A Sisterly Visit

My sister Jessica and my niece Ellie also came to visit us at the beginning of the month.  It was the first time Jess had been here since we met up here and then went to Vegas a year and a half ago.  So it was the first time she'd been able to see our 'hood and SLC for an extended period of time.

Ellie and Helena were best of friends during the visit, although Helena wasn't as keen on being bossed around by Ellie as she was the last time Ellie was here.  They played pretend, watched movies, and had a grand old time.  We took the kids to Thanksgiving Point one day to see some farm animals, to play at splash park, the discovery place, on a hike in the mountains, and out to a fancy dinner of sushi for the grown-ups and fried shrimp/fish for the kidlets.

It was really nice to have my sister in town to help with Harper a bit (the first night she was here he had a personal best sleeping record) and to show her SLC a bit more.  Ellie had never been hiking before, and kept asking us beforehand what it was.  When we told her we were going to go walk around in the mountains she still wasn't sure why it was called hiking and not just walking.  She thought that was pretty neat, though.  We didn't see any animals, but the waterfall was well worth the trek.  At one point Jess climbed up the side of it to see the top, Ellie was crying since here mom was so high up and I was thinking that Justin (her husband) was going to kill me if she fell.  But all was good ,(I promise it's not that dangerous!).

Jess and I also went out to dinner downtown all by ourselves one night.  Ash watched all thee kids by himself and was very 'over it' by the time we got home. :)  He did good, though.  Jess and I couldn't remember the last time we had a nice meal with just the two of us.

Our anniversary was during her stay, too, and she watched the kids while we went out to dinner and had a couples massage.  That was really awesome.

Oh, we also developed an addiction to Red Mango's key lime frozen yogurt topped with graham cracker crumbs.  I think we had it three times.  It's so good.  Holy cow.  If you live by a Red Mango, go get one right now. ;)  It will change your life.

Anyway, they were her for a week and it was great to have quality time with both of them.  One of the things I do love about living a little far away is the quality time with family. :)  It was very busy quality time, but really really fun.

Me &Jess

Hiking to our destination.  They didn't run for long!

Ellie in front of Donut Falls.

Helena let Jess carry her for a little while, but wasn't keen on the picture taking.

Helena feeding Ash with chopsticks.

Jess & Ellie at our fancy sushi dinner.

-Emily :)