Our DAY WITH THOMAS!!!

We Love Thomas the Train!!! Before my brother Bryan went on his mission (about a year and a half ago) He bought Ethan this Thomas the Train dvd and introduced him to all the train fun. Ethan of course now is quite a fan of Thomas. In fact if we ever hear a train blowing it's whistle Ethan stops whatever he's doing to announce, "It's Thomas!!!!"
We had so much fun on our day with Thomas. We went out to Heber City Railroad to visit with him. We spent the day there doing fun activities. Ethan was in heaven. We wanted to share some of the fun pictures!!!

Here's us having fun blowing bubbles. Ethan had so much fun with all of the other children there. He is so friendly and fun. I'm so glad I have a little guy who is friendly and good hearted. He's always happy, friendly and ready to have fun!!

This was a fun corn maze we had fun in running around. Ethan is quite the runner too, maybe he'll follow in his daddy's foot steps with track some day. I will tell you this, that litle guy is fast, I can't keep up with him :)

Here are just some other fun pictures of us riding Thomas. Nathan kept commenting that his mom would have loved to be there. We would have loved her to be there too, we'll have to plan that for another time, ok Grandma A?!?! It was a cool classic train. We enjoyed a short little ride. There was a conductor that walked around and talked with the kids. They blew the big train whistle and Ethan got so excited. The conductor even passed out little certificates to the children officially saying they were jr. engineers. We've now got that posted up on Ethan's wall so he can remember his day with Thomas!!









There were also some "clowns" there to make some special balloons for the children. We requested a little flower hat for pretty Ms. Shelby and Ethan requested a snake, which he of course had a great time with, I'm sure you can imagine.
Anyway what a wonderful day that I'm sure none of us will forget, especially Ethan. We love Thomas!!!!

(a little catching up) Mother's day....

Here's the beginning of playing catch up. I've gotten so behind so I'm going to do my best and playing catch up.

Here it is short and sweet=>


Mother's day was great, actually it was a Mother's weekend. I was pampered and spoiled all weekend. Everything from my favorite dinners, desserts, all of my household work being taken care of for me- including taking care of the kids. Nathan gave me an excellent massage and played with my hair, which is my absolute favorite thing, all while watching a chick flick, and he managed to stay awake for the whole thing too! Nathan also bought me some very sweet cute gifts and some of my favorite treats. Beautiful flowers were also part of the package. Thank you, Thank you Nathan!
Little Ethan surprised me with a little picture of his finger prints and a cute poem from nursery and a big hug and kiss and even a song. Shelby gave me hugs, loves and kisses which is the best.
We also went up to Layton to visit my Grandma and take her some cheesecake. I wasn't able to see my mom this holiday so I was very happy to visit with my Grandma instead.

Here are some of the great times.

YOU HAVE TO WATCH THIS.....The Sound of Music

So I don't know if anyone has seen this yet and I don't EVER pay attention to forwards, but my aunt sent this to me and she's trustworthy and I was interested in the title of this one. The Sound of Music.....favorite movie growing up, as I'm sure it is to most everyone. You have to watch this, it's great!!!

Spring.....Salt Lake Temple

We love Utah. It is so beautiful here. There's green everywhere and beautiful colorful flowers not to mention the huge incredible mountains.
It was such a beautiful cool spring day, we had to take advantage of this so we took a little trip up to Salt Lake to see Temple Square. We just got out of church, which by the way is over at 5:30, that's right....2:30 to 5:30, not our favorite time.
Ethan understands a little bit about temples. He knows that's where mommy and daddy were married and whenever he sees one he'll say, "there's a temple....pretty mommy". He knows to direct that comment to me b/c I would appreciate it. He couldn't tell daddy that, he wouldn't be cool of course.
We are so lucky there are so many beautiful temples so close. People in Utah are definitely spoiled with such easy access to them. I can't imagine those families that don't have temples anywhere close to them. Some families save money their whole lives to make one trip, one trip to go to the temple to be sealed, and that's if they're lucky. It makes you really appreciate what you have. Especially people in Utah with so many close by.
Anyway here's a few of our pictures we took. If anyone hasn't ever made it to the SLC temple, definitely if you can you've got to go. What a pretty temple, one of my favorites, the grounds are breath taking and the temple including the inside is unbelievable.

Our night out with President Monson

Apparently President Monson enjoys the symphony as much as we do. The last time we came to Abravenal Hall in SLC the conductor pointed out that he was there, so Nicole was on the look out for him this time too. Sure enough, after we sit down we glance over to the same seat he was at last time, and there he was. Nicole was determined to meet him, so at intermission we began the quest. I thought there was no way it would ever happen. I figured he would be surrounded by bodyguards and tons of other people trying to meet him. We searched 3 floors with no luck. Nicole decides to see if we can go to the suite he's sitting at. Surprisingly we walked right in without any trouble. He wasn't there, so Nicole started making friends with 2 ladies who were sitting right by his seat. Neither of them were LDS, but they knew how important he was to us. They were so nice and they invited us to sit with them until he showed up. I was still skeptical, I thought there's no way we would get to meet him, but just then he walks through the door. He is a tall man with broad shoulders. We both just stared at him and finally Nicole walks up to him and says, "I just had to come up and meet you, can I shake your hand?" We both introduced ourselves and he said (in a President Monson sort of way) "So where are you from?" We proudly announced "Dallas, Texas". He said "The confusing airport" and we all laughed. Of course we wanted to stay and chat, maybe we could get the inside dish on the second coming or other mysteries. But the show was about to start so Nicole asked to take a picture. He graciously agreed, but encouraged us to be quick as to not "start a parade." At that point he made his way to his seat with his sweet wife. We walked nonchalantly out of the room and made it to the hall before we started acting like star struck teenagers meeting Miley Cirus or something. What an amazing experience to meet the Prophet, who communes with the Savior, leads his church, and preaches his doctrine. We both felt better than if we had spent the entire day in the temple. And yet, he treated us as if we were old friends. On a small scale this is what it must be like when we get to meet Joseph, or Jesus, or Heavenly Father. It was truly an amazing experience.


(Nicole's comments)

I just want to add in that before we took the picture I asked him if I could put my arm around him (for a half hug)he said, "sure" and he then put his arm around me too. After the picture was taken before we moved from our pose I gave him a little squeeze, he did the same. I said thanks and he smiled back and said, "you bet." Nathan did a perfect job of describing the experience. I just wanted to add in that it was incredible and it may sound corny but I feel like we were blessed with a little gift meeting him.
Before we left our place to go up to SLC I grabbed my purse and thought I needed my camera, which I don't know why, it's not like you can take pictures there. In fact you aren't allowed to. I knew this, I don't know why I grabbed it, I didn't give it much thought. Good thing I did. What an amazing experience I'll never forget. President Monson has always been one of my favorite apostles growing up. I remember when I was little listening to conference I loved to listen to him b/c he would always incorporate stories,(which made it easier for a little kid to follow). I also always loved him b/c he had the same name as my dad, who also incorporates stories when he gives talks/firesides. Meeting him was like visiting an old friend or a relative. It was definately the best symphony we've ever been too. We like to try and see a symphony every couple of months or so, it's one of our things. This particular one was called "Bravo Broadway". It had some of our favorite songs in it from "Beauty & the Beast, Phantom of the Opera, My Fair Lady, West Side Story, Brigadoon, Ragtime and many more. There were also 3 fantastic singers there to sing along with some of the songs, two ladies and a man. He sang Phantom of the opera and was the best Phantom we've ever heard.

Again a night we'll never forget!!!