Month in Review

Even though it's only been a little over a month since the last post, it seems like I have a lot of catching up to do, and this post probably won't even cover it all.

 My family has a tradition of going to Cherry Hill on Labor Day with some of my extended family. So we started the day off with a little mini-golf. Meili, obviously learned her technique from her mother.

 Even though the picture is not great, many of the people who were there are in the picture.

 So cute!

As per tradition, we line all the girls up on the wall, and try desperately to get them to all look at the same time-which is clearly an impossible task.

 Also, trying to line them up on the rocks doesn't work either.

 Pictures of Meili actually smiling are rare, even though she is a happy child-I promise!

 Gigi, Audrey, and Chloe are pro at this whole golfing thing now.

 Also this month, Josh's ebay addiction continues on, and he is a sucker for athletic gear at a cheap price. This may be his favorite outfit in the history of the world. (Notice the Yankee logo, and it doesn't hurt that they are warm-ups.)

 Ha ha! If you look closely, she is actually saying cheese in this picture. I guess it's time to have the talk about why we say cheese.

 This random day in September was a fort-making kind of day. Because, let's face it, we all have children so that we have an excuse to make a fort in the middle of the day on a Wednesday.

 But, Meili didn't understand that going over the top wouldn't be as fun as going underneath.

 On the 14th, my family, minus 2 went to the Brigham City Temple Open House. It was really cool to be able to take Meili through. I told her that we were going to Jesus' house (I know, not completely true, but Heavenly Father is a hard word for a 2 year old.) At first, I could tell that was a very strange concept for her, but the rest of the tour all I heard was "Je- HOWse." 

 Again... I don't even know why we try. 

 In other news... (which has to do with this picture.) Josh started a new job this month. He was offered the branch manager position at the Wells Fargo in Tremonton, which he did for about a month. The same time he was offered that position, he also turned in an application for the branch manager at USU Credit Union. He didn't really think that it was a possibility because there would probably be someone within the organization that would just be promoted. As it turns out, they seemed to really want Josh, and we felt like it would be better for our family right now. He's only been there for a few weeks, and so far it is a big change, but it seems to be going well so far. 
Anyway... the reason I mentioned that now, is because Josh wasn't able to go to the Open House with us because that was his first week at work. 

 The temple is really beautiful, and it has been really cool to see everyone's excitement since the temple is so close.

 After the Open House, my mom's side of the family had a family reunion for a couple days in Paradise. This picture is a game where they were supposed to catch a ball from a sling-shot in a big plastic bucket. It was pretty entertaining, and Meili is clearly helping Josh a lot.

 I added this picture, so we could remember that Meili currently loves picking dandelions. On walks, she gets distracted very easily by dandelions and rocks. The dead ones she blows all the little white things off.

 There was a little pond at our "camp." Ha ha! That picture is awesome.

 Sara, Shasta, and Nick in the paddle boat. Shasta is clearly as comfortable as Meili in the life jacket.

 Meili with "Damma," and "Poppa," in the paddle boat. Meili has developed an obsession with her family and specifically Grandma and Grandpa. She pretends to talk to them on the phone, every time we get in the car, she thinks we are going to see them, we draw pictures of them multiple times a day, etc. etc. The rest of the reunion was also fun, but it was a lot of talking and eating, and therefore, I didn't take pictures.

 On September 28th, Josh's brother, Jake, got married. I, of course, didn't take any pictures of the happy couple. But I got a few of Meili and the kids. Apparently, getting all the kids to look and smile at the same time is not only a Hendricks problem.

Jake and Kami got married in the Brigham City Temple and we heard rumors that their's was the very first sealing in the temple-which I thought was cool. 

A note about Meili's hair... I had no idea how to do it, and decided to try something new the day of-which I still think would have been cute had I taken the time to really do it, but the day didn't go as planned for many reasons. However, Josh said it looked like she was going to Girl's Camp. And yes, I can see his point.

 Hair issues aside, she is clearly beautiful, right? Yes, I take pictures of Meili constantly, and of course, Jensen gets the best picture of the post.

 Can I say that we are excited about Halloween at our house?

Other updates...
My three favorite things of the month: Meili started saying "Yeah." I have heard the word "no" constantly all day, everyday for 18 months, so the word "yeah," is like music to my ears. I especially love it, because she always says it very casually: "Meili, will you put on your shoes?" "Yeah." I guess you have to be there. 
Meili also has started helping to say prayers. She has folded her arms for awhile now, and she always says amen. To tell you the truth, it didn't even dawn on me to have her do more than that. But Josh started coaching her on what to say so now she says "Bless food" (regardless of the time of day) "Bless Momma," "Bless Daddy," etc. Some of my favorites though are that today she blessed every single Pooh character individually, she has blessed the moon and the pumpkinheads (Jack-o-Lanterns). Someday we will correct her, but for now, I just laugh tight-lipped.
She has also started saying thanks. Hallelujah! But it's so cute, because she says it really often without being prompted. Probably 10 times yesterday, I heard her say, "Tinks Momma."

I'll think of more later and do another post, but for now, it's time for bed.

Denver

Last weekend, we took a quick trip to Denver with some of my family. We left Friday night and got back Sunday night, which meant a lot of driving in a short time. But, hey, for me anything that has to do with USU athletics is worth it. (And this trip was only slightly removed from USU athletics.)

My mom and dad, brother (Nick) and his wife (Sara) and their daughter (Shasta), and Josh, Meili and I headed out on Friday evening and arrived in Rock Springs at about 7:30.

On Saturday morning, we left as early as we could with two toddlers, 6 adults who were already sick of driving, and a few change of plans.

 This was taken Saturday morning. Someone (namely my dad) taught Meili that if she stood on this luggage cart, she could be pushed around the room.

 I think now she believes that this was the reason for which luggage carts were invented. All too soon she became a little entitled about the cart.

 Saturday was my mom's birthday, and my dad got her an iPad.

 Because of our change of plans, we dropped our stuff at the hotel and took the light rail to the football game. We waited for my parents and brother outside the front of the stadium because they had the tickets.

These two little ones were done even before the game started. Luckily there were rocks and dirt outside to keep them slightly entertained, but they decided they would rather be mischievous and meet all strangers who were going in to the game. Meili insisted on taking her shoes off repeatedly. 

 I never explained... The reason that we decided to go to this game is because the Seahawks drafted 2 rookies from USU last spring: Robert Turbin and Bobby Wagner. My brother came up with the idea of going to see them in action. We figured that they would probably play more in a preseason game, Denver wouldn't be too far to drive, the game was on a Saturday as so few NFL games are, and my brother and his wife would be in school in the fall. 

 Hopefully the quality of my mom's phone's camera will be good enough. Someone (namely Josh) used all of the battery in our camera taking pictures of the game. (So most of the pictures of our group are from my mom's phone.)

Added bonus: It was Peyton Manning's debut with the Broncos. We may have been the only people there to see the two rookies over one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time.

 This is Shasta, Nick and Sara.

Robert Turbin is 22

 Bobby Wagner is 54

I wished I had gotten a picture of the Denver skyline from the stadium during the day, because it was beautiful. At least my brother got it at night though. There is an amusement park right in the middle of the city.

 The next day, Josh and I decided to try to get as much out of our quick trip. So we took Meili swimming.

 Then stopped by the Denver temple-so beautiful.

 And went to about half of a Colorado Rockies game.

 They played the Marlins and won.

Can I say again that Meili is a trooper? I have been amazed this summer with all the things that we have taken her to and she has been a great sport. I dreaded so much driving on this trip, but we hardly noticed her in the car. On the way home, we left at 3:30, fed her while we were driving, then she slept for over 3 hours, we took a quick stop at a gas station and she ran around for exactly 5 minutes, then she and I watched Winnie the Pooh and Cars 2 in the back. We were home by 11:15. With trips like that we could go to Denver once a month!