FFR = Frandsen Family Reunion = Fabulous Fun Rendezvous

last weekend we went to our annual Frandsen Family Reunion in gunnison, utah. this year, it was the ronald frandsen family's turn to plan the festivities. shauna did an incredible job of coming up with fun activities for everyone to enjoy and then organizing everything just perfectly. our game plan was for everyone to compete in the Frandsen Olympic Games. and it was awesome.

we arrived on friday evening and enjoyed some delicious dinner and reconnected with all the relatives. (btw the frandsens are all the best cooks ever. the entire weekend was filled with as much delicious food as you can imagine.) after all the kiddos got to bed (will went to bed at an early 9:30pm. awesome, i know. he just didn't want to stop pushing those awesome trucks around *more to come on the trucks...), we began the tie dying. since we would all be participating in the olympics the following day, it was only necessary that we have team t-shirts. the teams were already decided (we broke up spouses and families so everyone had a chance to mingle with relatives of all ages), so we split up and each team decided on the country that they would represent. then, what else to do, but start tie dying our shirts the colors of our countries' flags?! tie dying was a little messy (pretty sure we dripped a little dye on kelley and kathy's patio, and their grass is a beautiful assortment of colors), but loads of fun. we had some experts in the mix: anna and abe for sure were the best and most methodical. then again rita's and joan's were pretty awesome too and we can only contribute that to the fact that they lived through the 60s.

anyway, once the tie dying was complete (and yes, we somehow didn't do it quite properly and all ended up with pink shirts. it's fine though . . . right??? at least everyone was good sports about their beautiful artwork being a tad bit pinkified.), we hung out and chatted for a while longer and finally went to sleep sometime between 1-2am.

no worries about the late night though, because william made sure we'd had plenty of sleep by waking up super cheerful (and by cheerful i mean crying) at 6:00am! awesome! so, peter, will, and i ventured upstairs so as to not wake the millions of people sleeping in kathy's basement. upon finding cousins sleeping upstairs on the couch, we decided to walk over to grandma's to hang out in her living room. upon finding more cousins sleeping on couches, we knew it was time for an early morning gunnison drive.

gunnison is awesome because __________. fill in the blank. there are so many reasons gunnison is awesome. one reason in particular is that it only has one small movie theatre that shows one movie at a time. and that one small movie theatre did something extra awesome last weekend. to celebrate the opening of the movie Cars 2, they had an incredible replica of Mater parked right out on the curb in front of the theatre. it was so legit it looked like it belonged in disneyland. so what else would we do at 6:00am? we went to see Mater! (and please excuse my morning face in the following picture. i was still a little sleepy.)

after hanging with Mater and seeing this awesome sign at the Body Barn next door to the theatre, it was only 6:20am.

so we drove out to the farm and saw how high the river's gotten (which is pretty high if you know how high it usually is. which i don't, but i believe it's much higher now because of this crazy winter we've had.) then it was 6:40. still a little early to go wake up all the rellies. so next awesome thing to do in gunnison: visit the town cemetery! yep. we checked it out. found some cool names for future children and let william run wild between the headstones.

finally we went back at 7am and found that a few of the youngest cousins were starting to wake up. so we hung out and i tried not to fall asleep sitting on the couch watching will play with his cousin simon.

after breakfast and everybody's get-ready-for-the-day routines, we began the games. they were a ton of fun. they were games in which all ages were able to participate. and all ages did participate! it was fun to see everyone out there, tossing eggs, doing 3-legged races, passing gummy peaches on straws, plowing over each other to reach beanbags, among other silly, but fun and competitive games. even grandma and grandpa frandsen hung out the whole time watching everyone compete for first place.

unfortunately, my team (Taiwan, in case you were wondering), lost. it's okay though. we did win "Best Sports" or something discouraging like that. we also had awards for best tie-dye shirts, which were all well-deserved.

now, let me talk about trucks. or "caaahs" as william calls them. kelley and kathy have an awesome sand box with dump trucks in their backyard for the kids to play in. right now william is obsessed with cars, trucks, trains, and anything else that has wheels. so, he spent the entire time we were in gunnison pushing around a dump truck. here are a few pictures, just so you can get a real feel for how much time he spent doing this. i also just wanted to include these pics because i think he's a cutie patootie :)

*notice will saying "caaah" in the first picture*

after the games and lunch, we held a shower for this guy and his fiancee, hillary. they're the cutest. they'll be wedding in manti in just a couple of weeks. we can't wait.

after dinner, a talent show (highlighted by cousin abraham's math jokes. they were seriously so funny), rootbeer floats, and more socializing we made the long journey back home to bountiful. it was an action-packed weekend filled with wonderful new memories!

Summer Has Begun!

So at the very beginning of the year, we (my mom, siblings/spouses, emily and i) were sitting around announcing our new year's resolutions for my mom to record and rehash in a year's time. It was decided that we do a large FHE event each month where everyone would come and we could do something fun outside of the semi-regular sunday dinners at my mom's house.

June was our month to plan/host our group FHE. It was a fun time all around. We got some classic, or should i say, classy, little caeser's Hot-n-Ready pizzas. After dinner we had a short lesson on baptism by immersion and then taught the kids the principle of immersion by dunking their ice cream scoops completely under their rootbeer in delicious rootbeer floats. Needless to say, it was probably more delicious than educational, but fun nonetheless.

(sitting for the baptism lesson)

After that, we broke out the lil weber grill and made s'mores. my nephew Zach was a pro at getting the mallows perfectly crispy, my niece Jane was pro at making them perfectly toasted, and my mom was pro at making s'mores for other people that she had no intention of eating.

Then we sort of sat around and had a good time. Kelli was challenged by all the kids to arm wrestling (not pictured below) and even almost put away Nick, which I think was more than just a little embarrassing for him.

While all this was happening, the Will and Simon show was in full display. Will loves his cousin Simon (about 9 months older). They followed, copied, and played with each other all night, totally oblivious to the rest of us. As far as the camera was concerned, that was the only thing that happened last night. The camera loves little kids, I guess.

Seriously, they played with each all night: trains, cars, you name it. Plus they laid on the ground looking up at the sky together. They kicked the pool around together. They took turns jumping on each other and others. They showed each other different things in the yard. seriously, best buddies.

loving his "baa" and first tastes of root beer

(like I said: the camera loves little kids)

Also this summer at work, we had our annual summer BBQ. As a fundraiser for the morale committee, people were allowed to place small donations that count as votes for people they would like to see get a pie in the face. lucky me, i was in second place, so i got a pie in the face. william was a little confused about the whole thing and wanted me to be well hydrated beforehand.

Also this summer, since Emily and I were in NYC for memorial weekend, we didn't get a chance to visit my dad's grave that day. So William and I went back the next weekend to take some irises from our home to put in the grave. Will also decided the grave would look nice if he put a carefully placed pinecone right in the middle of the headstone. I agreed.

All in all, the summer has started off well. Emily and I are doing our best to train up for the big saints to sinners bike relay at the end of July. We finally solidified our team and even chose an awesome team name: Deseret Demons... So if you live anywhere between here and vegas, look for us that weekend as we blaze by your place of residence...!

new york on my mind

and we're back.

a week in new york is the perfect rejuvenation.

this will be a long post, just like my last new york post, so feel free to skim if you'd like. but here is what peter and i did with our 6 childless days in new york. (btw, thank you shauna, elise, and kelli sooooo much for watching our little rascal!) we even tried new restaurants and found some new favorite places! peter had his conference for most of thursday, friday, saturday, and part of sunday, so for some of these activities i was solo. i had completely forgotten how much fun it is to shop without a baby. i could take as long as i wanted, try clothes on without having to stop william from running out from under the dressing room door, i didn't have to try and push a stroller through jam-packed aisles of clothes. it was heavenly. seriously, i probably shopped for at least 7 hours on thursday alone. anyway, like it or not, here's what we did:

WEDNESDAY

-i didn't arrive until thursday, but peter arrived wednesday afternoon.

-he went for a run along the Hudson River Park

-dinner with Stephen and Hillary at Brooklyn Star

THURSDAY

-shopping. shopping. shopping. mostly on 34th street.

-lunch with my dear friend, Adrienne :) we grabbed salads at Chop't and picnicked at Bryant Park

-more shopping

-dinner at our favorite ramen place. we don't even know the name. it's on the corner of St. Mark's where it meets Thompson Square Park. so yummy and very authentic japanese.

-went to a movie at our favorite NY indie movie theatre, Angelika, in soho. peter LOVES going there. they have really good homemade concessions also.

FRIDAY

-slept in!!!!!

-lunch with my good friend, Catherine :) at a little japanese restaurant in the village. catherine was in my Paris study abroad group years ago and she is a really wonderful friend. i'm so glad i had the chance to meet up with her.

-shopping.

-dinner at the flamboyant Cafeteria.

-took a nice stroll through greenwich village and Washington Square Park

-movie (again!) at Angelika

SATURDAY

-brunch with my fabulous friend, Michelle :) at Five Leaves

-the ballet with Michelle! i was so glad she wanted to come with me! we saw American Ballet Theatre perform Giselle at the Met. it was beautiful. then we walked over to the new Lincoln Center Grass Roof, which was so awesome.

-dinner at Woo Lae Oak. this was our favorite korean restaurant, and we found out that we got to eat there just two nights before it was closing! i'm glad we had a chance to eat there one last time :(

-then we acted like we were 22 again and we stayed out until 3:00am! we went to 230 Fifth, a really cool rooftop bar. it looks like a lounge surrounded by fake palm trees with an incredible view of the city and especially of the Empire State Building. we met up with Helen and Charles, two of peter's good friends from dental school. it was a fun night.

SUNDAY

-lunch at 2 Brothers Pizza. they have locations all over the city and we ate there 2 or 3 times during the week. their pizza is soooooo good and so cheap. yum. i want a slice right now.

-laid out at Hudson River Park. that place just keeps getting better and better.

-wandered through Union Square.

-then we went to Grand Central Station and caught a train up to Scarsdale to have dinner at peter's Aunt Linda and Uncle Ron's house. they were so nice to have us and we had a wonderful evening eating and chatting. linda is a phenomenal cook and the perfect hostess! whenever i've been to her house, she's always had hors d'oeuvres and a yummy drink sitting out for us. so fun!

MONDAY

-went to an early session at the Manhattan Temple. honestly, we were a little sleepy. but it was so nice to be back in that beautiful temple!

-lunch at Good with our sweet friend, Emily :) peter and emily have been friends for years. it was really fun to spend some time with her.

-shopping.

-dinner at M Shanghai Bistro. best pork soup dumplings ever. and for whatever reason all of their food goes perfectly with diet coke. delicious.

TUESDAY

-we went for a run along the Brooklyn Bridge, then we walked around and relaxed at the Brooklyn Bridge Park. it was beautiful and has incredible views of the bridge and of manhattan.

-long, relaxing lunch at An Nhau, a yummy vietnamese restaurant in williamsburg and definitely a new favorite!

-then i had to head home and peter wandered around soho, ate some dumplings for dinner and visited the apple store. he flew home this (wednesday) morning.

being in new york was so nice. we really miss living there, although toting william around that city sounds less than appealing . . . speaking of william, i missed him so much! we had such a nice vacation, but i was more than ready to return home to my baby and dress him up in the new clothes we bought him!