A Day At The Smith Household

Yesterday was really nice. I woke up in time for church and headed down there. There were some pretty funny stories told and great messages overall. Going to church on Sunday always makes me a little happier. The weather was absolutely amazing so Sarah and I decided to head over to McKensie's. We went home and got out of dresses and headed over to McKensie's house.
(L-R) Kens, Sarah aka Huber, Me

Once there we grabbed some blankets, laid them out on her patio, laid down and just talked. Sarah left about two hours later because her family was about to have dinner but I ended up hanging around for a few more minutes. Sarah was supposed to come back later that night because we were going to make waffles so it was decided I would just hang around until then. McKensie's family was supposed to come over for family dinner as well but I would just take a nap while that happened. I hadn't been upstairs more than 3 minutes before she came to get me telling me that I was told to come downstairs. I really did not want to go at first but knew it would be rude if I declined the invitation. I really did not feel like I belonged at their family dinner. As soon as I got down there one of her brothers almost literally PLOPS some noodles on my plate and tells me to dig in. HaHa. I really wasn't hungry but growing up in my dad's household you try EVERYTHING even if it is just a little. So... I literally put a tiny bit of everything on my plate. It was delicious. Even better than the food was the company.

This happened to be the second family birthday party dinner I have been at. They have this tradition of going around the table and saying one good thing about the person whose birthday it is. This so happened to be Kens' nephew Cooper's 3rd birthday. Everyone went around saying how happy he was, how caring he was... etc. I mean c'mon....what three year old is really going to remember that? I can't imagine the feeling of growing up and knowing that as far back as you can remember people have praised you for the good things. At Garrett's 23rd birthday (her older brother) a few months ago it was pretty much the same. As embarrassing as I can imagine it feels, I bet it feels really cool too. ( We even made joking plans for my own birthday dinner in November. I told her mom I wanted white cake and strawberry frosting. Something that repulsed her mom!!!!) I think I am going to make my family start that! haha. If not my immediate family definitely my own family if I ever have one one day! Another thing they did at dinner was to go around and do their high and low of the week. I thought it was really odd to publicly announce your low point of the week... but it was still interesting. As I asked her mom about it she said it was a great way to find out the things that had happened during the week and it is a great conversation starter for the rest of the week. While I have never participated in the birthday praises they did include me in the high and the low. I know this sounds dorky but I really appreciated it. I said my high was spending Sunday eating dinner with them. ( Totally sarcastic/joking...but it turned out to be true) After dinner we sang happy birthday to Cooper and then her mom banished Kens & I to the kitchen while the family sort of went about their own thing. That was another thing I loved. Her mom felt comfortable enough to send me off as well! Granted, Kens did the dishes while I watched and talked to her... it was still nice. McKensie had to leave for about two hours but I hung around and took her 6 yr old niece Allie on a walk. We went to a stream and took pictures. That took about 10 minutes. On the way home we wanted to play "mother may i" and that took about 45!! Once we got back her older brother Garrett took the kids to go "look at the birds." It really was an odd outing. I guess their neighbor breeds birds and there is this bird coop and I dunno... all these weird things. It was fun to go look at them though!! Once this was done I sat down with her mom, sister in law, and her other brothers and we talked for a few minutes. By the time this was done she was already back at her house and a few other girls from our sorority had arrived. While they talked I made whole wheat waffles from scratch (absolutely yummy!). It was about 10 pm by the time we ate. I left a little while later because I was absolutely exhausted.

I guess all in all the point of this long travel log is to describe how grateful I am for friends who include me in part of their families. I have never once invited a friend over for family dinner and I would find it odd if they were there. However, since moving to Utah where I had no friends or family to start with I have had three close friends invite me over. Jade, Sarah, and McKensie. I was more than welcome in each of these households. In two out of the three I have been treated not as a stranger but as family. While McKensie was gone no one thought it was weird I stayed, and if they did they kept it to themselves. They treated me as if not only was it normal that I Was there, but that they actually enjoyed having me there. I miss getting to be part of my own family functions so it was more than nice to be part of someone else's. For that, I am really grateful.