Thursday, July 30th, Matt and I split up to have lunch with our former co-workers and bosses. I dropped him off in Orem and then headed to American Fork to meet my old boss, Jan, and an old co-worker, Melissa, at Arby's. (Matt had already had Arby's when I was sick. He wasn't impressed, but it tasted the same to me :))

It was fun to chat and hang out. Henlie got (I think) her first kid's meal with a toy. After lunch, I headed back to Orem to pick up Matt and show off the kids to his old boss.


That evening, we headed back to Orem for a picnic dinner with some of Matt's friends from MBA school. Henlie had a grand time playing at the playground with the other kids.



Friday, July 31st, we headed to Draper to have dinner with some of my friends from high school. Draper was a good middle place as some live far north now. We met at Rumbi and chatted and caught up a little bit. (Sorry, no pics.)

More to come :)

The kids' doctor's appointments went well. They were both healthy and got no shots. :) We did get Andrew's vaccination record updated, though, along with a second opinion on seeing a neurologist. (It appears to be sort of a standard thing in Peru for preemies, whereas in the US, it's more if there is something that is a cause for concern. Needless to say, Andrew has never seen the neurologist :)) 

Henlie weighed 30.4 lbs (63%), and was 37 in (75%) tall. Andrew weighed 4.73 kg or 10 lbs 7 oz (.02%), was 22.3 in long (less than 2%), and had a head circumference of 15.4 in (1%). Dr. Fullmer didn't switch it to the preemie chart, but looking at the standard chart for his adjusted age, he was spot-on.

Monday was the start of the slowing down of our vacation. Our engagements became a lot more spaced out, which was rather nice :)

Tuesday, July 28th, we had a party with the Wilson side of the family. Something about my family wanting to see us or something? lol We also celebrated my cousin Benjamin's birthday.


Mostly we chatted and ate food. Because what else do you do at parties? We sang to Benjamin and he opened some presents. My family also kindly gave Andrew some gifts. Getting some 3-6 month clothes has been helpful :)


My aunt Christine also gave him a gift as if from my mom. It was a fuzzy owl blanket. (My mom collected owls. She would also crochet afghans for new babies and weddings, so being a blanket was very appropriate.)


We took some photos with the grandparents and said our goodbyes as it was getting late (and we were used to being an hour ahead to boot) and Henlie gets crazy and cranky when she's tired.


Wednesday, July 29th, was set aside for family pictures! We used Sarah Dixon Photography, as has become tradition for any of our photography needs. Matt didn't want to drive far (or do pictures in the first place...), so we opted to take them at Salem Pond. Henlie was a bit of a crazy by the time we started, but we still got some cute ones.

Stay tuned for more from our trip!

Saturday morning dawned and we finished getting ready for our weekend trip to St. George. We stopped in Cedar City for some good ol' Cafe Rio. mmmmm Cafe Rio. (And Mexican food in general. How we've missed it!)

We got in and hung out at my Dad's house. It was a fairly relaxing evening hanging out and chatting with family. Fortunately, Ryan survived getting lost in the wilderness to make it back to St. George :)


Sunday we headed out to Santa Clara to hear Chase report in sacrament meeting on his mission. Afterward, we had a lovely lunch at Makayla's house. The weather was hot, but since Utah is dry (so dry), it was very tolerable. Nothing like the stifling, oppressive 85 degree heat we had in Lima this summer lol. (But seriously, thought I was going to die then.)

Okay, time for the rest of July 24th! (I promise we didn't spend the entire trip running around like crazies. Just the first part :))

We decided before we had Andrew that we were going to bless him in Utah, since that is where our family is. Trying to find a day was a little tricky, but we went with the evening of July 24th. I also decided not to do it in church because technically our old ward and Matt's parents' ward are not our own ward. So we blessed him at Matt's parents' house instead. 

Now, that weekend was also the homecoming sacrament meeting talk for my nephew, Chase, who had been serving a mission in Florida. (This is why we didn't do it on Saturday.) He actually got back to Utah the same day we did. We were even in the airport at the same time. Alas, we were on different airlines and so we didn't get to see him. The thought made his parents jealous though haha. Anyway, so family was congregating over the weekend in St. George, but my parents came up for the night to be there for Andrew's blessing. Since we left Grandma and Grandpa Erdmann's before they got there, they decided to stop by the condo on their way to Mapleton.


As mentioned, we held Andrew's blessing at Carrie and Larry's house. It was a fun experience asking our bishopric what all we needed to do to bless him outside of our ward, and having Carrie coordinate and check with her bishopric (since they had to have someone present) about doing it for someone not in their ward...and then not during church either. 


It's really quite a simple affair. I think we had an opening prayer and then did the blessing. End scene.



Larry presided as it was his house, and then Matt gave the blessing with everyone worthy and able and who desired to in the circle. We don't judge :) Also, we totally don't ask about these things beforehand. Culture, maybe? Probably.



After, we had some dinner (bring your own meat BBQ. Kayla took care of doing some steaks for us. The marinade was delish!) and chatted. This time, we only invited the great grandparents, grandparents, and then Matt's siblings. (Sorry to any of my side that would have liked an invite. I didn't want to cause any extra stress or feelings of obligation to those who were already traveling to St. George for Chase :)) It made it a much more simple (and manageable) affair compared to extended families and friends who came for Henlie's blessing. And a heck of a lot less food haha.

We had a lovely time chatting with everyone, and we're so grateful that we were able to bless Andrew in such a simple setting (someone tell me why doing it during church became a thing? :)) We are also grateful to all of the family who were able to make it and share in the blessing and celebration of our little miracle baby.

That night, we had to pack and get ready to head down to St. George for Chase's homecoming talk!