Summer Vacay

Our trip to Arkansas (sorry, I know I said Alabama in the last post... I was in a rush and also thinking of a dear friend of mine who was about to move to Alabama) was great!

We visited for a couple of reasons: first, Jacob's sister Rachel had just had a baby. His blessing in church was on the Sunday that we were there, and man that kid is cute! Also, small. Oh, don't get me wrong, he's normal for his age and everything. It's just strangely hard to remember when my own son was that little. I know he was. But, well, are you sure? Because now he's running all over the place and saying a few words and so NOT like little baby Thomas.

Secondly, we wanted to see the rest of the family. Jacob's brother, James had been serving as a missionary in Uruguay for the previous two years, and one of his first appearances in the good ol' US of A was to be in Arkansas. As the drive to Little Rock is only about 8 hours and the drive to other stops on rock star James's world tour (NM, UT) were significantly farther away, we just couldn't pass up this opportunity.

And it was great seeing him. He's definitely feeling more normal than he was, from what I gather, when he gave us that interview. But I couldn't resist interviewing him "fresh off the mish" for posterity's sake. I mean, when he goes back to school and people say he's so much the just-returned-missionary, then he can look back at the interview and see how far he has truly come. hehe.

The commemoration of my birthday took place during our visit, and it was fantastic. Sis-in-law Molly made sure I was treated like a princess on my birthday. And the whole family obligingly went and did some fun sightseeing without me (sometimes it's tough to be around lots of family for a whole week, and I wanted a bit of a day to myself). In the evening the grandparents watched the kiddies (thankyouthankyouthankyou) so that generation 2 could all go out to dinner. It was delicious and entertaining. Then there was cake and ice cream -- Anna is the cake-baker of the family and I feel honored to have had a b-day cake by her. She was chagrined to have to make it from a box, but I saw her making the german chocolate frosting by hand, and it was divine! Rachel, whose birthday was yesterday, and I blew out the 48 candles together (not quite enough for the two of us put together, but they only bought 2 packages). Then I opened presents and cards. So fun.

Anyway, I had a blast. Benjamin loved seeing his cousins, and even picked up a few things from Layla (speed, mostly). Jacob had a wonderful time seeing his family, and we wish the whole fam could've been there. But we're glad they're having babies and getting ready to move closer to us instead.

I was completely remiss in taking pictures. Forgive me.

Now, to pack our place! We'll be moving next weekend into a town-home just down the street.