Saturday, July 19, 2008

Preg-Duffer...

Yes, this is what Mike has to look forward to after a long day at the library!


1. One day I arrived home after work looking like this...


Due to my obstricted view caused by my baby bump, and after a half hour commute of walking through downtown, catching a train, I arrived home with my sweater so carefully buttoned askew!


2. Three nights ago, I arrived home looking like this...

I was rushing to catch the train and I took a pregnant nose dive right in the middle of the crowded downtown streets. Don't worry, I am fine and so is the baby; however, I am sure my flop made for a good story at many a dinner table! Out of control!

Maren & Grant visit us in Chicago!

Well, I finally uploaded some pictures and here they are! Maren and Grant came and visited us in Chicago a few weeks ago. We were so excited to have them come. We had such a great time visiting Lake Michigan (which is just a few blocks from our house),



squeezing through Taste of Chicago(a festival downtown featuring various Chicago restaurants with shoulder-to-shoulder people), traipsing all over Chicago (which was bit easier before I was seven months pregnant),

and finally eating at our favorite Chicago deep dish pizza at Gino's East. All of this and the only picture we have of all of us together is in our apartment!


We had a great time!

Monday, July 7, 2008

Other various pictures...


Carthage jail


The St. Louis Arch


..and Grant


before my camera completely stopped working :(


Grant in front of the Nauvoo temple


Grant in front of the statue of Joseph and Hyrum


Me and front of the Nauvoo temple. too bad we couldn't get one together!




haha, there we go!

Fourth of July fun!

So tomorrow I leave the mid west. Sad. I've had such a good summer here with Grant and his family. Since coming out here I've been to Oklahoma at least 3 times, Arkansas twice, and Missouri on an almost daily basis (we live in Kansas). We also got to drive to Chicago to see Amanda and Mike! That trip was such a blast, and now I have also been to Illinois.

This last week was so so fun. On Monday the day after getting home from Chicago we drove down to Rogers, Arkansas where Grant's brother Barry lives. He took us to the gym every day where his wife works where the guys played ball and I got to work out at such a nice place! On Wednesday I got FOUR sales (the highest I've gotten this summer) and then on Thursday we got a couple too. Thursday night all the salesmen from all the different offices met in Rogers and we went to the Rodeo of the Ozarks. It was way fun! And we all dressed up like cowboys, Grant even bought me my own hat :)

On Friday we drove to Oklahoma City to where three of Grant's brothers live (Bryan, Aaron, and Dennis). We had a big barbecue, played volleyball, and just hung out. Then later that night we went to downtown Oklahoma City to a place called Brick Town. We watched the huge fireworks display from on top of a parking garage. Front row seats! Then we went back to Bryan's house which is way out in the country where there are no neighbors around and we had the best home made fireworks I've ever even heard about! Ya know, in Utah they don't even let you buy stuff that gets off the ground. It is for sure not that way out here. These were practically professional fireworks being shot off by a bunch of people who are obviously not professionals! We ate homemade ice cream and enjoyed the show late into the night, even the kids got to stay up! It was for sure an all-American holiday.

Saturday Grant's parents made everyone a huge breakfast for 50 + people. Later that day me and Grant got all dressed up and Grant's mom, Michelle, Bryan and Bryan's daughter took us to this really pretty bridge and wooded area to take engagement pictures! It was so so nice of them, and really fun! They took over 130 pictures. These are the two we like the most. Which one do you like the best???







We also got some pretty crazy ones too! haha the non-photogenic Crane really showed through in a lot of them! haha amanda, I won't forget my roots!

This last one is my favorite I think! The rest of Saturday was so fun, we went skeet shooting and then the WHOLE gang went to an indoor swimming and diving place that was rented out for us.
All in all, a good trip and a very good end to my trip out here.

Friday, July 4, 2008

Various Reasons for the Death of the Blog

Well, it's been over a months since any posts have been added to our family blog, and I suppose a family update and explanation is in order.

1. Most of the family including Mom, Dad, Emily, Gardner, Crista and their children went down to visit Rachel and Richard (see their blog for pictures) and their family in San Antonio for R&R's new little baby Reed's baby blessing. I suppose this may partly be the reason for the death of the blog.

2. Maren has been working as a pest control salesman in Kansas City, Missouri. She and her fiance (who Mike and I just think is great) were nearly hit by a tornado while living in tornado alley. She will have to write all about this...pretty crazy.

3. Maren and Grant also came and visited us in Chicago! We had a great time! They seemed to love every thing we showed them which just made us so happy also. They loved our favorite Chicago pizza and Lake Michigan. I will post more about this later.

4. My main reason for allowing the blog's death was I just took my last section of the CPA exam on July 2. I've passed three sections and just had the beastliest section left. I really want to have it all out of the way before our baby boy adds a bit of excitement to our lives. I just pray I passed because studying for the exam has made my life pretty miserable there for awhile. Mike pretty much picked up all of the slack at our house, but he is happy that I am actually "fun again." I am amazed at how normal life is just such a wonderful thing. Hopefully the blog will now be alive and well!