Memphis Temple

So as I mentioned in my last post, we came up to Memphis this weekend for the sealing of my Brother in law Craig and his family. For those of you that don't know, in our church we make special covenants to God in our temple and through our faithfulness and obedience can be sealed together as husband and wife and as a family to live together forever. Basically, instead of just being married for life on this earth, being married for eternity. So it was a pretty special event to watch. We had a lot of family that was able to attend.

Brad and I at the hotel:

Brad's cousin Keith and his family:

My sweet little niece Olivia.  Me and her are kind of buddies.

Brad and I with Keith and Misti:

Craig and his wife Jillian and their sweet kids:

The whole group (minus Bob and Linda and a few of Jillian and Craigs friends) who were also there.

My in-laws with Craig's family:

What a special day it was for all of us to celebrate with them! And thanks to my mom for watching our girls so that we could be there.

Nanna comes for a visit

Our family was so excited that Nanna came to visit us this week! The girls have been loving her. Brynlee just latched right on to her and has even been calling her "Mama", which is pretty funny because she's never called anyone else "Mama" before.

This weekend we headed up to Memphis because my brother and sister in law were able to be sealed in the Memphis temple as a family.  I will explain more about that in my next post.

Kayla and Callie were able to stay in a hotel room with nanna and Brynlee and Hailey stayed with us.

   

We also did a little shopping while in Memphis.  The girls went to the Disney store and get a special toy from Nanna and they were able to ride a carousel. 

New Happenings around our house

We have been busy busy around our house like usual. Kayla started track this last week and she was unexpectedly asked to join the 8th and 9th grade team for their track meet. She didn't really have any idea how to do the long or high jump and had also been asked to compete in the 400. So we went over to the track the night before the meet and she had me time her 400. After that she tried the long jump, but she was getting super frustrated because she didn't really know the form and steps. So since I was a former long and high jumper, I decided in my crazy mind that I was going to show her out it was done. So I got out of my car (in my pajamas and slippers), borrowed her shoes and went out there and did the best run and long jump I could muster. And.... I about tore my knee out. Yeah, I guess just because you could do something really good when you were 16 doesn't mean you can still do it when your 30, lol. Lesson learned. But Kayla killed it at the track meet and won two second places and a third. Which is awesome for no practice and competing against kids two grades above her. So we are super excited to see what she has in store this track season.

The other big event that we had this week was that little miss Brynlee got tubes in her ears.  She as very brave and patient as she waited for the doctor to come and get her for her turn in surgery.  Hailey came with me and sat like a big girl too.  The staff was so nice because Hailey REALLY wanted to get tubes in her ears, so they tried to do everything for Hailey that they did for Brynlee.  Hailey got her own arm band, got weighed and measured, temperature and blood pressure taken.  She even layed on the bed with Brynlee. 
The dr. said Brynlee still had a pretty bad ear infection in her left ear, but hopefully that will clear up now that she has tubes, we will see!

Easter egg hunt and church activity

This morning we went to an Easter egg hunt that was at my neighbor Jeribeth's church (She is the youth activity coordinator). We had so much fun, and Jeribeth had everything set up really nice.

Our neighbor Chandler, with my girls.

Jeribeth read them all a story about the "true" meaning of Easter.

It was very hard for Brynlee to listen to the story when she could see all the eggs lying around, So she was ready to go when the hunt started.

After we finished up with the Easter egg hunt, I headed over to our Church where we were having an activity for all the women.  We had good food and dessert, fun activities and learned how to make windex for a homemaking skill.  It was so nice relaxing with all these wonderful ladies.

Our trip to Florida

Brad had a business trip that he went to this past week in Cocoa Beach, Florida.  I was so happy when he invited me along (actually he invites me on all his trips, but this is the first one I could go to).  Thanks to my mother and father in law for watching our kids for us!
We flew out on Wednesday and stayed until Saturday. We got there pretty late, so we pretty much got to our hotel and crashed the first night. In the morning, I slept in while Brad left for his business meeting. After I got up, I decided to get some breakfast in our hotel and to explore the property. I had no idea I would enjoy being by myself so much.  But it was just so nice to just totally relax... no cooking, no cleaning, or anything.

My yummy breakfast

The hotel  pool was right outside of the restaurant, which I did a little lounging around at on day 2.

Since our hotel was located on the beach, I could just walk outside the doors and walk down the ramp and I was there.  I spent some time trying out my new camera taking photos of the beach.

This was our hotel from the beach view.

Brad picked me up at lunch and I took the rental car out shopping, it was so nice to shop by myself, I'm not going to lie!
Later that day when Brad got out of his meetings, we drove over to Port Caniveral and ate at a local favorite restaurant called "Fish Lips". The girls would have loved seeing the tugboats coming in and out.  Brad even got me to try his Mussels.

Later we headed over to "Ron Jon's" to look for a swimsuit for Kayla.  When no one knew what a "tankini" was, I decided it might be best to shop for modest swimsuits online, lol.

The next morning Brad and I had breakfast together at the hotel, and we went out and watched the sunrise together before he had to leave for his meetings.

I did some more shopping that afternoon, and then when Brad got back we decided to make a trip up to Orlando to go to Downtown Disney.  I love walking around there at night, so much fun!

At downtown Disney we ate at Portabello's by the water. It was super yummy Italian food

And then we had to stop at the "World of Disney" store.  Everyone needs to experience the madness of that store at least once in their lives.  It is pure craziness! Of course we got sucked into buying all the girls souvenirs there.

Before heading home we made a trip to Cheesecake Factory and Bass Pro shop, so after that our vacation was officially complete!

I had so much fun with Brad, and will have great memories of our trip.  Thanks so much again to our in laws again for making it possible for us to go.