the vacation continues and my random thoughts

i am going to do this pretty choppy, but there is a lot to cover.

since we have moved to utah we have been living with my parentals while we found a house (check), fixed it up (not check) and move in (i wish). my parents have been amazing and so hospitable—that is why i still feel like i am on a long vacation. i keep having the thoughts while i am hanging out with family that i have to enjoy before i go back to utah and then i realize that this is my life.

i have loved being back in utah and having nathan and carrie back too. it is so much fun to hang out with the fam and spend time with my nieces and nephews. i am a huge fan of each of them.

we went to disneyland with my family during nicks one week of vacation. my parents got us a beach house right by balboa pier. it was so much fun to have nick around the whole time. we drove down and stayed in las vegas. zuri love love loved the lights. sensory overload. nick and i had a lot of fun driving down with heather and sean. in california, we spent a lot of time on the beach, surfing for nick, getting hurt trying to surf for me and trying to keep zuri sand free. disneyland was a lot of fun and california adventure was even more fun. it was great to be at disneyland for halloween and see the haunted house as nightmare before christmas. awesome. not awesome was my favorite ride, space mountain, great ride but the halloween approach to it was an anatomical man with no skin—nothing to do with fantasy cartoons or walt disney. we also went to an angels baseball game and had the pimped-out seats right on the field. it was amazing. not amazing—my dad and carrie getting hit by the foul baseball. luckily they were ok and a guys hand was the first contact and then their heads.

jazz games have started and it is the best to be living here and getting to go all the time. thanks dad.

i finally became a true monson and experienced the guy fawkes party at my in laws. it only took over five years to be a monson. it was a crazy party of eating delicious food, pies—my father in law made a banana caramel pie that left me speechless, and then throwing our own personal guy fawkes' in a fire. oh british holidays.

i would like to take this time to do a shout out to my sister marci. i love you. i love hanging out with you and it is great to be in utah hanging out a lot. can't wait to live in slc. i love that i make up the most random games with you and that you play them.

ok. lets talk baby talk. i love zuri. she is adorable. she has the biggest gummy smile and her eyes light up. all i have to do is look at her and she melts me with her smile. she thinks i am awesome. she recently found her toes and it is adorable. she has started to sit up and is grabbing everything (glasses of water, my hair, a random womans necklace we saw at church...). she also does this 2 finger sucking thing and somehow one other finger finds her nostril at the same time. she stays up til past midnight with me (like she is now and sucking her fingers smiling at me) and then we sleep in until 11am. she laughs for nick, my dad and my mom. she spent all day staring at my sister miranda. she is beautiful. i am obsessed with her. i miss the moment i have to leave her to go work on our house and i get so excited to see her when i get home. she is a perfect distraction for me with nick being stuck doing long hours at work. her favorite toys: the wet wipes, glasses of water, my cell phone, a baby ball toy that looks like a cat toy, and her baby princess ariel doll. she looks amazing in pink. yes pink. she is already growing out of her 6 month clothes. she loves being outside and looking around. if she starts to fuss, i take her outside and she immediately stops and we could sit out there for hours. she also loves the stroller ride runs we go on. she is very interested in jenga's ears and jenga has been so good to let her pull. the best thing is that she loves to snuggle with her mom.

nick: i miss you. i love you. thank you so much for working so hard for us. i can see that it isn't that fun right now, but just know that i appreciate you and i think about you all the time.

house update. i spent yesterday and today finishing the demo of some ceilings and walls. tried to clean it up for the furnace people to start soon. we have this huge old coal furnace that has been made into an inefficient gas furnace and we are having it totally removed along with all of the ductwork-starting fresh. i had my kitchen planned, but was not happy with the monotony of it and went to home depot and talked to the employed kitchen designer that i think is fabulous and he brought up all of my concerns i am excited to see where we are going with the kitchen. i need to post some pictures so that i can see the changes made.

this post is really boring. i think i have said what i needed to say. i miss you iowa friends. still think about you and the good times in iowa.

love spending time with family:

my nieces princess birthday party—happy birthday caroline

zuri working construction at the kids science museum in salt lake city

california and las vegas