Start to Summer: Goodbye Flakes & Youth Conference

Some of our close friends, Ryan & Jessica, just moved all the way to Oklahoma to start dental school! We met them through my sister really, because my sister married Jessica's brother. So they are like both friends and family. They just had a cute little girl, Kensington (Kensie) and she is adorable! We were happy to go down for the baby blessing and see some other family and friends. 

Us, the Flakes, & our other great friends the Bevans

 

I love this one because Ty (ours and the Flake's nephew) really wanted to be in the picture! He's so darling.

...And it looks like we have a kid!

Cutest Ty playing with David! We loved seeing both he and Andrew

 Carly, Jess, and Me

 I absolutely love these ladies. We have had so many wonderful trips & memories together. I love that Carly is still so close, but we will miss Jess so much!

Later that week, David & I headed to Youth Conference with the youth in our ward. We went to Bluff, UT and learned about the pioneers on the Hole in the Rock expedition, which is such an inspiring story of faith. We explored the fort that has been reconstructed, hiked to some Indian petroglyphs and granaries, hiked and pulled handcarts on parts of the Pioneer trails, swam in the San Juan river, did a little service, learned some dances, had late night bonfires, and had a great time getting to know the youth and leaders better. 

Hiking with a handcart, the kids look so happy, huh?!

This says "We Thank Thee O God" on the wall. The pioneers carved it into the rock wall, despite all their huge trials on this expedition, and it is still there. They had a ton of faith and are great examples. 

Beautiful scenery. As you can tell, this is pretty much in the middle of nowhere.

My dad designed these awesome shirts. Our theme was "We Can Do Hard Things", which I loved.

Great start to summer!

Little Nixon, a Kitchen Wedding, and other recent happenings

We have another nephew! David's sister, Jen, and her husband, Phe, just had a little guy and we are in love with him! His name is Nixon Lewis, which is so handsome and he is truly just so sweet. He was born during President Monson's talk of Conference, so after spending the morning at my Grandma's watching conference, we headed to the hospital to meet the little guy.

David just loves his new nephew. He is the first grandchild on David's side of the family, so there was a lot of excitement and anticipation for his arrival.

So squishy and cute:

 

Here he is about 1 week old. 

Here he is about 2 weeks old. He is so sweet and cuddly! We are grateful to be so close. It makes me so sad our other niece and nephew are so far away in CA.

BABY FEET. I just love them!

 

This last week, we had the opportunity to go to the Mt. Timpanogos temple with David's family, before his sister, Jessie and Scott got married the following day. It was the first time to have the entire family together in the temple, and it was amazing. 

Here is the beautiful temple with the most beautiful spring flowers (my favorite!)

 

 Here is the whole Drake clan:

 The next day when Scott & Jessie got married!! They looked stunning!

Jessie was a gorgeous bride!

 

My beautiful Mother-in-law, David and I outside the temple:

Here they are leaving the reception to head up to Park City for their honeymoon. (Stolen from Kara)

Sadly I didn't get more pictures of their reception. It was a perfect spring day with 70 degree weather (Utah has the absolute best Springs). They had a gorgeous reception down in Provo at the White Willow Reception Center, which was seriously so neat. Most of David's family is still in town, so it will be a fun weekend  hanging out with them all, plus his cousin gets married tomorrow, so there will be even more wedding madness! And then there's the baby blessing for Nixon on Sunday. It's a great month for the Drakes!

Some other fun updates including seeing my old college roommates and London friends at Nicole's wedding: 

Attending the Jazz & Lakers game. David and I have been trying to use Trax (the local train public transportation) more. It was a beautiful day so we decided to wait outside for the train instead of pay for parking.

 

We were the last row in the stadium, but it was still so fun. And they had these massive screens to look at!

It was a fabulous date night with my husband.

Life's been busy, but good! Thanks for tuning in.

Quick trip to Vegas

We took a spur-of-the-moment road trip last weekend to Las Vegas. It was kind of crazy and unorganized as far as planning goes, but it ended up being a great trip to see BYU basketball play in their tournament and a nice break from the cold. We found a great deal on a hotel that we split with some friends and David's sister and her husband. After driving all of Friday afternoon, we spent the evening eating and walking around the strip, basically just people watching and exhausting ourselves.

On Saturday we slept in and then sat by the pool. It was a really nice pool and I even got a little sunburned...whoops!

The boys then went to the BYU basketball game, while Carly & I continued to enjoy the nice weather. We met them later for some shopping and dinner at Maggiano's. It is our favorite Italian restaurant, David and I just love it. They don't have one close to us, so we found one in Vegas. Score! 

L to R: Ryan & Carly with their little girl, Me & David, Daniel, Jen & Phe

 

The next day we went with Jen & Phe to a yummy buffet...ha typical Vegas, and then drove back to grand old Utah.

Overall a quick whirlwind of a trip, but still so fun! Excuse my lack of photos, I am the worst at taking pics. Now if only it felt like summer already in Utah...

Remembering Grandma Shirley

 My grandmother Shirley, who is my dad's mom, passed away about 2 weeks ago. This last weekend was the funeral and it was a great opportunity to remember her and be with family.  Although we were sad that she is gone, it was truly such a happy funeral! That may sound strange, but we could not be happier for her to be in heaven with her husband (finally!). To learn more about life after death and the Plan of Salvation, click here . 

You see, her husband (my grandfather) died in a military plane crash in February of 1961. This left her alone with five kids at home, my dad being the youngest at age two. She was an amazing mother and woman. Shirley lived a long, lonely life and died at age 90 after battling Alzheimer's for over 9 years. I love my grandmother and I am glad I get to see her again someday!

 

 Here are my grandparents as a young married couple. I LOVE this picture of them, it adorable:

My family at the cemetery:

 

And this is the whole group. Every child/spouse and grandchild was there:

 

 This was the first time all the grandchildren were together in over 10 years:

 My two sisters and me. I love these ladies:

Here we are after the funeral for a family luncheon. It was beautiful, classy, and had delicious food, just as my grandmother would have liked it:

 

And here I am with my sweet niece, London. Basically we passed her around all weekend. We couldn't get enough of her! It was so fun to see her again and I miss her snuggles already. 

 It was nice to see my family again so soon and see cousins and relatives that I haven't seen in awhile. What a blessing to have the knowledge of the gospel! I know that families are eternal and that we can be together forever, all of which is possible through our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Hello London!

My older sister and her husband just had a new baby girl, named London. She is one month old and is truly precious! They decided to have the baby blessing President's Day weekend, so we packed up our small car on Valentine's morning and headed out to California for a few days. We had a great time and were so excited that we finally got to meet our new little niece!

Here was the picture on her baby announcement, isn't she just so sweet?!

Here's another cute one, stolen from my sister:

 

And of her stretching. I just love baby stretches! 

He looks really good with a baby in his arms, haha!

!

We had a great time eating out, passing around London, visiting and just being together. I love my family and was so grateful to see them all. Here we are eating out with our Pazooki desserts, yum!

The whole group that came to the baby blessing on Sunday:

All us Lineback girls: Aimee, Carrie, me, and my mom:

Great memories with even better company. Thanks for the great weekend :)

B-day and V-day

Since my birthday and Valentine's Day always fall on the same week, I like to think of it as one week-long celebration. It's the greatest, I recommend it to everyone! We had the busiest week and were going out of town for President's Day weekend, so we went out to dinner and opened gifts on Monday before my B-day or V-day. We went out to eat at The Roof, a restaurant in downtown SLC that we had heard great things about. I had been curious to try it, and since it is pretty pricey we combined both holidays with one eating out adventure. 

This was the view from our table! I think that truly is the best part about the restaurant, although the food was good too...you just pay for the view ;)

 

 Glad to always celebrate with this guy:

 They brought me a candle to blow out:

 

But luckily the dessert didn't stop there! They had two other buffet dessert tables and I made it a goal to sample every dessert...I came pretty close.

 

 We had a great time, and then the spoiling continued at home when David got me an iPad, which I have wanted for awhile! And which made the new ski gloves I got David on Valentine's Day look lame. They were practical!

And then on my actual birthday David I made my favorite dish, baked Macaroni & Cheese! I know, I'm a kid. And he really did help a little! It was one of my best batches ever, and was delicious with some roasted brussel sprouts and a fruit salad. Happy Birthday meal indeed!

I was absolutely spoiled this week, and am so grateful for David! And for all the cards and gifts from family. Thank you to everyone, and I hope everyone had a great week celebrating love :)

My Handsome Dentist

David has been a very busy dental student lately. Last semester was challenging of course, but a lot of it was review. This semester, all the material is new, very dental specific, and he has been busy studying! Many times we will crawl into bed at night and he will practice on me whatever it is he has been studying or practicing with his classmates. Just the other day he practiced periodontal probing on me. Here is a goofy picture of him, and no he did not work on himself:

We just love his dental class and I especially love hanging out with the fun wives! We have a dental party about every month or two and we rotate who throws it. This last weekend we had one and the student who planned it created an award ceremony called "The Dentees". If you have ever watched The Office, then you'll recognize that is after "The Dundees". It was quite hilarious and the student made a "dentee" for every dental student. Here is the whole group:

David was given the "Not Quite President" award:

Which is actually quite funny because he was chosen as Vice President for the class. And he is a high achiever in every aspect of life. I think he will make a fine dentist one day and I am proud of all his hard work!

Also, I dyed my hair. I have never been a brunette, and it ended up darker than I thought it would be, but it might be a nice change for this winter. So far I am actually really liking it:

And yes, this was a selfie (head hangs low). Don't judge.