A Made From Scratch Snell Family: Griffiths Family

I love Rochester, NY! I know people are going to think I'm weird but I love everything about it. I even love the freezing cold weather. But so far these are the reasons I love it the most:

1: I love and miss my amazing family that live out here. It has been so amazing to talk with my parents about the bundle of joy that is going to be coming to our family. I love helping my parents clean their house (GASP! I find it hard to believe that I said that myself). I love hearing about my sisters track meets and the funny things she does. I love talking to my brother and seeing how much a softy he really is. And I love hearing about what his plans are for the future (a least what little plans he is willing to share with me).

2: I love being close to my absolute best friends Sarah and Lora. Although this is going to be changing soon with one of them moving out of state. I still love seeing them! It was good to learn more about what they are doing and how things are going with their lives. I will admit at times I am jealous of them because they both have so much going for them. One has a full time job and living on her own away from her parents and taking care of herself, which is something I never did before I got married. And the other is working on her masters degree at an amazing college. But anyway I love them and how amazingly they handle the trials that come their way. They truly are amazing examples to me and I love seeing them. I'm also really happy I got to see them both this week because they both got a chance to feel Baby Snell move inside me. It was so cool to share this experience with them. Especially, because I consider them family and have already started telling Baby Snell that they are his Aunts too.

3: I love my church ward, and yes, I still consider it my ward. They really are my second family. They are amazing people who would give all to those that need it. They have been a blessing in my families lives and I am so lucky to know them, and to have their influence in my life. I loved the chance that I had to talk to my former Young Womens leader, and so many others. I didn't get to talk to everyone that I wanted to but being in church with these wonderful people helped remind me that I'm loved by so many and it has given me the strength that I needed to go back to San Diego and finish up this pregnancy and continue strong with all the traveling that Jay is doing right now.

I'm so excited that I got to visit Rochester one more time before Baby Snell comes, because originally it wasn't in the plans. Thankfully I have a loving Heavenly Father who knows better and helped work it into the plans :) . I have loved my visit so far and will be sad to leave this weekend. But I'm grateful for the chance to visit "home."

This summer has defiantly been a whirl wind adventure that is for sure! In the month of June it was so crazy I took a leave of absence from school so that I didn't fail my class. We started the month off with our week long trip to NYC, and then went for a drive to Filmore/Orem/Provo, UT, and then I flew to ROC for a week. It was a blast. Very tiring, but a blast.

Our trip started off crazy, we thought that we would be ok with taking a direct flight from SD to JFK the flights looked good and we were all set to go, until jetBlue calls and says our flight is cancled. YAY! So I get on the phone and frantically call my Mother to find out that no other direct flights are good anymore. They are all completely pack with paying customers and with standby. This was not looking good for us, but after about 5 hours we figure out a way to get us to JFK. Jay and I flew 6 hours to BOS where we then found a bus that would shuttle us the 4 hours to NYC. Once there we joined up with 10 of Jay's high school friends and our adventure began. We got see the Empire State Building, The Bodies Exhibition, the Statue of Liberty, FAO Swartz (you know where the big piano from the movie BIG is), we saw the financial district, the fashion district, the Guggenheim (spelling is not right), the National Museum of History, the Met, and we saw a Mets game. We also saw three Broadway plays, Wicked (of course), In the Heights (my favorite!), and The Adam's Family (coolest stage effects!). There is so much other stuff that we got to see that I can't even remember. We stayed until Saturday morning, and it was just a blast! I even enjoyed the part where we woke up an hour late on Saturday, making it so that we got to the airport only an hour early... normally an ok thing, but not in JFK where there are MASSIVE lines that take an hour to get through. Thankfully we got our tickets with a less than a minute to spare, and made our flight home!After that adventure and we safely made it home, we had some time to rest but not long because that weekend we drove up to Orem/Provo/Filmore for a family reunion.

We left Thursday night after Jay got home from work. I took the wheel first and drove from SD to St. George (with a couple of stops for gas), and then Jay drove from there to Orem where we crashed for a couple hours at a friend’s house. We then were able to visit with a couple of Jay's good friends from BYU, we had lunch and then William, The Pie King, invited us over to his new pad, for pie :) yummy! After our short break from driving and with an additional passenger (my SIL Squeaks) we drove for another 2 hours back down to Filmore where the family reunion was. We reunited with my awesome in-laws by playing Canasta (THE card game), and Rock Band. I think my favorite part of Filmore was playing Canasta while being serenaded by the beautiful voice of Itsy my SIL. I love how easily I can be myself and fit in with Jay's family it is just great! We then left Sunday morning to Orderville (ya, didn't know it existed either) where we went to church with one of the coolest people I know, Lora VDB. I haven't seen this girl since the wedding and have tried 3 times to see her since all unsuccessful. However we got to see her!!! So all is good! She was also wearing the most amazing yellow dress I have ever seen! I miss laughing and joking around with this girl. She is great! Sadly we had to part so Jay could get to work then next day and so that I could get rested for the rest of my adventures. We arrived home late Sunday night, and I left for ROC, this time by myself :(, on Monday night to visit home for a week.

ROC was great fun. I swam in the pool with my niece and family, played Frisbee with my old YSA group, and got to hang out with Sarah :), and I got to be there to celebrate my little big brother graduating from high school. I say that I got to celebrate because I didn't actually see him walk across the stage... I don't know how I lucked out on that one. Sorry little Bro but graduations are BORING, with a capital everything!! It was also really nice because my Grandpa & ma Griffiths were there and we got to hear them tell cool stories. Another great thing about visiting my family was that I got to take lots and lots of pictures. I was the designated photographer for the graduation, for my sister Chantle’s maternity pictures, and her family pictures, for my parents who are working out and looking great, and for the recording of my time there through pictures. I got to feel artsy again, and it was fun! I love taking pictures; it’s something that I would love to do freelance someday.

I am glad that all that traveling is done. NOW it’s my parents turn to come visit us! My sister Veronica just had her first baby. And boy is he cute! Oh and did I mention that he is also the first grandson too? Well, he is. So that just intensifies his cuteness. He has my dad’s nose and Lloyd’s cheeks. He is adorable and we are all so excited! However we are still waiting for Chantal’s little one to come too but we don't mind the wait. (Livianna, you can stay in that belly until you are good and health and ready! We want you here safe.) I just love being an Aunt and having a nephew come and another niece on the way just adds so much more fun to the summer! :) Well I hope that you enjoy the pictures, they took a lot of work to get on to this thing!

The bus from BOS to NYC