Girls' Getaway 2017

Our Girls' Getaway 2017 began on Friday, May 5th.

Katie, Jenny, Heather and I piled in my car and headed to Boise to meet Jill at the prearranged rented house. We said a little prayer on takeoff that we'd travel safely and the nail in the sidewall of the tire (which had been slowly leaking for months) wouldn't be a problem.  We arrived safely (after a quick stop at Panda Express for lunch) and were happy to see that Jill had made it safely as well. After quickly unpacking we headed to Bardenay to catch the river walk before a delicious dinner eaten al fresco at Bardenay.  The river is running very high and flooded the trail at some point so our walk wasn't very long, but still very enjoyable! Dinner was delicious!

River Walk

Love this group! So fun to be together!

We were a little disappointed in our accommodations as we could see it was actually lived in, which meant limited closet space and her personal items everywhere. Seating and dishes were only set up for 4, but we made it work!

We had fun playing some games Friday night, and the girls stayed up late chatting.

Saturday morning we had a delicious egg breakfast provided by Jenny and Katie. Then we headed out to go shopping at a nearby mall, only to discover that our forgotten-rear tire had gone completely flat. We pulled into a gas station and Jill came to the rescue by using her Triple A service which she had previously signed up for and was free. They said they would come fix the tire, but wouldn't arrive for an hour, so Jill and Jenny walked back to the apartment and got Jill's car to finish carrying us to the mall so we could continue on with the shopping.

Flat tire

Eventually we had to take my car to Costco and get four new tires (because you can't just change ONE tire on an all-wheel drive car; who knew?).  After shopping for a bit, we went back to our place for lunch. Jill made a delicious chicken spread to go on pita bread and Heather helped with the extras. Yum! More shopping followed lunch with a late dinner picked up from Olive Garden.  Where did the day go?

H&M and Charming Charlie were hits!

We then treated ourselves to facials and pedicures done by ourselves. With our faces smooth and shiny and our toes painted and decorated, we were ready for bed. Of course, the girls again stayed up chatting - because girl time is the best!

Sunday we ate granola/yogurt/fruit parfaits and headed to a sacrament meeting nearby. Then we packed up and headed home.  Very fun outing!!! Next time we vote on less shopping and more relaxing. So fun being together!

Cook Family Update: May

It's May?!?! How is this year almost half way over?
Backtracking just a tiny bit to April 25-- this is a picture from our Anniversary Dinner. We went to a fancy place in Provo called "Communal". It was the best food I have ever had. The bill was also about 3x any other restaurant that we've been to. Look it up if you're curious. It was a great for an anniversary celebration. It's been two years! I'm so blessed to have Joshua as my companion!
I am now watching little Maxwell who is 8 months old, from 7:30 - 6:30, Mon-Thurs. He is a really chill, happy guy, and social. It's nice for Clara to have another little person around.
 We went to the Thanksgiving Point Gardens this week with Katie and kids.

Clara LOVES outside. She especially loves roaming around and picking up small sticks and rocks and putting them in her mouth. I don’t understand it, but she loves it. She has also become quite the chatterbox especially over the last month. :)
 And did a nice walk on the Provo River Parkway trail. :)
I've already been called to be the Primary Singing Time leader. I guess Heavenly Father just really wants me in primary right now. I do think it will be fun and the jr. and sr. primary are combined in the second hour so that will be nice too. We're just counting down the days now to cruise time! Only 4 more work days, wahooo!!!!

Finished Turkeys

The finished turkeys :) I really need to start some kind of portfolio documenting Vera's artwork. She amazes me every day. She is quite meticulous and I look forward to seeing her abilities evolve over time.

She has really been enjoying the dry erase books Ayla got for her birthday :)

Easter Eggs

The Webre and DeLong kids had a grand time at Grandma's house coloring eggs and going on a hunt for candy. Grandma was awesome to brave the mess and even whipped out some glitter! They all loved it.

Sorry I don't have any pics of the Easter egg hunt :/

Small Town Girl

Yo yo yo peepses! 
Writing you here from Santaquin Utah. It's like a glorified Honeyville and I am in love. We have a super great ward and Polynesian neighbors! 

Actually we have a few gas stations, a bank, a credit union, and a handful of fast food places, including "Santa Queen". But no grocery store?!?! Instead we get a little store similar to Honeyville mall but it is owned by a Hispanic family so you get all of the fun candies, drinks and chicharrones and whatnot. We got some tamales there yesterday and would not recommend them if you ever come to visit. I do, however, very much recommend the creamsicles. Mango and walnut are my favorite flavors so far. They have a tiny produce section and you can get milk and eggs in case of an emergency. But we are a five minute drive from Payson where there are lots of G-stores. 

As you can see we have an amazing back yard, complete with a horse and donkey (not pictured). Ok so technically the animals aren't in our yard but they like to hang out right at the fence a lot and try to eat the grass and weeds in our yard. And Daniel feeds them carrots. 

So we have BIG plans for a garden. I can’t tell you how excited I am about this!!! I want to grow onions and carrots, beans and zucchini, cilantro and tomatillos, peppers, tomatoes, potatoes and yams and kale and spinach and beets and the peas where you can eat the whole wrapper!!! We're gonna get started on it this week. 
Went to the funeral of Paul Johnson (Gpa Johnson's brother) with Grandma Sharp on Saturday. It was neat to spend some time with those relatives. I had never met any of them. The funeral was in Spanish Fork. It was very nice. The Johnson's are great people. I have an incredible heritage on all sides!

Prolly gonna get chickens too, and maybe a goat?



There are three bedrooms upstairs and two bathrooms. Basement is unfinished. The master bed and bath are a good size and the other two beds and bath are very small. Just enough space for our bed but sleeping is about the only thing I use the bedroom for anyway, so small isn't a problem for me or Josh! This is the first time in my married life having a window over my kitchen sink and oh I have longed for this day. 

I may start watching Maxwell (Josh's sister, Natalie's, 7 mo boy) full time in a couple of weeks. Natalie works mon-thurs 8-6. I think it will be fun for a while and she's offering a small monthly sum. He is a sweet, happy little guy. 

Got to see Sara Fisher Black this Friday and Mia. It was so fun to spend the day with her and all of the girls. We were going to take a selfie of all five of us girls but it never happened, so here is just Lily and Clara. We went to a fun new park in Orem. It reminds me of a cross between the all abilities park in St. George and the Whittier community center park in Logan. Everything is going great with Mia home and we are looking forward to many more play dates. I've also seen Anna twice in the last week. She is such a good friend! 

My Little Sunbeam

So proud of my little Sunbeam today. She gave the scripture in sharing time all by herself and did a perfect job! <3

Ayla is 4!

You guys... I love her. I am so blessed to have her for my daughter <3 The quality on this video is sub-par, but I guess that's what you get when you upload to YouTube... Enjoy!