Wedding part 2

June 07, 2016

Wedding part 2

The rest of our stay in Utah was consumed with spending as much time as possible with our loved ones.

Nikolai insisted upon going on a hike up the mountain with Grandpa. My dad is thankfully always game for things like that, so he obliged.

I always sort of forget how pretty I find sagebrush:

We decided that 4 years old is just about the perfect age for a short hike. He's old enough to observe and engage with some of the things he sees around him, and it's fun to take time to stop and point things out to him that we wouldn't normally stop to notice otherwise.

Like sego lilies! (Though I lived in Utah for 7 years, this was my first sighting!)

And muddy puddles, perfect for rock throwing:

As for the rest of our time, Miriam and Joshua were thick as thieves:

And Nikolai got recruited to play with a gang of neighborhood girls that were more or less his age. He had a blast playing with them for hours and he and another girl even decided that they are going to get married when they get older (fun fact: Niko told me that their wedding cake will have both their favorite colors on it, along with butterflies). I was so glad he had some friends to play with while we were there!

We also took the train down to salt lake, which is always a good time.

It was a bit too cold for it, but we went to the city creek mall and let the babies play in the splash pad anyways.

Jesse's sister Melissa was nice enough to drive down to see us one afternoon. It was so awesome to see her, and to see her awesome kids, including brand new baby Magnolia! Obviously I don't have a picture of Melissa, because I forgot to ask, but here's one of the small people:

Albert also came up a few times to visit, and then whomped me, Megan and Mom at a rousing game of Spite and Malice (our family's traditional card game). I was so glad to see him!