Welcome to harmony's Roundeo.

I guess I'll accompany the album with a quick blog.

We made our way back to Utah, eating at In-n-out on the way of course, and the trip went well, though we were all pretty sick of traveling!

Then I think the next day was my  cousin Ariel's wedding. her and Sean got married in the Bountiful temple on Tuesday January 5th. the temple ceremony was beautiful, always a good reminder of what's most important and to cherish the one you've got! She looked amazing of course! Then we went to Ikea to grab a gift, with Jason & Kathryn and Grama and Grampa Grotegut. That was fun. Jason even treated us to Ikea breakfast, which was kind of funny because it was followed shortly after by the luncheon. They had a delicious luncheon and it was fun to hang out with all the family, and get a glimpse into the future, as another Roundy was there amongst the Groteguts, Spencer's brother Darrell, soon to wed Ariel's sister Marissa. confused? perhaps, but it's pretty cool and we're excited about it.  Grama Roundy watched the kids that morning and then we returned and jason and Kathryn came over and played some games with us. We ate dinner and then we all went to the reception at the Provo Library.

The next day I think we went to play at the Cowan's home, or maybe that was actually the day before, yes, I think it was Monday. We had such a nice time being with our good friends again!

Then Grama and Grampa Grotegut said we could use their timeshare at Snowbird so we did! It was so nice to have a little getaway just us. I forgot our snow clothes, but we managed to play in the snow anyway and it wasn't too bad. The kids loved playing in the hot tub on the balcony and eating icicles that I broke off from the eave. Then we took Spencer to the airport to fly BACK to California to check in at his office and for some event or meeting they were having. And we headed down to play with the Cowans again. This time at Arctic circle indoor playground.

I think Friday is when I got my hair done and then hung out with Marissa and did some shopping. My haircolor turned out fabulous! Love it!! But I made the mistake of trusting the stylist to trim it up and "clean it up" and apparently to her that meant chop it off. I of course didn't say anything and even gave her 20 bucks for it. so dumb. I started off trying to tell myself it was okay, and it was cute and it's not a big deal, etc. but then got progressively more irritated because I've been trying to grow it for so long and she didn't do at all what I said or she said she was going to do! frustrating. It was fun to hang out with Marissa who has always been my cousin but will soon be my sister in law! 

Saturday we went to the dinosour museum at Thanksgiving point with Grandma and Grandpa Roundy. That was really fun, what a cool place! Then they kept our kids while we ran off to meet Brent and Jennie (Cowan) at the theater for Avatar. What fun! We realized we had never gone on a double date the whole 2 1/2 years we lived here in Geneva together. too expensive! We had such a great time. We went to Cafe Rio afterwards and it's just as good as ever.

Sunday was Micah Grotegut's (Marissa and Ariel's brother) homecoming. So once again we found ourselves surrounded by extended family and Groteguts and that's always fun. The meal by Jan was delicious. And that brother of Spencer's was there again of course. Funny that he has the same relation to my extended family now as Spencer does, and that he'll be calling my granparents grandparents, and my parents uncle and aunt, etc. etc.

Monday or Tuesday I took Darrell and Marissa's engagement pictures. They are too cute together and fun! and it got me even more excited about the whole deal. Then we spent the last few days on errands, and having friends visit and being with the family. VeeAnn and her kids came over, Amber and her kids came over, and Jourdan&Rod and their kids came over! We even managed to squeeze in a visit to the Great Groteguts the afternoon before we left, amidst errands and packing. oh packing! It was even more difficult than usual with all the Christmas gifts but we really did pretty well getting most of it in and managed to get to the airport on time and everything!

Of course in all of this there were lots of stories read by Grandma and playing with toys and costumes, and eating and visiting and watching things and playing things, and Lauren and Jennifer came over quite a few times and their kids Addy and Coleman. Our kids played marvelously together and had such a good time. They just love each other!

It was really a busy time and Virginia remarked that we don't really relax on vacation! But we sure do have fun! Thanks for the great stay and for everyone who made time for us!

So, I really am very lucky to have such great girlfriends here, and so many! So, in the summer one of these friends, Jessi Berg said "we need to do a girls trip, let's go to Zurich!" 9 of us were able to go (and two babies.) I have never done something like this, and so I was very excited. I felt very fancy and mature somehow (I know that sounds really lame!) to be doing a ladies only trip like this, and to such a cool destination!

We decided to take the train (it's a three hour ride) and go on September 5th. It was so fun to do it this way, it meant we were all together and got to chat the whole way (and back) which is what we women do best! Jessi was our amazing trip planner and guide as she used to live there. She planned it all out, and gave us an itinerary and all sorts of helpful information. And her love of the place added so much to the experience. The rest of us didn't have to do anything but show up! 

On the way there, it was pretty funny, she was telling us what we were going to do and about the train station and I suddenly interjected, "Oh yeah! At the train station right now, there's a dinosaur exhibit!" And Jessi immediately said, "We don't have kids." Maybe you had to be there, or be a young mom with young kids, but it was funny. I was all excited about the dinosaurs, and she reminded me that we were free to do girly things today!

I did indeed leave my 3 cuties with my awesome, capable and supportive husband. He never once made any protest of any kind about me taking this trip. It was no big deal for him. I am still breastfeeding, so I was ready to get back to feed my baby when we got home at 11 pm.  I left Spencer wtih no preparations like dinner, or tips or anything, a birthday gift to buy for a girl friend of Cado's (and the party to go to along with it), and Paisley actually got some sort of rash of spots while i was gone, that we thought was chickenpox, (but have since doubted); and Spencer just took it all in stride! (Thanks honey!)

(oh, another great thing about this day was I was able to fit into a skinnier pair of jeans finally! see above!)

So, we did not look at dinosaurs in the train station, and to Cado's dissapointment I didn't even take a picture (though I brought him a treat so I think it was okay in the end)! Instead we did some window shopping down the Bahnhofstrasse which is a big shopping street with some chocolate shops and a cool toy store, ate lunch at a cool upscale department store, strolled through the flea market, went on a boat ride on the lake, ate bratwurst (so yummy!), toured the old town, shopped at the coolest wooden toy store ever (Wait, what's up with all these toy stores? we didn't have kids!), went in the cathedral, walked and talked and rode trams, ate a yummy dinner at a modern italian place with a cool vibe, and took plenty of photos! 

It was a really nice, fun, relaxing, memorable tour of a cool European city, with a bunch of really great women and friends. Thank you ladies! And especially Jessi! Let's do it again! Christmas market in Bern anyone??