Visting Our Own Backyard

And the catch-up posts continue....While William and Heather were in town we decided to take a trip to the rooftop of the Conference Center at Temple Square. I'd seen it once in the winter while I was a teenager, but no one else had ever been there. My parents were also in town after Scotty's blessing, so we went to Salt Lake on the same day they needed to be dropped off at the airport to go see my brother, Joe. Our little touristy adventure was lovely. We learned about how the conference center roof is made to mimic a mountainside. We also saw that there are sunroofs up there. They shine down into the general conference room itself. The maintenance people usually keep them covered because otherwise the speakers can't see the teleprompter. These and other interesting facts could be yours if you visit the Conference Center rooftop.

 The Mother Duck had crossed over the wall, but her ducklings couldn't make it. So these men herded them up and gently tossed them over. 

 I have a picture from my sister Liz's wedding (when I was 5) wearing her veil and holding onto the temple doorknob. I was trying to recreate the moment with Annie, but her hair wasn't cooperating. Plus, she was really, truly trying to turn the doorknob and get in. (See below)

 Blurry brothers with babies

She really does love to see the temple.

Our adventures also took us across the street to see the new and somewhat controversial City Creek Mall. I have no comments to make about the mall itself, but these water things were super cool. The picture doesn't do them justice.

A Baby Blessing

We blessed our little boy Scotty on Father's Day. Here are the wonderful men who participated (minus my wonderful brother Andrew).

Before the blessing, I told Scotty there was to be no crying and no pooping. He was very obedient. As I was sitting up on the stand doing my ward chorister duties and sitting behind the organ and grand piano, I thought I heard Scotty crying in the congregation. Turns out it was another baby who is a few weeks older than Scotty. I still go into mother hyper-drive every time I hear that baby cry at church. They sound a lot alike to me. But then again, I've also been known to go into mother hyper-drive when my in-laws' cat meows. Maybe I'm a bad mother...or maybe I'm too motherly. I'll go with that one. 

We don't have church until 1:00, so Aaron and I spent the morning making 58 chicken enchiladas. I was feeling pretty good about that and my hosting skills until I got outside after church and realized there were no paper plates or cups or forks. Cousin Heather pulled through for us on the plates, but we asked our parents to share cups with their spouse. So much for my good hosting skills. Here are the guests mingling.

This Cheez-It box is placed very appropriately. Jack, our in-guy at Kellogg's, brought them all the way from his factory back east.

Jack and Natalie's son, Jackson, played quite a bit with Annie. At one point, we heard Annie tell Jackson, "It's time to come home," and Jackson said, "Not yet." This could be the beginning of a beautiful relationship. 

In 14 years it will be a motorcycle.

Annie kept hearing people say "Happy Father's Day," and I heard her refer to Jackson several times as father. I guess she was a little confused.

It was a lovely day. Thanks to all of our great family who came. And thanks to Scotty for being the best male-under-30 part of the Aaron and Maren Dennis family.

Dennis Clan
(Thanks for the picture, Natalie)

McCombs grandparents

A Visit

We've had many events happen in our lives lately, so I'll post about each of them over the next few days (or weeks...or months). The first event was that Aaron's brother William, our sister-in-law Heather, and their daughter Lucy came for a visit. We went up to Aaron's parents' house to see them. Annie was great at playing with Lucy. They were so cute together, and they played together more than I thought they would. I tried to get a picture of these two crazy kiddos the last time they were together. It didn't work very well on either occasion. But here they are anyway.

The adorable weed/flower crowns were designed and crafted by Heather. Coolest mom ever! While the whole Dennis clan was together, we had a family recital. This was inspired one day when I told Aaron that I really learned piano pieces when I had to get them ready for a recital. So Aaron found a piece he really wanted to learn and asked the rest of the fam to get something together as well. The coolest performance, in my opinion, was the Cake song performed by Russell on the guitar and Alan on the trumpet. "Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps." Bravo, gentlemen.

Everyone did great. What a talented family! We had more fun with William and Heather, but I will write about that in the next post. To end, here's a pic of Annie and Aunt Shauna together. While we were visiting, Shauna hosted a delicious waffle breakfast at her beautiful new abode. I didn't take any pictures of that, but it was very fancy.