Monday

After dinner last night, Katie came home with me and had a sleepover. This morning, we got up and drove over to pick up Brea and Hillary for pedis.

Hillary was sooooo hoping that she'd get to pick my polish and we could be matchy/matchy again, but she had to settle for picking my base polish (red sparkles).

After getting pedicures, we walked down to Nothing Bundt Cake to get some bundletts.

And free samples. Lots and lots of free samples. (Don't judge. It was pumpkin cake.)

After getting our toes done, Katie and I came home so I could rest for a few hours before dinner that night with the gang. We met with Spencer's family and Kirk's family for an AWESOME family dinner at Charleston's. (We love their ribs. So much.)

After dinner, we had bundtletts for dessert.

I cut them into quarters, so everyone could have samples of different flavors, and Hazel and Hillary helped "serve" them to everyone at the table.

After dinner, we moseyed on over to the new Mesa Fiiz to get our caffeine on.

We heart sugar. And caffeine. ... Oh, and each other.

Best. FHE. Ever.

Thanks, Spencer, for bringing your family to see me. It was a totally awesome weekend, capped off with lemon Nothing Bundt cake and a Pepperlada from Fiiz. Life doesn't get much better than this.

BR2015

This past weekend was the third Ball Girl Baking Retreat.

Cousins and sisters from all over the country (erm... world, actually, since this year we got Beth to come from England) gathered in Orange County, California to bake our little hearts out in Aunt Deb's kitchen.

Left to Right

(rear): Debbie, Becca, Christie, Ginny, Carol, Cindy, Jeannette, Judy

(middle): Me, Rachel, Sabrina, Katie G, Brooke

(front): Lisa, Julie, Shelly, Beth, Kyla

We laughed, we cried, we baked, we ate, we talked, we napped, we told stories and then we ate some more. The Ball girls and the Gardner girls were in a day early, and both families had sister days on Friday. The baking and official cousin bonding commenced Saturday morning and ran through Sunday night. A few stragglers (myself and Judy, included) stayed through Monday (yay for bank holidays!).

Many thanks to Aunt Deb and Cousin Jeannette for splitting the cousins in half and hosting (18 women in attendance meant two households had nine extra people having sleepovers). It was a crazy busy weekend, full of English candy, baked goods, In-N-Out fries, all-I-could-eat Doritos, enchiladas, tacos, family recipes with a twist and beloved recipes that were shared.

I love my family, even more than I love food. (And I loved Becca's Cancer Cake a whole freaking lot, so that's saying something!)

The Utah trip

I drove to Utah last month. For the first time in ten years. (For real. That's not an exaggeration. I moved to Mesa in 2006, and I've lived 10 minutes from the airport since then. The last time I drove to Utah was in 2005, when I was going from Taylor. Crazy.)

Because I knew that well... my body is broken, and my energy level is pretty crappy, I planned to break the drive up into three days. Judy agreed with, just in case I got to tired to drive. I left my house Saturday morning and went to Flagstaff, where my dad had driven down to give me Judy. We met with Brett and his sweet family for brunch before hitting the road.

After lunch, Jude and I got in the car... planning to get as far as Page that night.

Uhm... until we had to stop at Cameron for a potty break and they had one room available in the lodge. 

Sold!

And if the scenic views and incredible rock work wasn't enough to make us happy... The restaurant on site was AMAZING. Such fabulous food, and an awesome variety of traditional Navajo and boring American fare.

Sunday, we drove from Cameron to Cedar, through Jacob's Lake and over Cedar Mountain. It was an awesome drive. Beautiful, breathtaking scenery... but since this post is already going to be about a million pages long with the pics of the people, I'll skip posting the pics I took on Cedar Mountain.

Monday, Amy and Holli were off, so we got to just hang out ALL DAY. It was awesome! I got to see their new house, and meet their new baby, and Aunt Cindy bought me an all-I-could-eat salad bar for lunch. It was the best day ever!

Sadly, I forgot to get a pic taken before Holli left for work, and before Rae went down for the night. (Or at lunch, when we were all seated around a table and could have gotten a group pic.) But Amy took this pic of Baby Owen and me on the sly, and I just love it. He's the sweetest little dude. I love him!

On the way to Provo, I made a little stop in Spanish Fork to have a sleepover at Mich's house. 

Knowing I was in Spanish for the day/night, our old pal, Stacia, came by to say hi. And then we had a group photo with Michelle's scarecrow/boyfriend. (Because Mich gets real attached, real fast, to her Girls Camp props.)

Shelly was on her way to Hawaii in the morning, so I didn't get much time with her, but I dropped Jude at Shell's the night I was sleeping at Michelle's, so I could give her a quick H&G hug. Love that girl!

And then... the next morning, I went to Rachel's for a couple nights.

Rach lives in our grandparents' house, so it's always fun to have sleepovers there. I get to sleep in the downstairs, where the bathroom still has light switches that Grandad labeled, in the room that has smelled the same... for my whole life. I love it there!

And because Rachel is the most laid back, accommodating, person I know (outside of her mother, who can also handle having large groups of people thrown at her at a moment's notice), she totally let me invite all the cousins (and Kathy U) over for a last minute get together Thursday night.

Friday morning, on my way out of Provo and up to Kaysville, I stopped by Jule's to say goodbye to her girlies. I love those weirdos! It was so great to get to see them, to hang out at the house for a few hours, and take them all to see Inside Out. (Nothing like dropping $50+ on concessions at the movies. ... That is not me complaining, btw. I so love to make children's wishes and dreams come true when we're standing at a candy counter!)

Friday afternoon, the Jude and I got to Spencer's house for the weekend, where we met up with my dad, who'd come up for a friend's funeral. (Lucky timing, right?)

Saturday morning, Hilly and I went and got matchy/matchy mani & pedis.

Front porch selfie with my sweet Hilly

Saturday afternoon, Conman introduced me to his favorite drink place, Fiiz.

Yeah, we ordered (and drank) all of those.

We started with the two 32 ouncers in the bottom right, and then he started listing all of the other drinks he thought I should buy. Uhm... okay. (We may or may not have filled an entire punch card in one day, and then when we tagged ourselves at Fiiz that afternoon, they reshared our pic as the customer of the day.)

Best Laurie/Connor bonding day. Ever.

Sunday, Seth (and Hillary) sang for us.

Brea made some rocking awesome salsa.

For real, look at the bowl. We basically drink that stuff. It's freaking amazing!

Sunday night, we had a Cousins dinner at Nikki's house with Lindsay's family and Spencer's family

Good times were had by all. 

And Sethie and I were photobombed by Jesus.

Monday morning, breakfast at Granny's. 

Spencer and me in our matchy outfits with our matchy short, salt and pepper hair.

It was a super awesome trip. Exhausting, but exhilarating. I had multiple breakfast, lunch and dinner dates with old friends (no pics exist of any of those... I blame the chemo brain), and was able to see, like, every single cousin who was in town that week.

I am tired, but I went on a trip. I'm glad to be home, but I'm also super glad that I went. I saw people and places that I love. I'm so grateful that I am well enough, that I was strong enough, to do this. I'm so grateful that so many of my favorite people were gracious enough to make time in their busy schedule for me when I was in their city.