Mijatovic Weekend

We have been wanting to go to Boise and see Zeljko and Jenn's new house since spring.  Finally, we made it happen over Labor Day weekend.  Scott was in Park City enjoying a weekend that was planned around the Howard Jones concert that he's been looking forward to for months, so the rest of us went up without him, leaving Kaysville after all the ballet classes and arriving in time for pizza with the Mijatovic crew.  They took good care of us!  We talked late into the night and woke up early, managing to get 11 kids to church by 9.  We're that good!  ;)

After church, Zeljko and Jenn prepared these delicious fried burritos.  They said that nobody has ever not liked them, so when I woke up this Tuesday and realized that I was hosting Shelter that day, I made the burritos.  They're delicious!  Greasy and delicious, as the family joke goes.  It comes from an ad we saw in China that falls under the category, "Unfortunate translations."

Zeljko helped Ptolemy gather an egg from the pretty chickens.  The rabbits weren't as pretty or as friendly, but then again, Zeljko was planning on eating them, so we didn't really want them to be too adorable. ;)

Jenn is a talented artist and interior designer.  She did most of the art on this wall and arranged it all.  Her whole house is full of evidence of her talent.

Crazy group.  Sorry, Jenn!  I promise, everyone, her arm isn't that big in real life. Ha ha

I kinda loved watching the chickens. Their adorable house is right outside the big living room window.  It sounds like a lot of work to take care of them, but Zeljko and Jenn promise it's not.  The kids do it all as part of their chores.  Still, I think Zeljko and Jenn are far less lazy than I am.  I'll just admire their farm animals.

And their half-pipe.

Zachary showed us some money his grandparents brought from their mission in Uganda.

And they even have a garden bursting with yummy little child's candy tomatoes.  The kids all decided they liked tomatoes!

After lunch, Anders was in charge of putting together a family home evening lesson.  The kids did a skit.  It was cute.  We all loved having family time just to relax and talk about things.  We were going to go home Sunday evening, but we were all having too much fun.  Golda said, "But I'm just starting to relax!"  So we stayed.  The kids had hours of fun on the half pipe Sunday evening.  They would all choose a side, then slide down and crash into each other.  Tizzy had a fake injury and cried to me, "One of the cousins kicked me!"  I'm glad they consider Anders, Zachary, Tyler and Jake to be cousins.  We sure count them as family.  I'm sure everyone knows that we met Zeljko and his parents and sister in Greece in 1996, and kept in touch.  Later, when the war in Kosovo was raging, Vladimir contacted us pleading for help getting Zeljko out of Yugoslavia and into the U.S. so he would not have to die fighting in Kosovo.  By the grace of God, our friends and family donated enough money, obstacles were removed and Zeljko miraculously made it safely to the states, where he lived with us in Idaho until the University of Idaho granted him a housing scholarship.  He converted to the LDS church, met Jenn and the rest is history.  Out of that one chance meeting came so much love.  Now we have family in Serbia and in Idaho, and we love all of them very much.  Especially now that they have given us the recipe for those fried burritos.

This is the new Tizzy.  She won't leave our sides.

This was in Sublett, Idaho, on the drive up.  The kids loved feeding the animals.  I bought a bag of food for a dollar at this kitchy gas station.  If you ever drive I-84 from Northern Utah to Boise, you might as well stop here.  It's fun, and there's not a whole lot of other options!  The 5-hour drive home commenced at 5 am Monday, so we could make it home for a full day at the pool, it being the traditional Last Day.  Thanks for a fun weekend, Mijatovic family!