Thanksgiving in St. George, 2013

 Maybe Im going to start blogging again?! 

Who knows, but this is a good start:  Thanksgiving from last year.  

Beck was 3 months old and such a chunk.

It was his first time in the famous hot tub here and he loved it.

cutest smile.

And this wasn't in St. George, but I have to add it because its my all-time favorite sleeping picture of us.

Thanksgiving in St. George 2012

We spent Thanksgiving in St. George this year with the Browers. It was awesome, like always. We played pickle-ball every night, we razored every day, the boys went biking and golfing, us girls went running, and there was a movie every night.  We always come home from St. George exhausted from all the activities. 

My favorite thing this trip was probably Ellie saying "Happy ThanksKevin" to us Thanksgiving morning.  She also says "Kevinly Father" in her prayers (and so does my other niece).  Who knew Kevin was such an interchangeable word?

Oh my long limbs.  They get me every time.

You can blame this blurry picture on Kevin.  He was done with taking pictures.

lake powell's best kept secret...

...is October. For those of you who haven't been to Lake Powell in October, shame on you!

It's the best time of year to go. 

 The crowds are gone.  

The heat is gone.

And the water is crystal clear. 

We loved being able to actually need blankets while sleeping.

The girls loved the water, despite it being a few degrees colder.  This especially didn't deter Kevin in his spear fishing this trip.  He loved actually needing his wet suit.  He fished all. day. long.  

Well, he did have some expectations to meet.  He needed to catch enough fish so we could all eat fish tacos one night.  So I guess the pressure was on.  

But he did not disappoint us.  He caught plenty of bass, and one catfish (which was surprisingly good).  We even had leftovers.  

He is too good, that fisher of mine.

Having that new paddle board of mine was a dream this trip.  The water was so amazingly clear that you could see 30 feet down in some places.  It was like Mexico down there people!

  

That paddle board was a great help in scouting out fishing areas for Kevin.  I found schools of fish.  I've never seen fish like carp or stripers in schools.  I might have deemed myself 'The Fish Whisperer' while on this trip.

My maiden voyage on my new board.

Hadley loved going out and watching Kev spear fish.  She would tell me to paddle out to "watch Kenin catch da fishies."

Oh, that shark in the background, don't worry, thats Kevin.

That was Kevin the entire trip.  Out fishing.  To be honest, I didn't see much of him during the day.  He was having way too much fun.
And also, look at that water!

Ah I hate those dang swimsuit wedgies!

Much better. A wedgie-free swimsuit.

My doo-rag dad.

Post mask-wearing Kevin.

Check out those yummy legs!

Chasing the ducks.
Any animal Afton sees, she makes a grunting-like sound.  So any time she saw a bird or a duck, the grunting commenced.  That meant there was a lot of grunting at the marina.

The day I was going to fly to Vegas...

So my brother-in-law had this great idea that we should all go to the airport and greet Elder Moser. He then took it a step further and said we should buy a refundable ticket so we could go all the way to the gate with Elder.

Everyone else chickened out except us sisters (kidding, we thought it would be best if only those who could control their emotions went).  We bought our ticket the night before and hoped that we could get it refunded.  But if for some reason we couldn't get the refund, we wanted to go somewhere close we could play.  So Vegas it was.  It was either that or Boise.  And Boise was double the price (?!).

We knew when Elder Moser was supposed to get there (we knew his whole flight schedule), so we made sure we got there before he did.  We checked in for our pretend flight to Las Vegas and waited.  

And waited.  

We started to get nervous so Chelsey went and asked the lady at AA if she could let us know if a certain someone had checked in.  She said she couldn't, but Chelsey put on a sad face and said it was our brother we hadn't seen for a few months.  She quickly told her he hadn't yet and shoo'd her on her way.  We then went and asked a Skycap worker how the whole missionary drop off worked.  

With all the acquired information we now knew that he hadn't checked in and that the missionaries came in large un-marked buses. 

Awesome.  Now only if they would show up.

And then, the heavens parted and a big blue bus showed up.  We looked threw the windows and lo' and behold...a bus full of Missionaries!  I have never been so excited to see Missionaries.  I got out the video camera my dad gave us (he wanted a play-by-play) to record him walking out of the bus.  We watched all the missionaries come off, and not one looked like Tyler.  We both ran over to the big group (giving up our stealth location) and started searching for the maybe-very-different-looking-Tyler-we-no-longer-recognized.  When we couldn't find him, we asked if any of them knew of an Elder Moser.  A Sister answered me with a "He is not on this bus," in which gave me a heart attack.  We had missed him, I thought.  "He is on the next bus she then said", pointing to another replica of their bus pulling up. 

Huzzah! 

I started recording as all the young elders got off and there he was!  Elder Moser!  I hear him say to another elder, "Look! There is your family", and then in a very confused tone "...and my family?"  Total surprise!  I started to run up, with the camera on, and gave him a hug (watching that film will not be fun).  Oh it was so good to see him again.

And he wasn't weird!  Hooray, this still was our brother!

We helped him and the other three elders he was flying with check in and check their luggage.  Both of  Tylers suitcases barely made the weight limit, carrying the next two years of his life in them.

We then got to hang out with him while we waited in the incredibly long security line.  An important question of his was "So was the second Dark Knight as good as the first?  Be honest."  

While waiting in line he pops in a mint.  And me being me, "Uck, here just chew some gum," and while I'm searching for a piece he goes "Mal, really?  I am a missionary.  I am on the Lords errand.  I can't chew gum!"

 I had bought a spongebob squarepants mini-puzzle and some crossword, word search and sudoku books for him for his long travels.  While I pulled them out to give to him, he takes one look at them and goes "Mal, I am going to be studying the whole time."  Like, duh, I should have known.  "Babylon", he then said.  Ha, and I had thought those were the least evil products. 

I still stuck the puzzle in his backpack while he wasn't looking.

Because I mean, who wouldn't get bored from studying the day and a half he is traveling?

I guess I will repent for that later.

Sadly, we only had enough time after security to walk them to their gate and watch them board immediately.  It was hard to get emotional when Tyler was so excited to go.  I won't forget when he looked back and waved at us before he got on the plane.  So cute.   

See you in a while bud. 

Oh and your wondering if we got a refund?

We did.

Beatin' the system over here.

Soo happy to see him.

Cute siblings :)

All of his roommates.  Tyler was the only one going to the Scotland/Ireland mission.

He is going to miss his roomies.

Chelsey and Ty.

Trying to check him in.

50 lbs!  Good work Ty.

Kinda blurry, but I thought it was a cute picture.  We gave our phones to the other two missionaries Ty was traveling to Chicago with so they could call their family.  One was from Utah, the other from Hawaii.  They were so grateful.  It was so sweet to see them talk to their families :)

a little someone turned one

the birthday girl

What?!!       I got clothes?...

A doll.  Now thats more like it.

sneakin kisses

I'm one!

A doggie from aunti mal and uncle kevin.

My sister has fantastic taste in anything party related.  She is always the party decorator in our family.  

Gimme that cake!

Thought our rendition of 'Happy Birthday' could have been a little bit better.

Now she has the idea.