Another Trip to Utah!!!!

Connor sure has a way with the little ones! They all love him! Here he is with cute little Harmon!

I had a fun time playing with this little girl when she would let me! She is one of he busiest, bravest, tiny things I know! So adorable, too!!

I love this picture of Makenna and Brookie:

The joy on both their faces is so genuine and real

This little girl is adorable. I love her. In my mind, we are BFF's, but in her mind I think I rank #7 or #8, after the grandparents and all the cousins. 

While we were in UT, we had to try the new Hawaiian Shaved Ice fad that has since hit a lot of the popular street corners in that great state! This is not your regular, "Snoopy Snowcone Machine" shaved ice. This stuff is so finely shaved, comes with a scoop of ice cream in it, and is topped with sweetened condensed milk.

Yes, it's delicious.

Look at all those fun girls! And I just realized how see-through my top is. Nice.

Brett and some of his bros.

As part of the wedding festivities, all the girls (minus Schaefer-- we missed you!) got a pedicure! This was Makenna's first time! She was thrilled!

Workin' the massage remote

The bride-to-be and the mother of the bride! Such a fun day!

Of course, grandmas spoil their grandchildren (and children), so Makenna got a french manicure on her fingernails. She was beside herself with excitement! I also got a shellac painting on my fingernails that I was pretty excited about, too!

We can't go to Utah without seeing our dear, dear friends, The Chaney's. LOVE them and LOVE this food truck called "Waffle Love". If you're in Utah and you haven't tried it yet, you need to! It's life-changing-delicious!

Had to get a visual update of the progress on the Provo City Center Temple. Absolutely mind-boggling on how they're doing this. So unreal!! Even the work-site was clean and I was so impressed on how even the workers treat this site different that a "regular" work-site.

Thanks to my hubby's mad packing skillz, I was able to bring my bike along on this trip. It was so much fun!!! I was able to ride with my girlfriends from Saratoga who have ridden with me since day one. It was so much fun! 

I got this picture of the view, but not another pic of me and my girls! SO MAD!!!!

I also got to ride with these two guys: Rob and Dad! It's been about 2 years since we've ridden together-- maybe 3. We rode on the new Murdock Trail and it is lovely. Had such a great time with these two. Still can't keep up with Rob!!!

Such a great time back in the great state of Utah. We were so happy to see our family and friends again. This will be the last trip back to Utah for a while. So long Utah, the beautiful!

Alyssa's Wedding!

Such a fabulous, wonderful day!!!!! 

Alyssa is married!!!!

We couldn't be more happy for Alyssa and Ben! They are perfect for each other! It was so fun to get to hang out with all these wonderful people that we don't get to see very often anymore! If we had to come back to Utah this summer for any reason, THIS WOULD HAVE BEEN THE ONLY ONE!!! So happy it happened!

Uncle Kirt, Brett, Ash, and Ty

Despite the goofiness of this photo, there are so many people in it, I had to post!

I spy: Rob, Kim, Brookie, Mark's head, and Brett's neck

Cute cousins! We love these boys so much!!!

This little man stole my heart!

BEAUTIFUL!!!

I love how both Ben and Alyssa are hugging the nieces and nephews here!

Good shot of Alyssa's eye make-up. (Sorry, Lyss, had to post!)

Picture with all the nieces

All the Bell Grandkids

Ty, TJ and Connor

Strike a pose, boys! Jaxson's got that serious look down-pat. He gets that from Mark. McKay, on the other hand, needs to work on that serious face!

Add Makenna and Wyatt to the mix! Now Jaxson's even got the eyebrows down!!! (That's also from Mark!)

Caroline loving on Wyatt

LOVE this cute picture!!!

Wyatt and Ben's brother David. I think David looks exactly what Wyatt will look like in 15 years! Can't you see the resemblance?

Makenna was DYING to do this for Alyssa!

Cousin LOVE!

Makenna was on flower duty for the reception!

Cute Caroline and lovely Schaefer!

Ben's brothers Scott, Steven and David; Matt, Grandpa Harmon, Dad Jaderholm, Ben, Dad Bell, Brett, Ty, Rob, Mark, Bro-in-law Jaderholm

Brett looking so cute holding those flowers! Isn't that a gorgeous bouquet!?

Alyssa and Ben with all their nieces and nephews!

Me and my great cousin, Robin. So fun to see her and her family, along with her parents, too: Sue and Curtis Germany.

Alyssa is HOME!!!!

After serving an 18 month mission in the Californit San Jose Spanish Speaking mission, my little sister, Alyssa is finally HOME!!!! The kids were beside themselves with excitement after Halloween, so we decided to make a chain. It was about 45 links long, and faithfully every day, a link was removed. Here we are with 5 days left!

Here we are at the airport on the kids most favorite part of the entire airport-- the moving sidewalk. I can't tell you how many times they went back and forth on that thing! Thanks to Grandma Bell and Grandpa Harmon for taking them!

Grandma with cute little Wyatt while we're waiting.

Here we are waiting at the bottom of the escalator for her to come down! We are all so excited!

At this point- the view screen on my camera had broken and I was taking all of these blindly. So, no close up, but you can still see her! She's got a huge smile on her face!

The kids are so excited to see her! We are so glad she's home and safe. We just had her homecoming on Sunday. She is so inspiring and a wonderful example. We LOVE YOU ALYSSA!!! Welcome home, sis!!!

Called to Serve!

My sweet brother and sister went into the MTC 2 weeks ago. My sister is going to California to speak spanish and my brother is going to Chicago to speak spanish! Isn't that awesome? These are my two youngest siblings and I am so proud of them and I know they will do wonderfully.

The MTC was great! The spirit was so strong and singing "Called to Serve" started the tears. By the time it was time to say good-bye, we were all in tears and Connor was sobbing. He was so sad to say good-bye to my sister, he could barely stand it. But, we are so excited for them and we love them. We pray that they will find those who are ready.

Trip to Rexburg!

Our little family was so excited to go on a little road trip. My sister, Alyssa, is a sophomore attending BYU-Idaho-- the college formerly known as Ricks College-- my alma mater, in fact. Alyssa was part of a production put on by the music departments. It was a night featuring the student concerto winners and a performance of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6, Pathetique. Earlier in the year, Alyssa competed against 9 other pianists- most of them older than her- and won and got to play a concerto: Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37 by Beethoven. For those of you who don't know what a concerto is, it is this: A composition for an orchestra and one or more solo instruments. Alyssa was the solo instrument on the piano. We just had to make the trip up to Rexburg to see her perform. We got all dress up, kids included, and went to see her perform. She did FABULOUS! We were so proud of her! I just wanted to keep saying, "That's my baby sister!" Anyway, we were so glad we got to go and the car trip was fun too! Our family loves road trips! Here are some pictures of us in the car.

Connor taking atvantage of the oh-so scenic drive up to Rexburg!

McKay coloring the drive away

Makenna and her 'map'
Makenna drew this map for us. She said, "There are lots of straight lines on the map because we keep going straight. If we need to turn, I'll draw you another map with turns." *cute*

Close-up of the map