Last month in Pitt

 As with everything, all good things have to come to an end.

We tried to cram in a lot of things that last month we were in Pittsburgh.  There were so many things I wanted to do that we didn't quite get around to, like going to one last Pirates baseball game.  Of course the Pirates are having a good year this year and we are missing it!

Here is a recap of our last month in Pittsburgh.

Nicole Gneiting so graciously organized a cookbook that we all helped contribute to.  She put it all together for us to print out and take with us when we move.  I'm so glad she thought of that.  Brilliant, Nicole!  And thank you, thank you, for all the time you put into it.

So of course we had to have a cooking night where we all brought our favorite recipe to share.

Heather, Nicole G, Carlee, Rachael, Randy, Marie, Jessica, Me (Kate), Natalie, Nicole J. (Luke), Jamie (Heath)

Cheesecake Factory.
Last girls night out on the town.  Thanks to Lisa for planning it.

I'm going to miss this place.

Left side: Nicole, Carlee, Kaylene, April, Natalie

Right side: Jessica, Lisa, Heather, Me, Keri

One last trip to the Pittsburgh zoo with the Johansens.

 

 I got a whole lot of pictures of these two holding hands.

They were the best of pals when they didn't have toys to fight over.  :)

Rachael's baby shower 

(we had our share of showers over the past 4 years!)

Hooray for a girl!

Top:  Elise, Rachael, Carlee, Nicole

Bottom:  Me, Libby, Kaylene, Meredith

One last potluck picnic

Kami (Charlie), Nicole (Luke), Elise, Carlee

Me and Lisa

And our best attempt at getting all of our 4th year "family" in one picture.

We are still missing the Drapers, Pecks, Shumates, Bradshaws, and Bryant.

Nelsons, Johansens, Gneitings, Jensens, Gardners, Westovers, Richins, Grants, Nelsons, Wegeners, Vests (minus Bryant)

If only we could have managed a picture with us and all of our kids.
We started with 9 kids and ended with 32 + 1 on the way.

We nearly quadrupled the amount of kids we had since the first year we moved there.

That is a lot of baby making going on!  haha

(now you know why we had so many showers!)

Another "last" girls night. (we had to have a few of those)

 Top:  Kami, Me, Carlee, Kaylene, Nicole

Bottom:  Rachael, Elise, Meredith, Libby

Last time playing at Brookline Park

 Hayden and Trey

 Jeff and Brett

We couldn't leave without getting a few shots in front of one of the many bridges in Pittsburgh.

You're the best Car!

(I'm sure you can tell which ones she took and which ones I took.)

 I got this awesome action picture of Brett!

 

These pictures are also courtesy of Carlee.

She definitely captured Pittsburgh in all of its glory.

I'm sure gonna miss this beautiful city!

 Last day of Nursery in Pittburgh.

Trey loved nursery.

Last day with the Young Women.

It was a sad day.

I think it's safe to say we made a lot of lasting memories in Pittsburgh, and a whole lot of life-long friends.  But they were more than just friends to us, these people became our family.  They were what got us through our so called journey of dental school.  I cried so hard when I left my family in Utah to move to Pittsburgh.  I wasn't one bit thrilled to move to a city where I knew no one and that happened to be thousands of miles away from the only family I'd known.  If I'd have only known what the next 4 years had in store for us and the people we were going to meet.  I won't lie, at times it was hard and downright discouraging, but I'd have to say these were the most memorable years I've had yet.  I will never forget Pittsburgh and will most definitely never forget the wonderful people we met.

Oh the memories...

 I'm kind of going all over the place here.
This is what happens when I fall so far behind on blogging.

Rewind to April.... when my mom and aunt and uncle came to Pittsburgh...
We really had such a fun week.
The weather was perfect (jacket weather)...
The company was even better...
And it was the LAST group of visitors we had before we moved.
{minus Jeff's parents who came for graduation, but that weekend was anything but relaxing}

My mom got there a few days before my Aunt and Uncle arrived.  It was fun to have her all to myself.  I'm so glad she decided last minute to come see us before we moved.  I think she'd agree.  Right mom? :)

My mom and I are bad when we go shopping together.
And that is what we did pretty much the first couple of days she was there.  We drug the kids all over the place and were exhausted by the time we got home.  But we had fun, and spent way more than we should have!

Before she came I had scheduled us an appointment for a massage since Jeff had given me one as a gift for Christmas.  It had been far too long since I had gotten one and felt it was well deserved since I'd just recently had a baby.  I had been looking forward to this massage for a long time.  My friend Carlee also joined us.  Fortunately for them, my mom and Carlee had a wonderful experience and left feeling totally relaxed and rejuvenated.  I on the other hand had quite the opposite experience.  I was too chicken to tell the lady that she was doing it too hard and therefore suffered the consequences.  My skin hurt to the touch for the next two days.  It was awful!  I guess I learned my lesson to speak up next time.  Jeff wouldn't let me hear the end of it!
[On a side note, I got a massage a few weeks later from a gift my brother and sister in-law had given me and it was DIVINE.  Seriously the best ever!  I went there thinking it was going to be a 30 minute facial and 30 minute massage and instead it was 1 hour for each.  HEAVEN.]  I can't thank them enough!

Later that evening, Jeff went to Priesthood session and my mom and I had ourselves a girls night in.  We rented a movie, got some dinner, and gave each other hand and foot massages, equipped with lotions and soaking said hands and feet in warm water.  (My mom felt bad and was trying to make up for my horrible massage experience earlier.)  We decided we needed to have more of those nights.  It was a good night.

We went on our share of walks while my mom was there. (she has this thing about making sure she gets 10,000 steps in by the end of the day, it's harder than you might think!)  I'm really going to miss walking just a couple of blocks from my house to go to the library, post office, CVS, donut shop, mexican store, and the bank.  Those were just to name a few!  It makes me want to cry just talking about it.

On Monday my mom and I took Trey and Kate to the zoo.  One more thing to add to my long list of things I'm going to miss about Pittsburgh.  We really enjoyed that zoo and definitely got our moneys worth over the years!

Kate all bundled and ready for the zoo.

We got to see a newborn gorilla, but was unable to get a good enough picture.  It was the cutest thing I've ever seen!

That evening Lori, Mike, and Ben arrived.  I made them dinner and then we took them up to Mt. Washington to see the view of the city.  I wonder how many times we've done that.  It never got old.

Unfortunately Jeff and I hadn't sold our house yet and of course ended up having more showings than we'd had in a whole month.  It was crazy, and they were all very kind to help me clean my house at a moments notice.  Thank you!

While they were here we visited the science museum.

Trey probably ran this little track about 20 times.  He didn't want to stop!

Played some tennis

celebrated Lori's birthday
(my mom and I had fun surprising her with gifts we'd gone shopping for earlier)

made a few trips up to the taco stand by my house (Ben couldn't get enough!)

ate at Pamela's

walked up to the library on a number of occasions

put together puzzles with Trey

ate a few too many donuts from the little bakery by our house

and visited the Strip

They also managed to squeeze in a little trip to Kirtland.
The rest of us stayed behind since we've been there a few times already.  My mom was kind enough to watch our kids and let Jeff and I go on a date to the Chris Daughtry concert.  I decided either I'm getting too old for concerts or it really was just too loud.  I had a hard time hearing most of the songs because all I could hear was the base.  I was a little disappointed but we still had a fun time going out without the kids, plus I love Chris Daughtry so it was worth it just to see him live.  We also squeezed in one more little date that consisted of Taco Bell and Hunger Games.  Now that was worth our money!

Trey took a liking to Ben...

My kids sure love their Grandma!

We stayed up way too late almost every night but I have to say I look forward to that.  That's when we have some really good discussions!

I'm so glad we got to cram in so much while they were here.  Writing this post sure makes me miss Pittsburgh.  That place will forever hold a special place in my heart!