Peterson Post: Tales from the trip

It’s Sunday afternoon and I’m exhausted, but my attempt at napping failed because I couldn’t stop thinking about what I’d write about if I updated my blog. So, in attempt to get some rest, I’ll just go ahead and write whatever comes out.

Life has been busy lately. I recently returned home from yet another trip to Utah (the only place I ever go outside of the KC area). Here are the many high points and few low points:

High points:

*Getting to spend so much time with my family. There were a lot of family events while I was there, including: a wedding shower for Abby, a birthday party for my nieces Ada and Kate, a family dinner/FHE at my parents’ house, a surprise 60th birthday party for my dad, a dinner out with my sisters and mom, a visit to the Oquirrh Mountain temple open house, and Abby and Scott’s wedding.

*Surprising my family with a 24 hour visit from Neal the day of the wedding. No one, including me until a few weeks prior to the wedding, thought that Neal would be able to make it, so we had all resigned ourselves to the thought that the whole family would not be present for the wedding. Thanks to Neal’s willingness to pull some strings and work and fork out the big bucks, we were all there in the temple for the wedding, which was wonderful. It was so fun to see the look on my family members’ faces when they walked into the temple and saw Neal sitting there.

*Getting to spend my 4th anniversary with Neal. He got into town the night before the wedding, our anniversary. I put Sally to bed at my parents’ house and them picked him up from the airport. We checked into the hotel that I booked for us, watched a movie together and indulged in a large German chocolate shake from Iceberg. We had fun together, and then snuck back to get Sally (which was quite a feat since Sally was sleeping next to Abby’s room and Abby almost saw Neal in the garage).

*Seeing so many of my extended family members, including several who live outside of Utah that I don’t get to see very often. I feel a great desire to be close to my extended family, and I feel like I have a long way to go. It is hard for me to live so far away from the bulk of the family, so I’m so glad for any chance that I have to get together with them. It was great to see my cousin Rachel and her cute kids, my aunt Becky, my cousin Brooke, and the Bateman family (minus Jason), and every one else that was came to Abby’s wedding/shower.

Low points:

*Missing Neal. Due to the life we have chosen, there have been many and will yet be many times and Neal and I have been/will be apart for a week/month/possibly year here and there (hopefully the Air Force will be kind to us).

*Being seconds away from losing Sally in an empty elevator going down on the night of the reception.

*Losing my patience with Sally and leaving the reception early to put her to bed. If only I could have closed the doors to the reception room in the JSMB! Sally can run very, very fast, and is a very curious child. She had a blast at the reception running rampant around the whole 10th floor of the building, playing in the fountains, nearly running into the two restaurants, running into the food service area, etc. I was exhausted and feeling ill, and since I had no husband to help me (he had to leave for the airport right after family pictures) and everyone else was occupied, I got myself and my little whirlwind out before something dreadful happened. As a result, I missed the wedding cake, the bouquet toss, talking to lots of people I wanted to talk to, saying goodbye to the bride and groom, etc. At least I got myself and Sally out alive!

*Forgetting to download my pictures and thus running out of memory card space at the reception. Hopefully the rest of my family took some good pictures!

All-in-all, it was a great trip. If you’re wondering why I keep mentioning being ill/exhausted, it is because I am expecting baby #2. Neal and I are really excited. As for the gender and due date, you’ll have to wait, just like Neal and I are waiting (until his insurance kicks in, that is!). I hope/think that I’m about 10-12 weeks along right now. I’ll post more on this later.

Here are some shots of the wedding day. Pictures of other events aforementioned will follow.

Waiting for the bride and groom.

Poor Sally. She was pooped! It was probably because she was awakened in the middle of the night and transferred to a strange hotel room.

The bride and groom themselves. Unfortunately this is the only picture I have of them together on their big day. Luckily they had a great photographer.