Thursday, July 12, 2012

The Other Half of the Story


My bestie Misty had been promising me a visit for a while and when her husband went out of town, she delivered! She has entertained me many times when Matt was occupied so I figured I would return the favor. There was so much I wanted to show her and her kiddos. After a month of talking about it...the day finally arrived.  I told her to get here as soon as she could...she made the long trek from Payson on Tuesday June 26.  I made a simple lunch, the kids played.  I checked Lauren out of school and we were on our way!

Our first stop: The Great Salt Lake!  Her and her family had NEVER been! SAY WHAT?!
 These pictures may look like it was a beautiful beach...but in reality...it is pretty stinky and VERY salty.
 They all looked cute in their suits!
 My cute as a button friend Misty and her daughter Melia!
 Lauren and Misty's twins, Aaron and AJ playin'!
 Her whole clan together!  See Cathy-she WAS there!  Although Saltaire in the background looks so cool in the background...it COULD have been photoshopped!
 Another shot.  Melia showing me "her good side".  Aaron is demonstrating the "action shot"!
 The lake is really shallow for a long time.  I felt like I was in quicksand....and afterwards my shorts were so salty-they could have stood up on their own and my CAR is another story.  I think I will be finding salt for many years to come!
 I can't believe they were brave enough to SIT in it...seriously...EW!
 Cut to the part where I have no pictures.  I took the entire gang to Leatherbys for some awesome ice-cream. MMMmmm.  Then I took Misty on a driving tour of where I grew up, I drove past all the places I worked at, and lived at (even Matt's old house)...and went to school at....and it ALL took less than an hour...in retrospect I hoped I didn't bore her to death.  We got back to my house...desalted the kids (aka bathed them)....and ordered pizza.  We set up our sleeping bags and settled in to watch my family's new favorite show "Call of The Wildman" AND "Stewart Little"-I had never seen it.  I quickly did some laundry so that her kiddos wouldn't have crunchy clothes and all the kids played....A LOT.

Here is Lauren and Melia...playing dress up.

Here is Jamie and Melia...I PROMISE I didn't TELL them to hold hands...but aren't they a cute little couple?! I love her face in this picture!
 Another one...with SMILES.
 And here was the scene when we finally got ALL of them asleep...notice my setup on the couch...Misty was on the other couch.  I think it was like 11 when they were ALL down.  Misty and I watched House Hunters (I thought if I put a grown-up show on-the kids would get bored and fall asleep = no!) and we watched an episode of Psych and one episode of Glee...which WE both fell asleep during.
 7:30 comes early.  We got the kids up, fed, packed and off to FIELD DAY at Lauren's school.  I thought it was gonna be a BIT more exciting....but the exciting news came for Misty DURING the field day that her husband's trip would be cut short and he was already waiting at home for her.  She headed home and I headed to work.  I am glad we got a day to play.  It was the charge I needed for the rest of my busy/stressful week at work.  I managed to snap ONE picture of us together.

I know she and I will be fast friends forever because she still loves me even though she spent 24 straight hours with me and saw my simple cooking, saw me yelling at my kids, saw my not-so-sparkling clean house, saw me without makeup and with crazy hair, saw my hubby running around like a mad-man (trying to do some quick work on our rental house), saw my empty fridge-(but my full heart), saw me dancing and singing in the car, saw my tattling and sometimes bratty children upclose and personal....AND she is currently still speaking to me. In fact...we went to see The Hunger Games for our FIFTH time (both of our fifth times-but not five times together....just first and fifth...ANYWAY) less than 2 weeks later.  I am pretty sure she is stuck with me forever now.  I hope she is okay with that. :)

3 comments:

Cathy said...

Aww! Misty is so lucky to have such a great friend! I love the pictures of Melia and Jamie! So cute! The kids were so excited to tell me all about it. They all had so much fun! :)

Cathy said...

Aww! Misty is so lucky to have such a great friend! I love the pictures of Melia and Jamie! So cute! The kids were so excited to tell me all about it. They all had so much fun! :)

Misty said...

I really am lucky to have you. We had a blast (even the tour was great!) and I don't think a single day has gone by where my kids haven't talked about your kids or asked when they can have another sleepover with all ya'll. Thank you for being such a wonderful and gracious host, putting up with my nap-less children, and for showing us an overall wonderful time. It's your turn to come down.