Wolf Girls...and Dad

Why do I love Twilight? Same reason I like junk food. It's good, it's addictive, and it's fun to enjoy with other people. Nothing wrong with a little junk food every now and then. Moderation in all things right?

While I was in Utah last week I indulged in a little New Moon brain candy with my mom, two of my sisters and our friend Kristen. We all wore Wolf Girl shirts, even my mom because she's awesome like that.

Somehow my Dad ended up joining our girls night out. He made some excuse about how he never sees Mom and something about date nights and blah blah blah... We all know he's big time team Jacob. Just own it Dad. Own it.

We got to the theater an hour early so we could have the perfect seats. It was actually great that Dad was there because then he could take pictures for us. And since I am me, I made him take a lot of pictures. I guess everyone was making weirdo faces in the other ones though so here's one with everyone normal (except for me, but I was pretty excited that night I guess this one works.)

So I have to say, I totally loved the movie. I thought it was TONS better than the first one, and I loved that one too. So yeah, I was pretty happy. Acting, script, makeup, all of it was better. Yes there were some laugh out loud cheesy moments (flash forward of Bella and Edward the bohemian vampires running through the forest, hilarious!) But I thought the Wolves were awesome and the Volturi were exactly how I imagined them. The Facepunch movie scene was SO funny and the Edward, Jacob, Bella love triangle was well played. Great movie, great night, and everyone had fun (especially my Dad : )

Coming Home

Last week Taber was recruiting from the MBA school at BYU. I can't stand for him to go to Utah without me so the girls and I bought some tickets and tagged along on the trip. I have a lot of great memories, wonderful family and many friends in Utah. Every time I go back a little piece of me wishes I could stay, but we love our lives in Minnesota and I couldn't imagine giving that up either. So I guess as long as I can visit a couple times a year I'll be content. : )

I came out a few days early with the girls and thankfully they did really well on the plane. It also helped to have the fabulous Sit and Stand stroller that can double as a Smart Cart for all our luggage. : ) Here are some of the highlights from our trip:

1)Teya and Brinley getting to play with their cousins. They were in kiddie heaven with all the cousins around and the endless entertainment they provided.


2) Meeting my niece Malia for the first time. She was born 5 weeks early in June but didn't spend one day in the NICU because she was already so healthy and strong. She's such a sweet little miracle baby.

3) Watching the kids jump on the tramp with their uncle Tau. He's a pretty big guy so you can imagine the air they got when he bounced around.

4) Taking my mom out for her 52nd birthday. We went to a great Japanese restaurant and had such a nice time chatting and catching up without the kids. Thanks to all those who pitched in to babysit!

5) Going to Living Legends rehearsal and participating in the devotional. My little brother is now the president of Living Legends so it was fun to see him in action and also to catch up with our wonderful director Janielle who we hadn't seen in almost 5 years!

6) Hanging out with old friends. We got to see a few of our friends while we were there (although there were many people we didn't get to see and hope to catch up with next time!) Joseph, one of my best friends from high school, and his sweet wife Melinda, who is pretty much like a professional chef, not only made us an amazing dinner and unbelievably delicious dessert, But they also hooked us up with tickets to the BYU game! Yeah, we love them. : )

7) Which brings us to the next highlight, Going to a Cougars game with some other great friends, Dave and Jodi! Dave and Taber grew up together in Alaska so we've known these guys for a long time. It ended up being one of those "guys night out/girls night out/couples dates" all in one which are pretty much my favorites : ) Good times, good company, and the cougs won!


8) Getting to hang out with Mama and Papa Rigg. Taber's parents live about four hours away in Grand Junction so whenever we go to Utah they drive out to say hello. The girls had so much fun swimming with Grandma Karen at the hotel, and Teya got to show off some of her new swimming skills which I'm happy to say she still has! We also went out to eat at Los Hermanos and relived some good memories of my days as a waitress there : ) (Had to include the classic picture of Papa Rigg taking one of his infamous cat naps ; )

Last night we came home and Teya cried and cried when we left. She kept saying, "I don't wanna go to Minnesota, I want to stay in UTAH!!!" (Which is actually kind of funny because the first night we were there she cried and cried saying the exact opposite! : ) She's happy to be back home now although she keeps telling me that we need to go back to Utah in two weeks. Not sure about two weeks, but I'm sure we'll be back again soon : )

Pink Eye, Uda Time and Mini High School Reunion

Pink Eye:
Half way through our trip Brinley woke up with her eye swollen shut and full of green gunk. (you can't really tell in this picture but her eye was nasty!) I was all panicky since we were hundreds of miles away from our regular Doctor. My mom saved the day though and scheduled us an appt. with her trusted family Doctor.
What was even cooler, my mom called me later in the day and said she would meet me at the Doctor's office so she could be there for moral support. I haven't lived in the same state as my family for the majority of our married life so getting that kind of support was huge! I love my mom!!!
Brinley was a champ at the Doctor's office. He diagnosed her with Peri orbital cellulitus (sp?) and said she was going to need a shot and a 10 day dose of antibiotics.
Luckily Brinley has some killer juicy thighs to obsorb shots. She only cried for a minute and then got lots of Grandma loves to make her feel better. The shot worked wonders and by the next day her eye was almost 100% better! Gotta love modern Medicine!
Uda Time!
Most people who know the Uda's know our mild mannered pleasant side. But when we get together, our wacky alter egos come out.

From left to right: Becca, Sarah, Liz, Mom, Rachel, Jake
These are just a FEW of the many funky faced shots we took while hanging out. One of the many reason I love my crazy family : )

We also hit the Bean Museum and Los Hermanos with my family. Bean Museum is always a favorite with the kids and Los is a Utah staple that we can't miss eating at.

Mini High School Reunion!

This year is my 10 year high school reunion (Class of 99!!) but since I'm not going to be able to fly out this summer I decided to throw together a mini-reunion with some of my old friends. My mom made a delicious Hawaiian spread with all the classics and my friends brought plenty of sides and desserts. We even rented a bounce house for the kids to burn off energy.

It was so good seeing my friends and how they've all grown up into such accomplished and wonderful people! It was also crazy seeing all of our kids together. I know I'm getting older but are me and my high school friends seriously parents? Weird!!

Anyway, so that is the final summary of our time in Utah. Thank you to all our family and friends for making our trip so memorable! We love you guys!!

Adventures in Utah

We've still got three more days to go of our super packed trip to Utah but I thought I'd try to get up a post to summarize some of our adventures.

The flight was pretty successful. I flew out by myself with the girls a day early but it wasn't too bad thanks to movies on my iPod, lots of kids snacks, markers, crayons, stickers, and of course, Teya's cursed binky. Why is it that my baby doesn't need a binky on the airplane but my three year old does?

The next day we had a super Alaska Friends Rendezvous. Taber's brother Brett drove in from Arizona with his wife CJ and their 4 kids, his partner in crime and best buddy since 2nd grade Nathan came out from Michigan with his wife Laurel and their 3 kids, and his best man from our wedding Dave (another AK friend) and his wife Jodi who live in Utah all joined us for a night of Brazillian food at Tucanos. It was so much fun catching up with old friends. And Best of all, we had the night kid free thanks to my AMAZING sister who was kind enough to watch our TEN kids while we went out : ) She is a saint!

Sarah holding down the fort with all of our kids

The next day Taber's parents came in from Colorado and took us (and our many children) out to lunch where me, my sister in law CJ and my "sister friend" Laurel hooked it up with some awesome desserts! Then we herded the crew over to the Kangaroo Zoo. (bounce house haven) The kids went nuts and burned up a lot of energy.

Grandma Rigg ran around with the kids while Grandpa took advantage of the opportunity to catch up on some sleep. ; )On Sunday Taber's family and friends took off and we spent some time with the Uda family. My Mom made some Kaulua pig, Teriyaki Chicken, Chicken long rice and some awesome desserts (including her world famous fudge!) Between Tucanos and my mom's cooking I've probably eaten enough to feed a family of 10 for a month. So worth it though!

It's been especially fun seeing my youngest siblings Jake and Liz who are the only kids not married yet so I can relish all the juicy details of their dating lives. Liz's boyfriend was actually visiting from CA for the weekend so I got to meet him and see in person how head over heels he is for my sister. Ah young love! Jake also has some good prospects so I've been giving him all the tips an old married lady can give ; )

Yesterday we took the kids to Thanksgiving point to ride the ponies and feed the goats. Teya had a blast with her cousins and watching her a little piece of my heart ached knowing that in 3 days I have to take her away from them. : ( Thank goodness we have such great friends in MN to ease the pain of living far away from family!


Anyway, that's a little bit of what we've been up to in Utah. Stay tuned for more to come...

My Big Fat Thanksgiving Vacation

Here are some of the highlights from our trip to Utah for the Uda family reunion/Thanksgiving blow out.

1) Honoring my Grandma and Grandpa Uda with a memorial at their gravesite to place a headstone on their grave (Thanks to Uncle Kelton who did a beautiful job making it!)

2) listening to everyone share funny memories about Grandma and Grandpa and seeing my Aunties and Uncles and cousins who we don't get to see very often because they live in Hawaii.

3) Stuffing ourselves with all the traditional Thankgsgiving food plus lomi salmon, lau lau, gyoza and poi.

4) Watching the Uda talent show and seeing how funny and talented all my relatives are.

5) Going out on a couples date with my sisters and their hubbys to a Tepanyaki grill (Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for babysitting!)

6) Catching up with our old friends, Dave and Jodi and their ADORABLE three week old twin boys, Kai and Cameron. I got to give Kai his bottle and it was the sweetest thing! I seriously could have held the tiny little 5 pounder all day!

7) Hanging out with my beautiful, hilarious, wonderful sisters! It was so fun having all 5 of us together. They are my bestest girlfriends and I seriously don't know what I'd do without them!

8) Girls date with my sisters, mom, auntie and cousins. We went to eat at Los Hermanos and then to see Twlight (Swoon!!) It was so much fun!

9) Playing Pounce, Scum, and Settlers of Catan every night after we got the kiddies to bed.

10) Seeing Teya and Brinley with their cousins. They all got along so well, it really made it hard knowing that we don't live close by. Thank goodness for airplanes : )

Other highlights: Dad and his Russian hat, Mom's lemon pepper chicken linguine, Rachel actually dancing hip hop, Ro putting Brinley's pants on Teya because he thought they were capris, Josh building a bomb, singing a duet with Erin, Naomi's mad pounce skills, Kevin's homemade apple cider, seeing Sarah as a Mom!, Tau coaching us on our dance and then joining in our performance, Jake's Margaret Thatcher joke, Liz and the birthday spanking machine, and playing truth or dare with the whole family.

Uda Girls Shakin' It!

So I need to do a big post about our Thanksgiving break, but here's a video for your viewing enjoyment until I have more time to post. A little background, over Thanksgiving we had a talent show as part of our family reunion. Me and my sister Liz convinced our cousin and our other sisters to do a little hip hop with us. None of us are really hip hop dancers so enjoy our ghetto moves. Still, we had a lot of fun. Oh yeah, and the big guy in the back is my sister's husband Tau. He watched us rehearse so many times that he learned the dance. With a little bribery we suckered him into doing it with us! Good times!

Turkey Trot!

Knowing that today would be a day of face stuffing and gluttony, my wise little sister decided it would be a good idea to sign up for a little race this morning to help us "earn our turkey." I've never run in any kind of race before so this was kind of big for me. It wasn't anything crazy, just a little two mile course. Still, it was AWESOME to get up and get my heart going! Taber jogged beside me and helped me keep a good pace. All you marathon runners will probably giggle at this but I was proud of myself for finishing in just under 20 minutes.  We were in the walk/jog division and Taber took 2nd, Kevin was 3rd, and I came in 5th. Naomi and Sarah also did great placing 7th and 12th respectively. It was the perfect way to start our day and I definitely feel that I earned my Thanksgiving feast this morning!

All ready to go before the race

So the people who ran were me and Taber, my sister Naomi, her hubby Kevin, their daughter Brooklyn, and my little sister Sarah and her baby Noah. Kevin was nice enough to run around taking action shots of us all while he pushed the baby (He actually runs marathons so this was more of a little warm up for him)

Posing after the race in our sweet "Earn your Turkey" shirts.

Taber, Kevin and me with our ribbons. (Kind of funny they had a ribbon for 5th place! Haha! I felt cool!)