Scullins come see us!!

We were so grateful to the Scullins who made the drive up from Southern Cali to see us.  They are work-oholics so could only come for a day and a half…..,but it was really great to see them anyway and we tried to make the best of our one full Saturday with them!!  We were exhausted as the adrenalin was wearing off after a week on the time change from Europe, and we had colds that were keeping us up in the night, so we were pooped out. 
We started the day by going to the buffet at Aliante Station where they were staying which is located about two miles from where we used to live.  Next we checked out their room and crashed on their beds for a power nap half hour. I know right?  We are awesome like that, but don’t judge…..jet lag is really difficult on a family of seven. 

How grown up have these two best buddy cousins gotten???

After a trip to Old Navy, then to Laser Tag, we headed to go bowling.  It was cosmic flourescent bowling! 
   
We all still got it going on!  We are so cool…..

Uncle Patrick and Cole’s feet:  almost the same.    And this is how Uncle Patrick Rolls, I mean Bolls!  Double time.   
 
After a quick dinner at the Aliante station food court, our kids were pooping out.  Josh fell asleep on the chairs waiting for his dinner to come to the table.  So we took them back to the White’s to bed and visited with Doug and Missy for a while with Kandra and Patrick.  The next morning before heading up to Utah we stopped to say good bye. 
 
We sure miss these guys!  Can’t wait to see you again and live closer. 
     
Wow!  I could not get over just how blue all the skies were during our visit.  It made me realize just how gray Germany can be in the Winter!  Especially since we are having the grayest winter in 50 years this year. 
 

Vegas Memories

Look at that sunshine!!!  Boy how I miss having that sun out all the time.  We started this day with a lovely 5 mile run in the desert of Las Vegas.  Love these two girls up above!  Miss you guys desperately.  For lunch we headed to the old elementary school to have lunch with these cute girls and say hello to Ms. Montgomery. 
 
And we swung by another one of my favoritest places: 

Look at that desert:

A favorite picture from the Vegas weekend: 

Dinner at Claim Jumper
 
More dessert at the Thornton’s :  chocolate cake, homemade cheesecakes (3 kinds), and homemade vanilla pudding with fresh berries.  Yes, Emily is just awesome like that.  YUMMMY!!!!!!!  Thanks to all of our Vegas friends who made us feel so loved and cared for while we were there.  Not pictured:  our kids off their friends houses having amazing sleep overs and such great times.  Thanks Missy and Doug for letting us crash your house you are awesome hosts.  Miss you all. 
 

St. George and on to Las Vegas!

Jen put is up in her awesome St. George casita and showed us all around the area.  (she’s trying to sway us in this direction:), With the sunshine and blue skies I’m not sure its gonna take much convincing!  It was great to see Hanna and Aspen reunited once again!  These two are such great friends.  It was hard to tear Hanna away from their friendship when we moved to Germany!  Jared did some networking with the local Radiology group and we hit Texas Roadhouse!  Everyone in our family LOVEs this place.  We definitely got a lot of steak while in the States.  Everyone spoiled us! 
 
After one night we got up and headed to Las Vegas.  Melissa was having a birthday luncheon at PF Changs so we met up with the group.  So fun to see lots of gals from the ward and enjoy some great shopping while at Boca Park. 

After school…..a lot of our wonderful Las Vegas friends met us at our old neighborhood park in Waterfall.  It felt so natural to drive in and park and get out to play.  We even drove past the old house which was a little weird.  It was awesome to see so many of our friends.  We will always have a special place in our hearts for all of these people.  They are like family to us.  We do miss our Las Vegas life. 
     
Hanna and Carter have the best friends in Vegas.  Up above is Bridger, Clark, Jacob and Carter.  Below is Aspen, Mia, Hanna, and Katelyn. 
 
Rachel, Whitney, Melissa, Brandy, me Jen, Emily and Kristen:

Liam and Josh: 

As if we hadn’t been busy enough yet, we headed to the Thornton’s after the park and putting our kids to bed, to eat some of this notorious homemade chocolate cake, with ganache, buttercream frosting, and raspberry and fudge sauce.  Its kind of my menace.