Elder Harper's Farewell :)

Last Wednesday I flew to SLC (flying over NE & WY is 10Xs better than driving through it) with Mason to visit my family before my brother Garrett took off to serve an LDS mission in Mesa, Arizona.Two of my brothers were driving clear from Philadelphia to Idaho the same weekend as the farewell, and they picked up David in Omaha on the way. They actually made Really good time (leaving Philly Fri @ 9:30 AM, getting to Omaha Sat @ 5:00 AM, arriving in Declo Sat @ 8:40 PM) and it was great to see Dave. However, David had clinic on Monday morning so he got a flight back to Omaha on Sunday @ 7:00 PM, had a layover delay in Denver that didn't leave until after 11:00 PM, and finally arrived back home at 2:30 AM Monday morning. Fast trip but it was fun to see all the family together before Garrett headed off!
Some fun things I did during the vacation:

• Eating at Taco Bandito
• Shopping @ A Child's World in Burley and Macy's in Twin to get Mason some goods
• Eating at the Schoolhouse Cafe & Pizzeria in Declo--newest and THE BEST restaurant in town!
• Going to my cousin Brigitte's bridal shower :D

• Visiting friends like Elise who had a baby just one week before me! Her little boy:
  

• Playing bananagrams
• Mason sleeping through the whole night for the first time in his young life (and still the only time)
• Seeing my nieces and nephew
  
• AND of course spending time with Garrett and listening to his farewell talk, which was fabulous.

More pictures from the trip:

feet don't quite hit the floor yet!

Nearly too big for this bathtub/sink!


Spending time with me & Mason before leaving!

tired from all of the girly-shower-stuff

Watching the cousins

The Harper family minus Ivy, who was taking a nap at the time.

Mason was a little shocked when he finally got home.

Signing Time!

I got out the bouncy seat a family in our ward gave us and I think Mason is a little small for it . . . but he'll grow into it.

We went over to some friends' house and their little girl was watching "Signing Time." It's a kid's show about how to sign. My friend let me know that the series was on sale big time from Best Buy so I went ahead and bought it. I've always kind of wanted to learn how to sign, and I've heard kids like learning it too. Today we watched some of it, and it was so funny to see Mason watch Rachel, the host! He doesn't understand the concept of "TV" yet--I'm pretty sure he thought she was really talking to him and he LOVED it.

David got done with his first week of being a junior! Woohoo! He got off early today because of graduation ceremonies going on at the university, and we celebrated by . . . that's right, going to the zoo. Here is kind of a cool picture at the aquarium--I wanted to get a picture of a shark, and you can see David and Mason's reflection in the glass:

Finals, Zoo, Blessing, White Coat, Mother's Day

David finished another round of finals two weeks ago--here is him studying powerpoints and more powerpoints. Congrats on finishing hun!

(He doesn't always smile when he studies. Only sometimes.)
To take a break, we took Mason to the zoo.

We are looking at the river otters here.

We blessed Mason at the Taylorsville Whitewood ward on May 2nd. David did a Wonderful job. Mason looked very handsome. It was SO great to see family and friends. On the way to Utah, I was wondering if we should have just stayed home to bless him instead of putting Mason through a 15 hour road trip to Salt Lake (the last hour consisted of him and me just crying in the back seat). But on Sunday, being surrounded by all our family, I felt it was worth it.

We got to stay in Salt Lake for a few days, and highlights included David and I taking advantage of great babysitters and taking off to see How to Train Your Dragon, watching TV, I went and got a pedicure, and we also just loved playing games and hanging out with family.

We came back from Utah in time for the 2nd year dental students' white coat ceremony! It was kind of neat to see all the students be given their white lab coats--it is important because they will be wearing white lab coats as doctors to treat their patients that come into the clinic.

David getting the coat.

Mason was a little tired. Poor fellow.

Happy Mother's Day to all you women! David and Mason made my day pretty wonderful: Mason took a morning nap to let me sleep in a little and went to bed early so David and I could hang out, David made breakfast (german pancakes), lunch (pulled pork sandwiches) AND dinner (chicken fajitas), did the dishes, and gave me some really thoughtful gifts: a small stereo so Mason and I can better listen to our music, some flowers for our porch, garden gloves and a spade I can use for the garden, and a very lovely note :)



I have been given FABULOUS mothers, grandmothers, and other examples of mothers like all my sisters and aunts. Your influence on me has helped me and is still helping me become a better woman/mother. I appreciate mothers especially now more than ever now that I have become one. It is very special and I know I am very fortunate to have Mason.