Tim's Endowment Trip: Las Vegas

Yes, we took my brother to Sin City to take out his endowment. Yes, we walked along the strip. At night. And yes, I walked 2 miles at 5 months pregnant, just to see the Belagio fountains. (I do not recommend this to anyone by the way.) But we had a blast hanging out as a family (sans Carly and Bryce, would you guys live closer already??) in the warm Vegas air. Seriously it was marvelous. 

We left around 1 on Friday the 15th, and got to Vegas about 6:30. I was so proud of myself, I only had to stop one time to use the bathroom! Pregnant lady win! We checked into the hotel and hung out until Mom and Dad got there about an hour and a half later. We then went to Coco's for dinner. I wanted to go to the Belagio fountain show so bad, so we started walking. Apparently, though, I was the only one who wanted to go that far, or knew we were going that far. We had a tired crew after we made the mile trek. The fountain show was cool, and now it is checked off my bucket list. Then it took an hour to walk back due to walking being painful. But we made it.

Love him :)

The next morning, we woke up, and some of us got breakfast, again at Coco's. Hey, it was right next to the hotel! Sean and I split the Mega breakfast or whatever it was called: $10 for 3 eggs, 3 pancakes (which they gave me toast instead, but they gave me free OJ so I didn't complain), 3 bacon and 3 sausage? Not bad. Then we drove to the temple!

Do you know what is cool about the Vegas temple! One, it is way far off the Strip. Awesome. Two, they have an atrium where you can go and take pictures in your temple whites! So we took some pictures after the session. Can you see Tim's glowing face? Love it! It looks like he just ate a huge Thanksgiving-sized spiritual feast.

The proud parents!

Happy family! (Carly and Bryce, we miss you!)

Siblings

They are so cute. I love my sibs!

We took one picture and then my mom said, "Okay show off the bump!" So there it is. That was 23 weeks 2 days.

Highlights of the trip? 

-My dad is goofy and kept us all laughing at dinner. Amongst the rest of us telling stupid silly stories. I love going out to eat with my family!

-The words "Sean, one day when you are a general authority..." came out of my dad's mouth. Not that I would be surprised, but Sean had a mini freak-out haha.

- My mom went to Coco's with me in the morning while I ordered take-out, and proceeded to explain Angry Birds Star Wars to me. She is so cute!

- Watching my brother go through the temple, obviously.

- Not a highlight? Being in a car for 6 hours. Twice in a 28 hour time period. That sucked. 

But I survived.

(Thanks to my neighbors for watching Blaze! Becky, you guys are awesome!)

Gratitude Days 3-5

I was such a slacker this weekend! Actually, I made a deal with myself not to get on any social media, and I succeeded. Except for the picture I posted on Instagram of my friend Morgan at her wedding reception. Aside from that, no email, no facebook, not twitter, nothing. I was pretty impressed that I actually did it...

Anyway here we go:

Day 3: I am grateful for the temple! Sean and I got to do an endowment session with his parents on Saturday, and we had family names from his dad's side of the family. It's been really fun doing family names; we started with the baptisms and have been working our way through everything else! It's fun making relationship connections just by looking at the names and dates on each card.

Day 4: I'm grateful for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the opportunity to take the Sacrament every week. I love that I can feel close to my Savior and that feeling gets renewed every week at church. I love the weekly dose of the Spirit that comes, even in Primary! (And that is a whole other blog post.)

Day 5: I'm grateful for pinterest and new recipes :) Come on, there had to be a cheesy one in my catch-up. A few months ago I found a sweet and sour chicken recipe on Pinterest and made it. Now it is a regular in our dinner lineup, it is so good! I blogged the recipe a couple months ago. Or look at Pinterest...

Memorial Day 2012

I know, like so four months ago. That's what happens when your computer crashes in the middle of the summer. So here we go, catch-up post number one!

Sean and I decided (okay, more like I begged for us) to drive up to Brigham City where my grandparents are buried. We stopped at Wal-mart to get some flowers and then headed up! 

We took a few pictures...

I love visiting Grandma and Grandpa Jones

We said hi to Grandma Lizzie and Grandpa William too

...and then we drove past the temple. I love how beautiful the temples are even months before they are finished. Can't wait for the dedication in a couple weeks!

And then we went to lunch. 

Sean's malt that he ordered.

I wanted to go to the restaurant we ate at during our family reunion in 2009, the one where you can see the cows that will be used for the next day's meals, but it was closed. So we went to a little burger joint down the street.

Then we stopped at Cabella's because I had never been.

Love my bearded man <3 font="font">

Cool that they have the little walk-though aquarium, not so cool after only having gone to Sea World 4 weeks before...

Cabella's fudge!

And then we saw Brave! Loved it!

Yay for Memorial Day and paid days off!

Days 8-10 of our Southern California trip

We spent part of a day in Los Angeles and then drove up to my parent's house in King City for the rest of the weekend. We had some fun adventures!

I still cannot believe how clear it was that day. So gorgeous! LA never rarely looks like this!

 

I love to see the temple!

I spent many a day roaming these grounds growing up. It always feels like going home :)

 

 Gorgeous day!

 Of course I wanted a picture of us where the bride and groom come out. No one was there to take one of us, so a self portrait had to suffice.

 Love that pose!

Oh hey, Moroni!

 

 Awww

 Could this day be anymore beautiful? I submit that it cannot?

Sorry Carly, but I think it was a nicer day than your wedding day was. It was cooler but just as clear.

 I love pulling this face. Obvi. I pull it at least 5 times a year in pictures, and many more not documented. Just ask Sean.

P.S. The day I finally got to go in those doors was probably one of the coolest days of my life.

 Oh it was kinda windy that day too...

 Sean lovingly agreed to go to Grauman's Chinese Theater. Above are the stars for Donald Duck, Winnie the Pooh, and Tinkerbell. In memory of our Disneyland excursion.

 The outside of the theater, where all the hand prints are.

 I had asked my dad where a good sushi restaurant was, this little place was a couple miles away from Magic Mountain.

We both LOVED what we ate. Yum! And Sean tried my sushi. I will make a sushi lover out of him...

 Rocky loves that duck...

 This is how we showed up at my parent's door. 

 Brotherly love.

 We gave Dad some music and he totally passed out...

 Blaze looooves getting his tummy rubbed. I bet he learned it from Rocky. 

(This is Rocky, in case there was any confusion. My dog is not that fat...)

 On our way to BJ's! Dear Utah, please get one soon!

  We were really bored...

 Love these two!

 We saw this same sign on the way back to Utah after Thanksgiving and I knew I had to snap a photo of it. In November, we passed it and Sean said, "They charge you to use the bathroom?!"

So glad we got to take that week off and do lots of fun things! Two sessions, Sea World, 3 whole days at Disneyland, beach, family time, love it! Can't wait to go back...

sneak peak!

of our wedding pictures! they turned out SO wonderfully! as soon as I get the CD i will post more.

 Right after we came out of the temple!

This one was actually taken by my sister Jennifer.

 We took couple pictures after the group shots.

Isn't he the most handsome man you've ever seen??

First dance :)

Click here to see the photographer's blog.

More to come!

Labor Day Weekend 2011

Otherwise known as the weekend Carly got married. It was such a fun weekend!

Except for the massive bruise on my shin in all the pictures from soccer the two days before... yeah.

Anyway, I flew out Friday morning (thanks Kelly for taking me!) and landed at LAX about noon or so. My parents picked me up from the airport, we went and got lunch, and then met the rest of the sibs at the temple. We stayed in the temple apartments that night.

waiting for my parents at LAX

"hayley, put your sunglasses on. we are in LA" haha oh dad...

little brother :)

Los Angeles Temple

Carly got her endowment Friday night and then we all went to dinner. You think we would have taken more pictures because we were all so happy smiley... yeah didn't really happen.

me and the briiiiide!

P.S. Tim, thanks for buying me Coldstone after! Such a good brother!

Saturday morning was the wedding. We got up and all got ready and went to the sealing.

sisters

It was my first sealing, so it was really exciting! So much fun to see siblings get married :)

After the sealing, waiting for the bride and groom to come out:

Left to Right: Dad, Juliet, Jen, Sean, Tim, Jen, Clint, Syl, Flo

Me, Jenna, Sandi, Tasha

Me and brother-again

Jen, me and Katie

Mr. and Mrs. Mortensen! Aren't they adorable? Their socks and shoes are the best...

Mawwww!

True love. Or something cheesy like that.

Yeah, they are that awesome. Or something...

Awww, family...

I rode back to Bako with Katie, one of my best friends. We've known each other for almost 10 years now. She practically lived at my house my senior year, it was so fun! 

We stopped at her house and I got to meet Blaze and Ruby's brother Bruno! He's such a big boy! 

Captain Brunubus Bono

Reception: 

Cutting the cake. Then I dropped one in true blonde fashion.

I caught the bouquet! Guess that came true... haha! Yay for February 17th and Sean and eternity! 

So glad Sam and Ben were able to make it! Can you tell how tired I was by this point? And the night wasn't near over...

After the reception, Dad and I drove back to King City. 

Just call me the California State traveler. I always seem to travel from end to end of the state when I'm there... (see my post about Disneyland 2010.)

Went to church the next day, then made a yummy dinner for my parents and brother. Also, I got to play with the sweetest doggies, Sandi and Rocky. Love them :)

that thing Rocky is playing with used to be a monkey slipper

Rocky and Sandi. Love them!

I really love my brother, if you couldn't tell from this post.

I let them sleep in my room with me because I missed Blaze

On Monday, Mom, Tim and I drove up to San Francisco to hang out for a day. Sam met us in the city, as well as my other bestie from high school, Tyler. 

yes, another picture. I just love him :)

Giant's stadium. I can like the stadium and hate the team right? Go Dodgers!

We walked around Pier 39...

probably the highlight of my day

Golden Gate Bridge

Alcatraz Island

Alcatraz and some sailboats

the sea lions of course!

skyline of San Fran from Pier 39

love this girl :)

Hey! Tyler is actually smiling in a picture!

Got some of the most delicious sourdough bread on the planet...

Boudin. Best sourdough bread ever. Ever! And I bought one of the little turtles. Yum! Oh and the alligator? Life size...

Of course, stopped at Jones Street...

And went to Ghirardelli Square. 

that's more like the Tyler I know... he tries to be so hard core. I can say that because I know he won't read this hahahaha

love my mama!

Then I went home with Sam and stayed the night at her house.

Bay Bridge out of the city. East bound I guess...

We made dinner (stuffed zucchini), and dessert for the baptism that we were going to that night (one of the football players on the Cal team). My first time making no-bakes. And apparently they were a hit because Sam texted me a few days later and everyone was asking about them. Score.

Like my fancy apron?

As delish as it looks. Yummmm

For reals they were good.

Did I mention the baptism was at the stake center next to the Oakland Temple? Same place my high school choir had a competition my sophomore year. So fun!

sunset

left to right: Chris, Todd, me, Sam. old Glenwood buddies!

On Tuesday, Jen picked me up and we went to lunch and then went and hung out with Seth and Jenna and their two kids. Again, my lack of picture taking sometimes frustrates me to no end. Anyway, that was the perfect end to that vacation, Seth is a riot! "I'm going to name my son Mike and spell it B-E-N. His teachers will get so confused!" Love it!

The really long tunnel. I texted this picture to Sean. For what reason? Who knows. But it was fun.

Sammy apparently falls asleep like this in the car all the time. So cute!

Then I flew back to Utah. Glen and kids picked me up from the airport and I drove back to my house, where Sean was waiting for me. And you should all know the rest of that story: it ends in...

 Happily Ever After!

Disclaimer: this photo was not taken the night I got back, but a few days later on our first official date. More about that later though.