Our summer of fun!

Well, one of the first things that happened when we were in Provo was that William lost his first tooth!! It was very exciting!


The next week, we got settled in Julie and Drew's apartment. It was very hot the first week we were there and we were looking for ways to cool off during the day. The second day we were there we got a pool pass at the pool 3 blocks away. It is such a cool pool. They don't let us bring cameras in, but I did get a picture of it the last day we were there. But here we are on the way to pool riding our bikes. Or rather, on the way back from the pool.


But the more important thing that happened the first time we went swimming was that I got stung by a bee!! I put on hand on it in the grass next to the pool and it stung my middle finger. It hurt! I have been stung by bees before on my hand even, but never has the sting swelled like this one did.

It continued to swell for the next two days and it throbbed also. I couldn't sleep. I had to lay down with an ice pack on my hand. Finally on the third day the swelling started to go down and I got some relief. So we never went back to the pool....
No, that isn't true. We went back, many times and loved it!

This is one of the sunsets out the back window. My camera has a sunset setting on it and I think it turned out well besides all the power lines and such. But the clouds are beautiful! I loved looking out the back window in the evening. I ended up putting William and Marissa out on the couches because it was cooler out in the front room, so I would go hang out in the bedroom while they went to sleep. I got in the habit of writing extensively in my journal every night, which was so great. I really haven't been good about doing that for a couple years. I was happy to reestablish the habit. Also I painted a lot in the evenings and I watched the first two seasons of Chuck also.

Where to begin?

I should be finishing the blog from our summer of fun in Provo, but we have done so much in the last month since being home that I thought I might update the present first.

Well, we got home on August 20th. I had class starting on the 24th, so we got back just in time. I had a little hiccup with school and ended up transferring the first week of class. I was going to school up in St Louis, which ended up being over a 2 hour drive each way. I transferred to the university in Rolla and changed majors and I am so happy and grateful I did. I'm doing a graduate certificate in Psychology in Leadership, which is like business psychology. It is a lot of fun and lots of hard work. My mom makes it possible for me to balance homeschooling, school, swim team, choir director, primary pianist, and a bunch of other stuff! Thanks Mom!

But, there are much more interesting things then my school stuff!! So, let's see. One of the first things that happened was that Marissa made a fort. Lots of forts. Here is one of them.

The next Friday morning we had a homeschooling party at the Kofoed's house. We have a lot of kids in our ward that homeschool, there were 25 kids are the swim part that day. We had a lot of fun!

That night we also had a ward camp out. It is an annual thing and it was so great, just like last year. We bought a new tent so that I could have room to stretch out my legs at night. It ended up being a very large tent. It is actually tall enough for me to stand up in and it can fit 2 queen size beds in it. So after roasting hot dogs on the fire, we got the tent all set up. Usually my kids are in bed at 7 or close to it, but Marissa and William have good friends at church now and they happened to be camping also and were up late. So for once, I let my kids stay up. They had so much fun! It got dark and they were still playing. William ran around with his buddy Zachary and they both had some flashlights with head straps. Marissa ran around with two other 4 year old girls, Kimmi and Alanna. They went in to each others tents again and again, giggling and completely wearing themselves out. They had some glow bracelets that they wore around their ankles so they didn't ever run into each other in the dark and I knew where they were.
Of course, I deeply regretted all this fun the next day when they were incredibly crabby. It reconfirmed to me that it is a good idea to put them into bed early and never let them stay up!

This fun picture is of a hat that Marissa made. Her friend Kimmi made the red part, but Marissa added the veil on the top and put on the dress. She was very proud.
A week or so later, it was Labor Day and we took Dad to the airport to head back to Maryland. We decided we should all go so we could head to the zoo. On the way out the door, I grabbed my camera and took these pictures of my mom's beautiful flowers! I love my camera and these flowers. They were just lovely.
So after I took the pictures, we headed up to St Louis. When we got to the zoo, there were cars backed up for blocks! We decided maybe the zoo wasn't such a good idea and went right instead towards the Science Center. It was also crowded, but not nearly as much. We always love going there. And it was even better this time because Grandpa was with us. Here are some highlights!


Marissa will often get dressed up in her ballet stuff after lunch and she just looked so cute, I had to take a picture. This is my tutu from when I was about 6. She loves it.
Hanging out with friends at the park and riding in a truck!

One day we also found a turtle. William felt compelled to bring it inside and show everyone.

On September 11, we went to a patriot rally at Lion's Club park. It was so great! They had big blowup toys, horses, a bald eagle, and a helicopter even landed right there in the park! Very fun for a free night!

One day Marissa had some free time and came up with this cool thing. She made it all herself and asked everyone else to pull her down the hallway. Very creative!

Also, she decorated this basket for Baby Day to sit in.

And she made this hair thing for herself too. She loves to make things.

A few nights ago, I went in the bathroom and found this sitting right next to the toilet. Mom and I had to draw straws to decide who had to kill it. We ended up accidentally chasing the thing behind the bathroom cabinet with the broom. The next morning it had come back out and mom vacuumed it up. It was huge!! Huge! HUGE!


Well, here is a hilarious picture. Just having fun the other afternoon.

And here is one of the bats that lives on our deck. This is the small one, but there is also a bigger one that lives there too. We have been trying to get rid of them but haven't been able to yet.

Monday morning we had our next ward homeschooling activity. We went to Lions' Club Park and played kick ball. I haven't played kickball since grade school. I've been missing so much! It is so great! I ended up pitching the second half of the game and it was a blast! By the end, I had grass stains all over my jeans, muddy boots (I didn't realize I would be playing), and I had a sore bottom. I loved it! You can see William running into third base in the first picture.

Just a couple more pictures of stuff we do. William doing his piano playing in the morning, Marissa in probably the third outfit of the day, and then the caterpillars we found in the garden this afternoon!

Well, I think is it for September! A busy month, but with great weather and lots of fun!

Our trip!!

I know I promised I would write more about our summer. So, here it is!

I guess I may as well start at the beginning. My dad and mom and William, Marissa, and I started driving out to Utah on Monday, June 28. We decided to take three days to drive out to Blanding. The drive was pretty much uneventful. Just lots of potty stops and stretching our legs stops. The first night we stayed in Salina, Kansas at the Motel 6. We stopped at about 4 o'clock and then went swimming. I accidentally erased all my pictures from the first part of our trip, but I did manage to save a couple videos of the first night from the swim, except the loading is not cooperating right now. I'll try to put them up later.


The next day was pretty much the same as the first. We did make a stop in Denver at a lovely shopping center just at the base of the mountains. There was a Whole Foods and a Barnes and Nobles. We wanted to get past Denver as much as possible, but we only made it about 40 miles up the mountains and ended up staying at a Super 8 in Dillon. They have an outlet mall there and we walked all around the mall just to use up some energy. A storm came in when we were still walking around so then we started running around in the storm and getting pelted with small rocks, dirt, rain, and strong wind. We were all wearing shorts and Marissa was the first to start crying about the rocks hurting her legs. So we ran before it started pouring and got back to our hotel. We were on the third floor and had an incredible view of the mountains and of the storm that blew in. I must say that this was one of my favorite nights of the trip. William and Marissa went to bed really quickly and I was just hanging out in my room. I had just started watching Chuck season 1 and I put on the second episode. I opened the curtains, even though it was dark, and I had such a beautiful view! The storm made everything purple and beautiful. It was just lovely- beautiful view, funny show, and sleeping, happy kids. What more do I need? (That is only rhetorical- please refrain from answering)

So the next day William and Marissa were very tired of being in the car. It was the shortest drive in terms of miles, but the longest day in other measures. We were happy when we arrived in Blanding at about 3 in the afternoon and even happier when we got checked into our hotel.

The first day we were just unwinding from the drive and visiting Granny and Grandad. William and Marissa and I went swimming that afternoon at the city pool across the street from their house. I got really sunburned! William and Marissa had pink cheeks, but I was very red all over. We had already had nice tans from swimming all of the month of June, but we were very unaccustomed to the high desert sun of Southern Utah.

At any rate, the next night the rest of the family came up for the family reunion the next day. Tyler, Sarah, Lily, Ivy, and Julie and Drew! It was so great to have everyone there. We all had rooms in the same hallway, right across from each other. The kids were going back and forth between all the rooms and having a blast checking on everyone. I might have been the only one who enjoyed it, but it really felt like we were all in the same house again.

So we had the Family Reunion that afternoon. We drove up in the mountains and checked out "The Tunnel," which is the tunnel that was dug so that all of Blanding could get water. My great grandfather helped get the tunnel dug. There is a plaque telling all about how the tunnel was dug. It was about a 45 minute drive, but it was definitely worth it.


This was the view going up the mountain, just before we got the tunnel.

This was the plaque up at the tunnel.William, Marissa, and Lily up by the tunnel.


And here is the tunnel!

It was a lot smaller then I thought it would be. And I think that William was excited to see the tunnel so he could crawl through it. He was kind of disappointed to find out that we only got to look at it. But Uncle Scott definitely made it up to him on the way back. William got to sit on his lap and drive his truck for about half of the drive back down the mountain. William loved it! It was so awesome to watch. He was so proud to be driving. He had such a great time.

Well that night all the family had dinner at the church across the street from Granny and Grandad's house. I think there were over 100 people there. It was really great to see so much family all together.

That night we all ran between the hotel rooms and played on the Wii and went in the hot tub. So fun! Sorry Sarah!! But look at my nice tan!!

The next day was the 3rd of July. But since we were in Utah, all the 4th of July celebrations were held on the 3rd because it was Saturday. We got up early and went to run a mile run at the park. Tyler, Drew, and Julie ran the 5k, but William, Marissa, mom, and I ran the Fun Run. It was so great! William and Marissa were so happy to get numbers to pin on their shirts. William ran the whole way (good thing the second half was all down hill) and we finished in 11 minutes! They both got ribbons for finishing and Marissa proudly wore her's the rest of the day.

Afterwards, we went over to watch the parade. There were 75 floats in all and it was about 2 hours long. Almost every float threw candy out to the kids. Some threw necklaces and some threw water balloons. There were horses, dancers, bands, missionaries, tractors, highway patrolmen, and lots of other things. The last thing that went by was the firetruck. It sprayed water all over the place, cooling everyone down, getting kids out of the street, and washing away all the leftover candy. It was the best parade I have been to. William and Marissa had such a great time, which probably has a lot to do with my opinion of the parade.


After the parade we went to the carnival to get some lunch. Poor Julie got so sunburned from standing in line to get food for us! After lunch, everyone was pretty exhausted from the run and then being in the sun for 2 hours during the parade. We went back to the hotel and rested. Well, some people rested. William and Marissa were too excited about everything to rest.


I think it was that afternoon that we went to the Dinosaur Museum, but it could have been the day before. Anyway, we almost always go the dinosaur museum when we are in Blanding. There are lots of fossils all over the place down there, some of them rather large. So everyone had fun looking at the dinosaurs there.

That night there were fireworks. We could see them from our hotel, which was almost right across the street from the fairgrounds area. The fireworks were so great! For a town of about 3,000 they were very impressive. I had a migraine right before that and had to take some medicine, so I was on the ground watching the fireworks sick to my stomach. Even then, they were still great!

Well, this was the best 4th of July I can remember! Family, parades, runs, carnivals, fireworks! It was just perfect. So most other days were not this eventful and do not merit this much attention from my blog!

After church the next day we took some family pictures and here are some of the highlights!


That afternoon we headed up to Provo and stayed the night so we could take Dad to the airport the next morning. We went up to BYU early that morning and went bowling with Julie and Drew. We had lots of fun! And we learned that it is better if the adults have the bumper pads up also.

In the next few days, we took Dad to the airport to go back to Maryland and then we drove up to Idaho Falls to visit Grandma and Grandpa. We had a great time there also. The weather was beautiful! Nice and cool and humid-free! I kept pretty busy up in Idaho. I got to play with my best friend from high school. Chalise and I had a great time talking about what has been happening to us the last few years. We went to lunch, to the temple, to ice cream, and also to a ward thing. Back at Grandma's house, we rode bikes a lot, played at the park and in the river, we went shopping, and we kept Grandma and Grandpa on their toes!

Here is William and Marissa playing in the river. It was so clear and sandy and since we couldn't find a pool, it was a perfect (and free) alternative.

We also went to the Idaho Falls zoo while we were there.
We also got to spend time with my cousins and their kids. Here is Angie with Abby and Nick.


Swimming in the pool in Grandma's backyard. She has lovely grass!



After four days of beautiful Idaho, we went back down to Provo. This is just a picture from the road on the way back down to Provo.

Julie and Drew came up to see us at the motel that night. We had a late swim and a late night, but still got up early to get my mom to the airport the next morning.


The next morning, we went to take Nana to the airport. We were all sad to see her go. William and Marissa didn't want her to go, but we managed to drop her off and head into Salt Lake. We stopped at Temple Square because I just like to go there when we can. We had a great time walking around the temple and the Conference Center and the Tabernacle. We also watched for the missionaries to walk by so we could see what country they were from. They all had tags of their country's flag underneath their mission tags.


That weekend we were still in the motel in Lehi. We hung out a lot by the side of the pool and with Julie and Drew. We got lots of swimming in and we watched a little TV in the motel. We went shopping and out to eat.

On Tuesday, we took Julie and Drew to the airport for their European trip. Marissa and William really wanted to go with them, but I told them we didn't have plane tickets. They said we should buy some. We dropped them off and headed back down to Provo to unpack our stuff into their apartment.

I guess I will end it here and pick up when we were all alone in the apartment in the middle of Provo for 5 weeks.