Highlights from Laura's visit

My sister Laura came for a quick last minute visit. It was a fun surprise to have her here for a week. As you can tell from the pictures below we were picture crazy. We see her, Tyson and Lydia only a few times a year so we feel the need to document every fun second we have with them.

Courtney adores her Aunt Laura

The 4 Amigos back together again!! These cute cousins sure love each other.

Lydia had no problem remembering us (it's been 5 months since she's seen us) especially with her cousins. As soon as she walked in the door she pointed to Jake and Coco and smiled. Two seconds later they were off playing together and having fun.

I know I've said it a million times but these two little girls have such a special bond and are truly kindred spirits.

Laura was having fun taking action shots of Jake

I took this picture... Pretty cool eh!!

The little boy next to Coco is Zachery. Laura and Tyson became good friends with a couple in their Oklahoma ward who are from France and studying abroad for a year. My sister Laura can speak french so when she met this sweet girl who could hardly speak any English a bond was instantly made and they became the best of friends. Marie & Antoine (the french couple) their son Zachery and Marie's parents came to Utah to see all the amazing sights.

It was quite the experience being with people who can't speak English. It was fun but at times awkward especially when Laura wasn't in the room to translate. All we could say was "Bonjour" (hello) so we would just smile at each other and then do our own thing. We did learn a lot about France and I've come to realize that sadly I know nothing about other countries. This is something I'm going to work on.

I asked Marie if it's true about French people hating Americans. She replied "not the LDS ones". In total that is what, a few thousand people in all of France? We had a good laugh about this.

My favorite time with Marie was when she said her husband is a "gerk, gerk, gerk". I looked at her strangely and wondered "wow, her husband really must be a gerk," but then I clued in that she said "joke, joke, joke". Meaning her husband is funny. We had tears in our eyes as we laughed at the misunderstanding.

Marie was an answer to many prayers including mine as she became the sister to Laura that I can't be anymore. I know Marie will never read this because she can't read English but if she could I would want to tell her thank you for all she has done for my little sister. Thank you for her service, kindness, understanding and for truly loving Laura. Friends like these are rare and I'm grateful she was there when my sister needed a true friend. Thank you Marie!!

The little girls visiting their Nana the librarian

The little girls visiting their Granddad the Insurance Agent

We spent an entire day in Salt Lake, we started with taking Jake and Logan to see the Joseph Smith movie for their first time. Both boys seemed to enjoy it, Jake had a lot of questions throughout the movie and Scott was patient in answering and explaining everything to him.

Court and Lydia lasted only 15 minutes so Laura and I took them for a walk around Temple Square while we waited for the movie to end.

Playing

Court was in awe of all the girls wearing white 'princess' dresses. She informed me that she's going to wear a princess dresss and mary her Dad in the temple. Too cute!

It was sweet when we took the girls to see the Christus. Courtney at first thought Jesus was sleeping and kept telling us to be quiet. Laura showed Coco Jesus's hands and she now tells everyone that Jesus has owee's and he was sad but now he's happy.

More pictures on Temple Square.

Best Friends Forever!!

Grandad & Nana with their four grand children

This is my favorite picture as it captures our life. I don't know how to explain it in words but when I saw this picture my immediate thought was "yup, that's our life".

After temple square we headed to Liberty Park to play on the playground, play in the water and ride the ferris wheel. It turned into one of those picture perfect days.

The kids loved the water.

I don't usually get scared on rides but having Coco next to me made me extremely nervous and then when we looked down and saw a maintenance man working on the ferris wheel this didn't do much for my confidence. Lol!! But we lived and the kids loved it!

Good times!!

We ended the day eating at the Mayan restaurant and then the boys headed to a Real Salt Lake soccer game. Perfect ending to a perfect day.

The two girls hanging around!!

Last but not least here are pictures of our visit to the Tree House

Courtney standing on Utah and Lydia standing on Oklahoma

Laura posted this picture on her blog, I thought it was so cute so I had to post it on mine. (The desk the girls are sitting under is the exact replica of the Presidents desk in the White House).

There were no good bye tears this time around as we will be seeing Laura and Lydia in July. But that hasn't stopped us from counting down the days until then!!!

Laura said I needed to post a picture of Marie on my blog. So here it is..Marie and her sweet Mom!!