The past week has been crazy for us and sadly enough things aren't really slowing down much! On April 29th Ross, Madison and I braved some rainy weather and traveled down to Denver for Emma's bridal shower that Mary and I were throwing together. We came back up on Saturday and celebrated Ross' birthday on Monday. Then on Friday we celebrated Madison's 3rd birthday. Anne and Diana came down to celebrate with us and we attended Ross' pharmacy school banquet. Emma made it to town during the banquet and on Saturday morning Sarah threw me a baby shower. We ended the weekend by speaking in church on Sunday. Now we are starting to pack like crazy and get ready to move to Burlington next week! It has been a wonderful few weeks for us but I am very excited for things to slow down a little bit!

Emma and her Mrs. Smith banner. My mom also came out to surprise Emma for the bridal shower but I didn't get any pictures of that. 

The bridal soaps were prizes for the games. 

Guess how many kisses game. Someone was about 3 kisses away from the right answer and I was amazed. Another person was about 5 away. It was incredible. 

The food table 

I put together these little donut rings and it was one of my favorite parts of the shower. 

Madison and Ross playing hide and go seek with the other cousins before the party started. 

For Ross' birthday Madison got him a Garfield comic book because they love to read comics together. She told him about it at least 5 times before he opened it. It was pretty cute. 

Ross and Madison opening presents.

Ross getting ready to blow out 

This is Madison on her birthday. We had a pretty simple party for her. We invited a few friends to take a picnic to the park with us and we played. Madison had a great time. Ross and I had talked about getting some balloons for her but we didn't ever make the final call. Both of us showed up at the park with pink, purple and princess balloons. It was pretty funny. 

Madison and her friend Benjamin. Sadly this is the only picture I got of her little birthday party. 

We parked Madison's birthday present in the parking lot for her to find. 

She was so excited about it. When she woke up yesterday she looked out the window and said "its a beautiful day in the neighborhood! We can drive my car!"

This is the perfect picture of Madison from Friday. 

Sarah made this adorable diaper cake for the baby shower on Saturday morning. 

Diana captured this lovely picture of me while playing baby charades. She also conveniently hide the camera while it was her turn.  

Emma and Renee used to be roommates at BYU-Idaho so it was fun for them to have a little reunion. 

Sarah and I after the shower. I am so grateful for her and the other great friends that I have made it Laramie. It is definitely bittersweet for us to move this next week. 

Ross and Madison flying a kite for Family Home Evening last night. I wish I would have caught a picture of the Mother's Day snow we got this year. Luckily it was all melted by Monday. 

Madison and Diana chasing the kite.

We have a great few weeks. It has been crazy but so fun. I am getting very excited to see what the summer will bring! 

New York City

A few months ago my friend Sarah invited me to go to New York City with her for a weekend trip without kids. I was thrilled about the idea and Ross thought it was a good idea too because the next year might kind of difficult for us with moving, a new baby and Ross on rotations until May. We got everything all set up and it was looking good until we were supposed to leave and Denver and Laramie had the worst snowstorm ever. Everything got postponed for two week later. We were finally able to go this weekend and everything went well. We had a blast on the trip and thanks to everyone who helped Ross with Madison while I was gone! 

Here are some pictures of the trip. 

Sarah and I on the plane. 

Me on Madison Ave. The whole time I was hoping that I would be able to find a Madison Ave. street sign to put in Madison's room but I never did. I did find the perfect gift for Ross though. He told me he didn't want anything unless it was a Statue of Liberty lighter that actually had the flame coming out of the top where the flame is on the Statue of Liberty. He was completely kidding because of the movie Jungle to Jungle but luckily I was able to find it for him. 

Sarah at Tiffany's 

Me at Tiffany's. 

This is me in the hallway at our hotel. It was definitely New York style and a little bit tight. I think the hallway only had room for 1.5 pregnant Hannahs. 

On our first full day we walked to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was so awesome to walk there and see so much on the way. It was freezing though and I was very happy to actually make it there. I think the Met was one of the highlights of my trip. I wish we could have stayed in there longer. 

We both really enjoyed the Egyptian art. 

I loved this pregnant lady statue. We had to get a picture together. 

After we went to the museum we stopped for lunch at a little cafe. You could say that it was pretty "cozy.". We were right next to the counter seating and we kept making jokes that someone would come eat lunch at the counter and it would be really awkward. 

Then it actually happened and it was kind of awkward. I also don't think these pictures do it justice because we were super close to them. 

After lunch we walked through Central Park and saw some of the classic New York sites. It was beautiful through there but I enjoyed it more when we had gone in June and the trees were full of leaves. 

It was really beautiful though. 

Our next stop was going to a session in the Manhattan temple. This picture isn't very good but it was an awesome experience. It was also neat to see the stake center that they had in the "other half". This was also one of my favorite parts of the trip. I definitely felt at home in the temple. 

We walked back to Time Square and kept seeing Duane Reade pharmacy. Sarah was very excited because Walgreen's recently acquired this pharmacy and she has heard about it a lot. Sarah is a pharmacist at Walgreen's and works with Ross. 

I also needed a picture with the Hello Kitty in front of the Sanrio store because Madison loves Hello Kitty. She was thrilled about the Hello Kitty water bottle that I got for her there too. We also did tons of shopping at Times Square. We also enjoyed going to the Walgreen's at Time Square. It had 3 different floors. That was exciting to us since Ross and Sarah work at the smallest Walgreen's in America.

On our second day in the City we decided to venture on the subway because it was freezing outside. We made it successfully without getting lost to the World Trade Center memorial. 

Then we walked to the Brooklyn Bridge and walked across. It was still freezing but we made it across and it was beautiful. 

I also had to buy a headband because it was freezing 

We also found this beautiful view of the city. We were still freezing and it was just starting to rain. 

We finally made it to this amazing pizza place in Brooklyn. It took us forever to warm up but we finally did as we were about to leave. 

 

I got an amazing white pizza and they even had a delicious gluten free crust for me!

I loved this amazing delivery bike! I thought that it was perfect really and I'm considering getting one for myself. 

We took the Subway to a bakery that had all sorts of gluten free treats. It was pretty good but an experience for sure. We also did some walking through Chinatown which was pretty sketchy stuff. 

We were very happy to make it back to the Subway and back to a place that we slightly recognized. We were disappointed because it was raining pretty good and most of the activities that we had planned were outside.

We walked out of the subway station and literally stumbled upon this Scottish parade. We watched the parade and it rained the whole time but it was really fun to watch a parade in New York City!  

Then we did more shopping and decided to eat at an Italian restaurant that had really good gluten free reviews. It was amazing food and I loved the amazing atmosphere. We were thrilled to be sitting right next to the heater. Then we went back to the hotel to crash because we had an early flight the next morning. 

We made it back to Denver on Sunday afternoon and drove back to Laramie. Our families had just made it home from church when we got back. It was an awesome weekend but I missed Madison and Ross a lot. I am grateful that I could go and that we could see so many cool things. I'm also so grateful for Ross for giving me this great opportunity. 

Relay for Life

A few weeks ago Ross and the other class presidents decided that they were going to have teams to walk in the Relay for Life. I was a little hesitant for him to do this because I was supposed to be a team captain back in high school and pretty much my whole team ditched out on me. There was only one other girl and we basically gave up. I wasn't too sad that I missed it because it is an all night event. They begin walking at 6 p.m. and end at 6 a.m. Ross was committed and was ready to do anything to make his team successful.  

His first effort was to make videos to encourage participation.

His next video was to encourage support from friends and family. 

Ross and his team did an amazing job raising money for Relay for Life. I couldn't believe it. Their class raised $3,250 and whole UW School of Pharmacy raised over $5,000. Thank you so much to everyone who donated for the Relay for Life. 

 Finally now we have some pictures of the actual event. Madison and I went for a few hours and left around 9. Madison had a blast and did an awesome job walking laps around the track. 

 We all wore purple while we were walking. Ross found a nice purple bathrobe at Walmart the day before. It ended up being a little hot for it though. 

 This is the School of Pharmacy "campsite." I was surprised that it ended up being an actual campsite. I was also jealous that other people came with nice couches. 

 Madison and Ross entered the swing dance competition. They won first place and it was adorable. 

 Madison would just stop, put her hands on her hips and start doing a little hip shake. Everyone loved that. 

 They practice a lot at home too.  

The swing dance CHAMPIONS! I was so proud. 

 Madison and I walking a lap. Pictures aren't very flattering of me lately. 

 Some of the other teams had games that you could play. We did the mini golf and I did really well at it. They gave out tickets that you could put into raffle drawings. I was sure that we would win because we had 16 tickets and it was a basket of kids coloring books. I was disappointed when Ross told me that we didn't win. 

Ross survived the night. It sounded like he played in a basketball tournament around 11 p.m. and their team did alright. 

I think that it was a nice way end our time in Laramie. We have had lots of friends and family that have fought cancer. Their example of strength and courage is something that we really look up to. 

Here is one last cute picture of Madison from today. She is really into watching General Conference today. She put a dress on and was telling Ross and I to turn off the basketball because it was Sunday.