10 years ago......

We got married. May 31, 2000. We can't believe how fast the time has gone, and how much has changed in the last ten years. Last night we celebrated with a night away. Dinner at Sapa, Laser U2...since Bono ditched us next week for back surgery, and stayed over night downtown. It was such a great time and it was fun to chat and think about the last ten years, and the beginning of our family.

Tonight we got the kids together and told them that tomorrow is the 10th birthday of our family. We looked at wedding photos and told stories of our wedding day. They were surprisingly fascinated by the whole nostalgia trip. We all loved reading all the inscriptions our friends and family left in our wedding book on our big day. Lucy spotted one photo of us kissing within the branches of a tree and started singing, " True love's kiss," and laughed and laughed. It was a fun trip down memory lane.

Some things that have happened in the last decade:


Drove across the country together to start life in Washington, D.C.
Ryan started law school
I started my first job out of college on Capitol Hill
Made our first life long couple friends
Trips to New York City, Boston, Duck Beach, Virginia Beach, Amish Country, Williamsburg, Monticello, Annapolis, The Jersey Shore, Baltimore, Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard and environs.
Lots and lots of trips to Utah......including a surprise trip to announce our first pregnancy.
Rex Gregory Bell
Graduation from Law school
Moved back West
Ryan passed the Bar
Ryan started his year long clerkship with the Federal Court
I found out I was pregnant again
We bought our first house, and almost the very first one we looked at in the very neighborhood I was dying to live in
Ryan started work at his first law firm
Trips to Portland, San Francisco, etc.
Lucy Rose Bell
Took the kids on their first trip to the beach
All our old friends started moving back to Utah
Ryan moved to a new firm
Molly June Bell
Turned 30 and took a girl trip back to New York City to celebrate
I ran a half marathon
Ran the Wasatch Back together
5 trips to Sun Valley both familes and with friends
A great family trip to Moab with friends
Five of our siblings got married
Three grandparents passed away
Ten Thanksgivings (one in New York with Ryan's brother's family, a few in D.C. with friends, one at the Grand America with Grandma Glo, lots with family)
Ten Christmases (One bringing a baby home from the hospitol, one taking a two year old to the hospital for a week, one taking another two year old to the doctor for an allergic reaction)
10 summers (Beach trips with both families, Disneyland, Legoland, Sea World, lots of swim days at my moms, bbqs on the deck, summer parties in the neighborhood, soccer games, Sunday walks, bike rides, hiking, working in the yard, snow cones at Jolleys)
A great trip to Playa del Carmen, Mexico just the two of us


Somewhere in there, we may have grown up, almost.

A Favorite

One of my most favorite things to do is help out in my children's classrooms. I love helping with centers, art, reading time, and field trips. I love seeing them in their elements outside of home, seeing them interacting with friends, etc. I have been able to do both quite a bit lately, and always come home so happy and feeling so good about the world. I know that sounds dramatic, but it is sort of true.

First off I went with Rex on his field trip to Red Butte Gardens. I got to take a group of five from his class and his teacher rode up in our car too. She is one of those teachers you just never want to leave. So sweet and caring, yet such an amazingly talented teacher. It was such a fun outing seeing the beautiful gardens and watching Rex hang out with his buddies and learn all about plants, flowers, and trees. It is always such a thrill. Rex is such a leader, but still gets along with pretty much anyone at the same time. Whenever Ryan and I see him in his school environment we always like to call him a "doobie"(a word my mom always used in describing a good, conscientious person)...because he is just that, and it is so sweet. Unfortunately I forgot my camera for this venture.

Today I got to go with Lucy's preschool class to the Fine Arts Museum. We walked down to the museum from the Fine Arts Preschool in the snow (so sad about that this time of year), and got to have a docent for Lucy and three of her preschool buddies. It was so fun to look at these amazing pieces of art and see them through these little girls minds. The docent was so great about asking them very open questions about what they see and what they think of and letting them sit down right there in on the museum floor to draw their interpretations of the paintings that we focused on. Kids are so amazing. Lucy was so excited to have me there and every chance she got to come up and give me a hug she would. It was so sweet to see her cute excitement about such a simple thing as to have me with her class. She is such a social bug at school. Loves to make her friends laugh. I remember being the same way.

I Love that Desert Sun

This past weekend my mom took me and my sisters to Scottsdale for a little girls retreat. It was so fun! We stayed at this great desert spa resort and I had so much fun chatting and laughing with people who know me oh so well. We spent the first day at the spa, laying out by the spa pool and then inside for our facials, etc. The next day we went and saw my aunts in Gilbert and my Grandmas who lives in Mesa. It was great to see family that we rarely get to see. That night we went to a really fun outdoor mall, got a little Yogart Land and home to bed. The last day we laid out by the pool the whole day before out plane left. It was like 94 degrees..perfect pool weather!! It was such a relaxing weekend.

Spring Break!!

We enjoyed a really nice, relaxing spring break. The first weekend was Easter, Conference, and Las Vegas. We drove down for a long weekend and spent it right outside Vegas, a bit away from the strip and all. We did have to go in a couple of times to see the lights, the lions , the Bellagio gardens (AMAZING, as usual) and eat some yummy food. Vegas really does have some amazing restaurants. We stayed at the most kid friendly resort, with a huge pool, hot tubs, tons of grass and places to run and play. It was gorgeous. We tried to listen to Conference on our laptops, but didn't get too much in. Ryan and I have been watching it this last week to catch up. It has been amazingly inspiring...it was so great to hear the push on parenting and families.

On Easter Sunday the kids found their Easter baskets in our hotel rooms , and then we had a relaxing morning watching conference in our pjs. The kids were back and forth across the hall to the Masseys room, when suddenly we started seeing kids of all ages, completely decked out in Easter Sunday dress-- you know, the gingham shirts, darling hair bows and brand new sandals, walking by with their heaping Easter baskets of candy and eggs. Erin and I, in our pajamas mind you, kept looking at each other feeling like the most horrible mothers ever while our kids watched in awe at all the candy these kids picked up somewhere. Finally, a darling family, decked to the core in their perfectness noticed our kids staring at them and stopped to see if Rex, Lucy, Molly and Brooks might want some of their candy...they had plenty. I asked them, "Wow, did your parents plan this fun Easter Egg hunt?" "No, they replied, the hotel did!" "Oh really?" Erin and I were dying.

How did we miss this? Did they not even have a sign? As we walked downstairs to play bocce ball, more and more kids walking around with their baskets full of candy, sitting on the Easter Bunny's lap, etc. It was quite the spectacle, and our kids were definitely dialed in to all of it watching all of these kids. They actually were not that sad about it, at least not as sad and Erin and I were. Luckily we had planned a fun hike for the afternoon and got out of there. We went up to Red Rock Canyon and hiked up to some falls. It was a great trip!

We hit a huge snow storm on the way home, and even cool, calm Ryan was freaked out. I couldn't even talk to him the whole way home he was so tense and focused on the road. I kept asking him if he was mad at me or something. It was pretty scary actually.

The rest of the week was pretty low key. Ryan worked like crazy so we planned some fun activities and enjoyed being at home. We did head out to the Kennecott Coal Mine on the final day of the break with my Mom and Glo. Rex has been learning about it at school and my mom had the great idea of taking a field trip out there to see it. It was kind of a jaunt, but was well worth it....very interesting, ginormoous place. Rex really liked it!




Rex and Lucy watching the Water show


Lucy in front the Paris Hotel.


The kids standing next to the largest chocolate fountain in the world. It was pretty cool.




The kids had so much fun just goofing around at the hotel with Brooks.

Briefly . . .

Rex: Dad, what comes after nine thousand, nine hundred ninety-nine?

Ryan: Can you guess?

Rex: Hmm. Bajillion?



***

Eating chips and salsa for lunch after church.

Dad: Okay guys, we have to get some carrots so you're at least eating a vegetable with this lunch.

Lucy: Dad, is corn a vegetable?

Dad: Yep.

Lucy: Then these chips are vegetables. Pass the chips.



***

Over dinner:

Rex: Dad, Molly can count to twenty.

Dad: Really?

Rex: Molly, count to twenty.

Molly: one, two, free, . . . shirteen, fourteen, semateen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, ready or not here I come.

My Favorite Easter Book

Oh how I love this Easter book. It brings back so many memories of my mom reading it to me and how much she loves this holiday. It is not a religious book, but a darling story with a great message about motherhood and how much better it makes us. The pictures are so beautiful and colorful too.





I read it to my girls this morning in our jammies, and they loved it too. Now I just wish it didn't look like December here. Happy Easter!

I Love Two Year Olds!!

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Molly is in the best stage. I cannot get enough of her, and I have been known to probably spoil her a little too much because of it. She is definitely the Queen around here.

Every time I think of one of my three kids in their two year old phase I want to cry. Rex's curls and his happy playfulness, Lucy's piggies and her very laid back personality...oh and her little chubbies, and well Molly is in her prime now with her spunkiness and sweetness. She is my little nurturer too. It makes me so nostalgic for each of them in their own different way at that point in their lives, and it makes me want to freeze Molly. I love how they are growing up so great and becoming real people , but I would give anything to have them go back for even just a day to that old two year old self. What a joy they have been.

Here is each of them at age Two:

Molly:


Lucy:


Rex: