Brookie Said Yes to the Dress!!!

Today we had an appointment at Pritchett Bridal in Provo— where Megan bought her dress! We went and picked up Katelyn so she could join the fun too! Brooke tried on the first dress and loved it— I could see her face light up… then she tried on several more and they weren’t the one. She tried on that first dress again, and it was then that she knew it was THE ONE!! When we tried on the right veil she started to cry and so did both me and Katelyn! It was real at that point! It is such a beautiful, lacy dress and she looks gorgeous in it!! (She is going to change the sleeve to a little longer puff sleeve.) You could just tell she loved it and felt so good in it!! Brooke treated us to lunch at Kneaders after and we enjoyed excitedly talking about the dress... and we called dad to tell him we found the one! After lunch we went to look at temple dresses and then just down a few doors more in the strip mall was Sweetheart Bridal, so we talked Katelyn into trying dresses on just for fun! She had fun trying all different styles and looked so good in all of them! It was a super fun girls day! Brooke is so EXCITED about her dress!

A Day Full of Birthday Fun!!

Katelyn and Kaden went up Provo Canyon to set up a fun birthday surprise for me this afternoon! We met them at a pic nic area at Vivian Park-- it was super crowded-- a lot of people had the same idea to head up the canyon today! It meant a lot to me because I knew they both had a lot going on this weekend! When Bill, me, Brooke and Ben got there, they already had everything set up! (We got Swig on the way to buy them more time I found out later!) They had these cute balloon flowers, a matching tablecloth and Katelyn had made me a bouquet of flowers and put them in a cute vase! I even got a "Birthday Queen" sash to wear, which I did all day and whenever anyone saw it, they wished me a Happy Birthday!  She even got me a cute pineapple cup with a straw, which I put my Swig drink in immediately-- hahaha!  Katelyn and Kaden even went by Jimmy Johns and ordered all of us sandwiches and we had a really nice pic nic lunch/dinner! (We got there just before 4pm.) After we ate, Katelyn had gotten a pinata for me to swing at, which was fun! It was FULL of cute hair things, some earrings and some gum! She really put a lot of thought into things!! Ben wrote me a really sweet card, which I read later. We played 6 handed Rook and had lots of fun playing that for a while. Everyone enjoyed throwing a football for a bit, and then Katelyn and Kaden had to head to a wedding reception for one of his friends. The four of us ended up playing another round of regular Rook and then we roasted s'mores. Brooke cooked mine perfectly-- I've been crazing them since we didn't have them in San Diego!! We headed back to our hotel to drop some things off and hung out there for a bit and then the 4 of us headed to a late night (10pm!!) showing of F1-- a story about Formula One racing. Ben has wanted to see it for a while now. It was actually a really good movie and I stayed awake and it kept my attention the whole time! We got back to our hotel around 1am but Brooke still had to drive to Lehi and Ben had to go all the way to North Salt Lake, so they both got to bed even later than we did!! It was a fun day and luckily I got to sleep in the next day because thankfully, Brooke has late church!!! It was a fun day and everyone made it super special! I love my family and am grateful for all that they do to make my life joyful!!!!

Days of '47 Parade, This is the Place Heritage Park & Hires!!!

Both Brooke and Katie spent the night at our hotel because we had to leave early this morning to head for the parade with the Israelsen's. Brooke just came home with us from the dinner with them last night and we went and picked up Katelyn at her apt. on the way home. We watched 2 episodes of the new season of Provo's Most Eligible and it was cringyer than ever! We stayed up until 2:30am watching it and we had to get up at 5:30 to get up to Salt Lake and to the parade on time and to allow for traffic and parking, etc. I've always wanted to go to the Days of '47 parade, but no one ever wanted to go so I never did! The Israelsen's love to do all the things I love, so I FINALLY got to go!!! It was a great way to spend Pioneer Day! It was a fun parade and Elder Holland was in it too! It was such a surprise when he drove past us in a car!! He had A LOT of body guards around him!!! It's crazy that the Prophet and Apostles need that kind of security! After the parade, we met up at This is the Place Heritage Park and spent the rest of the day there! It is such a neat place with so many exhibits and either replica's or original buildings of early church people. Brigham Young's house had been moved there from Sugarhouse in Salt Lake to make room for I-80! Heber C. Kimball's home was a replica and it was HUGE! It was only 1/4 the size of the original house, too! Crazy!! We stopped and got homemade doughnuts and enjoyed just visiting as we ate them. We took a train ride that explained various stops throughout the park and we enjoyed poking around and looking at the different exhibits. It got pretty hot as the day wore on and we were all pretty tired so we figured it was time to go get an early dinner. We drove to Hires (Ben's FAVORITE hamburger place) and had a nice dinner there. We were all so hungry! We drove to the Israelsen's home and visited with them a little more and then we decided to head back to Provo. (Brooke stayed with them and drove her car home later.) We were going to stay and watch the fireworks with them but we realized it would be ANOTHER really LATE night and we were so tired and needed to just get home and go to bed and get a good night's rest. We had a nice visit and then headed back to the hotel-- it felt good to get to bed and get a full 8 hours of SLEEP! It was a fun day though!! I can see why Ben is such a good young man! He has such great parents and we really enjoyed getting to know them even better today!!!