We Are Family....

I figured I better post something this week since I am kind of a blog slacker. So here we are...Nothing really that exciting has been happening. My brother Eli graduated from BYU last week and has moved in with my parents for a few months. He will be going to BYU law school in the fall. It has been a lot of fun for me to have him so close by. The first two days he was home we spent de-junking his room. Not by choice for me...he begged and pleaded with me to help him cause he just could not do it himself. It actually turned out being kind of fun. He had so much junk stored in that room he could have opened a thrift store filled only with his stuff and make millions!! Some of the "treasures" that we found were actually quite hilarious! We spent at least 30 minutes looking at old dance pictures from high school and laughing hysterically at his hair, his clothes, his braces.... Then another 30 minutes reading his very personal journal entries from the ages of 12-15 about the Jazz, Arctic Circle, School... He was such a silly kid! My favorite part of this experience was the 45 minutes he spent trying on all of his old clothes in different arrangements in order to create a new look for law school. He would say "what about this shirt, this jacket and a loose tie?" or "What if I get this Blazer tailored so it's a little shorter and wear it with my tuxedo shirt?" While I was slaving away cleaning out all of his CRAP! Anyway we got it done in just two nights and it actually looks pretty good!

I am really glad I get to spend so much time with him. We are going to Amsterdam, Egypt, Jordan and Israel at the end of this month. We are sooo excited!! We will be traveling with our Uncle Will and our Grandma. It is going to be so great! The other day I realized that after this trip I will have seen 4 of the 8 new wonders of the world! That is so amazing. I am so grateful that I have had the chance to travel as much as I have. I have had so many wonderful experiences and so many great memories. I have seen so many beautiful and amazing things. I am so excited that Eli is joining us on this trip and will get to see some of these amazing things!


My family is also going to California next week. I am very very excited about that as well. I have 2 nieces and a nephew who have never been. It is going to be so fun to see their little faces as they see all the different things in Disneyland! And I can't wait to hear the funny things they say. They are just so cute! Their mom, Krisanda, is such a good mom. She made a paper Disneyland chain with them about a week ago so that they could tear off a ring each day until the day we leave. They have been having so much fun with it and have called me several times at work to say things like, "Shelly......6 more days until I get to see the princesses!!!"

I am so grateful I am so close to my family and get to spend so much time with them!