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!