Surprises, Spiders, & Short Visits: Our Day In Murray

We were thrilled to be able to spend a day of our trip visiting friends in Murray!

Our first stop was to the office I worked at on MSU campus--though some dear friends have moved to other places, many of my favorite co-workers are there. Since it was the Friday before Halloween, the office was all decked out with monsters, witches, devils & such. I didn't take as many photos as I should have, but here's a sampling...

Here we have the bride of Frankenstein cuddling with Baby N:Susan (the above "Bride") was the only one who didn't know about our visit, so it was a fun surprise for us to walk into the office! I had originally imagined surprising everyone but figured the logistics of that would be difficult if I wanted to coordinate a lunch date as well. Everyone who knew did a fantastic job of keeping the secret and helping us create a fun surprise for Susan!

The boys were the stars of the show, of course--J gathered as much attention as possible, even taking a bag of chips when he asked if he could have "a chip", which amused everyone who saw it. He also acquired his very first plastic spider. Thank you, Cassie. :) Baby N was glad to be held by whoever didn't mind a slobbering bundle in their arms (sorry for the slobber & spit up, folks!) and I enjoyed stopping by several desks to give hugs and catch up.

Trevor headed down to the OSH department--where he spent the bulk of his time at MSU. He was glad to be able to visit with a few of his professors and left notes to those who were out of the office.

We headed to Los Portales (a Murray favorite!) for lunch with the crew from my old office:
I was so happy to have so many dear friends there! It was great to eat, chat, and laugh together. Thank you to each of you who came and made my day: Barb, Stacy, Meagan, Tracy, Susan, Mandy, Wendy, & Kathy. I know the day was busy and you had work to do, so it meant a lot that you took some time to spend with us! I loved introducing our newest boy and of course, J loved the attention you gave him. For those who couldn't make the lunch, it was fun to visit in the office--thanks for being such awesome friends!

After lunch we stopped by the office where Trevor worked while he was in grad school. No pics from that visit but it was awesome to catch up with friends there and let J run a little wild in their open office space. Trevor & I were talking on our drive home about how blessed we have been to have such amazing people in our lives--specifically thinking about our time in Murray. Both of us feel so much love & support from the "family" of people we worked with there.

From there we headed over to our friends the B family. They are friends from church there--oh how we wish we could have visited with more, but our time was so limited.

Here's Janice with her toddler and me with my baby--the warm sun felt great with the cool October air. We let the kids play outside and we enjoyed some nice down time catching up!
Our other friends, the W family met us there as well! Here are the three of us girls:

JJ, me, & Janice

They were getting ready for the party at the Church that night, and we had plans already so we couldn't stay long but we enjoyed every minute of our time together! Thanks, Janice for hosting us--and thanks, JJ for not freaking out when Baby N had a blow out on your lap...:)

As always, the visits are too short but so wonderful!
Thanks to everyone that carved out time for us--we miss our Murray family!

And...for your entertainment...the moment of surprise caught live:

(by the way, I had toilet paper wrapped around me to appear as if I was dressed up like a Mummy to join the gang in their Halloween fiesta--
and Susan is checking out the baby in my sling, not my belly)