Valentine's

Valentine's weekend was so great this year.
With the long weekend, my parents and brothers and sister came down to stay with us,
and having them stay here filled our house with such comfortable,
happy "this is home" feelings.

 Nick looking through his loot after school on Friday.
And bless his teacher for having the class make Valentine's bags at school,
instead of bringing Valentine's boxes.
Seriously.

 He got this calendar for New Year's, and we've only had about 37 freak outs centered around his obsession with first drawing a circle, then an X, in every single date. Every single day.
With the black marker.
And only that black marker.

When he got the calendar, though,
he cheered and said,
"Penguins!? Penguins are my favorite animal!"
This boy. What a cutie.

Valentine's Eve my mom and I set out a little Valentine's morning surprise for everyone. My mom brought the cutest gifts and tags.
And those beautiful lilies in the background?
Kent had them sent for me. With the most thoughtful little love note, which may have made me tear up just a little.

 One of the gifts my mom brought was a dinosaur and a volcano for each of the kids.
"You're Dino-mite, Valentine."
The kids got to squirt water into the volcanoes and it fizzed and bubbled
and I don't think they've ever had so much fun so early on a Sunday morning.

We had a lovely dinner with everyone here, then we played Reverse Charades and ate chocolate lava cakes.

 On Monday morning Kent woke up sick, poor guy, but the rest of us went to the Provo City Center Temple open house.
It was CROWDED, but we only had to wait about half an hour
(the standby line was up to four hours long by the time we left!)

and goodness, that temple is beautiful.
By far the most beautiful I've seen. Incredible.

We ended the morning with a visit to Rockwell Ice Cream in Provo,
and if you're nearby, you really must try it. It's our new favorite dessert place.
And the perfect way to finish up a really lovely weekend of love.