We had fun hanging out with Jess and catching up on what's going on in her life, all the while showing off all of Ollie's new tricks and catching her up on ours. She got to go to church with us and Matt invited her to come in when the Stake President set him apart as the new Elders Quorum President after the meetings. Such a great experience, I love being around President Jones and I love that he loves Matt and that Matt looks up to him. But the best part was simply hearing the blessing pronounced, feeling the spirit, and knowing that even though this great task has been placed on Matt's shoulders he will find so much joy in serving. I know he will experience things that will break his heart, but it will break because of the love he has for those he is called to serve, and I look forward to watching him grow. He is bright eyed and bushy tailed and a bit naive right now, but I think that is a good thing. So glad Jess was there to share that moment with us, and so glad Ollie has a father like Matt to look up to that will teach him to love and serve others.
Sunday night we had our small group family dinner at Nick and Natalie's. The family is so big now that for the past few years we have tried to break down our monthly family dinners into smaller groups every other month. I can't say that we are very consistent but no one complains because there is always some family event going on so we are never feeling jipped out of seeing each other! But it really is fun to do the small groups because then you actually get some quality time to talk and enjoy each others company, when the whole family gets together you might get a good conversation with a few people, and a hello from everyone else, and it's still fun to see everyone but the 28 grandkids take over and it is somewhat crowd control and often out of control! So after a good meal and good conversation over dinner we sat down and watched 2016. Crazy- really does make you ask why? And then hope and pray that Obama doesn't get re-elected.
Monday was a relaxing day. Ollie always gets me up bright and early but Jess got to sleep in a bit. I had some projects I've been dying to get done for Ollie's room and Matt's new office. I started pulling them out thinking Jess could help me, but we didn't really get any further than pulling them out. We did go out to run some errands. They had comfiscated a few things out of her carry on so we stopped by Target to pick a few things up and she found some cute shoes on clearance for an amazing price. I'm always up for shopping even when I have nothing specific in mind! We went to a great little Thai place for lunch, and then we headed over to Nordstrom Rack. I did have one small thing in mind- some eye shadow but once we were in there we stayed for a few hours. We started in the mens department, found an amazing deal on some True Religion shorts so we both picked up a pair for our men. Then we hit the women's section, tried a few things on but I ended up just picking up the same shirt I bought there a month or so ago that got washed one time and it shrunk into an itsy bitsy shirt. The shoe section was the best part. Jess was looking for some boots, but we both got lost of there for at least an hour. I couldn't resist trying on some $900 heals (that was the original price), they were hot but even at their deeply discounted price I wasn't going to spend a few hundered on them. Ollie was good through the whole thing, I have to admit that once we hit shoes I let him crawl around in the shoe aisle which he loved becuase he could pick up shoes and look at them. He got a little crazy when we went to his shoe section, he started pulling down loads of shoes, I guess he was so excited that they were all his size! So I did have to try and contain him there, but we got them all back on the shelf and even found a cute pair of Diesels for him. We hit up the makeup last and I ended up with my fair share of new glittery eye shadows so it was a successful day at the Rack.
Monday night we stayed in, eating dinner with Matt and then Jess and I tried to find a movie to rent right off the tv, we failed but we both fell asleep anyway.
Tuesday I had to do a bit of work in the morning so Jess watched Ollie while I got a few things done. I'm always happy to hear them spending time together, so precious. Then we hit up Joe's for lunch. It was the first place we met Jess in Arizona when she made the drive down to see us before he was born. I'll never forget her pulling up with her Mom. She pulled her cute little pregnant self out of the car, they had been driving all day, she was 8 months along and she looked so uncomfortable! I felt so bad but we were so exicted to have her come down all at the same time. We laughed about it as we went back this time. I guess it's a bit of a tradition since we went back last time she came as well. I LOVE potatoes and Joe's stuffed baker has to be one of my favorite pototatoes of all time, which is why I got so excited when I read in one of Jess' first emails how she loves potatoes. I laughed when we went this time because she couldn't resist ordering a side of their cheesy potatoes even though she was also getting the stuffed baker- I have to admit I encouraged it since it's not every day your at Joe's. Ollie has no chance, he is going to love potatoes for sure. He already does, we shared our potatoe with him. He was getting a little fussy so I started sharing my water with him too, dipping my straw in my cup, putting my finger on the top of the straw, putting the other end in his mouth and releasing it. Jess asked me if he drinks from a straw- I admitted that I had never tried to let him drink from a straw so I thought why not try now? I went and got him his own cup of water and we let him try, and what do you know- he can drink from a straw!
Tuesday night Matt had his first presidency meeting, so we were short on time with him. The four of us headed out to pick out Ollie's first pumpking together, but the pumpkin place we stopped at was closed due to some issue with their cash register being down. It was a sweet older couple that was running it, they told us just to come back tomorrow, little did they know Matt wasn't going to be around the next day. So sad. He didn't have a ton of time so we settled on a fast food meal. Nothing special but it was still fun to get to spend some time all together. We even attempted to get a few pictures of both Jess and I with Ollie, showing off our matching rings of course. That didn't work out all that well since we were just taking it with Matt's phone and it was hard to get a good shot when he squirms around so much. Here was the best we could do, not the best lighting for us but still a fun memory.
We rushed Matt home after that so he could get onto his meetings, and Jess and I headed back to Red Box to pick out a movie and stay in for the night. Wednesday we said goodbye to Matt and all my brother's (when I say brothers that includes in-laws), and my Dad. They came to pick him up on their way out of town to go on their cattle drive. Matt wanted to go so bad, but even the night before he told me he just wasn't going to be able to go because he had too many things going on at work to leave. Somehow he managed to get things in enough order to get out of town, he has always wanted to do a cattle drive and with all the brothers going it was too big of an opportunity to pass on and I'm glad he got to do it, I love that those boys all love spending time together. Plus I always get good stories when he gets home!
Since the pumkin place had been closed the night before, I looked up the top rated pumpkin patches, picked one close by and Jess and I headed out with Ollie to get his first pumpkin. I have to admit I was probably the most excited of the three of us! Before we even got in there were little baby chicks to greet us, we let Ollie stop and take a look.
After we paid our admission we stopped and let Ollie get on the tractor so we could get some fun pictures. He was so serious the whole time though...
After the tractor we took him out and let him explore a bit, checking out pumpkins for the first time.
He was still a bit serious at first, but he loosened up and we even got him to do a little dancing to the country music that was blaring. So cute! After that we headed over to see the farm animals. Ollie got a bit more excited seeing them.
This had to be my favorite part- Ollie reaching out and touching this goats nose, and the goat licking his binky- so gross! But whatever.
He obviously thought it was fun! We spent the next little while strolling him around to see the mules and pigs, cows and goats.
This was such a sad little fella without his horns!
After that we tried to get Ollie's chubby little face to peak through the hole for a picture, that made me laugh!
And then we played in some Ollie size pumpkins.
We skipped the hay ride, but let Ollie check out a little play house, he was more curious about the kids inside than he was about the house.
And finally, after all that playing we got down to business looking for the perfect little pumpkin for him to take home. Believe me it was a task, we circled the whole yard, narrowed it down to just a few and put them before Ollie to pick out.
Which one would he choose?
We found a winner!
He liked the big twisty stem.
His very first pumpkin!
I love this little picture of him celebrating with Jess, so glad she got to be there for it!
We packed it up and headed to the counter to pay for it.
A nice man stopped and asked if we all wanted a picture together...
After paying for it I actually left it on the counter and walked away! Luckily Jess was there to remind me to get it. We all went home happy.
Since Matt was out of town, wednesday night we went to our favorite Sushi place and stuffed ourselves silly. (We were forced to do a little more shopping before hand since it wasn't open yet when we got there.) I don't know what I was thinking, I wanted all my favorite rolls, but forgot the fact that there were only two of us to eat them!
Ollie made a mess with the rice, but the lady was at least happy that he had his bib on to catch most of it. She kept commenting on how much she liked his bib- haha. Since Matt was out of town we were free to pick a girl movie so the three of us went and saw Pitch Perfect. Ollie wasn't content to sit there and watch it, he wanted to crawl around. Luckily the theatre hardly had anyone in it so I sat on the end of the stairs and let him wander around and still got to see most of it.
We said our goodbye's Thursday morning when we dropped Jess off at the airport. So glad she came, so blessed to have her in our lives, Ollie is one lucky kid and I'm glad that he will always know just how much Jess loved and always will love him!
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