FAREWELL SISTER SALLAY

Tonight Kathy was set apart as a missionary. As we were driving home, Stella kept saying how she wanted to go see Kathy tomorrow, and we had to keep telling her that she wasn't going to get to see Kathy for a long time. From the day that she was born, Stella has had a particular fondness for Aunt Kathy and I know she is going to miss her. However, I also know that she will enjoy sending her cards and pictures.

We had a big dinner Sunday night and I made everyone pose for pictures again.

To see the hotness that is Kathy in her mission garb you can go HERE.

SEALINGS

Saturday afternoon we went to the temple as a Sallay family and did sealings for some of our ancestors. We did this in March as well when John and Valerie were here, and it was a really neat experience. Brent and I were the lucky ones who got to be at both sealing sessions, and I thought they were both equally great times. It was fun to have the little sis Miss Kathy there with us at the temple. She leaves for her mission on Wednesday, and I can't say I am too thrilled about it. Stella has become completely obsessed with her and when you ask Stella about Kathy going on a mission she says: "Kathy don't wanna go on no mission!"

After the temple we were deciding what to do for dinner and one of the options was the ward BBQ. I pretty much made all of us go to that because I thought it would be the easiest, but I know none of the Sallay boys were in the mood to see all the old ward people. It was very enjoyable for me to watch them squirm as ward members were nice to them. Stella also had the best time jumping in the bouncy house and learning the basics of badminton from Grandpa Sallay. It was a fun afternoon with the family.

Here are some pictures of us at the temple. The last one of all of us is blurry because I focused and then moved my little pile of temple suitcases that I was using as a tripod. But I still like it. :)

HOSE HIGHLIGHT

Heidi and the boys came down for a few precious days this week. Stella was so excited and kept telling everyone that Catchy-Cy was coming to her house. As usual we didn't do much, but the kids did get out the hose on the first day, and Stella had a blast getting soaked with the boys. Later, she was in control of the hose, and I wanted to get pictures of her spraying everything. But again, SHE WAS IN CONTROL OF THE HOSE, and her sprays being unpredictable, I couldn't risk the camera getting as soaked as Cather and Cy were.

For the rest of the visit we spent a good amount of time school shopping. The most successful trip was to the Gap which, with my handy little Gap Silver card, Heidi ended up saving more than she spent. It was awesome.

We also watched movies, had family over for dinner, and played. As usual, the visit was too short.

CALDWELL AND BEYOND

Mom and I had been talking about making a trip up to Idaho to see my grandparents for a while. Of course, I would just keep filling my calendar with photo shoots and other events so time kept slipping by. However, I left this last week open on purpose just in case we decided to go on a last-minute trip, and it worked out great because, guess what, we did! And guess what else, I took pictures!

On our drive up, Stella kept talking about getting to Idaho so she could swim in the pool. It was a much longer drive to the pool than she thought though. So when we finally arrived we didn't wait any longer to head to the pool. Stella was thrilled to be in Idaho where the pool was located. Thankfully she was not aware of the hundreds of pools we passed on our way.

The next morning we headed to the very fancy Karcher Mall. Mom loves it there because there is a Macy's outlet that she has this fascination with. It causes a little conflict, because I don't faint at the prices like she does. She almost feels like she doesn't know me anymore because I don't like the Macy's outlet as much as she thinks I would. But guess what, I'm not that into Macy's and the prices aren't all that crazy. But I still found some things of course (I am a professional shopper after all). Still, since we met my grandparents at the mall for lunch we spent WAY too much time there and I had to take a picture of the mall's cool sign to prove that we had conquered it.

We then headed to my grandparents house in Caldwell. We visited and hung out on the back porch. Stella enjoyed playing with her new princess balls, and harassing Charlie (the coolest cat ever according to my mom). Stella called him "Grandma's friend."

On the way to our hotel that night we drove past the COOLEST abandoned hotel from the '60s. I loved it and said I would kill to have a photo shoot there, and before I knew it my mom was turning around to go to the hotel to make my dreams come true. Sometimes a place fascinates me entirely so please forgive the immense amount of pictures. But I'm sorry, this hotel was just TOO COOL! Did I mention that I thought it was COOL!? BTW, my dad took the pictures with me in them, and I was very impressed with his composition.

The next day we drove to Boise to take my dad to the airport and while we were in town we hit the mall for some more shopping. Then we headed to Caldwell again. We hung out and then headed to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. We took a couple of silly pictures in the parking lot.

Our last morning we drove up to Caldwell to have breakfast at Mr. V's before we headed back home to Salt Lake. Here are some more parking lot pics.

Stella is a pretty good traveler obviously, which is why she has been lucky enough to be taken so many places. She was very good in the car ride home today as well. She spent some of the time rocking out to Grandma's music in the car with her baby doll.

And now we are home, and Stella thinks that there is only one whole pool in the entire state of Idaho.