The Other Half of My Heart

We managed to make it up to Utah one last time before school started back up.  When I was a kid, I LOVED going to Utah and we went there every summer.  Then, I went through a phase where I hated it and even stayed home when my parents and brother went.  Now, I'm at a phase in life where I jump at any opportunity to go there.  My sister lives there and now my little brother, his wife, and their new baby boy live there.  So, I kinda feel like half of my heart lives there.  The other half, of course, lives near me in SoCal.  We got to Utah on Friday afternoon, picked up Diane in Salt Lake and drove back down to Provo, where Daniel and Tyisa live.  Everything seemed normal and Tyisa didn't seem to be in labor or in any distress at all.  We left around 8:30 pm and drove back to Diane's where we were staying.  Around 8 am, we got a text from Daniel announcing the birth of Daniel Benjamin Lanford Wheeler Jr.  Apparently, not long after we left, Tyisa spiked a fever and they went into the hospital to have it checked out.  While the doctors were deciding whether to induce, her water broke and the rest is history!  We drove down to the hospital and visited with Daniel, Tyisa, and got to meet sweet Baby Danny.  I love my other 4 nephews so much and am always amazed at how that love just expands with every new addition.  If I love my nephews this much (all of them), I can't even imagine how it must feel to be a parent and experience the amount of love one would have for their own child.  I'm so grateful for this little boy!

Isn't he perfect?

We wanted to make sure Daniel and Tyisa had plenty of time with just their new little family, so we didn't spend tons of time at the hospital, but we did get to visit everyday.

One of the nights we were in Salt Lake, I decided that I wanted to take a walk, so I walked down to Temple Square.  It was around 10 pm, so everything was closed, but I did get to look at the beautiful buildings and see some of the sculptures that I never really pay much attention to.

Temple Square is one of the most beautiful and peaceful places I know of.

We also went to see Harry Potter again.  Diane hadn't seen it yet, so we had lunch at the Gateway and saw the movie at the theater there.  After the movie, we got frozen yogurt.  On our way out, we stopped in at Clark Planetarium and looked around.  Then we headed back to Diane's where we chilled for the rest of the night.

The next day, we had the opportunity to go to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple.  

Just as all temples are, it was very beautiful!

Now that I have been through this temple, there are only 2 completed temples in the entire state of Utah that I have not been in: Monticello and Vernal.  Vernal is special to me because it used to be the old tabernacle that my grandpa attended church in as a child.  So, I want to get to that one in the near future, for sure!

The following day was Diane's birthday.  So, we met up with Daniel and Tyisa in Provo and went to Brick Oven Pizza for dinner in between Daniel's classes.

Here's the birthday girl being sung to! They made her stand on the chair! lol After the restaurant, we went to the creamery to buy ice cream and then took it to Daniel's and Tyisa's apartment for brownies and ice cream. I was a first-timer with the creamery ice cream...mmmmm.

Afterwards we headed down to St. George on the way home.  I was the one driving and had great adventures driving through amazingly beautiful lightning and rain.  It kinda matched my mood going home.  As I mentioned, I feel like half of my heart is in Utah, so it's always bittersweet when we leave.  It makes me so grateful that even though we live far from each other now, we'll all, someday, spend eternity with each other.  I can't imagine life on earth without ever seeing my family, let alone the prospect of not being with them for eternity.  Fortunately, what happened here:

on 

November 17, 1972

 made it so that my family could be together forever!

What an amazing blessing!

It was a great trip and I can't wait until next time!

Hotter Under the Water...Sea World!

As summer vacation was winding down, I realized that I hadn't used my Sea World pass at all during the entire summer. Sad! This deserved a big time fix-it-ticket. So, I decided to go. As I thought more about it, I decided that it would be fun to take my nephews along. I went up the hill, spent the night, and then the 3 older boys, Joey, Aaron, and Cy and I took off. We stopped at Target, where each boy got to pick out a snack to share. After that, we stopped by my house to pick up my mom, who had decided to join us. Off we went!

When we got there, the boys made it clear what they wanted to do first:

It was HOT outside (not miserable, but definitely warm enough for the soak zone), so they went for it!

Then, off we went to see the park, all the while, guided by a wonderful navigator:

Cy is SO adorable! He walked around with his face in the map telling us where everything was.

We spent a bunch of times looking at the penguins. The boys LOVED the penguins! Next we stopped and had lunch. We had gotten Lunchables to eat and it was funny watching the boys eat because one doesn't like the meat, while the others don't like the cheese, etc., so they were swapping and negotiating with each other to get rid of or acquire more of meat, cheese, crackers,etc. I loved watching them...too funny! After that, we headed to the dolphin show since the boys had made it clear that they were desperate to see it. hehe

Next up: Turtle Reef. It is WAY worth your time if you're planning to visit Sea World. There were huge floor to ceiling tanks with huge fish and tons of giant turtles swimming around. We spent lots of time there and even then had trouble coaxing the boys out to go meet up with Nancy, Jacob, and the boys.

We met up with Nancy, Jacob, and the boys in the Wild Arctic. The boys got up close and personal with a walrus, got to see a beluga whale and her baby, and looked at two beautiful polar bears. BUT the champion of the Wild Arctic?

THE ICE WALL! haha

After going to see the sharks, we headed over to grab seats for the Shamu show. I snapped this picture of all the boys together:

The Shamu show was amazing, as usual and then we ended the night with a beautiful firework display.

The day was wonderful! The best part was getting to spend some quality time with my mom and my amazing nephews, whom I love more than anything in the world. So grateful to be their auntie!

Rainforest Cafe!

I had seen the Rainforest Cafe tons of times and always wanted to eat there, but had never had the chance UNTIL we went there to celebrate Dylan's birthday! That place is awesome with its thunderstorms and crazy moving animals. Great fun, food, and company!

Uh Oh! Spa-GETTY-ohs!

I recently discovered that neither of my parents had ever been to the Getty. Ever. So, I decided that we needed to go immediately.

We got to see the Paris display that is a traveling exhibit. It was interesting to see the ornate nature of Parisian artwork and craftsmanship. The Getty Gardens were beautiful, as usual.

My favorite part of the Getty is the decorative arts stuff, so we spent a chunk of time there. I just love looking at the ornate pieces that decorated palaces, and manors long ago. Before, we left we had to stop in the family section and have some fun.

It's crazy to me how real that snake looks! Yikes!
Well, as you can see...

...the Getty is HUGE!!! We didn't get through all of it today, so I guess we'll just have to go again sometime!
On the way home, we stopped and had dinner in Azusa at one of my very favorite restaurants of all time. Northwoods Inn is delicious!

Awesome! All in all, we had a great day!

Happy Birthday, Joey! Play Ball!

So, my oldest nephew, Joey, turned 8 on July 11th. EIGHT!!! I can't believe what a grown-up boy he's become. He is awesome and I can't imagine life without him. Since this is a milestone birthday, David and Melissa wanted to do something a little more special than usual. Joey has become quite the baseball fan, so they rented out a skybox for Joey and let him invite some friends to share it with him. The kids got to eat hotdogs, snacks, and sodas and watch the game from the box.

PLUS, David and Wiss got each kid their own foam finger...

...so that Wooly Bully could sign them when he visited the skybox!

The kids also got to run across the field with Wooly Bully!

The rest of us hung out in the seats right in front of the box:

David and Wiss definitely had their hands full, managing all of those kids, but a great time was had by all! Happy Birthday, Joey! I love you, little man!

Knock! Knock! Knock! Do the Fossil Rock!

On July 13th, I had the opportunity to go to the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History right by the USC campus to preview their newly remodeled dinosaur exhibit. It was awesome! Nancy, Jacob, Josh, Dylan, and Anthony went and it was a fun day.
Here's my beautiful sister:

It's always fun to do museums with kids and get to explain all the cool things to them and see the wonderment in their eyes when they see a real dinosaur!

I love me some dinosaur bones!

Run Anthony! That big dinosaur/bird thing is gonna eat you!

We all had an awesome time at the museum! After we were done, we had to jet because all of us, except for Anthony, had to drive up the hill to go to a baseball game in celebration of Joey's birthday (which I will cover in the next post).

Some of my greatest blessings call me Auntie...

Since David, Melissa, and the boys live in Victorville, I knew that we would be driving right by their house on the way home from Utah. So, I called Melissa and asked if we could stop by and take the boys for a couple of days. She said that would be great and I was way excited since I hadn't done something like this with them in a while. The first thing we did was wash my car. It was less about getting my car clean and more about letting them play in the water. In fact, I'm pretty sure my car looked dirtier when we got done than it did when we started. : ) BUT the boys seemed to be having a great time. Then, I attached the sprinkler to the hose and we just played in the water.

Next, we went inside to play and the boys found these hats in their toy bins. Pretty soon, they were all dressed up and ready for an impromptu photo shoot.

These little guys are SO cute!
I asked the boys where they wanted to sleep and they told me that they wanted to sleep in my tent. I tried to set it up outside, but we had a leaky sprinkler and the ground was super marshy. Plan B: pitch the tent in the family room. We decided to go to the store and get some snacks for our "campsite" and then we watched Ernest Goes to Camp to make it official.

The next morning, the boys wanted to watch the "Ernest" movies (Ernest Goes to Camp, Ernest Goes to Jail, and Ernest Scared Stupid) over and over and over again. So, we did! And then we met Nancy, Jacob, Joshua, and Dylan at the park.

After the park, we walked across the street to Jacob's house, where we ate dinner and the boys played together. It was a great day! The next day, we went to Target. It's not an Auntie Rach adventure without a trip to Target and my nephews have come to expect it. : ) Afterwards, it was time to head back up the hill to take the boys home and watch the fireworks over their neighborhood in Spring Valley Lake. What a great weekend!