Bo & The Little Mermaid

This weekend my sweet sister Kambry came down from Richfield to stay with me and Drew for the weekend. 

--check out that straw! Kam pushed it threw and didn't even realize--

It was wonderful because we hadn't seen her since she left for the Church History Tour (CHT) right after she graduated! We have missed her and it was a good time to see all of her pictures and catch up on all her experiences and stories. 

--the "hole in one" from Fractured Prune--

When I went on the CHT four years ago I met a man named Bo who quickly became one of my favorite people on the tour. He was one of the seminary brother's friends who tagged along on the tour as a chaperon. We quickly clicked and became friends just like that-- as if we had known each other forever! I kept in contact with him here and there over the years and I was SO excited for Kambry to get the chance to meet him when she had her chance to go on the trip too.

Four years later to "now," Kambry and Bo met, clicked, and became great friends too! We all must have known each other before we came to this earth.

--Kambry & Bo in Boston--

Well, we were lucky because Bo came down to St. George with his family for the weekend and invited us to dinner on Friday night and then to Tuacahn on Saturday night. I hadn't seen Bo for a few years and so it was great to catch up with him! Plus he and Drew got to meet each other and so that was cool too!

We ate some yummy BBQ food Friday night with he and his wife and son, and then Saturday we met up with them at Tuacahn to watch The Little Mermaid! Oh we all loved it! It was a great show.

It was so fun to see Bo again. I wish we could have had more time all together, but we will definitely be getting together again sometime. He'll be a family friend to us forever. We love him so!

And it was fun to have Kambry stay with us for the weekend. We pulled our bed out next to her blow up mattress and had a sleep over the entire weekend. We made crepes with banana foster for breakfast and enjoyed treats from Swig. We watched Netflix, went shopping, and of course went to In & Out.

It was a great weekend. We miss her (and the rest of our family) already.

Love,

Kate

Father's Day Weekend 2014

Drew and I spent the weekend in Cedar for Father's Day. We celebrated his dad's birthday and Father's Day all weekend! First off, we surprised him with a new grill on Friday night. The whole family pitched in for it and it was a sweet surprise for Bill! The boys spent that evening putting it together. 

We finished the night with banana cream pie while watching the big bright "honey moon" come up over the mountain! It was huge and beautiful!

Saturday morning we enjoyed a delicious brunch with waffles, bacon, and heaps and heaps of fruit. We spent some time outside picking cherries off their tree (so good!) and then later that evening we played corn hole. Me and Mark vs. Drew and Bill. Guess who won?

Mark and I did! Woot woot!!

We had a fun BBQ that night to break in the new grill. We had yummy chicken and vegetable kabobs that were SO colorful! Cheryl, Bill's niece came over and we played a few rounds of Wackee Six before ending the night with smores. It was a fun day!

Sunday was a little less eventful than the rest but still wonderful. We attended church, had a nap, and then barbecued hamburgers for our final Father's Day hoorah. We invited the missionaries over for some peach pie later that evening and they shared a nice message with us.

It was a great weekend spent with the Hansens and it is especially nice to finally have Drew's twin brother Mark home! 

And to my own dad on Father's Day: I missed you SO much that day. I am so grateful for you. Because of you I found my husband-- the person who resembles you the most. I love everything about you Dad. Happy Father's Day!

F- fun and full of love

A- always smiling

T- tough and hard working

H- humble and handsome

E- example of the greates 

R- radiates with light

Here's to all the dad's on this happy day!

Love,

Kate

1st Year Anniversary in Vegas

We've been married ONE year already... woah!

^best frozen hot chocolate EVER from Serendipity Three! Yum!

To celebrate our anniversary we took a trip to Las Vegas. We left Friday morning and came back Sunday.

We stayed at the Golden Nugget Hotel where they have a water slide that goes through a shark tank. Pretty cool huh? It was really neat!

We got to go to the beautiful Vegas Temple on Saturday--our actual anniversary-- & I loved it! 

The temple is where I want to be every year on our anniversary! Well, if possible anyways.

We ate at the Cheesecake factory for dinner that night and road the New York New York Roller Coaster. 

It was a fun weekend and it was nice to get away with Drew for a little while. 

Sure do love him!

Love,

Kate

May: Unexpected Weekend #5

Drew and I were super excited to have Kinsley and Konner for the week in St. George. We had some fun things planned but it was a little hard to work around my schedule of work and his too, however we did the best we could!

Monday afternoon we got to St. George just in time to take Drew to work. We dropped him off and spent the afternoon shopping. We got tired SUPER fast because we had just had a big weekend. Luckily the kids were troopers and they even helped me shop for groceries! Later that evening we met up with Jaclyn, Ryan, Harrison, & Brittney for frozen yogurt at Yogurtland. 
The next day I took the kids to my coworker's house for a pool party and BBQ! We played with her kids in their pool for quite a while and then eventually had some yummy hamburgers, watermelon, and roasted veggies. It was a blast! And the kids had fun too! 

My coworker's daughter drew a picture of me, ha ha! so cute.

That evening when Drew got home from work, we went to the temple just for fun. It's always a fun place to go, even if it is just to walk around it!

Well Wednesday morning I woke up early to Kinsley knocking on my door at 6 am telling me that she had been up since 3 am SICK. I thought to myself, "Oh gosh, hopefully it is just food poisoning or something..." Well it turned out that she was sick all day long, poor thing. 

Around lunch time I took Konner to get the World's Best Corndog and that made him happy. However, I just felt so bad that Kins was sick. It kept us from some of our fun plans that day, but it all turned out okay.

The next day was Thursday-- the day to drive back to Richfield. Kinsley was feeling better by now, and we eventually made it back to Richfield that afternoon/evening. 

This was a killer dinner that I made and Konner literally licked his plate clean! That's sayin a lot ;)

However, Konner started to not feel good when we got home. I was just hoping and praying that it wasn't what Kinsley had, but sure enough he ended up getting sick that night... and then SO DID I. I got SO sick.. So Konner and I got what Kinsley had... some type of flu.

How sweet is my mom?! She's the best!

The reason we came back up to Richfield was because my great-aunt Suzie passed away and her funeral was on Friday. It was her time to go and we are glad that she isn't suffering from pain or misery any more. She was diagnosed with brain cancer a few months earlier and so it was a fast process.

I wasn't able to attend her funeral because I was sick.. and that broke my heart. I've always adored her and loved her spunky personality. She was always happy and she was truly an inspiration to all those who knew her or was ever around her.

This is me with Suzie the day of my graduation 4 years ago. Don't know why the pic did that though!

She will definitely be missed. 

The next day however I was luckily feeling a little bit better and so I was able to go with my family to the Manti temple to be with my cousin Shay as he received his endowment. It was such a beautiful day and boy, the temple is by far one of my favorite places to be! Especially when I'm with my family inside the temple-- it is truly a piece of heaven! It is such a joy to be there.. I love it so much. It's such a happy, beautiful, peaceful place. It truly is the House of the Lord.

--gift from Katie & Bri for our 1st year anniversary, we love it! It's the same stone that the Manti Temple is made of--

We ate at El Mexicano after the temple. We said goodbye to Shay that night because he's leaving on his mission soon and we won't see him again before he leaves. It was bitter sweet to say goodbye! We will miss him. Well, Sunday came and we left early that morning so we could spend time with Drew's parents and brother that day.

And that concludes our five weeks of travel. Holy moly!! Our little car has been such a gem! Hope it keeps it up because we are not having very much luck with finding a new car. It's okay though, we'll find one eventually.

Now this week we work and then we play on the weekend again! But this time we'll be down in Vegas for our ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY! Woot!

Love,
Kate

May: Weekend #4 (Kambry's RHS Graduation)

Kambry graduated from high school! Congrats to her!! It seems just like yesterday that I was wearing that gown she has on.. although it was FOUR years ago! Crazy how time flies.

Drew and I got her an arvo watch! She loved it.

The graduation commencement was on Friday so we got up early that day to start decorating for the big luncheon later that afternoon. I decorated a cute old chalkboard and had a blast doing it. The place looked pretty festive! We set up pics of the graduates (Shay and Kambry) on the tables and hung up banners around.

After we got done setting up, we quickly went back home to get ready. I helped Kam with her hair and then I helped her with the gown and cap + all the other fun stuff she got to wear. Unfortunately I put her National Honor's society thing on her backwards (woops) haha but her friends helped her out with it later so that was good.

My cute grandma Micki made her a beautiful money lei and it looked so cute on Kambry! She was definitely glowing with happiness all day long.





The commencement wasn't too long -surprisingly- and it was pretty enjoyable. It was fun to see her walk across the stage as her name was called. Of course she had a big crowd rooting for her!! We're lucky to have a big family that is so supportive ;)



We took lots and lots of pictures after the ceremony and then we headed to her luncheon. We had some yummy pulled pork sandwiches with of course scrumptious desserts. We visited with family and friends and then eventually Shay and Kambry opened up some presents.

Grandma Carol & Kambry

The next day was my mom's birthday!!! She is so amazing and she deserved to have a special day so my siblings and I decided to make her a donut cake and surprise her with her favorite donut ever!!

 Now although Parson's Bakery isn't here anymore, I was able to go to fresh market and request them to slice normal glazed donuts in half and spread the yummy pink frosting in between the two halves. Holy smokes they tasted almost exactly like the old Parson's Bakery Alligators! They were so good. Anyways, we got them home and stacked them up, put candles in the top, and surprised her when she got home! Her face and reaction was priceless!!! She was so happy. It made all of us happy. 

She of course asked for another clock for her birthday (because she is working on a clock wall in our home), and we treated her with some of her favorite candy-- peppermint patties and dots. She was one happy camper that was for sure!



That day the girls went over to Monroe to attend my cousin's baby shower. It was different than any I'd ever been to before, but it was lots of fun! I was asked to do my cousin's hair, while other people were working on giving her a pedicure and manicure. She was also being fed fruit HA HA! She was being pampered and she was so happy about it! As for the other people who were there, they could choose to either work on making tissue paper balls, or a clothespin banner for the baby's room, or they could decorate onesies and headbands for the baby! There was also a fleece blanket being tied for the baby as well. It was so cool to have all these projects going on! It was all for my cousin and the baby and you could tell that she was so excited about it all!

After the baby shower we had the annual Jones family reunion. It was fun to visit with all our family. Kambry didn't get to go to either the baby shower or the reunion because she left for the Church History Tour. We were sad she couldn't be there with us and it was sad to say goodbye to her for two weeks, but I was SO excited for her too because of all the fun things she was going to be experiencing!
Later that evening we had a fire in our backyard and had smores. I absolutely love Richfield nights. They're so starry and clear, and there is just a smell in the air of being home that makes me so happy. Weird maybe, but it's true.

Monday morning was Memorial Day and so we gathered with some family around Keri's grave and had a family prayer like we always do every year. It was really beautiful. We left to head back to St. George soon after.

Well I guess that about wraps it up for that weekend! Oh, and this time as we drove back down to St. George, we had two extra bodies in our little car! Kinsley and Konner came down for the week because we would be coming up in four days for my aunt Suzy's funeral.
Love,
Kate