Longest Road Trip Ever

I haven't been blogging because we're on our long trip from California to Virginia - which I wouldn't recommend to anybody unless there is no other option. There have been a few adventures:

1. The truck seats don't recline and there's no AC so we melt into the leather seats.
2. I officially hate the desert, especially between California and St. George, UT.
3. The GPS is my new best friend
4. Right after we walked into my grandma's house in Fillmore to stay the first night, she got a call from my aunt saying she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Nancy is only 35 years old, with 4 kids, ages 8 months-11 years old. She was still nursing the baby. It was not the news my grandma wanted to hear because two years in a row, her husband and daughter-in-law were diagnosed with cancer on her birthday. My grandma is a breast cancer survivor too. It was good that me, Tash, and Bear were there with her.

5. I got to spend time with Tashi and take her college shopping for BYU.

6. I got to see both of my great grandmas Verna Challis and Geneal Smith (ages 87 and 90) while in Utah. I love them!

7. I got to stay at John and Traci (my aunt and uncle)'s house in Grantsville. Traci did my hair as my wedding gift.

8. We get on the road and start having a sputtering engine. The oil was empty and we accidentally overfilled it, which made it still sputter of course. We had to keep stopping. But we finally fixed the problem and finally got to Amber's house late Wednesday night. It was good to meet her new husband and catch up because I wasn't able to go to her wedding.

9. We finally made it alive to Nauvoo and I was finally in my momma's and the babies' arms.

10. I keep thinking that Tashi's going to come home from work or school. But then I remember she's at BYU and I get sad on the inside.

11. I'm getting to eat my favorite foods and play Ticket to Ride to my heart;s content. I love my mommy.

12. Our Bustard kitty is so big now and I can't wait to take him back to Virginia with us.

13. I'm sad that I missed my grandma and grandpa Stout because of our truck troubles.

We take off early tomorrow morning (Sunday) because class starts Monday. Crazy life.

I bought Gracie these pink sparkle TOMS for her birthday. So now eberyone in my family has a pair of TOMS except my dad and Bear. But quite frankly, I think they're kinf of un-manly. I need to find some dress shoes for Bear. Anybody have suggestions?

I love TOMS!!!!!!!! The ivory glitter TOMS are back in stock. Those are the ones I originally wanted. It's so tempting...but fixing Tercel was a little more expensive than we thought. Ah, newlywed finances. I love it.

Does anybody else own TOMS? Which are your favorite?

Huck's Harbor

Me and Bear took the bebbes swimming at Huck's Harbor in Fun City. We took Sarah along with us too. I love the lazy river there. But now I'm in Calirfonia where everyday is sunny and hot, unlike Illinois where you have to find the perfect day to go swimming. Gracie was being so funny with the tubes. Look at the way she's straddling that double tube. Swimming is one of the best parts of summer. And the cute bebbes of course.

Bear says he looks like a chubby bunny in this picture. Whatever.

The Babies

I miss my bebbes.

This is the day my grandma took us out to eat at Ziggie's Pizza in Nauvoo, a few days before my wedding.


I have too many pictures of this bebbe eating.


His signature smile. I want to kiss their hair and squish them til they scream. I wish I didn't miss people and things so much :(

Memorial Day

Oh dear. I don't want to bore you all to tears with more talk of frozen custard. But to me, there is no limit to expressing love for this stuff.

On Memorial Day we went to Sunsey By the Mississippi for Family Home Evening. They had added a lot of new funny skits this year and the whole family enjoyed it.

My mom's cousin and his family were in town visiting Old Nauvoo. We had them over for Sunday dinner the day before but ran into them unexpectedly at the show. So we all tottered over to Annie's.

Um Gracie's face is hilarious. Actually all 3 of them.

3 generations. Each generation gets cuter. Haha totally kidding.

MMMMMMMMmmmmm she knows what's good for her.

A Cute Squish

Gracie turned 3 on May 26th! Me and Gracie are becoming better and better friends. Now that she can talk better she doesn't scream as much. Well in that one week that I was out of school before the rest of my siblings, Gracie would come wake me up. And we would cuddle. I had her all to myself. I remember one morning I was totally dead and she came in to wake me up but I was so tired I couldn't even grunt. So I heard her run back out to my mom saying that I wouldn't wake up. My mom said, "she's probably just not ready to get up yet." And then I hear Grace say, "but it's morning, mommy!" Oh she's so cute.

Well I wanted to go shopping for her birthday out of town but I didn't get the chance so I had to make do with the little shops in town. I got her a chocolate covered marshmallow in the shape of a star from the Fudge Factory. I went and got streamers and a blown up helium balloon from the drug store, but nobody in town sold little rubber balloons. So we came home and did streamers in the living room. And I gave Gracie her helium balloon. Right away she had somebody tie it to the air vent in her room. She's graduated from the crib now, and sleeps on a little pink futon right next to Mia's bed. You can see part of it in the picture. But the happy part about it is that pink futon was my first bed too :)

Well Gracie is very strong-willed. The other night my mom was trying to put her down for bed. My mom was in the kitchen and had sent Grace up to go to the bathroom. I heard Grace crying and asked my mom what was up. My mom said, "she's crying because she has to go potty." I thought that was kind of odd, so I thought about it a little longer and thought back to when I was her age. Suddenly I knew exactly what was happening. I went up to Grace and I was right. She wasn't crying because she had to go potty, she was crying because she wanted to get her kitty night gown on BEFORE she went potty. Once she had that nightgown on, she went potty very willingly. I was like that when I was little. So I feel like I can read her mind all the time now. I have a lot of negative memories of my childhood. It makes my mom say, "don't you remember anything happy?" Of course I do. But now my mom is starting to think I was meant to remember the negaative stuff so I could deal with Grace and my own future kids better. Who knows.

But I do love Grace. She is a cute squish.