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Sometime I wish I "journaled" more on my blog. I wish I spent more time writing about what's going on in my mind and how I feel about this stage of life. You know, the details that are fun to recall later. But when I sit to do that, my mind goes blank. I have no idea what I did last week. I can't remember why I was mad yesterday. I'd have to really think about what I wanted to write, and I am too impatient for that.

And I guess that's why I love pictures and why I love Instagram. They give me a place to start as I try to recall what we have been up to. And I "feel" something when I look at these filtered photos. They are different than a regular picture to me. So here goes some of the latest phone pictures...

A fun morning at Flip n Out and then a chaotic lunch at Subway. It is rarely worth it to eat out with kids, but when you share the craziness with a friend, it is.

Washing dad's hair...add that to the list of things they will never get me to do

Jansen's dollar store purchase

Sweet sister moments

Growing and maturing in my knowledge and understanding of the temple

Heading to the school to get Natalie switched to morning Kindergarten

Finger painting at a friend's house

 Making the pie Natalie has been begging to make for weeks

Watching her for a few minutes and being thankful for her imagination

A Little While Ago

These are all pictures from a couple weeks ago, but I wanted to include them on the blog. This little one is quickly approaching 2. I think she communicates better than Jansen or Natalie did at this age, so I am often tempted to try potty training her. She has some interest, and went to bed tonight with some My Little Pony underwear over her diaper. 

She happily goes to nursery, finally. She has improved drastically as far as leaving her with a babysitter goes. It's so nice to be able to leave on a date and not hear her screaming as we walk out the door.

We recently got Netflix and she has a new found love for Diego and Strawberry Shortcake. It's really funny, all 3 of my kids are loving the Strawberry Shortcake episodes right now. It's nice when they all want to watch the same thing.

A few weeks ago Nate had a Saturday off and the day was wide open. Rare and awesome. Except that one of his patients went into labor. He ended up being gone the entire day and part of the night. A few days later the sweet woman who had just had a baby gave Nate some gift cards for our family. She felt bad to have taken him away from his family for so long...and she also wanted to thank him for being such a great doctor. There were a couple gift cards to go to dinner and one for the BX (Base Exchange, a shopping store on base) with instructions for the kids to pick out a toy. They had so much fun picking out something new.

There were some great deals as well so I snagged a few extras. 

Our stake's annual Pioneer Day celebration was held at the end of July. Words cannot describe how hot it was. But maybe Jansen's face can.

There were games and activities...enough to keep us distracted from the temperature for about an hour.

We no longer buy sidewalk chalk.

Just a cute summer picture...we always get a lot of use out of cardboard boxes! Good thing I like to shop online. :) 

One Last Bit of Fun

Here's the lowdown on the last part of our drive back to Las Vegas.

We had a delicious dinner and homemade ice cream with Steve and Jody when we stopped at their house in Salt Lake. We had just a few hours with them and although the time went quickly, it was a really great visit.

Jansen insisted I take a picture of this fireplace Steve is building, and I'm glad I did. On one of our family hikes a few months ago we collected some rocks and gave them to Steve. He used some of them as part of the fireplace.

From Salt Lake we headed down to Orem to spend a couple hours with my family. My grandparents rolled up in this car I hadn't seen before. I wish I had a better picture. The best part was the shag carpet inside. 

I love when I catch one of these kinds of moments.

And this kind too.

Ah, the magic of jump roping in the culdesac. These little moments mean so much to me.

We slept at my mom's and packed up in the morning. We had one more fun thing planned: a little meet up with the Scotts at BYU. How it happened that we were both in Utah and had a free morning I don't know, but I was thrilled.

It ended up being the perfect place to walk, talk, and reminisce.

Future Cougars maybe?

I didn't even go to BYU, but I still have a lot of memories of that campus.

Ice cream all around...

A lot has changed even in the few years we've been away from Provo.

And just in case this place isn't around much longer, we took a picture of where Nate was living when we were dating. He was in the basement apartment. 

And that's it. 5+ hours later we were back to our home and the suffocating heat! :)

Boise

Boise was the meeting place this year for a reunion of sorts with Nate's family.

Everyone trickled in according to their work schedules, etc...but there was always someone to play with.

Natalie hadn't seen Kaeley in years, but that sure doesn't matter when you're 4 and 5. They were holding hands and squishing each other with hugs from the start.

We snapped a picture in front of Grandma and Grandpa Christiansen's before heading to a nearby park on our first full day in Boise. Kaeley and Braeden are so full of love, and we had a great time getting to know their sweet and fun personalities.

I love a man that will walk 5 children to a park by himself. I also love their little shadows.

It was hot in Idaho, so we spent some time finding fun things to do indoors. 

Not so hot that we stayed inside the whole time! Grandpa had a cool F-22 that they assembled and flew at the park. It got stuck on a roof at one point, and I will admit I enjoyed watching them with their ladder and other tools trying to rescue it.

Emmy having a moment to herself. We had a great time swimming at the neighborhood pool. I tried desperately to get some sun on my thighs, but they refuse to change color. 

After flying the F-22, Nate came to swim and was the life of the party.

We spent A LOT of time in the backyard...always a great place to make memories. Papa Tim pitched countless balls to Jansen here and at the park.

You can see in the background that a few balls were lost over fences.

Friday the boys golfed in the morning and the girls got mani pedis in the afternoon. I will be honest, I enjoyed the trashy shows that were on that I would never watch at home. I also enjoyed having my poor, cracked heels brought back to life. And especially enjoyed being with Athena, Kim, and Grandma.

Emily and Jason arrived Friday night, and it was wonderful to add a couple more people to the party. Christian arrived later that night with his kids after a loooong drive from Salt Lake that included a blown tire along the way. We were missing Julie who stayed in Salt Lake to get moved into their new home.

All the girlies.

And the handsome boys.

Of course we needed to take some family pictures while everyone was together. 

Definitely got some good ones.

The mother of the young girl in the middle making faces was completely oblivious to her daughter's antics. Sorry everyone. :)

Afternoon at the park...

It was HOT. 

Nate with his siblings...

You have to get a picture of cousins in the bathtub right? I know I have one somewhere of far too many of us jammed into my grandma's tub.

I remember thinking that night that the area below Natalie's eyes looked red. Not like a sunburn. After looking at family pictures and this one, I know why now.  

The next morning we packed up our stuff and started our trek back home.

First Leg of the Trip

We returned last night from a great trip to Boise. Real life jumped right at us, and Jansen had another very painful ear infection all night. I had plans to go to bed early that night to catch up on some much needed sleep; instead I stayed up a good portion of the night with Jansen. I swear that always happens. Just when I REALLY need some rest, something like this comes up. We survived...I got antibiotics for him at midnight (I love being married to a doctor)...and his ear drum eventually ruptured which meant relief and sleep.

And Nate is still at work, 14 hours after getting there this morning, with a laboring patient. He'll likely be there all night. And then has an ER shift from 6 am to 4 pm. Like I said, why hello real life! And we really need milk.

But what a great week we had seeing lots of family. We stopped in Utah on our way up to Idaho, and I got to spend a few minutes with my sweet niece. She and I are both a little strained here, but she loves me a lot if you can't tell.

I like taking pictures of the little places we stop at along the way. Although we really don't take a lot of breaks. It's onward, ever onward in the Nye family.

Pretty Idaho...

The Palmers just barely moved to Boise from Columbus, and we were so excited to get to see them and the Hagbergs before going to Nate's grandparents' house. Audrey and Natalie had a lot of fun in the short time we had. 

The betrothed children. Looks like Jansen has a little growing to do though.

Sigh. I miss my friends. Kara took off before we could a picture of all three of us.