Lots of Love

There has been a whole lotta love happening here in the last few weeks.  It started with Dustin and I having a weekend getaway in Provo.  We love weekend getaways!  We revisited places we had lived and where we met and things we did together.  It was a lot of fun, and a very relaxing couple of days.  We started out by attending the Provo Town Center Temple.  This wasn't here when we lived here 20 years ago.  (I feel old just saying "20 years ago", but it can't be helped.)  Back then, in the olden days, it was the Provo Tabernacle.

 We had yummy dinner at an Italian Restaurant.

 We stayed at the cute Hines Mansion Bed and Breakfast, which happened to be where my sister, Monica, worked in college.  I remembered touring it back in the day, but I wasn't sure why I had toured it.

The next morning we headed to BYU to the Museum of Art and had fun with these wood sculptures.

 Ahh, the overpriced BYU bookstore.  How we love you.

 We hiked to the very spot where Dustin proposed to me, almost 18 years ago!  We may have been slightly more winded this time, but it's hard to remember exactly...

 Dustin gave me roses and made me dinner for Valentine's Day the next week. (I gave him potato chips and candy, of course).  I really love him.

Ryan's Valentine's box for school.  Easy.  I love easy.

 And, wouldn't you know it!  That night the Valentine's Lady made an appearance.  She seriously considered a change in tradition this year (or, so I heard).  And, I guess she did change something.  Somehow, she was missing a tooth!  She also threw boxes of cereal this year.  That was a surprise.  That crazy lady!

Even though I don't love the Valentine's Lady, my kids sure do.  We even found this note the other day from when one of the kid's was much smaller.  In case you can't understand 6 year old writing, it says "Dad did you know that I theenk that mom is the valntin laty?"  So cute!  I love my kids, even if I don't always love the silly traditions that I start.

 I love the symphony, and my friend gave us her tickets to go hear My Fair Lady.  It was very fun for everyone, and slightly nerve racking for me to sit right next to the edge on the third floor.  I think my fear of heights is getting worse the older I get!  I nearly had a panic attack every time I saw Grant, out of the corner of my eye, shifting in his seat behind me.  So, love= symphony, no love=heights.

 Our neighbor, Elise, joined us.

 We watched my sister Jen's kids off and on this week while she and Jeff were in the Dominican Republic.  Lynnette took our off days.  We had a great time!  I got to practice doing a preschooler's hair again.  I think my skills have improved...

 Dustin proudly beat the 4 and 6 year olds at Laser Tag.  I'm pretty sure Caden even called him the Laser Tag Master.  Whoa.  He must be good!

 Dustin took the older ones to the Salt Lake Temple for baptisms for the dead.

 On Saturday, I spent the day at the Anti-Pornography Conference with a couple of friends.  Dustin took the kids hiking, 

  and then pretty much let them have free reign of the house after that.

 We made some origami,

and today we decorated cakes!

I wish I would have taken some pictures of our wide array of church clothes for today.  Jen and Jeff thought they would be back on Friday night, but they kept getting delayed and so we ended up having them today, with no church clothes.  So we improvised and did pretty well with what we could find. But it still would have been an exciting picture to see Isaac in clothes a little too small, and Olivia in clothes a little too big, Caden in street clothes, and both girls in snow boots with their dresses.  Ha ha! Elias had clothes because of the temple a couple of days earlier.  

It was a party to have our cousins here!  We loved it!

In other news, I got released today from being the Primary President.  It was inevitable with Dustin's change in callings (I had been in for over 3 years, so it would have happened anyway), but I really did love that calling and those kids, and I am sad to be done!