silver linings

under the saddest circumstances, i was still so excited to see brad and jess! i was blessed to be able to get the weekend off of work and booked it to utah to see my wonderful siblings. 

i spent so much time playing with max. it was the most fun we've ever had together. 

except that's how i always feel when we get to hang out. man i sure love that kid. and i think he likes me all right too.

we jumped on the tramp for dayssss.
caught him mid trick--!

eeexcept we jumped right on aunt kelli's still bruised shin. and laughed about it. so we had to have a little time out. turns out homeboy doesn't do too well with punishment-- HE became inconsolable, and just cried and cried begging for his mama -- about broke my heart. but i sure milked the snuggle time for all it was worth!

and eventually i got a little "sorry". little stink.

and lucky for him mama came out, too! so he got the best of all the worlds.

look at how long that hair is..! sheesh.

pretty sure you don't get to be that gorgeous 9 months pregnant. don't worry. i'll let her know.

papa came out to do some gardening, and we had to check out what was goin on.. "what doin, papa?"

love my dad's face when he's taking mr max so seriously. they have deep conversations.

the weather was  g o r g e o u s. so perfect for being outside! so we took advantage while we waited to see if brad and jess would be able to make it over to see us.

check out these hotties... so grateful for my amazing parents... have i mentioned i'm a lucky girl?

this guy. he kills me.

and then max had to show us his video from the fair when he went on the rollercoaster with his cousin and cried the whole time... hahahaha

and we kept watching it.

he also had to instruct grandma where to step to get a leaf off the tree

they made it! and jess and i are just really close. don't worry about it. it was so good to see them for an hour and just visit before they had to get going again.

next day you can guess where max and i were again:

but we brought the digger this time.  f a v o r i t e.

then when we'd had enough of the tramp he decided we had to go "dit at the dween table". so we did. and bulldozed mini potatoes and squashes.

oh this little man just melts my heart...!

he is the sweetest little boy -- when he's not being a turkey!

 insert heart-eye smiley emoji here...

#1 best thing in his day is if he can dig in the dirt. i can't maintain favorite aunt status if that doesn't happen at least once a visit..!

that night was jess's mom's life celebration, that they asked mandy to take pictures at. this is the only angle you could tell she was pregnant at.

it was a beautiful party, and it was fun to see jess's siblings, even under the circumstances.

sunday morning we had mom's signature waffles

 i am telling you they are heaven. with homemade strawberry jam, syrup

and whipped cream...? oh man. 

also we did lots of this. because max said so. and it had me dying laughing!

i sure love my family.. so glad i get to see them whenever i do..! and fingers crossed brad's residency brings them back west!

driving home i got on the freeway i-15 nb, and saw this familiar car... i wanted to cry to drive away... i-80 came and we went our separate ways. but thank goodness it's only a 3.5 hour drive to see each other!