a giant dog.

We had a good weekend.

Chris's parents arrived Friday evening.

They told us they were bringing something for Carly,

and joked they had to rent a trailer to get it here.

Oh dear.

You should have heard Carly's squeal when Grandma brought this through the door: 

A giant dog.

Which is adorable and already a very loved part of the family

(aka: covered in Carly's snot and slobbery kisses).

But it is seriously big.

He insists on sleeping in our bed and doesn't leave much wiggle room.

After the giant dog unveil, we promptly headed out to Texas Roadhouse, only to find the wait at almost an hour, so we headed to our trusty nearby Mexican place. We have now lived in the Mitten for 6 months and I will not tell you the number of times I have been to Los Tres Amigos.

But their cheese enchiladas are a little bit divine.

 [no more photographs, please]

Saturday morning I got up and ran 3.5 miles and then Chris and I headed over to clean the church while Carly stayed with grandma and papa, who were sorely disappointed they had to watch her instead of help clean the church. Turns out it was Pinewood Derby day. And turns out the Pinewood Derby is a big stinkin' dealio here because there were probably 300 people overflowing forth from the church building. Chris heard that some people even flew family in from Arkansas for the event. Wowzah.

We cleaned around them, which was an interesting task.

Not long after we would vacuum we'd find Doritos all over the floor.

Awesome.

But we prevailed.

Between the classrooms and the chapel I probably spent 2 hours vacuuming with one of those heavy industrial vacuums. I had an impressive amount of painful knots in my back the next day.

Saturday afternoon involved naps and watching the Jimmer show beat SDSU.

Then Chris and I headed out on a "date" that involved picking up a prescription for Carly and getting ice cream, doughnuts, and hot chocolate at a nearby Tim Horton's/Coldstone combo.

But any time alone with him is good for my soul.

It was nice.

And we made it back in time to enjoy a Penguins shootout victory.

On Sunday we sent Carly home after sacrament meeting with the grandparents.

She's been sporting a nice little cough and cold, so we decided to spare the other nursery kids this time around. Once again, Grandma and Papa were a little upset about missing Sunday School to watch Carly. She isn't very fun, and she isn't very cute. Such is life as a grandparent.

My lesson went well.

There was kind of a lot of crying on my part and the part of others.

Not typically something that happens when I teach.

We have a great RS.

[most beautiful child ever]

{off the subject but I have to share. the above picture is now our computer wallpaper and Carly saw it. I said "who is that?" and she pointed to the towel and said "towel!". crazy towel-hugger.}

Grandma and papa left and some friends came over for

corn chowder, salad, apple cobbler, and Oscar fashion analysis.

It was a nice weekend.