Home, Sweet, Home!

So, on Sunday, June 20th, my dad called to say hi and see how we were doing. During our conversation it came up that my dad's ward was still in need of a second adult to go to scout camp with the Deacons the next week. He jokingly said, "Well, if I get desperate enough maybe I'll fly Darren out here." I responded and told him that I'm sure Darren would love to go. He got quiet and thought about it, and then said, "Hey, maybe that's not a bad idea!"

Dad still had a few more people to check with in his ward, so he asked me to talk it over with Darren and he'd get back to us on Tuesday. So I talked to Darren about it and he was ok with the idea, and then Tuesday came and my dad told me to look at flights for Darren, AND that my mom really wanted me to come as well to "help" her with my little sister while everyone else was gone. Ha. So, we booked a flight on Wednesday the 23rd and flew out Saturday the 26th!

We got to hang out with my family on Sunday, and then bright and early Monday morning the boys all headed off to camp for the week (which Darren has said he will blog about next). I loved my time at home with my mom and my little sister. Monday we went and bought my parents a new King sized bed! My dad had no clue, so it was quite fun hopping from bed to bed in the store finding the perfect mattress. My mom even made friends with the sales lady. Good times. Tuesday we went and got pedicures. Wednesday my mom decided to paint my brother's room (it was formerly Sarah's so it was purple) so we spent Wednesday afternoon and most of Thursday priming and painting. Friday my dad got home with Aaron, they'd been at a different camp, and we started getting everything ready for the rest of the boys to come home on Saturday.

Saturday morning Sarah and Aaron had a swim meet so I got up bright and early and went with my mom to watch them swim. I went quite a bit when I was growing up (I am the only one in my family that wasn't on the team) and it was so fun to be at a meet again. On our way to the meet we ran into a little bit of a roadblock:

Aaron and Sarah rocked in their events and it was so much fun to watch them.

Sarah

Aaron

Saturday night after Dallin and Darren got back we celebrated Dallin's birthday, which had been during the week while he was gone. My dad took Hostess cupcakes and put candles in them on Dallin's birthday, so I decided to recreate his cupcake, but like ten times bigger, for his birthday cake:

Sunday after church we had our big 4th of July barbeque! I love the 4th and was so excited to spend it with my family for the first time in quite a few years. We ate wonderful chicken and steak that Justin grilled up and then made smores out on the deck.

Me and Aaron

Darren

Justin and Dallin

Aaron and Sadie

While we were waiting it for it to be dark enough for fireworks we all passed the time on the rope swing in the backyard!

Darren

Me

Dusk finally fell and we lit off fireworks in the driveway.

I absolutely loved our 4th of July and was sad to see it come to an end, knowing we would be leaving the next afternoon. We decided to take full advantage of our last day and headed off to another swim meet Monday morning to see all three of the kids compete with their relay teams.

Dallin (since I already saw Sarah and Aaron)

We got home with enough time to eat lunch, finish packing up all of our things and head out the door. I was so sad to go, evident by the fact that I cried off and on the whole flight from DC to Phoenix. Darren is an amazing man to put up with so much blubbering.

It was a great trip, and we thank my mom and dad so much for footing the bill for our trip. We're excited to see all of my family again next week for Grant's wedding, and then they're coming back with us to California for a week! There will be so much more to blog about soon...