Utah Trip with My Man

 Mark and I were able to get away over Spring Break for 3 days on a little road trip and it was WONDERFUL! We are so very grateful to Mark's parents who watched the kids during the day - all 3 days! And for Megan and Alexandra and Alexis who stayed at the house overnight so the kids could get some good sleep and so Grandma and Grandpa could get some rest too! 

Seriously- THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts! 

I think the last time we went away just the two of us for more than a night was many years ago! 

It was so refreshing and wonderful to reconnect! 

 Marks parents took us to The Original Pancake House for a birthday breakfast before we left!!! 

 A large part of this trip was driving across Colorado to Utah 

and the return trip

Utah to Wyoming to Colorado.

But road trips without kids are a blast in my opinion! 

and if you have a cool fancy new car that you rented to do it in! 

We cranked some tunes, watched movies, talked and enjoyed the beautiful scenery! 

oh and I checked Facebook a lot because it was my birthday and

 it was fun to see who was wishing me a Happy Birthday:) 

We stopped at Red Robin for my free birthday burger! 

 We arrived in Utah Monday late afternoon- Utah is SO pretty! I have wanted to visit there for a while now because Mark has told me how the whole city is surrounded by mountains that aren't far away! It was gorgeous! We checked in at a fancy schmancy hotel downtown! Loved it!  

 The view at night- we were on the 15th floor.

That night we walked around downtown- Fun times! 

 We found this cool little street!  

 view from our hotel in the morning

 The next day, we got breakfast and drove up to the mountains and hiked a bit up and took some pictures. 

 We then went and saw The Hunger Games and had lunch.

 Then we drove to the Salt Lake- it was crazy! It stank and the "beach" had tons of salt crystals everywhere. I couldn't imagine swimming in it-but it would be cool to see how easy it is to float! 

 After that we went to the Mormon Temple- WOW! It was some pretty impressive architecture- 

the sign said it took 40 years to build! 

 We ended the evening at Eva, a yummy tapa restaurant, for dinner and then the Cheesecake Factory for some chocolate fondue for dessert. It was the best! 

We spent the next day driving back to Colorado! 

It was a wonderful, relaxing trip! 

Superhero Baby Shower

Our church had the privileged of throwing Val a superhero themed baby shower for her little man, who was unnamed at the time- hence an "E" for Endyk! 

Of course, I used Pinterest for inspiration in my decorating and food choices! 

Special thanks to Erika, Laura and Debbie for helping with the decorations

and

Sandra, Sue, Glo and Melody for bringing all the food! 

 

 

 

 Yes, that is "Kryptonite" candy- it really glowed!      

 

 Seriously, isn't Val the cutest thing! She made her own special Party shirt:) 

 

Val got so many cute baby boy gifts! 

 

 

We are so blessed to have a church with lots of kiddos and even more on the way! 

And we are even more blessed to have a special friend like Val in our body! 

By the way, she had her little boy only 5 days after the shower. 

They named him Calvin Michael and he is as cute as can be!