Trip to Utah and birthday!

Well Ryan is done with his affiliation and we are so happy to have him back! He got done on Friday the 11th and then we drove down to Utah that night to see Ryan's parents who had just gotten in from Hawaii for the holidays. We spent a couple of nights in Salt Lake City, then a couple of days in Provo. We got to see a lot of family, from the Hollingshead side at one of Ryan's cousin's weddings, and Ryan's aunt in Sandy, and CW in Provo. We interrupted CW's studying a little, but it was fun, as always, to hang out with him. We also got to catch up with some old friends.

On Saturday night we went to Temple Square to look at the lights, and just happened to run into Josh Moser and his family. (an old mission companion and good friend) He has a little girl the same age as Cora, but she's not in the picture because she was asleep. It was so fun to see them and catch up, especially since it was unplanned.We also got to see Jana, my old roommate from BYU who we haven't seen since we left Utah, and her cute little boy Bentley who is the same age as Cora. We ate lunch together and then let the kids play on the playground. It felt just like old times, hanging out with JanJan again. The next day we met up with Paul for lunch and again, it felt like we had never left. I guess we haven't changed that much, except for one little addition. It was so great to meet up with all our old friends again and introduce Cora to them.I'm not sure which is funnier, Cora's face or mine. We started asking Cora "How strong is Cora?" and she'll make this face and make fists and get all tense, it's so funny.This is just Cora playing in the hotel.We got home on Tuesday and on Wednesday Ryan's parents came and spent the night with us. They took us out to eat for my birthday and we had some cake. They also gave me a breadmaker for my birthday, which is awesome. Nothing but homemade from now on! I am a very lucky girl, with my new sewing machine and breadmaker, and new pj pants and slipper socks from Ryan, who also spent many hours cleaning the house for me and taking care of Cora. Here's Cora making her stinky face for the camera.It's been a great 25 years so far and I'm looking forward to this next year with my sweethearts!

Thanksgiving!

Well we are a little late posting this - that's because Ryan and I were too lazy to take our own pics this Thanksgiving, so we left all the picture taking up to everyone else. So here are some of the pics from my dad's camera - I couldn't find any of my mom with Cora but everyone else sure wanted to pose with her!

Uncle Christopher

Great-Auntie Aline :)Great-uncle Manuel
Great-uncle MaxPapa

We went to Urbana, Illinois for Thanksgiving at my Grandma Wei's house. All of my uncles and aunts and their families came, and my brother CW and my parents. So it was a full house, but still we missed my sisters Nic and Kate and all the little boys. Cora was the only little person there and she sure got spoiled! We got there late Wednesday night after a full day of traveling. Cora was pretty good girl on the plane rides, she slept a bit, and she got pretty antsy, but it could've been a lot worse. Our Thanksgiving feast was wonderful, thanks to all the women - except me, I was like a little kid again and didn't hardly help with any cooking! :o I was planning on it but instead I was helping Grandma on the computer. After eating Dad and Max put on a slide show of some very old slides Grandpa had, from the 50s. That was pretty cool. We got to see Grandma and Grandpa looking all movie star-ish, and Dad as a very cute little baby, in some cute, but girly, outfits! Later that night CW, Ryan and I played Settlers online with Nic and Kate, which was pretty cool. Kate creamed us twice.

Thanksgiving shirt! Made from Cora's little handprint.

What Ryan and I did while others were cooking...The feastHaha CW's face is funny. You can see the Thankful tree my mom made on the table behind them - we wrote what we were thankful for on leaves and stuck them on the tree. Cool idea.

On Friday we finally decided to venture out into the crowds for a bit in the late morning. It was fun but exhausting. Most everyone went to a movie (2012) in the afternoon, but Cora, Mom, Grandma and I stayed home and napped. That night, we watched more slides and Grandma told us a little about her life. Then we played a bunch of games til very late.

A bunch of grandkidsThe whole gang.

Saturday we went to the cemetery to visit Grandpa's gravestone, and then we left. it was hard to say goodbye, especially to Grandma Wei. She is planning on moving out of her home and going to a retirement apartment/community close by. (That won't be happening for a couple of years, probably.) Grandma just loved Cora, she couldn't get enough of her. I wish we lived closer and could see her more.

We headed back to Indianapolis where we were flying out of in the morning, and we all stayed in a hotel that night. Nicole and Jarom and the boys drove up to join us, and we had a fun dinner and then played in the hotel pool. So we did get to see them a little this trip, which was so nice. All of her boys are so big now, I can't believe it.

Cora handled the plane trips back pretty well, sleeping most of the time. Then I managed to stay awake while I drove home from Boise later that night, which was good. We were sad to leave Ryan behind again but we are glad that his affiliation is almost over and he is coming back home next week. Yay! So for now we are just trying to get back into routine, babysitting, and getting ready for Christmas.

I apologize if anyone is completely bored by my play-by-play of our Thanksgiving - Sorry I don't usually get that in depth. This was just a special weekend for us and since part of my reason for blogging is to keep a semi-journal of our doings, I thought it would be nice to remember. I probably should be better about keeping a real journal though.