Crash Landing in Seattle

Whew! We finally had a chance to catch our collective breath this week after touring around the world (we did travel internationally after all) for the past 3 weekends.

On Monday we did some sightseeing in Salt Lake City before heading back for Seattle. We got Marinda her turkey pot pies from the Nauvoo Cafe. She had a pot pie there 4 years ago and has been craving one ever since. "I've just been a placeholder," Amit said. "Nauvoo Cafe's turkey pot pies are Marinda's true loves. I might be her Jacob, but TPP is her Edward."  Afterwards we went to see the Conference Center by temple square. "It was HUGE!" Amit said. "And so palatial." "I love it," says Marinda. "Especially all the paintings, which are all originals by the way!"

Luke magically got a smile out of his great-grandpa. Good job Luke!

Our little crawler exploring great-grandma's house

Come on grandpa McKee. We got the baby to smile and look at the camera. Where's your smile? Great picture still!

"Mom! I wanna go play!"

Us in the new mall - how fancy!

"I take my hat off to this fine city. And to chew toys."

Marinda was dying waiting for her pot pie.

Salt Lake Temple

"Can someone please get me away from these creepy people? They're kissing"

Conference Center

This is where all the magic happens...sort of

This is as close as we were able to get. Amit was hoping to be able to play the organ, but apparently that's "Definitely Not Allowed"

Cool artsy fountain

The church definitely does not skimp on decorations

Two of us are paying close attention. Marinda's just looking at a spot on the wall though.

"I love the conference center! I want to listen to conference every 6 months and be perfect all the time because I love my mommy and daddy and Jesus so much!"-our hope for the results of the trip.

Looking down on the fountain

This is the mansion where Marinda's parents met at an Institute Leadership Dance

This fountain is right over the pulpit - and though our tour guide said that officially they weren't allowed to say that there is any symbolism, we couldn't help making the comparison of a "fountain of living water"

This is the garden on top of the temple

Downtown Salt Lake

We've spent a lot of this week catching up on sleep and trying to get Luke to get back on his schedule. For the first few days he was so tired and so grumpy that he would cry every time either of us left the room, or even closed a door (even if he could still see us). Poor baby! Everything was the end of the world. But now he is back on his schedule and back to his adorable self.

One particular event was pretty funny.  Luke was sitting on Marinda's lap in the living room when he saw Amit coming from the bedrooms.  His eyes lit up and he sat up a little straighter in anticipation.  But then Amit just walked past him to the kitchen.  The rejection must have been to much because Luke just crumpled crying into Marinda's arms.  We feel like bad parents for laughing, but this is so unlike how Luke normally is that we just have to.

Luke has spoken!  Marshmallow has become his stuff animal
and he sleeps on him every night like this.

This week Luke also figured out how to manipulate his walking box to go where he wants to go!  He use to push his box until he hit something and then would cry for us to come fix it, but now he moves himself around the box so he can keep pushing!  We think this is a HUGE milestone, because it means that he is thinking beyond direct cause and effect and can now plan for the future.

Yesterday we went to the Rose Garden by the zoo to have a picnic with our friends Cameron, Ashley and Laila. "The roses there had the finest aroma of any flower my nose has ever encountered," said Marinda, imitating the fancy-pants over-the-top judge from Dancing With the Stars. "It was really just a supervised date between Luke and Laila," Amit said. "I'm not going to let Marinda stop them from ending up together just because her name almost sounds like 'Leia'"

At the garden outside the Woodland Park Zoo

Amit had his callback audition for the Seattle Ensign choir this week. "I definitely could've done better, but I think I might have done okay," Amit said. He should find out this week if he's in or not - stay tuned!