Nicole & the boys come to visit

My best friend at BYU was Nicole. Our husbands were both on the volleyball team so we got to hang together a lot, and when the boys would leave us to travel with the team we would kick it together. She was my snowboarding buddy- still remember going on a trip just the two of us while the guys were gone, I had to tie up my own boots because Matt wasn't there to sinch them tight for me, and had to be tough girl when the snow was pelting my face as we rode down the mountain- it seriously felt like needles. I was wearing Matt's beanie at the time and ended up pulling the entire thing over my face and ripping holes where my eyes were so I could face the snow! Then on the way down the mountain we ran out of gas in the Jeep and had to just coast to the bottom where luckily there was a gas station. Those were good times! Although Nicole and Todd moved to California after our Junior year we have kept in touch ever since, it good to have friends in California to visit :) Nicole has also been my friend over the years that has been a listening ear about all our infertlity woes so she has shared in our excitement over having Ollie enter our lives and was so cute and excited to see him. She made a trip out to see her family and we were lucky enough to have her and the boys spend the night with us. They were all so were excited to meet little Ollie too- so fun!

Maddox gave him big kisses and Luke couldn't wait to hold him himself. For dinner Matt made us some delicious homemade bread and I quickly realized anything with red sauce is probably not the best idea for 3 year olds! Nicole and I had good talks all night long, and Matt got to watch a movie with the boys.

Maddox loved playing with the dogs. Monday morning he decided it was fun to jump in dog poop! Nicole apparently had a fun time cleaning that up, luckily my sister-in-law had given me some tennis shoes for Ollie that fit Maddox so he was still able to go on a walk with us.

Luke was such a little cutie. I showed them pictures and videos of Ollie's birth. He is old enough to grasp the concept of what adoption is and had lots of cute questions. One of which was "Is Jess your best friend?" to which I smiled and replied "Yes, she is one my best friends" He also spent all morning trying to negotiate a deal with me to trade one of his beenie babies for Ollie's beenie baby he got in the hospital (the parrot). He pulled out his collection and made some very compelling offers but in the end I decided that since I had taken pictures of Ollie with his little parrot I better keep it for him and let him trade it when he is old enough to negotiate for himself. (Now I know what to get Luke when I see him though!) Luke is such a fun kid and I loved that he gave Ollie so much attention an even wanted to feed him.

We had time to go to the park before they had to hit the road. Luke got out his skate board and I'm not lying when I tell you he was AMAZING! I really can't believe how good he is, he just whipped up and down the street jumping onto the sidewalks and attempting little tricks. He was all excited when Matt caught up to us on the rip stick (he had been working that morning). When we got to the part I jumped on the rip stick- it's really been forever since I've done it so getting started was a little rusty. Luke was very intrigued by it and wanted to try so I had a good excuse to get to play with him for a while as I helped him get started on it. I was pretty impressed that he never gave up and kept on trying to do it. Not so easy to do when you are learning on a sidewalk that has big grooves to catch the wheel. Such a beautiful fun morning. So glad we got to see Nicole and the boys and can't wait for our next little adventure together!