Reunited and it feels so good!

Great... hope that song isn't stuck in everyone's head now...

like it is mine. 

0_0

Anyway. 

We had a very special treat the other weekend.

Chad Taylor, who was in Pittsburgh for two years before moving last year came out for an Alumni conference... and what made it even better, was that he brought this wonderful lil' lady with him!

EMERY!!!

When Joan asked me if we would be willing to host her husband, Chad and Emery for the weekend we were ecstatic!

It was a long couple of months and we were so happy when it finally arrived. 

Of course Sarah was so excited to show off her new pets to Emery. 

They had lots of fun taking them out, over filling their food dish, and just pampering the fat lil' piggies. 

If you look close, that green thing is their hidey-hut... and it is FILLED with food!

Needless to say, the guinea pigs instantly fell in love with Emery too. 

Emery got in late Friday afternoon, just in time for us to have our pizza and movie night. 

Emery picked our movie for the evening. 

Tinkerbell: Secret of the Wings

(Abby was pretty happy with that pick!)

I do have to say, that when I finally told the girls that Emery was coming, Abby instantly started jabbering about how excited she was that her best friend Naomi (Emery's lil' sis) was coming to Pittsburgh. It was really sad to have to explain to Abby that she wasn't. 

I'm secretly hoping to find a way to sneak off to Minnesota to visit them... we'll see. 

Emery had perfect timing, as she arrived the evening of Ryan's final day as a 3rd year medical student, so he had no obligations that weekend! Wahoo!

I had a baby shower Saturday morning, so Ryan took all the kids to the Blue Slide Playground (Emery's favorite) and then... because it was a little chilly, he even took them to Chic-fil-a for lunch. Such a treat, we haven't been there in months!

I debated about taking Emery to the Science Center, Zoo or Children's Museum, and then finally decided that the thing the girls wanted to do most is just be with each other. So I decided to keep our events low key so the girls could get plenty of time paying attention to each other, giggling and being puppies (their favorite pretend game... not so much mine, but whatever!)

I found these cute lil' kites on clearance at Target (I think like $.37 each... I should have bought more!!)

And the sun peaked its face out long enough for the girls to run up and down the streets with them. 

The funny thing with these kites was that the tails on them were like 10 feet long! Way to long for a 7 inch kite... but it was perfect because they made very fun ribbon streamers, we cut them off the kite and tied them to a chopstick and wa-la. Abby didn't have to be jealous she didn't have a kite. 

I'll be honest... twirling those things were pretty fun!

Emery's brother, Morgan, also came along for the trip. He stayed at his BFF's house friday night, but we got to have him hang out with us Saturday night. 

We broke out Super Mario on the Wii to brighten his spirits about spending the evening with a house full of girls. Although, Zak was pretty happy to sit by Morgan and try and mimic him. Any time something happened on the game Zak would turn to see what Morgan's reaction was. It was pretty cute. 

I can't believe how fast time went by... two days really isn't enough time for these besties. 

They were good and let me keep stealing them away for a couple of pictures here and there. 

Oh, I just love these two girls. 

I hope that we can keep this friendship alive over the years.
It is such a special, darling bond that they have. 

We love you Emery! You are welcome to visit ANY time! 

Maybe we can come kidnap you for the summer. 

*dreaming*

PS - Chad it was fun staying up {late} and chatting with you! Hope you had a fun visit in Pittsburgh. If you ever need a place to crash again (even if you can't bring Emery along) our doors are always open. 

Mormon Helping Hands - Saturday in the Park

This past Saturday, the 27th of April, we participated in a service project cleaning up Raccoon Creek Park, a local State park. It was a multi-state organized service project. I believe the goal was to have members in all of the state parks in our region. Pretty cool! I really wanted the girls to be excited to serve, so we talked up the event all. week. long.

I talked about how they could wear gloves (which I went on a manhunt for... ended up scoring some at Michaels, on clearance for under a dollar! Sweet!), get to wear these neat yellow vests that said "The Church of Jesus Christ of Later-Day Saints" on it,  get to use gardening shears to cut branches, help haul branches and leaves away off the trail, and so many "cool" things they could do that day. We even brought up a sled for the girls to haul things away on, but didn't end up using it.

Well, as successful as we are at getting up early and out of the house on time, we arrived about an hour into the service project. There was still plenty to do, but all of the "cool" vests I had talked about all week, luckily we found one that we could use for a picture... the only real picture I took there. 

(Abby {my lil' cancer-patient-looking-girl} and Sarah)

It was really fun getting out in the fresh air, and mud, and doing a little work.
Our wards job was to help clear a trail path (even cut the trail out on the side of a huge hill!).
We were clearing away wild raspberry bushes, that were very prickly, but the girls were great about being careful and helping in any way they could.

I loved watching my lil' ladies looking for ways to work.

Sarah was really involved in finding things to do, Abby did a great job too, but one slip and fall in the mud and she was done.
I'm happy to report that there were no tears from either of them though.
They were happy campers the whole time.
Zak was even a real trooper too!
(which really surprised me because we couldn't really let him walk around and explore as we were right next to a pond)

It turned out to be a really fun family day.

After working at the park, we headed over to the blue slide playground to let the kids run around
and get good and tired. 

We even topped it off by renting Just Dance 4 for the Wii and going home and playing it while dinner was being made (even more insurance for a good nights rest).

It was a Perfect. Saturday!

Even if Ryan and I rented the Hobbit and both fell asleep on the couch ten minutes into the movie (which we started around 9pm).
Guess we pretty much insured a good nights sleep for us all. ;)