#IrionsDoSeattle

This trip.... it was juuuuust right!
We were finally able to go up and visit the Owens in Seattle 

and try not to fall in love with the place. 

We could hardly believe that all of us Irions whipped out a plan and got it done! 

Plans and decisions are difficult with this crew- we'd much rather joke around and talk about nothing. But seriously, it was such an awesome time we all took just to travel and be together. 

ADULT TRIP! 

We all know I love kiddos...but there was something special about having Irion adult time. 

We had to be a secret from the littles for a while there so they wouldn't get so jealous. That was tough cause we were so so excited. 

Here comes the photo overload. You know the drill.

The Owens found an incredible little lake house for most of us to stay in. My gosh. It was so great. Just waking up and going out into the fog on the kayaks or paddle boards. 

So so pretty. Even through all the fog

 We went and checked out Pike Place Market. That was one interesting place! 

 Sick Nasty gum wall with everyone! We even got Ashlyn to join us today!

This girl... I could never write enough about how amazing she is. Did she buy all of her aunts a beautiful flower? Why yes... yes she did. Sheesh. The best.

 Speaking of the best! My main thing on my bucket list was to eat at this Russian restaurant 

Piroshky, Piroshky! People! It was so so so delicious! Kody was nice enough to join me. We got a beef piroshky, and the classic cabbage and onion piroshky AND borscht. 

My soul was honestly SO happy eating this food. There was even a dang pigeon walking around my feet as I ate. I felt like I was back in the mother land. 

Did my heart good. 

We went to the EMP museum. Way fun and interactive music museum. I didn't take too many pictures here... havin too much fun acting like I knew how to play every instrument. 

We even put on a concert. Yes. Our band was called "Casey Come Home" 

We are heartless and put in shameless plugs for the Owens to move back to Utah any chance we got.

 The main pull to come to Seattle now was to see sweet Ali Tinkerbelle's baptism! Oh she is such a sweet, talented, thoughtful girl! We were so proud of her and SO lucky to be part of her special day.

We also got to see our "sports-guy" Tyler's football game. Love this tough sweet dude.

To celebrate this awesome day we went to this crazy restaurant for shakes and floats. XXX Rootbeer

So true. 

such. big. floats. 

Later that night we went to this awesome sushi place that had a conveyor belt that the food was just going around on! Wild and so fun.

 We got to go to the Owens ward and meet some awesome people. I even went into Young Womens with Katie and Ashlyn and Ash wanted me to sit by her... People though I was a young woman. haha The other girls wanted me to hide my wedding ring and try to go for it. But I couldn't do it. baha!

BUT before church we went to these beautiful falls. 

Pretty beautiful. Pretty and beautiful. 

Kody and I spoiled ourselves and stayed an extra day up there since I didn't have Monday classes. 

Katie went all out and we borrowed their friends CRABBING stuff! 

It was SO cool! Such a unique and fun way to finish off our Seattle trip.

 You pull your car up onto the ferry and then enjoy the ride. As we were posing for this the horn went off and this was my sincere reaction. haha Not even posing. I was loving it all, clearly. 

Katie just being a boss. We zip-tie the chicken to the 2 nets we had and then alternated throwing them in and pulling them out with the crabs! We had tongs to pick them up- but Katie...again...boss and is just goin for it! She's the coolest. 

 Holy cow....he is so freaking handsome.

 Cute Ali girl double gunnin' it

 SUCH a fun time! You can only take the males if they are a certain size, so we'd check them and put the ladies on the other side of the dock back into the water, and the men straight to the coolers. Ali and Bree kept going over to the coolers and saying sorry as we'd get more. haha But then Bree started singing "Let 'em die, let 'em die, let 'em shrivel up and die" so I didn't feel quite so bad. HAH! 

That girl. 

Here is Ashlyn stickin them into "the big silver spot!"

I'm not much of a fish/sea food person, but these were delicious (something about dipping it in lemon butter...) and quite the adventure to take apart! Such a fun thing to do right before our flight back home. Thank you SO much Owens! We couldn't get enough of Seattle! 

Just in case YOU didn't get enough.... Here is our video Kody made of the trip! Better than pictures, but I can't help myself and had to do both! It was just a fantastic trip!

Irion adult trips for the win!!

9-9-14 Celebrating Grandfather's 90th birthday!

(one of my absolutely favorite pictures of life!)

On September 9th we celebrated my precious Grandfather's 90th birthday! 

My sweet aunts had been planning this for honestly about a year... 

We had a lot of family fly in and make sure we had as many of us there as we possibly could.

It was a big day! 

There was 184 of us there out of all 198!! (a few more babies have been added since then)
Can you even believe that?!
Gosh...just the best family. 

How cute is this picture of the best daddy and his amazing children?

So so glad my mom and aunt Brenda were home from missions just in time for this! We sure missed Aunt Rosalie and always Aunt Emily. 

We just couldn't help taking a bit of a selfie when we were all scrunched together for that group pic! Wish we could've fit everyone!

We had a beautiful dinner at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in Salt Lake.

The tables had some pictures from different times in grandfather's life. Loved having grandmothers picture there at my table. We also had a little take home prize of mints and nuts- grandfather's favorite!

There was a program, of course! 

All of the Primary aged kids sang "The Family Is Of God" 

I had never heard this song and absolutely loved it! I was way impressed with all of the kiddos just belting out the song too! hah So entertaining.

The grandkids above Primary age all sang "True to the Faith"

My sweet mom and aunts (and bonus- Uncle Russ!)
sang the hymn that grandfather wrote new words to, "Our Prayer to Thee"
I could honestly listen to them all day long.

 

Uncle Russ made a video with pictures from grandfathers life. 

Then Wendy got up and spoke a bit. She is such a great speaker and 

fantastic wife and support to grandfather. 

She split his life up into 3 sections and told little stories for each... His first 30 years of growing up, schooling and becoming a husband and father. His next 30 years of fatherhood and being an incredible surgeon. Then his last 30 years of being an apostle. This part got me real good because she even talked about a highlight she had of going to St. Petersburg to create the stake, and the miracles that took place during that time. I was crying so stinkin hard. What a special place Russia is to me and my grandfather. Something I am eternally grateful for. 

She said that she also asked him if he could sum up those 30 years of apostleship. 

Well the church actually helped him with this by creating a beautiful video you can see here: 

10 highlights of 30 years as an Apostle

Grandfather then closed the night by thanking us, and more importantly- making sure that his posterity hear him bearing testimony and even leaving an apostolic blessing with us that we will stay true to the faith and never falter - just like we sang. 

It was something that I will never forget.

He is my perfect example of what it really means to put family and the Lord first. 

He is so full of love and shares that with all 200 of us. 

I am so blessed to have him in my life, and to be his Lovely Lady Lindsay