The long lost brother returns!

Play song, "We are Family" with this post as well

As mentioned in the last post, my brother Curtis came back to Utah a couple weeks ago for the first time in 13 years!! And we hadn't seen each other in that long either (my dad goes out for fairly regular visits, but neither Curt nor I really have the money). Along with him came his two kids (who I met for the first time), Sable (9) and Dorian (7), as well as his girlfriend Lindsey. We packed in as much as we could for the short (felt short anyway) week they were here.

First, as I mentioned (in the last post again), they arrived into town literally right after the wedding, and the plan was to get together the next day, but I just couldn't wait. So the moment the wedding was over, we packed in the car and made our way to Salt Lake to my dad's apartment. Pictures from that night are on the last post again. But we enjoyed a lovely home-cooked (by my dad) italian meal for dinner and just did a bit of catching up. We left around 10 pm seeing as it had been a really long day for us, but made plans to meet at the zoo the next day. 

I wish the weather had cooperated, but it wasn't too bad, just cold, but it didn't rain on us until we were getting ready to leave :)

Pictures from the zoo:

 Em and Sable in front of a turkey..... why anyone would want to look at a turkey is beyond me!

 Yeah, dinosaurs are now at the Hogle Zoo.... weird, but they were cool! Raptors even shot water unexpectedly at the kids ;)

 Walking. We do this any chance we get, and Em (to say the least) loves it!

 A bit of the crew that came, the "thug" to the left is my brother Taylor, he's in that stage of life ;) (some of you know what I'm talking about I'm sure! Love you though Tay!) and then Sable, Dorian and Curt 

Em was really good and wanted to touch everything in the dinosaur house (she's kinda funny about this kind of stuff sometimes), Tay and my dad in the background

 Madagascar exhibit. It was really hot and humid in there, hence why Em's glasses are fogged up ;)

 Yeah, Steve has been having a lot of fun with photoshop lately ;) to the left is the picture you just saw above, and to the right is a picture taken from our zoo trip over 2 years ago in the same place.... and I know it doesn't look like Em has grown at all, but she has ;) on the left, size 18-24 month clothes, and on the right, strictly newborn and 3-6 month clothes!

The baby elephant with her momma! We didn't get to see her last time we were here because she was still too new.... thought for sure she'd be a lot bigger than this 2 years later, but we lucked out still seeing her as a baby!! Guess I shouldn't be surprised that elephants age slow with their gestation lasting like 42 months!! Poor momma elephants!

 Carousel ride..... I think we sat on the giraffe last time too.... 

Sable was so happy! She is such a sweet girl!

 Dorian however, did not like us taking pictures of him and tried to hide most of the time! Still love him though! And by the way, that's Em's blanket he has, he refused to take a coat when they left, and of course got cold since it was only like 40 degrees! He's lucky he has a nice uncle Steve!

 Ah-ha, caught ya Dorian!

 And Sable in action!

Lindsey, dad and Taylor watching from the sidelines *stole this picture from Curt cause I needed one of Lindsey, hope you don't mind bro!*

 Like I said, he doesn't like his picture taken, and this is him yelling at Steve for it ;) One day Dorian, you will thank me for taking pictures :)

Climbing on the rhino

 The one and only picture of Steve from that day, since he was the one that mostly had the camera!

Pictures from the bird show

 Looks like it was attacking him ;)

The coolest bird of them all, the owl (yeah I like Harry Potter, what of it?!)

 The kids playing around, Sable on a dinosaur and Dorian chasing some chickens (Steve was sneaky with this shot, he was pretty far away so Dorian was unaware of his picture being taken... sneaky, very sneaky!)

And last picture of the day, we thought we'd give another try of Em sitting on this gorilla's lap, since she did not care for it the last time. And then had her cousins join in too! We had so much fun!

And I know Em doesn't look too happy, but at least she wasn't screaming her head off!

The next thing we did, was have a fun night at my dad's time-share condo in Midvale. My dad, Taylor, Curt, Lindsey and the kids had already been up there for a couple nights, but invited Steve, Em and I to come up for some pot-roast and games. I declined at first though because we were busy preparing for the next night when we were having everyone (my family) over to see Curtis and everyone. We were making homemade Cafe Rio which requires day and night before preparation. But Steve urged me (just me) to go because I needed to spend as much time as I could with them. Don't I have a sweet husband??! So he took care of the rest of the prep, and I headed up for a really fun night of good food, laughing, talking, reminiscing, and a really fun game- The Great Game of Things *highly recommend. Didn't get any pictures, sorry!

But like I said, we had everyone over to our house the next evening. Again, we didn't get any pictures, so these were graciously sent to me by my wonderful dad! But, it doesn't show everyone that was there, so here's the list in order of appearance:

Karen (my mom)
Dwight (my dad)
Sable (my niece)
Dorian (my nephew)
Curtis (my brother)
Lindsey (his ^ girlfriend)
Taylor (my brother)
Kailah (his ^ girlfriend)
Amy (my aunt)
Jason (my uncle)
Cassidy (my cousin)
Lexi (my cousin) and Johnnie (her husband) and Miles (their son)
And last but not least, Bryan (my brother)

So, we were missing a few that live out of state or were out of town (my grandparents), and then Chase (my cousin) and my other brother, Connor

The night included, great food (props all to Steve for this!! He was amazing that night!), talking/reminiscing, games of all sorts including the Wii and some board games that I bought for Sable and Dorian. Also, much to Curt's dismay, some home videos, his kids and Lindsey loved this though!

Pictures:

Curt, Lindsey, and Steve

Amy, me (rather unattractive of me!) and Curt (cheesin it up!)

 Me, Curt and Lindsey

 Back of my mom (Karen) and Bryan (my brother)

Steve, Em and me

 Em giving me a hug, Curt and Steve

Curt and Bryan

Kailah and Taylor (my little brother and his girlfriend)

This was also my dad's birthday this evening. So happy birthday to Dad/Grandpa/Dwight on June 3rd!

This is where we said goodbye for now, but hopefully it won't be this long again until we see him and the family! I already miss them like CrAzY!!

A Whole Lotta CrAzY for one Weekend!

Play song, "This Years Love" with this post

Never a truer statement!! But it was oh so worth the CrAzY!! 

First off, Em and I finished up with the school year (as was mentioned in the last post), then I did the flowers for my best friend's little sister's wedding that very night (wedding was the next day, Saturday), and then (the best part), my brother who I haven't seen in 13 years came to town! Bringing with him, his two kids (who I met for the first time) and his girlfriend. More of this to come in the next post though. 

First, I just thought I'd show a few of my favorite pictures of the wedding. I took all of these because Steve was busy video-ing the wedding. So happy we got to be such a big part of Bama and Bret's special day. This girl and her family are like family to me, and I love them all dearly.

Steve had to get a few of our little cutie! We were there almost 2 hours before the show, so we had some time to kill ;)

The beautiful mother of the bride

The pastor and the groom Bret

Brother of the bride, Dakota and one of the bridesmaids, Kira

Best man and maid of honor (also sister to the bride), Lacey (this girl is one of the bestest friends I have!)

Kids of the bride and groom, Dawsen and Anjul (they were a little nervous)

The men's side

And the lovely ladies

 The bride led down the isle by her uncle Greg

 Probably my favorite picture of the day. Totally captured the pure joy as she laid eyes on her groom

 Just look at the love in her eyes. And it should be told that the girl is talented, made that veil and hair piece.

Their symbolism of starting their marriage, by mixing sand

 Enjoying the toasts given by the best man, the maid of honor (Lacey), and Dakota (brother of the bride)

Cutting the beautiful cake! Done by another of mine and Lacey's friend's, Kelly

 She wasn't very nice

 But I think he got his payback tenfold!

First dance, don't they look so happy?!

Family dance, that's Bama with Anjul and Bret with Dawsen

 Bama's dance with her grandpa Leone (so sweet!)

 The bouquet toss (thought this was kind of a cool capture on my part)

This was after the garter toss, I just love how happy she looks :)

There ya go, Congratulations to Bama and Bret Hansen, May 28th, 2011!

And I know I said this would come in another post, but these really belong here. Because the truth is, my brother came into town literally right after the wedding. I called my dad, and he said they had just arrived, and I said we were on our way (cuz really, I couldn't wait any longer! It had already been 13 years after all!!). And on the way there, is when reality finally set in. You see, I hadn't let myself believe that this was really going to happen..... mostly because I didn't want to be let down. But when I knew he was actually here, 40 minutes away, that's when I let myself get excited.

Here's a couple pictures I caught of the first evening

 Emarie and her cousin in the flesh, Sable Rose (She is Curtis's oldest, she is 9)

This is blurry, but it was almost impossible to get a good picture in. This is Sable trying to teach Steve a hand trick. Amazingly, she took really well to Steve, as he did to her. This is rare ;)

Like I said, more to come! More amazing. Because where this post ends was only Saturday, so really it was a chuck-full weekend!

Done.

Play song, "As I'm Leaving" with this post

Feels so weird to even be saying this out loud. But I am done teaching for now. Finished my last day on Friday (27th). And reality hasn't really set in yet... maybe due to this extraordinarily busy, fantastic weekend. But probably it won't hit until the new school year- When I start with my colleagues, and don't have a classroom to prepare, or a list of anxiously waiting parents, wondering if their child got in our program, to call. A stack of letters with blank name-tags, that I will later fill out with my students names, sign my name on the letters, along with a personal note about how I'm looking forward to the new year, all to send out to addresses all over Provo. No back to school night for me. Meeting those shy, yet excited faces, and trying to figure out what place this child will hold in my classroom... my heart. Will they be the trouble maker, the know-it-all, or the shy one? 

Maybe it's hit a little. I know it hit hard as I hugged those wonderful children goodbye on Wednesday.... as I told their parents how much I've enjoyed teaching their children. Some parents were sweet to thank me for all that I've done for their kids. One mom in particular really brought me to tears with her sweet words of what a difference I've made in her son. I'll tell ya, that he was not an easy kid when we started. But, at the end, he's grown so much, probably more than most. He's polite, a good listener, hard worker, and most importantly a good friend. This is what I'll miss most. Seeing my children progress into their capabilities. Seeing them accomplish things that we've all worked so hard on, and knowing that I had something to do with that. If only a small part, because my biggest accomplishment is teaching them independence, so that the credit for everything they achieve can go directly to them.

Another little girl, was a transfer into my class around November. She had to be moved to me because she was a behavior problem in a special ed class (we have a few Title Ones in select special education classrooms for different purposes. But if they're ever a problem, they have to go to a Title One class), things were beyond rough at first. But this is the goodbye note I wrote in her book:

I am so proud of the young lady you have become. Remember when you first came to my class, and I had to separate you from the other girls in the class? Remember how you couldn't participate in games with us because you got so upset if you didn't win? I almost can't remember this time, because it has now been so long since you've shown any signs of the little girl you use to be. 

All I see now, is a confident, sweet, helpful, happy young lady, that I am sure will go far in life. Thanks for learning with me my last year. I am going to miss you more than you will know. I hope you always remember how special and great you really are.

Love,

Ms. Alisha

Anyway, I won't go on anymore. Because this post was meant for something else as well. It was also Emarie's first year of preschool completed, and I'm so proud of how far my own girl has come. She may have been a little reserved in class, but that didn't mean that she didn't do a lot! And one thing, was her end of the year program. Here's some photos and video of the day :)

Em's class performing "I'm a Little Apple Tree" (their favorite song) for their program for the last day of preschool, May 25th 2011. And for the record, Em does all the actions on her own when she watches this, just wouldn't perform on the day ;) Funny story too, the first day they learned this song, Em did a real sneeze right at the perfect moment, made everyone in the class laugh (that's my girl!) Also, most of her good friends are sitting right near her, Neeka and Autumn in the back (Autumn is the one sitting in Ms. Kirsten's lap), and Addy next to Em, Grayson was the boy next to Addy, Em liked to chase him on the playground ;)

A few pictures too :)

Em after the program, so cute in her little outfit :)

And this was actually the next day, I took Em with me for moving day and let her watch Tangled a few thousand times on the promethean board (she loved it!) The only draw back is, I was only able to capture her with 2 of her teachers. But we got a picture of Em and Ms. Desiree at Deakon's Run :)

That's Ms. Kirsten holding Emarie (one of the assistants) and her teacher Ms. Jamie (we love them all!! And are hoping to wean Em off her afternoon naps so that she can be in their class next year!)

So long 2010/2011 school year!! We'll miss ya!