Tuesday, November 22, 2011

The Day of the Dress

The Day of the Dress

Ok, so I don’t normally pride myself on taking risks, but desperate times make for desperate measures. Those of you who have followed our shopping adventures the past month, you know that my girls found a dress for the wedding but not me. Since I didn’t want to attend the wedding stark naked, I decided I better order one. I searched for hours, found the perfect dress, but had to have it delivered to my mom’s house so we could make sure it arrived in time. Yes, it was a risk, but I really didn’t have a choice.

Fast forward to yesterday morning. I get the dress and try it on. IT WOULDN’T ZIP UP!!! I promise I’m not delusional but they must have sent the wrong size. REALLY?? Of all days? Even if I sucked in as hard as I could and removed all my internal organs, it wouldn’t zip. So, we had to go shopping and we had to go fast!

It was a crazy day. My dad and his graduate students did balance testing on all the kids (and Bob and I) to provide a baseline for their research on children. It was kinda cool cause they hooked us up on a harness and shifted our surroundings as well as the floor beneath us. I, of course, failed. It amazes me that I used to be a ballerina with incredibly balance, and now something as tiny as my middle ear that chooses to constantly ring, can make me look like I’m drunk.

New Aunt Diana took Marisa, Kayla, Alayna, Emily, and Tara out to the mall to go shopping and they claim it was “the best day ever”, so it was a HUGE success. We also all went out to Chilis with Grandma for lunch.

We shopped until we literally dropped, and with no luck until the very end. I was to the point of exhaustion and everything I tried on looked like I was a hippo trying to squeeze into jeggings and a tube top. I’m sure it was my skewed perception! I’m not sure I love it, but at least no one will have to witness my birthday suit. I FINALLY found some shoes and bought them. The 3 teens working at the store felt so bad for me and my sad story that they gave me a peppermint patty J When Kayla saw I bought them, she started sobbing because they were the exact shoes she had. I thought it would be cool to match, but apparently we have passed the point of being cool if we match. She sobbed through the next few stores until we got to payless and I found a pair. I will look like the jolly grey giant and I bet I break my ankle since the shoes are like 4 inches high. But hey, at least I won’t be shoeless and Kayla won’t spend the wedding bawling her eyes out embarrassed by her mom. I have a migraine, anyone wonder why?

We headed to the movie theater to celebrate both Elijahs and Bobs birthdays. It was transformer themed with BumbleBee as the main attraction….literally! Diana’s stepdad brought his Bumblebee Camero. It was AWESOME! So, we got to take pictures of it. We had pizza, cake, and ice cream and even got to sample Chocolate Steamers, and Italian sodas and they were to DIE for. Angela and family even came to say hi. We miss them so much!!! At the end, Jonathan helped the kids put on a little comedy show by telling cute jokes. Silly kids.

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Now to get ready for the wedding…

Monday, November 21, 2011

We made it!

We got to Logan in the evening, checked in to our hotel, and headed to Jonathan and Dianas house to see all the family and have a fun get together.  I think its been 1 1/2-2 years since we have all been together.  What a wonderful fun group of people!

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(Alayna with cousins Emily and Tara)

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(Playing peek a boo with Brooklyn)

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(Aunt Nina helping all the grandkids make pilgrim hats with chocolate!)

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(Alayna with cousin Hailey and the pilgrim hats)

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(Playing with Fluffy)

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(Marisa with Grandma Ribera)

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(Tyler with new baby SinJin)

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(Kayla trying to find a way to take SinJin home with her in her suitcase.)

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(All the little girl cousins with matching hats from Aunt Nina)

Look Out Logan, Here We Come!

Marisa had a great time at all-state this week.  She had her concert last night in Ames.  She got home after midnight, got to bed by 1 and we all had to wake up at 4AM to catch our flight.  Our 1st flight was a couple of hours to Denver.  Basically uneventful except when Alayna spilt her sprite all over Marisa’s lap.

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(Weird pics from the emergency manual)

We had a 4 hour layover in Denver.  The kids rode the escalators for fun.  Then the flight was delayed ANOTHER hour because some IDIOT from the previous flight tried to flush a diaper in the plane toilet.  REALLY?  It was about a 2 hour flight and had a pretty turbulent landing.

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(Trying out new cool chocolate straws!)

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(Pretzels with cheese and watching the escalator as entertainment)

The awesome marine at the car rental place upgraded us to a kick butt suburban!  We met my dad at the airport and drove through the mountain up to Logan.  We finally made it after 12 hours of travel!

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(Notice that Kayla didn’t cooperate with the any pics today!)

Utah- Part 4