Another Wedding

Ben's best friend Mike got married on June 10th! We were thrilled to be invited to attend the dinner and ceremony! The lucky girl is Heather and she seems to be perfect for him. We've waited a long time for this guy to get a girl so we could hang out and we are so excited for you two! I LOVE Mike's brown tux and Heather's beautiful dress!

Ben and Mike, to replace the picture of them from our wedding day over 5 years ago!
The reception was beautiful, and my favorite part? The Cold Stone icecream they served. Yummy! Grace loved seeing Heather in her dress. She thought Heather was a princess and wanted to give her loves.

Cabella's Fishing Day

I hadn't ever been to Cabella's, so on June 7th when they had their free Children's fishing day we decided to go. The fishing was less than fantastic, but it was fun to walk around the store and see all the animals. Grace loved being with her Dad and trying out the fishing rod, and I'm glad they didn't catch anything!

While we were there we got some lunch at their restaurant, and Grace got some new crocs. (she lost hers at Furniture Warehouse, the little stinker)

Honey

The first few days of June were trying for me and our little Princess. She was loving being home, and so was I, but with such a big house I lost track of her a few times. One day I was outside and came in to see Grace enjoying some honey. She was squeezing it onto her leg, rubbing it around and licking all of her fingers. Mmmm! Just like a little Pooh Bear. She knew she was in trouble when I walked in by the looks she gave me!

The next day I left her upstairs for like 3 minutes to come back and find her in a tube of paint. ALL OVER the bathroom floor, and again her legs. Luckily she only got a tiny bit on her dress and my white pants! AGGHHH!

But the first two weeks of June were fun because we did some Mommy and My swimlessons! We have missed swimming whenever we want to, but these swim lessons were fun. Grace's only complaint was that she couldn't wear her floaties and do whatever she wanted to. It was a struggle to help her understand that there was structure to our lessons and we had to follow the teacher. She got it by the end and we learned some fun things!

Ben's Work Party

On June 23rd I was finally let in on a big secret- where my husband works. Security is pretty tight around there, but they finally decided to have a friends and family day so we were able to visit him on site. They set up a small carnival for the kids, so I called up my good friend Jenny and we took our kids to the carnival. They had a bunch of little games, and gave out tons of candy!

Ben helping Grace push the bowling ball.
The "fish" pond. Grace loved trying to catch the turtles.
Grace, Nicole and Matthew. We had a great time playing.
Ben's Dad and brother also came. We had a yummy lunch catered by Goodwood, and then sent Grace home with Jenny while the rest of us took a tour of the plant. It was a lot of walking, but a lot of fun to see what Ben is always talking about. It was fun to meet more of his coworkers and see where he works. So Thanks IMFlash for a fun day!

The Wedding

Ben's little brother Jacob got married on May 22nd! Congratulations Jacob and Alyssa! It turned out to be a cold rainy day, but the sealing was beautiful as was the reception. Here is Grace enjoying the pretty tulips at the temple.

Snuggling Daddy trying to keep warm.
Our little Family at the Temple.
The Happy Couple.
Grace and Ben dancing at the reception. She was so ready for bed, but had to have a dance before we left. I didn't get a picture of us all in our wedding attire, but Grace's dress was adorable thanks to Grandma Harper, and I ended up with a HOT pink shirt and black skirt. Thanks for all your suggestions!
It was so fun to have him get married and spend time with all of our family we hadn't seen in so long!

Leaving Hong Kong and Flying Home

We left Hong Kong Thursday morning. At the airport we saw this olympic countdown and deemed it picture worthy. We are so glad we made the trip to Hong Kong! We were both nervous about it and were anxious to just come home, but we had such a great time and created some awesome memories. What a fun trip!

So we flew from Hong Kong back to Singapore. Our good friend Tania was out of town but let us stay at their apartment for the night. It was perfect to be able to rest and do some Laundry before our long flight home. Friday morning we had a chance to swim and watch a movie, then we packed up and headed to the airport. Here's Ben with our six VERY FULL bags! We were so close to going over in weight, but barely made it! Our flight from Singapore to LA was almost 16 hours. Grace was almost perfect on the flight. She had a hard time falling asleep, but when she did she slept for about 8 hours. I only slept about 4. My poor bum just couldn't find a comfortable spot. So we watched lots of movies and ate some great food. I definately recommend flying Singapore Air if you're traveling over there. They are the best!
Our layover in LA was 4 hours. But we finally made it home to Salt Lake just after midnight. I was sure Grace would crash as soon as we got home, but when she walked into our house for the first time she went nuts! She was so excited to see all her toys she left behind. I was surprised she remembered any of it, but she was so happy to be home. It felt so good to sleep in our own bed again after a week of vacation and a day of LONG flights.

Being home has been so wonderful! I have a new found appreciation for the wonderful country we live in. And I LOVE MY CAR! And my house and my family and all the other things I missed. But what a fun adventure we had.

Hong Kong Day 5

Wednesday was our full day at Disneyland. The Hong Kong Disneyland park is pretty small so we were able to ride every ride and see almost all the shows in a day. It was perfect for us! We started out the day with Breakfast with the Characters. This was a tiny bit dissapointing because we were expecting tons of Characters and we only got 2. The first character we met was Mulan. Grace had no idea who this was so wasn't that excited to meet her.

Here is Ben enjoying the tasty breakfast. I'm not sure what he's eating. Something Chinese I think. He had Dim Sum for breakfast, I opted for the American version and got eggs. We also got Mickey shaped waffles!
Chip and Dale came and visited us next. Grace wasn't familiar with them either, but they were more fun that Mulan.
She warmed up a bit and gave out kisses.
Since we got to be at the park early for breakfast we were also the first for many of the rides. We had to take a picture of Sleeping Beauty's castle. After this picture I set Grace down and she ran through the doors of the castle. I slowly followed when all of a sudden I hear a shriek and Grace b-lining back to me.
She had stumbled upon all 4 princesses together and didn't know what to do! I think they were a bit surprised by her too, but were very nice when we asked for a picture. I don't think this happens very often, they were supposed to be spread throughout the park already.
After meeting the Princesses Ben and Grace had to attempt to pull the sword out of the stone.
It wouldn't budge.
We rode a few rides and then caught all the characters in the Garden posing for pictures. We didn't have to wait in line so we met all of them! Grace loved Minnie and Mickey the most.




She didn't really like Eeyore.

We covered almost all the rides in the morning so we thought we'd catch the Lion King show. This was the most crowded attraction we encountered our whole time there so we almost didn't go, but I'm so glad we did. It was just like the shortened version of the broadway musical. It was so fun and we loved it!
Then Grace fell asleep in the stroller so Ben and I took advantage of some quiet time and walked through all the Disney shops. We only ended up getting a magnet and a Minnie mouse for Grace which she loves and can't sleep without. Then we got some hotdogs for lunch and watched High School Musical in the street. I am a closet High School Musical fan. I blame it on Ben working long hours in Singapore and me not having much to watch but the Disney Channel. So I was excited to see this, but it wasn't that great. Most of it was in Chinese and the performers weren't very good. Oh well, Lion King made up for it.
Then back to Adventureland for a boat ride and Tarzans Hut and we made it back to main street just in time for the parade. Grace thought that was so fun and was so excited everytime she saw a Character she knew. With Mickey and Minnie being the favorite of course. We were done with everything by 3:00 so we decided to head to the hotel for a swim.
What a fun surprise to have Goofy come swimming with us! This was a great pool that had a water slide. Grace was going down it non stop and she was only excited about Goofy after he went down the slide. This I think was so memorable becasue there were just a few families at the pool and goofy stayed and played for like 30 minutes. Where else but Disneyland do you get to swim with Goofy?
We ended our day with some yummy pizza at the Disney Cafe and watched the fireworks from our room.