Lots of Utah

Well, we are already back in Chicago (as of Thursday), and it has felt great to be back home. BUT I have to admit I was nervous about coming back to our bare apartment (in comparison to our parents' lovely homes), far away from family, and living all on our own again...we were so lovingly taken care of (aka spoiled!) that it felt quite daunting to come back to shopping, cleaning, cooking, even driving, and especially caring for Alyse all by ourselves :) Thank goodness for family! It was a wonderful visit with my mom and Scott and we also spent time in St. George at the Harris abode. Lish and Whit are such gracious hosts and they have a lovely home that housed all of us and two toddlers! We spent tons of time in the pool, at the playground, enjoying the suburbs by playing in the yard and baby pool, and just bonding with Grandma Karen and Papa Scott. Alyse also got to spend time with my step-sis, Aunt Stephie, and her amazing daughter, cousin Hannah (who Alyse LOVED and followed around like a little puppy). And, of course, there was lots of play time with Lish's family and little Yale. It was super hot in St. George so we spent lots of time in the pool (they have this awesome community pool with slides, etc.) and splash pad. Alyse and I were with the Utah crowd for a month by ourselves while Brandon finished up his internship in CA...we missed him a ton and skyped often, but the time really did fly by and before we knew it September 4th rolled around and daddy was "all done with work" (which Alyse repeated every time she saw Brandon for the first week). Once Brandon was with us, we took advantage of being in Utah and went camping and on a few hikes, went on a few dates, and just spent lots of time hanging out in the house or yard or at the playground. This is the first time since last summer that Brandon has truly been on break from everything, so we tried to soak up all the time with him we could.