Road Trip - Part 3 (or Thursday)

Let's see. Where was I? Oh yes. Provo.

Thursday

So after a fun and relaxed breakfast with the Szymanskis in which we totally solved all parenting issues in the world (if there were a United Nations of parenting and opinions, this would have been its summit), we were off to campus. Our old stomping grounds. We drove around old apartments. We drove around campus. We drove around the dorms. We pointed out the site of our first kiss. :) The kids were kind enough to pretend to be interested.

So we decided to treat them to some good pizza and a root beer float freeze at Brick Oven Pizza.

Campus has changed. Provo has exploded (it's HUGE). Fond memories and good experiences at the college. We love our friends there. Love the restaurant choices. We don't miss the traffic. Or the land-lockedness. But it was a fun trip down memory lane.

After that, we went farther up north to spend more time with more of Mark's brothers and their families. First, we hung out at Emily's parents' house where we got to see Mark's brother Dave, his fun wife Emily, and their cute boys, Isaac (spelled correctly) and Noah as well as Mark's brother Michael (who we brought back with us to PA and is living with us for the summer). It's so fun to be meeting all the cousins and seeing everyone!

After a while, we went to play at a park--it was great for the kids to run around and play together and for us all to visit and catch up.

Not sure what's up with Thing 2 and his "gangsta signs" (as my SIL Jenny pointed out) in so many of these pictures, but apparently he's teaching them to his younger cousins.

Right when I took this picture, Mark put his arms down. All three of them were talking in that folded arm Foley stance when I turned the camera on.

An extra special treat for us that made me very grateful that I signed up for Facebook (after MUCH resistance) was seeing our friends from Nepal in Utah! I happened to check my FB account and saw that someone asked Terah how long they'd be in Utah and I about flipped my lid. I emailed her immediately and found out they were in Draper. What are the odds?? So we worked out a way to see each other, at least for a little while (not long enough!).

Okay and technically they are our friends from AZ but it's so much cooler to say "our friends from Nepal." I've spoken of them before. And some of our readers have even written me on the side thanking me for telling everyone about their blog because it's so fascinating to read. They're great people and we're so glad we're friends. Terah and her kids were basically evacuated from Nepal for safety reasons and they'll be moving somewhere else in the world soon, but they don't know where yet.

Terah is a total spaz and I LOVE it! She exited her car yelling out, "Stacy! I'm so excited to see you guys, but I have to tell you!! MICHAEL JACKSON DIED!!" I think I will always remember that moment.

She really does have 4 kids--Xavier is hidden behind Terah and Sedona.
Aren't Kate and Heavah so cute?

So good to hang out and catch up! I love hanging out with Terah! And I got to pinch Asa's cheeks--something I've been ITCHING to do for months while reading their blog.

After playing at the park for a while, we went back to Highland, picked up Jess and Emmy, and then drove up to a BBQ at Jill's house. Jill Oaks is my cousin-in-law and I think she's great! I was super excited that she'd go through the time, effort, and energy to do a big family BBQ for all Foleys and Oaks in town so that we could get a jump start on the family reunion. Thank you, Jill!

It was so much fun to see everyone! I'm so grateful for blogs. I felt like I knew everyone so much better than I would've before blogs. Everyone had so much fun talking, eating, playing frisbee, playing on the swingset, making and eating S'mores (Kent was so great and patient with the kids), and simply being together!

Bloggers unite!

S'mores Chefs

S'mores Cookin'

Ah, goofy face pictures

Emmy and "Mahk . . . heheheheheh"
and Kim and Kraig (who I really enjoyed getting to know better in person)

I love this picture! How adorable are these three girls?!

After a wonderful barbecue, we and Jess and Emmy went back to her parents' house to spend the night. We got to play with Corky, their dog, which was really fun for all and a really good experience for Thing 2 who isn't the biggest fan of dogs. He likes Corky, though.

Also, the Cooks have an AWESOME house--it's the kind of house that kids and grandkids WANT to visit because they've made it so fun and hospitable for everyone to stay there. The upstairs is an entire area for kids and it's amazing!



Okay, this part was going to be all the family reunion stuff but it's taken me a few days just to get this together (since I'm doing it in snippets between yard work and errands and reading stories with the kids and playing outside and sessions with my clients and . . . ).

So again, more to come . . .