Oregon here I come!

It has been nearly 2 years since I last made it home to Oregon. It was for Abby's baptism and Jennifer's wedding which ended up on the same day!!! It to was a wonderful occasion but I could not believe it had been SO long since I made it back! I guess with ALL the trips my family has been making to Utah, the time flew right past me. I have been super excited and with EVERYTHING that is going on in my life, I did not even get a chance to count down the days but this was one of my favorite trips to see my family :) It was special in so many ways! I arrived early Friday morning around 9am to have my Momma, Tucker, Mari, Abby and Hallie waiting at the airport! I had the entire day "catching up" with every member of my family. After we chatted and they showed me around their new place, we went to the pumpkin patch, shopped for Halloween costumes and had "girl time" :0) which included popping some popcorn and watching a cute movie with my mom and sisters!
This ended just in time for me to get away with my brother Stan who took me out with his friends to a local concert which I LOVED! I do not get a chance to have one on one time with Stan so this was a very special treat for me that meant so much!!! My sisters tend to take up all my time and attention and this trip was supper hard trying to divide my time with each sibling and trying to give more of my time to my brothers. Yes, I feel I have much work to do with this since I feel I still need to get together with all my brothers. Chris and I miss dearly the time we had with John when he lived out here in Utah. And we both look back at the moments we get with Tyrel, Stan and John. We would love to have Hyrum and Tucker come out sometime along with a weekend with just my parents!
Saturday was our big day.... we were all able to be together for Hallie's baptism which was tender for man of us! I did not expect it but there was a very special spirit that day. Hallie was so sweet and our whole family had the pleasure in singing the opening number which was "Families Can Be Together Forever" I think this is what did me over as it really hit me that Hallie was the last member of our family to be baptized which also completed us before we branch out into our own little families! I am so lucky to have the opportunity to have been at each one of my siblings baptism day and to be apart of of family. We are all so very special and our family would just not be complete without one of them here. The day continued and it was full of fun having our cousins with us (Ira's family) afterwords for a big lunch :) My mom, Mari and I escaped for 45 min. to a Home Decor shop because my momma has been wanting to get Chris and I a house warming gift :) It turned into several house warming gifts because we could not decide on one thing so I was able to get some really fun cute things for our new home!!! They had to continue to the Youth activity along with the older cousins while I returned to the younger ones to color and cut Hallie and Abby's hair! They both turned out so good! When Mari came home I finished hers and the color did not "turn out as planned" She was quit upset because the color ended up being much lighter and more golden then expected but when she woke up, it seemed darken or maybe not be so dramatic. We all had a wonderful Sunday and I got to see Abby give the opening prayer and scripture while Hallie did the talk about her baptism in Primary. I loved so much being there for my family and seeing old friends in the ward I grew up in! It was also a sad and very emotional day for me and family members as I had to return to Utah :( Each visit gets harder and harder for me to face the leave even though I new that I was coming to Oregon from the family visit last June and knowing of their upcoming visit for Thanksgiving in 3 weeks or so. Each visit with my family, I am reminded more and more of how wonderful each of them are and it has been so fun for me to interact with each of them and see their personalities blossom! I had a very memorable visit that I will treasure forever! I already miss everyone so so much that I had to call home again before I ended the night. I am happy to be back home with my husband but sad he had to hold his crying wife at my return while I shared with him of my experiences with my family.