Valentine's Day and Weekends

I do still have one trip post to do, but I thought I would take a little break and blog about the past two weekends. We had a great Valentine's Day. We made and delivered cinnamon rolls to some friends in the morning. Then we went to the baptism of a man who has been investigating the church for at least 2 years. It was so exciting to see him finally baptized! Afterward we went to Red Robin (every other family with kids in the Fairfax area had the same idea) before dropping Rachel off at a friend's house. Then we went and did sealings at the temple. How romantic is that? We haven't done sealings in several years, so we thought it was about time. All in all it was a busy and really fun day. I love Valentine's day. I like just about any holiday, actually.

A "self-portrait" we took at Nate's wedding. We try these all the time and this is one of the few that actually turned out. Trust me, we usually look a lot worse.

Rachel's Valentine outfit that I am super obsessed with. I found it at Macy's on clearance and I love it!

Another cute Rachel outfit (think how much money we would have saved if we had a boy instead?) that Jen got her in Utah. I LOVE little girl dresses. Thanks Jen! She is smiling because she loves feeling the wind when we go outside. Don't worry, I put a coat on her after I took the picture.

Last weekend I took Rachel to the park and had one of those rare moments when I realized why it is so worth it being a mom. Rachel and I (and Matt, by association) had made it through a rough week, so it was great to escape to the park when the weather finally warmed up. It was a perfect day and unseasonably warm. I took this picture after we rounded the corner and Rachel first saw we were at the park. She was so happy! Don't you wish we could all become uncontrollably happy just from a trip to the park? Sadly, our sense of enthusiasm is one of the things we lose when we grow up :( Rachel isn't grown up yet, though, and she was giggling from all the excitement. We played for an hour or so and went home to a hot meal in the oven. Does it get any better than that?

And now, a drum roll please: My favorite picture from our trip to Utah. We're at Cafe Rio (my favorite restaurant ever) and Jen sweetly offered to share with Rachel since she did not appreciate my spicy sauce. I got to eat baby free for once!

I love these girls!

I'm trying to hurry!

There have been some complaints that I am blogging too slowly through our vacation pics. Well, there's only been one complaint, but since only about 5 people read this blog then 20% of the readers aren't satisfied. So I'm going to wrap up Portland and Seattle all in one blog, with lots of pics and very few words! Here goes:

Rachel had a lot of fun playing with my cousins. Emma in particular was very diligent about playing with her and keeping her safe on the stairs.

Rachel learned the word "pull" when my Dad taught her to play tug of war with Remi. I think Remi played easy on her, because she won occasionally.

Snow!

Rachel loved giving my very old doggy (14 years this month!) kisses. He was a little confused when she went for his face, so she quickly learned to kiss his side. Carmel tolerated that very patiently, considering that she did it about 50 times a day.
Someone gave these glasses to my mom as a joke and Rachel loved them.
My cousin Lucas, almost 3 years old. I got him that shirt for Christmas. :)

That was pretty fast, right? Now I only have the Utah portion to go and then I'm all caught up!