A Fun Summer Visit!

So one of those fun summer activities I mentioned earlier that we thoroughly loved, was a visit from my mom and sister in the middle of August. It was so fun because the day they arrived was Chrissy's 18th birthday, so we got to celebrate with her! Yahoo! The girls made cute decorations for the door with balloons to welcome her. We had a fabulous dinner celebration at Cheesecake Factory - food and celebrations go hand in hand in the Thorup family! We stuffed ourselves and enjoyed giving Chris a hard time when we asked the waitress to find a cute boy to come sing Happy Birthday to her. She found one and when the group came to sing the boy came and plopped right by her and put his arm around her. Chris is a good sport. (o:

Saturday's market was our big adventure and outing the next day. The Max was our fun means of transportation - which the girls loved and it dropped us off right in front of the market. We always have fun seeing the fun variety of goods people make to sell there. I found a snazzy purse, Chris and mom found some cool clothes and the girls brought their allowance money and bought some cute whistles that played three different notes. The lady that sold them taught the girls to play a song on it and they loved it. We went to one of our favorite downtown resaraunts, Rock Bottom Brewery and rode the Max back home.

On the ride to the max earlier in the day, the girls' allowance envelopes that I had brought sparked a funny conversation with the girls. Sarah informed grandma, "Mom's the richest in our family, but not as rich as fancy people." I asked Sarah, "What kind of fancy things do fancy people have that make them fancy?" To which she replied, "They have a swimming pool inside a swimming pool and they don't have to go to school."

A few minutes later, when Natalie was counting her dollars, she threw one into my mom's lap in the backseat and exclaimed, "Have a tip!"

That night I took pictures for a girl who used to be one of my young women in our last ward and now she's married! She had an open house that night. It was fun to see friends from the Quatama ward, as always. That was the third reception I shot in Merrilee's backyard and I am sad that she is moving in a few months to Utah. She is great and her backyard is gorgeous. She was always so gracious and sweet to share her home. Anyway, I had lots of fun and the kids had fun swimming with daddy, Chris and my mom(!!) while I was gone. What an awesome sport mom is! I am sad I missed it. The girls thought that was pretty cool. Sunday we went to church - I loved having mom and Chris there with us and it was fun to bring Chris to Young Women's even though I got stuck leading all the youth in a musical number we had to practice that I didn't know. Long story. The young women said it was funny to watch me and Chris giggle and joke around together during parts of the lesson - like sisters. I'm not sure if that meant they thought I was being immature or I am usually serious. (o: Either way, we had fun.

That afternoon we had more family join us! Kelly and Lisa very sweetly made a trek out to see us. Not an easy task with four kids. (We had to laugh at the fact that it took them four days to get out here because they only drove about three hours a day. But they had a nice relaxing journey.) It was so fun to see their cute family and meet sweet baby Corbin (I hope I spelled that right, Lisa!!) We all headed to Hagg Lake for a fun Sunday afternoon outing. The kids (and adults) enjoyed the timeless sport of throwing rocks in the water. Kelly tried teaching us how to skip rocks and Chris did a bit better than I. (o: Supposedly, Kelly said this was a surefire way for her to win over guys - so she was motivated to learn! We walked around and enjoyed the beautiful scenery together, it was a fun afternoon.

Later that night mom and Chris and I made Oriental Chicken salad with cabbage from our garden and homemade cinnamon rolls. Kind of a weird combination of food, but it tasted good! The next day was our last day with mom and Chris - in the morning the girls were sooo excited to have Chris and grandma join us for swimming lessons. They loved having an audience, even though we had to sit quite a ways away. I enjoyed having company that day and Chris enjoyed checking out the life guards. (o: When I saw the one she thought was the cutest the next week, I got homesick for Chris. (o: After all the swimming, we had a final lunch with mom and Chrissy at Sweet Tomatoes. We were so excited they got to come see us, but just for the record Natalie was especially sad that grandpa didn't come too. We all missed grandpa who couldn't get away from work - boy do we know how that goes.