Visiting the Swinfords...Finally!

We finally made it down to visit Jared and Megan!  We were trying to figure out how long it had been since we have seen them and it's been over a year!!!  WHAT?!  How did that happen???  Yeah, the last time we saw them was over New Year's 2014/2015.  We completely missed Megan's last pregnancy too.  It's crazy how you can be so close yet so far away.  Anyway.  It was so much fun to get down to Salem and visit them and see their new house and their new BABY, Claire.  We had such a great weekend just hanging out.

Ellie LOVED LOVED LOVED being around her cousins all weekend.  The day before we left she watched a show and they had a sleepover, so she kept saying she was going to have a sleepover with her cousins!  She would say, "Go to Juliet's house and have sleepover!!!" You bet! I was a little worried that Ellie and Juliet wouldn't get along because Ellie tends to struggle with kids her own age, but they were the best of friends!  I think it helped to have Rylie and Maya there too, but by Saturday afternoon Ellie and Juliet were playing together just the two of them.  I was so glad!  Ellie loved all their princess dress up clothes too.  She had to be wearing a dress pretty much the entire time.  I am so glad she had so much fun.  We really need to be better about getting together with them more often.  Luckily Megan took a couple of pictures of the girls :)

OH! On our way down we stopped in Provo to go see the new Provo City Center Temple.  I am so grateful we were able to make it to the open house and walk through it.  It was beautiful!  This building holds a special place in my heart.  When I was at BYU this was our Stake Center in one of my wards.  I remember going and sitting on the wooden benches for Stake Conference there.  It was really neat then, but now it is incredible!  I love that after it burned (almost) down the Church decided to rebuild it into a temple.  What a beautiful symbol of the Atonement of Christ.  I'm so grateful for this special opportunity.