night was the Father/Son campout for Greg and the boys, and we girls had a totally fun Girls Night. Greg took the boys and Suzie, the dog, up to Hobble Creek canyon, and he said they had such a good time. It was a little chilly, but not freezing yet. They played soccer and flashlight tag, and some of the boys told Trent, "You have the most awesome dad!". When Trent told about that, I asked him why they'd said it, wanting to know what had presipitated it, but Hailey said "Because he is, Mom!". What a sweet daughter. We'll see if she feels that way in a few years! Their favorite part was making s'mores and spending time with their dad.

For our Girls Night, we started out at the mall, of course. We got mini pretzels and lemonade, and then got me a new phone. (Hailey told me its totally awesome, so I feel cool now.) Then we looked at Claire's and wished we could buy the whole store. Well, the girls did at least. As we were walking through the food court to the car, someone gave us coupons for free ice cream! What a fun surprise. After the baby ate my entire cup for me, we headed home. I'd told Elise I had a surprise for her, and it was worth every penny of the $12 I spent when I pulled "Barbie and the Diamond Castle" DVD from the bag. Her face was priceless. She kept hugging and and thanking me all night. Once I put Rachel down, the three of us snuggled up in my bed and ate licorice and Sour Patch Kids and watched Barbie. If your girls like those movies, this is my new favorite one.

The boys got home around 11 am, right as Kevin was bringing Ethan to Hailey and I to watch for the afternoon. Kevin knows Norm Chow, and got 10 tickets to the BYU vs. UCLA game. (Shawn got her Masters in Nursing from UCLA, so they have season tickets in CA.) Little did he know what misery awaited him.... hee hee. Greg showered and headed to the game, while we took care of Ethan. He is such a good baby. The kids had a ball making him smile (which is fairly easy to do) and playing with him. Rachel didn't get very jealous; I was happily surprised.

Greg said the game was awesome! They were sitting in the UCLA section, and it got to the point that he'd turn around and tell the UCLA fans, "That was a really good effort." or "They almost made that one.", to try to make them feel better. Kevin wasn't in the best of moods, so they left at the end of the 3rd quarter. We had planned on spending the evening with Kev and Shawn, but he wasn't too happy and they decided to head out. Which meant that Greg and I could go to a party my friends were having!

It is so nice that Hailey is getting older and can watch the kids, but this was for a long time, so we had her friend Caitlin come over to help her. Greg and I headed up to Big Cottonwood Canyon where they were having a bbq. It was so fun to see everyone with their husbands, as this was the first time we'd done a couples night. We had heard so much about the hubbies (for one party we had told our love stories) that it was great to see their personalities in real life. There was a fire pit and everyone put their camp chairs around, before we were split up with girls on one side and guys on the other. We then played a somewhat clean version of the Newlywed Game. Greg and I answered about half of them right. Greg was being is funny self of course. That night when we got home, Greg said "I can't remember the last time I had such a good day. I woke up with my boys in the mountains, say BYU kick UCLA's butt and then had an awesome date with my wife." I agree, it was a fabulous weekend.