Dave's on a mission

One of the main reasons we flew home and stayed as long as we did was to see Dave off on his mission. Since living in Kentucky I feel like we have missed out on some of these major events in our families. It was great to be at the homecoming/farewell and Dave's last weeks at home. We were able to spend lots of time with him and be there for the setting apart and the sad goodbyes at the MTC.
Our last family Home Evening before Dave went into the MTC was all about preparing for a mission. The kids dressed up like missionaries, got "Future" missionary tags and helped Dave pack his bags. We ended the night singing "I hope they call me on a mission."
Since then the boys have been talking about their missions and how they can't wait to go.

Last family picture before the MTC- missing Nat and Drew

all the nieces and nephews

brothers

saying goodbye at the MTC

Mac and Gray are going to miss their Uncle D!
Love you Dave!

The mountains...

I love Utah. Even though I have not lived in Utah for almost 6 years, I still consider it home. When I fly into Salt Lake I feel a sense of pride. I'm proud of my home state. I love the clean air, the familiar roads and the green mountains. While I love Kentucky, I will always miss Utah's mountains. I know I'm biased but they truly are amazing, especially this time of the year!

Many nights were spent up in the mountains. The weekend before Dave went into the MTC we went up South Fork Canyon for a little weenie roast and games....




Soccer...
Duck, Duck, goose...
Red light, Green light...

My boys have a major crush on Shayli (Dave's girlfriend) can you tell?...
Red Rover....



Oh the memories!

Birthday Post

Gray this year had 3 birthday parties for his 3rd birthday! The first one was before we left to Utah just with our little family.
The 2nd was shared with Maggie at the Millars...
G got everything Lightning McQueen and Grandma Rita made him a quilt.
and the 3rd was really low key cause G was sick with croup but Grandma mom took him to the Disney store and let him pick out his presents. What more could the kid ask for?

Gray is such a great kid. Even when he was super sick he was upbeat and playing around.
The older he gets the more he wants to cuddle and be held- mostly by his dad.
He loves chocolate and asks for it every morning.
He has a potty mouth- he puts "butt" at the end of most sentences.
He has a great sense of humor and laughs a lot!

we love you G-man!

Drew turned 29 today! This is the 7th birthday I've been able to celebrate with him. Drew spent his 22nd birthday with my extended McAllister family. That's when I knew I loved him - true story. On his 29th birthday (today) he is lucky enough to spend it at Youth conference with 200 kids! What a lucky guy?! Drew is really amazing, he has a stressful life but seems to handle everything beautifully. Between work, family, and church service he has very little to no time for himself. I don't know how he manages to do it all but he does and does it really well!

Love you Drew! Happy 29th!

Cali

The end of May my little brother Scott returned from his mission in Italy and in a week my other little brother Dave leaves for his mission to Mexico. To celebrate the homecoming of one brother and the farewell of another, my family got together in California. We had a great week. We celebrated my mom's 53rd birthday, played on the beach, met up with some friends from KY and the highlight of the trip was spending 2 long and glorious days at Disneyland. As always I took way too many pictures. Here's a sample and if you want to read more about the trip and see many many more pictures read the post bellow....

Disneyland

Disneyland is truly the happiest place on earth. I found myself tearing up watching my kids laugh and scream with excitement- it was pure joy!Mac and Gray were both super excited to see the characters but when we got up to them Mac hid and G ran away screaming "He's trying to eat me!"No amount of fear could keep them away from buzz! The buzz ride was their favorite too...

Between Gray and Mac they rode every single ride even tower of terror- the benefit of having large children. They really liked all the rides but were scared on every ride. They kept asking "will this ride go really fast" or "will the things get me" So when we went on the jungle cruise the boys were so nervous that something was going to get them they didn't even enjoy the easy going ride. Luckily they went on it the next day too and liked it even more!

The bugs life movie!