... that Jas was 5 months!

A few highlights from this month:

We took Jas to the BYU Football opening event: Reppin the Y. She loved it.



But Ellie and I loved this strawberries and cream treat more.

We also decided it was time to check out the pool in our complex, and it is not too shabby!

Jas discovered that she loves her toes

And also loves sleeping with her leg pushed through the slats in her crib. 

We find her like this almost every morning. And we would put up crib bumpers if we thought it would help, but a) Matt is even more scared of crib bumpers than he is of her getting her leg stuck in the crib, b) I'm pretty sure bumpers would not stop her from pushing her legs through anyway, and c) there is no c.

Oh and mom and dad came back to visit us again a few weeks after the reunion for my cousin Melanie's wedding and to wash their feet in my kitchen sink.



Have I mentioned that I'm glad they're home?

Love my Jas and my mom!!!

... that we had a Blick reunion!!!

Blanding is a magical place. It holds so so so many special memories for me! I was so excited to take Matt there for the first time and to introduce Jas to all the Blicks!

Uncle Mike rented out the old Blanding Motel (now called the Stone Lizard Lodge) for the whole Blickencrew and it was so fun to stay in the motel that my grandparents owned and ran when they were young! The current owners even opened up the house part of it and let us all walk through it while Dad, Mike, Kristy and Todd told us stories of growing up in the little motel.

But of course, the pinnacle of Blanding is always the hiking.

(Mom, always with her selfie stick)

Normally I hate hiking, but it's just what you do when you're in Blanding! And you get to see so many cool things! The arches! The Indian ruins! The petroglyphs! The dead animal carcasses! And the red rock country is really so beautiful, it's hard to be mad when you're exploring it. Matt is carrying Jas in all the pics because (let's be honest) he held her the whole time. I offered! But I really think he was worried I was going to fall or drop her or both. Or maybe he was just so amazed that I was actually hiking and having a good time that he was worried I was going to drop dead from too much physical exertion at any minute.

When we weren't hiking, we were taking selfies in the shade because it was SO HOT,

And getting auntie snuggles,

And asking Matt what happened to all of his hair,



And getting milk shakes at The Patio,

And eating dutch oven dinners at the park,



And playing in mud puddles,

Or protecting our shorts and light sabers from said mud puddles at any cost.

It was a short three days, but so great to see all of the Blickenstaffs and relive so many memories of my childhood! I love Blanding!!!

... that Mom and Dad came for a visit!!!

Mom and dad could not WAIT to come to Utah for the following reasons:

1. To see missionaries

2. To see Jas

3. To go to the Blick Reunion

4. To see my new house

5. To eat J Dawgs

They came up about two and a half weeks after we saw them in California to spend some time with us in Salt Lake before we all headed down to the great Blick Reunion in Blanding!!! I was so excited to show them our house, and we even bought a special sofa bed so that they could stay with us! Except mom said that our couch was more comfortable, so Dad slept on the sofa bed by himself. Technically he wasn't by himself since our sofa bed is actually in the snake room........ 

Anyway, we had a great time with them! Mom went into super-amazing-helper mode and made it her life's goal to unpack every single box and hang up every single picture that had been cluttering our house for the past five months. She followed me around the house for three days with all of our art work asking "Do you want to hang this here? What about here? What about here?" but when she was done, the house actually looked like a home and I was SO GRATEFUL. She also made sure we had plenty of food storage on hand by cooking us a gigantic vat of spaghetti sauce and homemade refried beans, and no substitute even comes CLOSE to those two dishes. She also managed to convince me that Jas was ready to move out of our closet and sleep in her big girl bed all by herself now

And we are ALL thanking her for that one! Jas loves her crib, and quickly got to the point where she didn't even really like being rocked to sleep anymore. Now she just squirms in my arms while I rock her until I lay her down in her bed and then she finally relaxes and closes her eyes. Little stinker.

Mom even visited me a couple of times at work

Mom wore this shirt to my office after I told her that one of the guys that I work with told me he didn't realize that my mom was full Chinese. No better way to set the record straight than with a graphic tee.

I posted this pic for a few reasons:

a) What is my face doing?
b) This Banana Cream French toast was just about the most amazing thing I have ever tasted and I was so grateful that mom brought me some and even more grateful that I wasn't there when I heard about the debacle that was ordering breakfast at Kneaders
c) There is no c. Ever.

I got to show mom my favorite part of West Valley:

#bobaislife

#truth

This place is right down the street from my house, and let's just say that they know me as "the Wintermelon girl." That's called winning, folks.

Before we knew it, it was time to pack up and head down to Blanding!!!