My Amazing Sister Elizabeth....

My little sis leaves in 2 weeks to serve a LDS mission in Ecuador.  She reports first to the Mexico Missionary Training Center which just opened up. It worked out that I was able to spend some time with her this week and it was so great!

Lizzy's friend was getting her endowment out in Mesa and my parents were on a Pioneer Trek, so Lizzy and Brooke came up here Thursday and then I went down with them thru Mesa for the endowment and on to Havasu to spend the week there before he Farewell.  We had SO much fun!

  When Brooke and Liz got here Ollie had a fever from his shots, so we spent most of Friday chilling in the house.  The girls were SO tired and kept waking up to eat, or say hi to Ollie and falling back asleep.    Liz and I made orange pancakes and then Ollie was doing a little better so that evening we all went shopping at the mall (trying to find a few more shirts for Lizzy's mission).  That night for dinner we were adventurous and ordered take out from an Indian restaurant.  I had no idea what I was ordering (the online menu had no food descriptions). And anyone who knows me knows I am the WORST at talking to people with accents.  When I call customer service or something like that and a person with an accent comes on, I might as well hang up because I ask what after every sentence!  Well of course a person with an Indian accent answered and I was trying to ask what some of the menu items were.  He would describe it, and I would ask What?  One time he said something 3 times and I still didn't understand him so I said I just wont order that one.  He laughed at me, at least he was patient.  I went in to get the food and he asked my name and I said "i'm the one that couldn't understand you" and he said "ahh yes Here is your food." It was delicious.  Lizzy was all paranoid about trying it, thinking she was going to open her food and there was going to be a duck head or something.  Haha  Sorry Liz, it wasn't that exotic.

Ollie did pretty good on the drive to Mesa and then to Havasu.  It was late, so he just slept.  The endowment got done at 8 PM so we had a late drive home.  We played lots of games this week: Hearts, Pictionary, Nertz, Mad Gab.  It was so fun.  I love hanging out with my sisters because they love games  too and I can get my fix! We had a funny time with Pictionary. It was really late and we were all sleep deprived and a little delusional. The game was going longer than expected. It was Brooke and I against Mom and Liz.  We kept landing on this ALL PLAY spot that made us have to draw the same picture at the same time. Well SOME cheater (won't name names) kept listening to the other team to help them guess, so we made a rule that one team had to go in the other room to draw at the same time.  We were stuck on the ALL PLAY square for some time because we kept alternating who won so no got to roll of the square.  FINALLY Brooke and I won TWO in a row and we grabbed each other's hand and started jumping up and down giggling and squealing and then while jumping and giggling Brooke said "I'm going to pee my pants" and then I said "ME TOO!"  So then we started laughing harder and we were done for.  The girls in my family have some of the weakest bladders ever. Sorry if that is TOO MUCH INFORMATION, but it was so funny.  :)

The highest Liz has ever stacked her cards

We couldn't get a normal picture of us with our dates.

Mom made us this middle eastern snack of Dates with almonds and cream cheese on top.  We are willing to give most things a try, and at first bite those were pretty good, but man those dates are CHEWY! I just sat there and chewed on for like 5 minutes, it started to gross me out.

Mmm...

Speaking of snacks, we were in short supply at home, and us girls were getting late night munchies.  Brooke and Liz ran to the store because we were craving apples.  They picked up apples, cheese, almonds, and dried pineapple.  Can you say healthy?  I was so proud of our healthy munchies.

I kept mixing up Lizzy's and Brooke's names, so sometimes I would go to Brooke and start calling her Liz, so I would finish it with "Hey Llllllittle Brooke". So that was her name the whole week. The other funny thing that I found myself saying was when we would stay up to late, or we would be discussing who gets the shower first I would always say "Guys, Ollie is going to get me up in 2 hours, so I need the shower, or I need to go to bed".  It was ALWAYS 2 hours. haha (even though most of the time he didn't wake me up in 2 hours).

I love to have Dad as a dentist because I get to work for him when I am down there!  I hadn't worked since the week before I had Oliver, so it had been over 4 months.  I actually miss it!  Grandma Mel was more than happy to watch Ollie while I worked. She actually took him to the office and hung out in Dad's office.  Some of the patients poked their head in to see Dr Lundin's grandbaby.  I got done with some of my patients quickly, so it gave me time to jump in and feed Ollie. It was nice to do something else besides sit at home with Ollie (granted I wouldn't change being a mom for the world, but sometimes it is nice to change things up). We are thinking once Ollie is a little older and able to eat without needing to be nursed, I might try to pick up a half day one day a week. I hear it is good after 8 months for a baby to have just a small break from their momma, so that would be perfect.

Back in the Saddle!  It felt so weird at first!

Mom on baby duty! :)

We all went and got our hair cut and colored from this lady that is really good.  The girls watched Ollie while I got mine done.  It was nice to have fresh hair again.  I decided to give in and get the mom haircut.

OLLIE PHOTO BOMBING US! :)

 My mom is OBSESSED with reading Brooke's texts and it drives Brooke crazy.  When Brooke leaves her phone on the counter and mom sees it, you should see how excited she gets.  Usually she does a happy dance over to her phone.  In the following picture we can see the Grandma Mel has been taking Oliver to the dark side:

Lance sent Ollie a box of a few outfits and they are adorable.  The shirt is a little big on him, but he will grow into it:

Dave got into town on Friday and he said Oliver got so big and developed so much in just a week!  Ollie sure was happy to see Dave:

We had SO much fun Saturday.  We went out on the lake and then Lulu and Papa came into town and we had a BBQ at the park with steak, potato salad, fruit salad, corn on the cob and baked beans.  Then we went to Carls Jr for dessert and got hand scooped milk shakes.

At first Ollie wasn't sure about those small waves.

But then he relaxed and had a good time in the water. Even though the choppy waves kept splashing him in the face, I was scared he was swallowing the water.

Captured Liz and Dad on the waverunner behind us! 

Funny Story with the waverunner... we were having a hard time getting it started and Dad had to spray his little special spray on the engine to get it to start everytime.  On the last ride Liz and I were on the waverunner pulling Dave on the tube, and we decided to switch and have me get on the tube so I jumped in.  Well Dave decided to try to get on the waverunner from the side, bad idea.  I watched from the tube and Lizzy tried to balance the waverunner in vain.  The waverunner slowly started to tip. So Dave had to abandon ship, luckily it didn't tip, but it did turn off. So since was off Dave could go up on the back without risking his life in the propeller ;).  Well he had to get around Lizzy to get to the driver's spot. Liz isn't the best at counteracting weight haha.  Dave started to go to one side and once again it began to tip.  Dave had to again abandon ship.  Finally he made it on and they couldn't get it to start after like 10 tries.  They tried and tried and then we all abandoned ship and tube.  My ride around the lake was.... nonexistent:).  So we all pulled and pushed the waverunner to the side of the beach and Dad walked over and met us and got it started.  Come to find out, it was out of fuel and he had to put it on reserve. It was an adventure at least :).

Playing around on the playground we found this cool thing!

Brooke put Ollie in the grass on a towel and he just sat there relaxing looking at the sky for like 20 minutes.  So cute!

Relaxing in the grass with Aunt Brooke. He was looking at Brooke freak out over a bug like she was crazy!

Ok this brings us to SUNDAY. Lizzy's farewell.  She was left a lot of time, but filled it perfectly.  My family sang Lead Kindly Light in spanish as a special musical number and I accompanied with the piano. Liz did AMAZING on her talk.  He spoke with power, confidence and love.  I could see right then what an amazing and influential missionary she is going to be.  I love her dearly and think she is just such a great example.  She has grown up so much and will grow even more on her mission.  It is SO sad that she won't see Ollie for a year and a half (he is going to change so much), but I can tell him all about his Aunt Liz on a mission and what a great thing she is doing. I honestly wasn't emotion about it until I had to say goodbye.  She was hugging Ollie and I saw the look on her face, she loves Ollie so much and Ollie ADORES her and I could tell it pains her to know that she isn't going to get to see him.  That made me tear up instantly.  Then I got to hug her goodbye and just didn't want to let go.  This is my little sister!  My sisters are my best friends.  I love them dearly.  Things just aren't going to be the same without her!  Here is my little walk down memory lane for Lizzy: