My cousins, Steph and Vanessa, who live in Osage, Iowa came to Arizona for a fun girls' trip. They stayed in Tempe and went to Sedona, as well. They had contacted me a couple weeks ago and asked if I wanted to meet for lunch and I said, "Sure!" I'm so glad I got to see them! We had planned to get together on Wednesday, but they ended up having more time on Monday and that worked for me, too. They came to see my house and then we went to downtown Gilbert to have lunch at Snooze. It was pretty good! I bought them Salt River bars from Liberty Market since we were so close. Then we said goodbye and they headed off in their rented Mustang convertible for Sedona. They had a great time!
We had a wonderful weekend! Nathaniel and Emily flew in on Wednesday afternoon. We had purchased the plane tickets before Nathaniel and Audrey got engaged, so she didn't join them. She will be visiting during Christmas break, though.
Their flight was late and we had planned to go to a late lunch, but it was a very late lunch, at one of our favorite buffets.
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family from my side and Michael's side, as usual.
Here is Daniel learning to carve the turkey.
Emily did a wonderful job setting the table. The boys also helped.
The whole gang
All of the newspapers were sold out that morning, so I wasn't able to look through all the ads. Instead, we watched Free Guy together after everyone left so it was a nice, relaxing evening.
We celebrated my birthday on Friday. Michael ordered this custom cake for me and it was beautiful and delicious!
We went out to lunch to Firebirds Woodfired Grill. We had to laugh when Jonny said the bread looks like a butt, lol.
Nathaniel flew back on Saturday morning. Emily and the boys went to see Eternals and do a little shopping in the afternoon. Then I met them for lunch at Panera. We came home and put up the Christmas tree and did some decorating around the house. Michael and Andrew put my snowman and tree up in the front yard the day before. That evening, Michael and I went to an open house and then Michael and Andrew watched the BYU vs. USC game. BYU won, thankfully.
Emily flew home this morning and we had a nice day going to church and relaxing. I feel so blessed!
It has been so difficult to get an appointment to take the boys to the temple. I gave up on trying to get on the schedule for the Gilbert temple and found an appointment at the Phoenix temple. This was Jonathan's first opportunity to do baptisms for the dead. Jonathan and Daniel each did baptisms, and Andrew was able to baptize them. It was a wonderful experience! It is always a blessing to be able to go to the temple!!
We are so thrilled that Daniel was recognized as the MVP of the JV swim team! It was a surprise for all of us and we are so proud of him. His coach said she was always impressed when Daniel would volunteer to do the butterfly stroke for a warm-up. She said no one ever asks to do that, lol! Great job, Daniel!
We spent the morning getting ready for our trip and packing. We made the flight just fine and it was pretty uneventful.
It was great to meet Audrey, finally. She is awesome and she and Nathaniel seem
very happy together. There was a lot of traffic so we went straight to dinner
at P.F. Chang’s. It was delicious! Then, we went to Sweet Tooth Fairy so I could
get my favorite cookie. Audrey got one too that was made with M&Ms instead
of chocolate chips and she loved the frosting. We stayed at the Best Western
Plus University Inn on Freedom Boulevard.
Nathaniel and Audrey picked us up on Saturday morning around
8:20 AM and we went to meet Audrey's parents. They were very nice and seem to
really like Nathaniel. Karen was telling me how she knew pretty quickly that
Nathaniel was special to Audrey because she normally doesn’t warm up to people
that quickly. Anyway, it was nice to talk to them and get to know them. We left a
little before 11 AM and went to the hotel. Emily met us there. Audrey had some things to do on her laptop for work. Then, we all walked
together to the stadium. They had some tailgating activities going on and
Michael and Nathaniel got a hotdog at J Dawgs. Then we went in and found our
seats. Then, Michael went and bought some drinks and Cougar tails (18-inch-long
doughnut with maple frosting) and Emily got a pizza for herself. Audrey and
weren’t hungry, but we did have some of the Cougar tail. It was a good
game, but BYU easily won 59 to 14.
After the game, we walked back to the hotel. Nathaniel really
wanted a break so Michael and I took a nap and the three of them went back to the apartments. They were going to pick us up at 6:15 PM but they were running
about 10 minutes late. There was a lot of traffic at the mall but we made it in time to Tucano's and they
seated us right away. We had a blessing and then we were going to go to the buffet and then Nathaniel said he had something to tell us. It turns out, while
we were napping, he was proposing to Audrey! That's why they were running late. Apparently, the ring had been
delivered to his apartment and was there when they got there. He wanted to
surprise her next week, but the ring came early so they went over to Provo City Center
Temple and he proposed. They even asked Emily to come with them so she could
take pictures, so that was awesome!
We gave them hugs and told them how happy we were for them.
Nathaniel seems really happy. I asked each of them what they admired in the
other. Nathaniel said Audrey is smart and pretty and he loves to talk to her
for hours. Audrey said that she was impressed with Nathaniel from the first
date and that he’s such a great guy and we raised a good man. She said she also
loves to talk to him and she loves being around him all the time.
The food at Tucano’s was amazing. We stuffed ourselves with
the buffet and all the meats and even got dessert.
Audrey was excited to tell her parents about the proposal tomorrow,
and I suggested maybe they should go see them tonight. We drove over to the apartments and parked and we did a FaceTime call with the boys because Nathaniel
wanted to tell his brothers himself. They were pretty happy for him. Daniel
admitted he already knew because he overheard me on the phone. Andrew
clapped. Jonny made his goofy smile and gave a thumbs up. We joked that he has
been asking for another sister. We said our goodbyes to Audrey and Nathaniel
and told Audrey, “Welcome to the family!” We went to Emily‘s apartment so
Michael could see her room and then we went to the Wilkinson Center to go
bowling. We played two games and it was really fun. After
that, Emily drove us back to our hotel. We’re pretty exhausted. It was almost
11 PM by the time we got back to our room, but luckily it was daylight savings so
we got an extra hour of sleep.
We got up and packed and Emily picked us up at
the hotel at 9 AM. We drove to Joe and Brandie‘s house in Taylorsville. They
have a great house. It was so great to see them and meet baby Veronica. She is
adorable! We had so much fun holding her. She was such a little angel. We had a
nice talk with them and stayed and visited for almost two hours. Delilah was shy
at first, but by the time we left she seemed sad. This was Brandie’s second C-section but she looked great and seems to be feeling well.
Emily drove us to the airport. The plane landed early and we
were home by around 4 PM. Daniel had stayed home from church today because he
threw up yesterday, poor kid. He didn’t have any other symptoms, thankfully,
and was feeling better. Andrew and Jonathan went to church. Apparently, Andrew
bore his testimony. Of course, he chose to do it on the one week we were out of
town. Oh well, I’m proud of him.
It was a wonderful weekend!
Congratulations, Nathaniel and Audrey!
