My Week at Home With the Fam!

I spent the week with my family while Travis was in Buffalo, so I could finish teaching. Every afternoon was busy! On Monday, I went to Big Surf with my parents, sisters, Craig, and Lane. Marcie and I went on all the slides (minus the scary ones), laid out, and..well I guess thats it!

Afterward, we all went to Culvers for dinner. It's similar to Nielsens and it's delicious! Lane really enjoyed his ketchup! This was a calm moment after he stole Marcie's fries, smeared mashed potatoes all over the menu and shrieked as loud as he could when he was told, "no". Shortly after, he dumped the ketchup into the mashed potatoes to make a yummy combo! I can't wait for when he turns two!!

This is what a typical table looks like after my family is done eating!

Marcie Time

On Wednesday night I went to our stake "Trek Reunion". I felt like a celebrity when I walked up to our family row and all the kids were so excited to see me. I know I said I'd never do a trek again, but after seeing the kids and watching the DVD that was made, I missed it! Crazy how that happens! I hear going through labor is similar! =) They clean up nice, huh?

So later Wed. night, I reverted back to being a nineteen year old! Marcie invited me to go with her and her friend Kori, to "peanut butter smack" their friend's truck. Ok, so for those of you who have never had the pleasure of doing this, it involves smearing peanut butter on your hands and smacking them all over the car windows! I only did one hand, because I was holding the video camera in the other. We totally got caught when we returned to the scene to take a picture. Marcie and her friend were screaming and I was laughing hysterically. I really felt like I was with the girls in college again. Way fun stuff!

So if you're wondering why you're seeing a lot of Marcie in this post, it's because we were connected at the hip this week. We went shopping, out to eat, watched movies, and stayed up late talking. I seriously don't know what I'd do without sisters!!

Can you guess what we're eating??? Of course, Nielsens. Always the place to go if you want to run into people you know! I'm a fan of their Bumbleberry concrete. YUM!

I don't have pictures of everything I did this week, but I do want to comment about a few more things that happened. On Tuesday, I tried to apply for a passport. Easy enough right? WRONG! I printed the application off online, filled it out, got my birth certificate, driver's license, checks, etc. I was told Americopy took passport pics, so I went there and got them done. I show up at the downtown post office because you don't need an appt. to apply for a passport. I stand in a loooong line, get to the front and they tell me they stopped doing that an hour ago! Grrr. So then I drive to the court house, park, walk in, and I'm told I can't bring in my camera that was in my purse. I walk back out, across the street, and down the isle to put it back in my car. Remember, its HOT outside. I get back in, go to the office and they tell my the picture was horrible! It was too big and they cut the top of my head off!! I was so mad. So I drive back to Americopy, tell them the situation and they snap another pic. Back to the court house. This time, I leave the camera in the car. I proudly show my new pic to the lady behind the counter. She sighs, and tells me that IT IS STILL TOO BIG!!!!! I have now spent over two hours in the hot AZ heat trying to get a passport. Why leave the country anyway??? I was so ticked. Back to Americopy where the guy at the counter has the nerve to look annoyed at ME! It takes a whole team of Americopy gurus to figure out why the picture isn't right. So I ask myself, why offer to take passport photos when you have no idea how to do that!!! One girl finally tells me she thinks she knows what to do know and asks me to take seat. Yeah right! I ask for my money back instead and she has to consult with her posse before someone else comes up to give me a refund. On to Walgreens where the job is finally done right! Lesson learned? You bet. Never go to incompetent Americopy. Sorry if anyone reading this is a fan. I obviously needed a huge paragraph just to vent my frustration with that place. Hopefully someone learns from my mistake! :)

Ok, so since that was way longer than I thought, I'll just say one more thing about my week. On Thursday I went with my mom and grandmother to see the Emma Smith movie at the theater. How did I not think to bring tissues?? Luckily my mom grabbed some napkins with her popcorn! Such a good movie, but I don't think I can EVER see it again. It was like watching that movie, Charly. I cried buckets and felt so bad for that woman! I literally couldn't watch the part where Joseph is taken out of his bed at night and tarred and feathered. It was traumatic to watch it, how did they live through it? I couldn't handle it. What an amazing woman. Amazing doesn't even begin to describe her. It said at the very end that when Emma died, the last words she said were, "I'm coming Joseph, I'm coming." I cried today just remembering that part. I don't think it helps that I'm missing Travis like crazy. I would definitely recommend seeing it, just be prepared. I think I might buy it just so if I ever start feeling sorry for myself, I could pop it in and remember how easy my life is.

Our House in NY

So I was looking through old pictures and found some that we had taken of our house when we bought it in February. Surprisingly there's not much snow on the ground. It has a second story and a basement. After the pain of packing, I'm thinking we might just stay and raise our family in NY. Just think, our kids could be bad drivers, speak with an accent, and throw a killer snowball! :)

This is the master bedroom. Note- no ceiling fan! :( Trav has promised to install one.

This is one side of the basement. It is partially finished. The unfinished part is where the washer and dryer will go. I always compare it to the Home Alone part where Kevin is afraid of the basement. That will be me. I already hate doing laundry. Now I have to go into a dark, scary basement! We will be dropping a lot of money on new clothes. :) In this pic Trav is meeting with the home inspector.

This is the upstairs bathroom. Tiny, but remodeled. We are just so happy to have two bathrooms! It's the weirdest thing, but homes out there usually only have one bathroom, no matter how big they are. ????

Here is the living room! Nice right? Well its not our furniture. When we move in there will be a tiny t.v. and no couches or cute decorations. :)

I can't tell you how happy I am to have a REAL kitchen! The one we've used for the past two years was more like a closet. If you opened the dishwasher, you were trapped!

Moving Day

Here is Travis and his dad in front of the moving van! Our whole life is in that thing! They left for New York yesterday, Monday the 23rd. He called me this morning to say they were just leaving Oklahoma and entering Missouri. I am still teaching summer school this week so I couldn't leave yet. He had to get there before July 1 so he could get some things done for our in-state tuition requirements. I'll be honest, packing is not fun. Big surprise huh? Last Thurs. our air conditioning went out so I got to do all the last minute cleaning and packing in our sweltering house. Saturday morning we picked up the van and our family graciously came to help pack it. Thank you everyone! I am spending a week with my family and will fly out on the 30th. Lots of changes coming up!

Mesa Frozen Night

Good ol' Mesa Fro Yo. We (my sister Marcie and my brother David) and Trav of course, started a tradition of going to get frozen yogurt every Monday night. We would dish about our lives and anything else interesting to talk about. You've heard of "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" Well we adopted that to "Whatever is said at Mesa Frozen, stays at Mesa Frozen" Not that there was really anything that juicy talked about, but still. :) Since it was our last night of tradition, we had to take a pic. I will miss my siblings way more than I thought possible! By the way, any tart flavors at that place are AMAZING!!

Afterward we went to our house and watched reruns of "So You Think You Can Dance". It's the latest show that I'm addicted to. I love the hip hop dances!

Father's Day

Ok, so it's Father's Day and I decide to make one of my dad's favorite desserts, creme brulee. The raw sugar on the top has to be carmalized. Easily done with the broiler in the oven. But, no. Dad decides to give himself a bonus gift, and play with fire. Imagine this scene with my mom wailing in the background, "Honey, please don't do that! Oh, I'm so nervous! Is that really necessary? Oh my gosh, I have to get out of here!" I was laughing pretty hard. You could smell the gas from the propane in the kitchen. Hey, dad gets what he wants on his special day! P.S. No mothers were harmed in the filming of this scene!

Diamondback's Game

For Travis's birthday I got him tickets to a Diamondback's game, so we finally went on the 13th. Friday the 13th no less. Nothing bad happened except for the fact that it was pretty boring. Neither team made a run until the bottom of the eleventh inning. We were going crazy!See pic. below.

This is the terrible stuff you get when two people are bored and have a camera! Game over... all better! :)

Udall Girl's Night Out!

So this is our silly picture. You would think we would have grown out of doing those :) Guess not! On the left is my cousin/sister Leah. In the middle is my real sis, Shelley.

So I'm a little behind in my blogging, but a little over a week ago I went out with my girl cousins and aunts to Mi Amigos to celebrate my grandma's birthday. It was a lot of fun and of course we had to document the occasion with a pic! We went to her house afterward for dessert and games. I'm so lucky to have so much family. P.S. I'm in the back and I took off my huge heels so I wouldn't dwarf everyone else, and yet.... I'm still the tallest! How can this be???

Mutual

So I was in charge of mutual Wednesday night and I had to take a picture of the oatmeal madness. Yes, that is an oatmeal face mask you are seeing, not a strange rash. I taught the girls about skin, makeup, and hair care. I guess since I have two sisters that did cosemotology school, I'm qualified! Not! I felt very inadequate, but it was fun nontheless. Marcie did come to help too. Thanks Marcie!

Pioneer Trek!

So here they are! These are just a few pictures of the pioneer trek our stake did the week after school got out. This of course is the "before" picture. :)We started on Wednesday morning at 5:30am and got home around 1:30pm on Saturday. We were up until 1am Tuesday night packing and getting ready so we had about 3 hours of sleep and then hiked the next day for 11 hours! Thats right 11. Pushing a loaded handcart. Trying to be leaders when we felt like kids. Seriously, words don't describe how hard it was.

The boys did most of the pulling, while the girls pushed from behind. There was one part where the girls pulled by themselves while the boys were on the "Mormon Battalion". Again, words don't describe how hard it was. We were going up a steep incline and there were times that we counted to three and lunged with everything we had and still didn't budge the cart. I was breathing so hard I could taste blood. The first day we hiked 16 miles and didn't get to camp until after 11pm. We were given an apple, granola bar, and a stick of jerky for the day. I reached a point that I didn't think I could keep going, and then we hiked several more hours. When we stumbled into camp, they gave us chicken broth for dinner. My mind seriously can't comprehend all that the Saints went through. I am SO grateful for the pioneers!!
We had four girls and five boys in our "family". One girl was from Mozambique, Africa and just came to the states four months ago. They were an awesome group of kids and I can truly say that I loved them after our experience together.
There was some time for fun and games. One night we had a hoe down complete with pig calling, pie eating contests, and skits (our family sang a revised version of the "Brady Bunch" theme song, woo hoo!). We even learned to dance the Virgina Reel!
On Friday morning, each family assembled their own handcart as a service for an Eagle Scout project. I"ll be honest, it was horrible! It was blazing hot, the kits weren't drilled right and the instructions were less than desirable. Oh well, all for a good cause!
It was the hardest week of my life, but also one of the most memorable. As for killing a live chicken.. I hope that's the first and last time I witness that!