Sunday, June 26, 2016

Utah Family Vacation

We had a wonderful time on our family reunion/vacation! Here's the gorgeous family pic that we took in Provo, Utah. Everyone is super happy with how it turned out. Mom picked out the girls' matching dresses and everyone else kind of coordinated around that. My sister Natalie's friend Heidi took the group shots for us. 
 We spent a lot of time hanging out at the condo/town home that my parents rented in Provo. It was super close to the BYU campus and had a huge toy room full of fun stuff for the kids to play with. April loved playing with the Barbies and the princess dolls.
 One day my sisters and I went shopping while the men took care of the kids. Then the next day we took the kids for a little more shopping while the guys played tennis. Jamie and Maddie picked out matching hats, purses, and wallets and carried them around Charming Charlie's. It was super cute to see them interact with each other. April got in on the action too with her cute little white hat.
 Swimming at Natalie and Trevor's hotel pool. Jamie and Ben had a blast, but April didn't want to get in for too long, so she and I watched from the side most of the time.
 Maddie and Jamie in their matching, "My Little Pony" swimsuits. These two loved each other!
 Playing with glow in the dark balloons and bubbles at the condo.
 Ben and I took the girls to Bridal Veil Falls, and Jamie and Ben hiked all the way to the top! April and I waded in the freezing cold water at the bottom, but we still had fun. Can't do much hiking at 36 weeks pregnant.


At one point Jamie started climbing up the rocks all by herself and gave us a little bit of a scare. That girl had no fear!
 Mom, Dad, Grant, Alli, and our family walked around the Provo temple on Sunday. We were hoping to get a closer glimpse of the new Provo City Center Temple, but unfortunately the grounds were closed. Next time!




 Grant is now taking classes at BYU so this was the last time we got to all be together. Not sure when he will come home to Texas. Possibly after summer classes are over.
 On one of our last days in Utah, we went to visit Ben's old roommate and good friend Jake and his family. They are currently living/house sitting for Jake's parents in Mapleton. They own some land and have a horse and chickens. Ben's other friend Jacob was there to hang out with us too. We all had a wonderful time visiting and getting up close to the animals.

 Ben caught a chicken!
 We were so blessed to stay with Ben's cousin Chris and his beautiful wife Esther while we were in Utah. They have a beautiful home. They have three kids, and Jamie was so happy to get so much cousin play time. Lilly and Matthew were so sweet to hang out with her.
 Our due dates are only a few weeks apart! Can't wait to see pictures of the new Gordon baby girl.
 Jamie and cousin Elise hanging out together.
 Dropping Grant off at his dorm. The new Heritage Halls buildings are ten times better than what I had as a freshman. I think my basement apartment in Snow Hall flooded 3 times??!
 April and my sister Adrienne.

I got to see my friend and old roommate Brittany Lesser while we were in Utah. She is so sweet and fun. We had lunch at the City Creek mall, which was so cool! I had never been there before. 
We loved our Utah trip and are now counting down the days until baby boy gets here! Only 2 1/2 weeks left.

Wednesday, June 8, 2016

The Last Few Weeks

The last few weeks have been full of sunshine and swimming and visits from Ben's parents! Cynthia came to visit us on Memorial Day weekend and we had an awesome time going to the Austin Zoo. Here are some of the pictures from our visit:











The peacocks are allowed to roam free throughout the zoo, and they are extremely LOUD. Haha. But we had a great time looking at all the animals. It was the perfect day to go because most of the animals were out and about and super active.

This last weekend Ben's dad came to visit us and we went swimming and enjoyed the beautiful weather. Jamie and April absolutely love the pool. We have already spent so much time swimming this summer.