Catching Up...April, May, June

I have obviously not blogged in AGES! My strategy is to make one huge post and try to get caught up in one horrendously long and painful sitting:) We will start our journey with our trip to Utah in April for Trevor and Leah's wedding. It was such a great trip! Carrie was there with Nyah and Ali, and Liam was in cousin heaven. 

 Grandpa and Liam had some awesome bonding time!

 We had a great walk up to Bridal Veil Falls. Liam and Ali are feeding rocks to their 'pets'.

 This is just one of a hundred times when Liam stole kisses from Ali.

 So maybe a 3-D I-Max Dinosaur movie was a bit intense for Liam's first ever movie:) After about ten minutes of clamoring up my lap scared to death, he actually settled in quite nicely. The popcorn and soda definitely had something to do with it. He refused to wear the glasses, but was surprisingly entertained by the blurry images moving around on the screen. He talked about the dinosaur movie for days to follow.

 At the Thanksgiving Point petting zoo...too scared to ride, but not at all shy about kissing every single horse a dozen times anywhere from their nose to their saddle. After about three rounds of sitting out and watching other kids go, Liam suddenly got a burst of courage mid round and shouted 'I ride it!' So I ran and plopped him down on the saddle and he clung to me for dear life for most of the ride. Below is his 'trying to be brave' pose:)

 First 'train ride'...which is really just riding Trax to City Creek in Salt Lake. We had a blast at City Creek!

 Liam discovered the escalators, and become instantly obsessed!

 The splash pad was also an unexpected adventure that day. All the kids got totally soaked, but it was SO worth it. They were so cute and brave running through the water.

 Sweet Grandma Dahle doing what she does best.

Grandpa spent hours putting together this amazing swingset...and here we are enjoying the fruits of his labors. The back yard has been the big attraction ever since.

 Sweet action shot...made complete by the Sesame Street apron.

TREVOR AND LEAH'S WEDDING! It was an absolutely gorgeous day, Trevor and Leah looked so happy and beautiful, and the kids were so cute in their fancy attire!

 Dan is always so great with the kids, I can't tell you how many times throughout the day you would find him entertaining these three:)

 Liam was turning into a bit of a wild animal before the end of the picture-taking at the temple. The only thing that calmed his soul was hanging out with this sweet little girl. She is Amanda's (the photographer) daughter and she totally saved the day.

 They had a fabulous reception outside. The weather behaved perfectly for an outdoor evening reception.

 They look so great! Below is Liam's face while they are cutting the cake. So sweet!

 Talk about a professional dancer...you can see it in her perfectly graceful...everything. She is so beautiful!

This is Liam's face when you tell him to smile. At least it makes everyone else smile! We had such a great trip, it was sad to leave. However, Dan's parents came to see us just a few days later, which gave us something to look forward to! We didn't take a lot of pictures but we had a great time. Especially considering it didn't pour rain every day they were here like last time.

Liam is going to be such a good big brother!

This was probably the best day of Liam's life so far! As we were passing the fire station, there was a fire truck parked right out front. Liam has a serious obsession with fire trucks (as do most kids his age). So I took him over for a closer look. While we were peering at all the tiny knobs, a real live fireman came out to meet us, and he gave Liam is own fireman hat! And THEN, if that wasn't enough, he led us around the other side and let Liam get inside the truck. Liam still talks about this event to this day! I love when people go out of their way to be nice to little kids. It means the world to them!

About once a year, a big group of girls (or ladies I should say considering we were all mothers) from the ward here in Berkeley get all dressed up to go see an awesome 80's cover band called Tainted Love. I have wanted to go all three years that I have lived in Berkeley but for one reason or another I could never go and I was bitterly disappointed each time. So it must have been fate that two weeks before I moved away they played again! I was literally in 80's dancing queen heaven! I swear I should have been a teenager in the 80's. I mean...come on...how natural do I look in big hair and a cut up shirt:)

This is my most recently finished commission. I loved it and wanted to keep it. Good thing it went to my good friends who will take great care of it.

 Last art class with my cute students. I miss them!

Liam has been really good at playing pretend. He pushed these hangers down in the lining of the suitcase and said he was in a castle. I was so surprised at his creativity!

 This is Lake Anza. It's only about 15 minutes from our house in Berkeley and we didn't even discover it until our last week there! I couldn't believe it. It is a tiny and beautiful lake and the water is actually warm enough to swim in! I am so sad that we didn't know about it while we lived there.

Random...but SO FUNNY!

                                              

HAPPY FIVE YEAR ANNIVERSARY TO US! It's been a great five years. Can't wait to see what's in store for the next five!

 Starting our sad goodbyes! If you haven't heard yet...Dan got a really great job at an awesome firn in Vancouver Canada! We were so relieved and excited to get such a good job. But at the same time, overwhelmed because we had tree weeks to get all of our paperwork done, our stuff packed and moved, and on and on. It has been a CRAZY transition, but totally worth it. Above is my wonderful neighbor, Lotta, and her two adorable kids Thea and Dean. We had some really good times together, and we will miss them!

 This is Liam's favorite (of many) girlfriends...Lucy. It was funny how much effort it took for them to hold hands! They are just accustomed to a giant hand grabbing onto their tiny palm...so they had no idea who was supposed to grab who's hand. They spend about 30 seconds mashing their hands together over and over before I finally helped them figure it out:)

 Saying goodbye to our good friends was so hard. We had many tearful goodbyes. I should say I...not we. Dan doesn't have any tearful anything. But if he had working tear ducts I'm sure he would have cried as we said goodbye to our life here in Berkeley.

 Farewell BBQ.

 Last stop in Berkeley...Cheeseboard Pizza. I will miss that place with all my heart. The line was appropriately out the door and way down the street, but worth the wait as usual. Goodbye Berkeley! Goodbye Friends! Goodbye life as we know it!

After Leaving Berkeley Liam and I headed to Utah for two weeks while Dan got us set up in Vancouver. We had such a fun two weeks with grandma and grandpa Dahle...but somehow this ended up being pretty much the only picture I took. Ha! Liam got an eye infection while we were there, which he kindly passed on to my poor mom! Don't worry, I didn't get it until my first day in Vancouver:) Oh well. It made for a great photo anyway. 

Well...that concludes our journey in the states. From here on out you'll hear about nothing but Looneys, Kraft Dinner, and outdated cell phone plans!