Roberts Reunion

July was an awesome month. We went to Stadium of Fire, celebrated our 2 year anniversary, saw the Harry Potter Finale, and finished the month off with a Roberts Family Reunion. This reunion was awesome. The reunion was held in Estes Colorado. Philips parents, all of his siblings and their spouses and children were able to come. So there were a TON of people. 

Enjoy a few pictures, okay, maybe a ton of pictures of the fun:

Driving from Wyoming into Colorado. It was so crazy because Wyoming was just filled with beautiful rolling prairies and was basically treeless, and then pretty much immediately when we drove across the state line into Colorado there were suddenly forests full of trees. You can sort of see that in this picture.

Little Miss Emily and Me

At 12,000 feet!

I just love Mallory's expression in this picture =)

Emily, Hannah, and Abby

A deer that came up close to our lunch tables

 Aimee and Emily with the friendly deer

Just like a red anthill only these red ants don't bite!

There's snow up there all year

Ashley with her first snowball

This just looked  picturesque

As well as this

Abby pushing Maddy on the swings

Big sister Emily pushing little sister Maddy and Ashley swinging along

Katerina and Maddy

The kids gearing up for the doughnut eating challenge

Jacob calmly nibbling his doughnut

Hannah and Seth racing to the finish

Philip in the grown-ups doughnut eating contest.

He totally would have won if his doughnut hadn't fallen on the floor.

Rubber band shooting

Its Logan.

 Emily and Devony at the Carnival that Doug and Sarah put together

Yummy snow cone and cotton candy

Rob and Philip and Philips lips match his shirt

Blue shirts and blue lips

Petting zoo at the carnival

Cute, clean, little pigs

Julianna, Hannah, Samuel, and Ashley with their awesome face painting

Devony, Abby, and Emily with their face paint

Jet and Maddy lovin their snow cones

Maddy and Me

 Jet and Grandpa with their blue mouths

Philip's parents took he and I paddle boating, it was a lot of fun

 Philip on the lake paddling away

At the creek flowing through downtown

I love snuggling babies! I can't wait to have my own someday!

Devony and Emily had some fun with dirt....

Grace and Philip

 A not even 2 year old playing angry birds, she found it and opened it by herself..... it is crazy how much technology these younger generations will grow up with from birth

Mallory and Me, technically she's my niece, but she's closer to me in age than any of my in-laws, so it doesn't really seem like it

Eating some frozen yogurt

Yougurtland, Yum!

The parents and the ten siblings, Oldest to youngest
Mom Roberts, Dad Roberts, Bryan, Doug, Amy, Mike, Susan, Charlotte (her hair isn't usually done so that it sticks right up, it was for a skit right after this), Warren, Daniel, Scott, and Philip

The siblings and their spouses
Jody, Bryan, Sarah, Doug, Amy, Dan, Ingrid, Mike, Susan, Rob, Lowell, Charlotte, Warren, Sharleen, Daniel, Hun, Scott, Aimee, Philip, Me

The Whole Bunch!!!

We really enjoyed this reunion and getting to spend time with family. They are all such amazing and fun people and it is just so great to be around them. I feel like I learned a valuable lesson during this reunion as well. When all 50-something of us were out and about there was a women who came up to me and asked why all of us were wearing red shirts. I explained that we were all here on a family reunion. She was shocked and commented that how could we all know each other and how was it possible that we could ever get together with everyone. Her comments really caused me to ponder. When I think about it, it does seem crazy that there were over 50 of us there, and that we all knew each other. It made me think about God and how He knows each and every one of us individually. Sometimes it seems impossible to me that God could really know us all individually, but to God we aren't a billion people, we are Jenepher, Philip, etc., etc., etc. I saw how this could be possible at the family reunion as it wasn't suddenly 50 people, but each person had a name and a face and were individuals. As I thought about the individual people, it suddenly didn't seem like there were so many people because I knew each of them. I feel like it must be this way with God as well. He does know each of us, and He loves each of us too. 

It All Ends 7.15

The Harry Potter finale. What an epic night. Philip and I decided to return to our adolescents and not only go to the midnight showing, but dress up for it too. And Philip went all out, he even bleached his hair. It was so much fun! We went with lovely Ashley, who also went all out. She got all this professional costume makeup to make herself bald and give herself pointy ears. Ashley went as Dobby, Philip as Draco, and I went as Hermoine.

Now a quick note before the pictures, I LOVE Harry Potter, but this was not always the case. I used to claim a strong dislike for Harry Potter. I had tried to watch the movies and read the books back in middle school and high school, but I never got into it and I just thought it was dumb. Well, this all changed right around the time Philip and I got married. The 6th movie was scheduled to come out while we were on our honeymoon and Philip really wanted to see it. So, Philip asked me to at least try and watch all the first 5 movies before we got married, and then maybe I would want to see it. I told him of my previous failing attempts at watching the movies, but told him I would try again. Two weeks before we were married, Philip was still in Utah and I was in Washington, so I had plenty of time to watch the movies. Luckily, the fabulous Mills family owned the five Harry Potter movies and sat through them with me. We watched all five within a matter of days. And I totally fell in love with the story of Harry Potter. The story is so emotional and provoking. It paints such a beautiful image of the struggle between good and evil. It shows how we all have been given gifts, but it is up to us to determine how we will use the gifts we have been given. After watching those 5 movies, I gladly watched the 6th while on our honeymoon, and then proceeded to read all 7 books within a few weeks after getting home from our honeymoon. Needless to say, I've loved Harry Potter since then, and was more than stoked to go see the midnight showing of the last movie.

And here are the pics:

 Scandalous! 

The before and after. Seriously, check out that bleached hair, he was just finally able to cut the rest of it off yesterday, 2 months later. 

 The best death eater drawn on tattoo ever, go Ashley

 This picture is so funny because we both made the same face spontaneously, so not planned 

Now I just can't wait until the movie gets to the dollar theater so I can go and watch it again and again!!!

Stadium of Fire

Yes. We went to Stadium of Fire. It was basically AMAZING. Best Decision Ever. Well almost. You get the idea. Brad Paisley + David Archuletta + my amazing hubby + my beautiful fun friends Ashley and Allison + fireworks = an amazing night of fun. Now that is a perfect equation, trust me, I should now, I do equations all day. Ashley and Allison and I stood and danced the entire time Brad was on stage, I'm sure this was of great dismay to those sitting directly behind us, but come on, your at a concert, get up and dance! Philip and I didn't have a camera at the time that we could take pictures with, so the following were taken by Ashley. Tragically, her camera died before Brad got onstage and before the fireworks, so we don't have pictures of that =(. 

The Stage  

Me, Ashley, Allison 

Philip, Me, Ashley, Allison 

The Liberty Bell! The dancers also did USA and Statue of Liberty formations

 And while we are on the subject of celebrating Independence day, let me show you some pictures from our window of all the people who were camped out in Provo all night on the 3rd awaiting the parade in the morning. It was noisy and loud and flashing lights were going off all night, we didn't sleep much. Those people are crazy.

 Yes, that is someone getting arrested right outside our house 

They stayed all night to have good spots for the parade 

The lovely leftover garbage when everyone was leaving. Luckily we live in America and it was all cleaned up by city workers within a few hours. 

To finish this Independence day post I'll put it plainly and simply, I love America, sure she has her faults, but as a people I think we really all do try to make this a good place to live. I'm proud to be an American! 

Sunny Seattle and Other WA Fun

Okay, so I'll admit, the weather forcast wasn't sunny when we were in Seattle, what made it sunny was the fun family we were visiting while we were there! Now, a lot of you are probably wondering.... when in the heck were you in Seattle...... Well, this is when you find out how far behind I am on blogging...... This post is both 8 months and 3 months overdue. We had short visits with Philip's sister Susan's family both before we left for Russia, and right after we returned. This family is a whole lot of fun, and we really enjoyed our time with them. Susan is super nice, and has cooked the only fish I have actually enjoyed eating, so basically she is a master chef in my eyes and is really cool. Rob (her husband) is Rob. His sense of humor is great, if you understand it that is, and luckily we do, or at least I think we do..... Susan and Rob have 4 kids, Dakota (our 2nd oldest nephew who is the bomb), Seth (who is hilarious), Devony (she IS a princess), and Jet (I'm so jealous of this little boy's hair!). We love their family so much, and are so grateful that they let us visit, and that Susan was willing to both take us to the airport, and to pick us up.

Here are some pictures of the fun we had with them:

We visited Mukilteo beach, this was a cute little light house there.

My most handsome husband

My most handsome husband again         

Philip, his sister Susan, and little Jet

(Yes, Philip and Susan look incredibly alike, their eyes are seriously identical!) 

I really like to put up pictures of Philip!  

Playing with the funny mirrors at the Pacific Science Center 

Miss Devony in the butterfly room 

In the butterfly room at the Pacific Science Center  

Philip and the space needle

Snoqualmie Falls

Unfortunately both our visit before and after Russia were really short. We are hoping that sometime we will be able to visit them for a few more days and continue to build great relationships with them. Goodbye Seattle!

Before we returned to Provo, we stayed with my family for a week. They are always lots of fun and we had a good/super busy time. Here are a few pictures:

 Philip, me, and Baylee with Great Grandma Opal

 Sister fun!

 Opal, my dad, Drew, Cody, Baylee, Grandma Sandy, Great Grandma Opal, Vincent & Kylie & Myah  Max threw us a welcome home party. It was awesome! 

 She's crazy fun

 Being goofy in the amazing Aladdin pants I bought for us in Russia 

We stuffed them with pillows, quite amusing 

I love getting to visit my family and I wish I could visit them more often! Don't worry, next time I will be sure to get more pictures of everyone else involved too! 

If Jesus Came to Visit

I don't know who wrote this poem, but I heard it in church today and thought I would share. It is a beautiful poem that reminds one to evaluate their life and surroundings and think of what they can do to be closer to God.

If Jesus came to your house

To spend some time with you,

If He came unexpected,

I wonder what you'd do.

Oh, I know you'd give your nicest room

To such an honored guest

And all the food you'd give to Him

Would be the very best.

And you would keep assuring Him

You're glad to have Him there--

That serving Him in your home

Is joy beyond compare.

But when you saw Him coming,

Would you meet Him at the door

With arms outstretched in welcome

To your heavenly visitor?

Or would you have to change your clothes

Before you let Him in

Or hide some magazines

And put the Bible where they'd been

Would you hid your worldly music

And put some hymnbooks out?

Could you let Jesus walk right in,

Or would you rush about?

And I wonder if the Savior

Spend a day or two with you,

Would you go right on doing

The things you always do?

Would you go right on saying

The things you always say?

Or would life for you continue

as it does from day to day?

Would you take Jesus with you

Everywhere you go?

Or would you maybe change your plans

For just a day or so?

Would you be glad to have Him

Meet your closest friends?

Or would you hope they stay away,

Until Hist visit ends?

Would you be glad to have Him

Stay forever on?

Or would you sigh with great relief

When He at last was gone?

It might be interesting to know,

The things that you would do,

If Jesus came in person,

To spend some time with you.