Continuing On....

Our first Sunday in California with my family was my Uncle Scott's and Aunt D'Anna's mission farewell. They are called to serve a Church Education System (CES) mission in Sri Lanka. For this farewell they gave talks in church, the grandchildren sang, as did all of the adults in their family. The Spirit was so strong and present throughout the meeting, and I am SO glad that I was there to wish them a teary goodbye with the rest of this gang. Below is evidence of the awesome family I have always been a part of. When something big or small occurs in this family, we come out in packs. Rows and rows of the Biggs Family members take up chapel pews, displace regular attendants, (sorry)! take up all available parking spaces, shove into small homes, eat any thing resembling food, and always, always have a memorable time.

Here is the gang.

LtoR: Uncle Scott; my Dad, Guy; Aunt Lanea; Uncle J'Earl. My dad and Uncles are the 3 little boys of their family of 9 children.

As soon as a few pictures were snapped and tearful hugs and goodbyes were given, we sped off to the airport to get Dustin on his flight to Indiana. Here is Amy and Uncle David, enjoying a good snore in the car.

One of the things my Aunt D'Anna said in her talk that touched me the most (and that I remember), was that she shared why she wanted to serve this mission and leave her family and home behind for 18 months. Paraphrasing her words: "she wanted to express to Heavenly Father her gratitude for the blessings she has received in her life." This may not mean much to those that don't know my aunt and uncle, but to those who know something (because I don't claim to know all of her life in detail), know that yes, many blessings have been given to my aunt and her family, more blessings than trials, but there have been many difficult trials throughout her life. I am grateful that my aunt has remained faithful to the gospel of Jesus Christ despite trials, that she is serving a mission, that she is a great example of patience, endurance, faith, and charity.

4 years old

I'm taking a break from updating our trip to post these pictures of Adelynne. She turned 4 on July 8th, which we celebrated in California with my family. I'll post about that later, but I took these pictures of Adelynne after we returned home. My mom gave her this outfit for her birthday, and she was such a doll with her hair all braided, that I made her pose for some pictures.



Yesterday, Adelynne gave her fist talk in primary, at church. She was so excited. I've been joking that Dustin and I also taught Adelynne her first lesson in procrastination since we didn't start teaching her the talk until Sunday morning before church. But Adelynne was very eager and excited to learn. The theme was temples, which was perfect since on our trip we were able to go to the Oqirrh Mountain Temple open house. Adelynne had been able to go in to the temple since it wasn't dedicated yet, and see all of the beautiful rooms. The benefit of this was that she was able to look at the pictures of each of these rooms from the pamphlet we brought home and say what each room was about. It went something like this: "This is the temple, Jesus' house, there are lots of temples. In the temple we sit quiet and be reverent and look at pictures of Jesus. We make promises with Heavenly Father, we get married, the temple is very beautiful. We do baptism for other people. I can prepare myself while I am young so when I grow up I can go inside the temple." The pictures on the pamphlet were perfect because it was as if she wrote it herself and she knew what to say with each one. She was very excited to talk into the microphone, (when she saw the microphone in the chapel, she wanted to get up and give her talk there, but I had to tell her she needed to wait until primary time). And when she was all done, in true Adelynne fashion, she fell off of the step stool on her way down. But she was okay. She really did a great job, Dustin and I were worried she would be too shy to talk, but she wasn't at all. We are both so proud of our little girl, who is growing up to be such a big girl!

Sharing ice cream with Bapa....

Grandpa, or affectionately known as Bapa, asked Amy if he could have a bite of her ice cream. She said yes...

so Bapa waited for a bite...

and waited...

and waited...

and waited...

prepared and waited...

waited patiently...

amidst the endless torture...

and maybe it would happen...

still maybe...

now its funny

but no...

Amy never shared a bite with Bapa

The End.

Sarah's "graduation" and last day at Cold Creek

Our last week in Vegas we got to go to Sarah's kindergarten graduation-or I guess they call it a "promotion ceremony" these days. (c'mon, who really cares)? I was so glad we got to be there to support her because we don't get to go to any of the family things that normally go on. I'm all about going to what you can go to and supporting the family as much as possible. The girls were glad to see their cousins again as an added bonus. And I wish we could be more apart of our families lives on a day to day basis, but for now, I'll settle for the little things we can do.

There's Sarah, just about to receive her certificate.

And enjoying the yummy cookie. Sarah was so fun to watch when all the kids were singing. During one song, ABC rock n' roll, the kids were all head banging and playing air guitar and other crazy moves, but Sarah just looked around her and laughed at everyone! Hilarious! She's a wonderful girl, and we love her!

On our last morning in Cold Creek, the girls played out on the porch with the baby dolls. They were having such a good time, they really didn't want to go.

I love this picture of the girls with their grandparents. Grandpa is showing a real smile in his laugh, and Adelynne is laughing along with him. My girls are so blessed to have these wonderful grandparents in their lives that are great examples of love, endurance, compassion, patience, charity, and much, much more. I also wish we could see them more often, and it is wonderful to see the girls know them more and more each time we visit.

This is the end of our visit in Las Vegas/Cold Creek. We had a wonderful time visiting everyone. I didn't get nearly enough pictures, I was too busy having fun, I guess. While in Vegas we also had a chance to visit with my cousin Scott and his wife Christy, and two of their little ones. It was a short visit, but we got to see their new house and all the work they've been putting into it. Next time we look forward to swimming in their pool and watching movies in their home theatre! We had a great time, and wish we could have stayed longer!

Let me explain...

So just in case you are lost in the location of our trip, let me explain. We drove from Indiana to Utah where we stayed with my sister in Orem for a few days. After visiting, we drove to Las Vegas or more specifically, Cold Creek, where Dustin's parents live. Cold Creek is north of Vegas in the mountains, a beautiful little mountain community, about a 45 minute drive from the city. While we stay at Cold Creek with Grandma and Grandpa Belt, we often drive down into Vegas and visit with family and friends.

What you have to look forward to: After Vegas we drove to Rocklin, California (northern CA), and stayed with my parents for a week. Dustin came back to Indiana for 16 days to do some PhD work. While he was gone, I drove back to Utah for a few days. Then I drove with my sister and her husband back to California for more time with my parents and a family reunion. Dustin rejoined me and after another week we drove from California to Indiana. We did tons of traveling on this trip.

Rock Band!

One of our evenings in Vegas we played with Dustin's brother Chris and his family, and the Patty family. Chris and Melissa had just moved into their new house, and when Chris heard that the Patty's were coming over with us, he went out and bought the drums to his Rock Band. The guys played first, and unfortunately I didn't snag any pictures, I was too busy chatting with the girls! But then the guys convinced us to play Rock Band too. My favorite was playing the drums, but I tried out everything. I could have played all night, but the kids were getting tired and cranky. Regardless we had a great time, and we can't wait to see Chris, Melissa, Ellie, and Lauryn again!

Dustin was spying on Adelynne and Ethan-funny kids!

Lauryn!

Love the faces of despair

oh, Amy! (I think she's on her soap box)

Rockin' away

The rest of the band: that's Melissa on guitar and Niki on vocals.

Awesome, awesome night-it just didn't last long enough!

Pictures of the Patty's

Look at this happy face! While near Vegas we of course drive down and visit who we can. This was one occasion where we visited with some of our best friends, the Patty family. The girls had a wonderful time playing with their friends, as did Dustin and I.

Owen, as cute as can be!

Niki, gorgeous as ever and glowing with excitement for the arrival of baby boy #3, due in September.

bath time buddies. Adelynne and Ethan used to be bath time buddies too.

Ethan!

Game time for the guys. Aaron enjoys updating Dustin on the latest games on his Xbox

We love spending time with the Patty family!

A day in Cold Creek with the Belt family

Our first full day in Cold Creek, Nevada we had a great visit with three of Dustin's siblings plus their beautiful children. Adelynne and Amy were ecstatic to see their cousins! We all had a great time and we are really grateful that they would all take time out of their busy lives to come see us during our visit.

This is Lauryn, probably thinking, "Who's the weirdo with the camera?"

You might know who this is

And them... so cute!

Tesa

Sarah (big sister to Tesa)

the girls eating dinner

Kristina, Hunter (the baby), Matthew (in black), and Zach (in green), with their friend (I forgot his name).

This is Ellie (big sister to Lauryn)

And Grandma Belt! She was a fantastic cook and fed us all extremely well. We love every minute we have with her, and are very anxious for our next visit.

Unfortunately, I didn't take any more photos. Just the kids and Grandma. But also in attendance was Darryl and Donna (parents to Sarah and Tesa), Melissa (mother of Ellie and Lauryn), Keila (mother to Kristina, Zach, Matthew, and Hunter), Grandpa Belt, and Great Aunt Donna.