Christmas Card

Well, as hard as I try, I failed once again to get Christmas cards out this year. And from the number of cards I've received that either means that 1) I no longer have any friends, or 2) I'm not the only one slacking this year. I'm going to hope it's #2 (at least that's what I'll tell myself).

So, you know in the fall when everyone starts thinking about their Christmas cards and making appointments to get their family pictures taken? That wasn't us. We were too busy enjoying life. We waited until December, in the middle of a snow storm. And then it was too late to get cards ordered, so we're skipping the USPS this year. I know all of my loyal blog readers are well versed on what we've been up to this year, so I can skip the obligatory "year in review" letter as well. Anyway, the point is that in spite of my lack of effort and tardiness, we still love all of our friends and family and want to wish you all a Merry Christmas.

Thanksgiving - Ft Lauderdale

See, I told you things would start to slow down. November was a pretty quiet month around here. We only went on one field trip, to the BYU planetarium. I'm not even signing up for any in December. The biggest excitement around here was the opening of the new Adobe building in our neighborhood, followed by the outlet malls the following week. Oh yes, we did have a "field trip" to the outlets on opening day. The girls had been saving up their clothing money for a while, waiting for them to open.

We made a trip to Afton for Thanksgiving. On Friday we went over to Idaho Falls because their museum was having a King Tut exhibit that we wanted to go see. I knew a lady who was organizing a trip. She was going to get a charter bus to drive up, but that didn't pan out. Sophie was completely bummed about not getting to go on a bus. That kind of ruined the whole trip for her, but we still went. I thought it was pretty exciting that we could see so many of King Tut's personal artifacts.

Saturday everyone woke up sick. Isn't that a part of spending the holidays with family? I'm beginning to believe so. Sophie was the only one in my family puking. Chloe got really sick later, but she never threw up. Just had a fever and sore throat. We still managed to squeeze in a birthday party for Elsie. The bug didn't seem to last too long, and everyone (other than Chloe) was feeling well enough to go to the parade of lights. Brandon and I stayed home with Chloe. She got a LOT of sleep, and was feeling pretty much normal the next morning.

Sunday we went to sacrament meeting with my parents, but then Brandon and I left to head home. We left the girls behind to play for a week. Brandon and I went to Ft. Lauderdale on Tuesday. He was in conferences all day and evening, so I just hung out by myself. Very nice and relaxing. Just what the doctor ordered (I'm my own doctor!) We came back on Saturday, and my parents brought the girls back on Sunday. My body sure liked that eastern time zone. It still wants to go to bed at 8:00 mountain time. I don't mind. I prefer early to bed, early to rise. But I don't know what Chloe's excuse is - she was SO tired yesterday. She fell asleep on the floor during our lunch time. I finally went and woke her up around 4:00 so she would be able to fall asleep that night. I guess my mother worked her to death.

SURPRISE!

Last I left off I said I was going to get to Saturday's big event, but I really shouldn't skip Friday. It was a very full day. You see, we (Chloe & Sophie) had this surprise party planned for Brandon, and they needed me to help pull it off (I have money and a car to get to the stores). I spent the morning getting all the last minute shopping done, but of course, I forgot one major ingredient. We ran over to the neighbor's to borrow a can of sweetened condensed milk. Then we made a cake, blew up all the balloons, got the treat bags put together. I still needed to make the pie, but there just wasn't time. On top of everything, Brandon decided he wanted to come home early that day, so that made us really crunched for time. I think he could sense I was a little stressed when he got home, but I couldn't tell him why! I just had to get to work making a giant soup for our ward activity. Normally I wouldn't have put that kind of pressure on myself, but knowing they were having a chili dinner I wanted to make sure there was at least one vegetarian option, so I signed up to bring one. We let the girls get a few treats (5) from the trunk or treat, and donated all the really nasty ones to their friends!

Saturday morning was again a little stressful. I had told Brandon I needed him to come with me to run an errand, but he wasn't understanding that he needed to come when I was ready. He kept dilly dallying. Plus, I got three phone calls that morning! That was kind of a heads up that something was going on. I never get phone calls, so it was quite out of the ordinary. Once he figured out something was up, he was happy to oblige with my demands.

We went for a walk, and hung out at Cabela's while the girls threw everything together at home. When I got the phone call from Sophie that everyone had arrived, we headed home. Brandon confessed that he was nervous because of the time sensitivity of everything, he thought there might be people showing up. I told him not to be nervous, so I had him for a second, and then we turned the corner and he saw Jason & Shalee's van parked right in front of our house! His nerves came back. But he was still really shocked when he saw everyone else who showed up (My parents, grandma, Lark, Nigel, & the Stephens family).

I think the party was a hit. The girls had a blast. They planned a lot of fun things. The food was good. Oh, I forgot to mention the pie. I had to make it Saturday morning (with him at home). The sweetened condensed milk my neighbor gave me was bad, so we went to another neighbor. They didn't have any or any evaporated milk. I already had the crust laid out on the counter, so in a hurry I made up a substitute (dry milk mixed with coconut milk). I had no idea if it would work, and since I don't eat pumpkin pie I didn't even try it, but nobody seemed to notice my creation. I guess it worked.

So, after the party we all went out to eat at Sweet Tomatoes. I knew it was Kellie's favorite, I knew my grandma liked it, and I knew Brandon was a fan, so I made the suggestion. He didn't turn it down, and we all had a great time. Our guests all had a long way to head home, so we said our goodbyes there. And I'm going to add a great big "THANK YOU" here, to everyone for coming. I know my girls are cute, but I'm amazed at what people will do to make them happy. And I know Brandon sure appreciated everyone who came.

Pictures of the party can be found at this link:
https://plus.google.com/photos/104575878071086913858/albums/5804563025122208705?authkey=CIXh3JmozpvnGg

The Latest in Our Lives

I have been way too busy the last couple weeks. This is the time of year things should start slowing down, so I will look forward to that! We have had an unusual amount of opportunities to see our old friends. A week ago Saturday (the 20th), I did a photo shoot in Centerville so I took the girls with me. I dropped them off at their friends to play while I worked, but I ended up hanging out as well -- before and after. The girls had so much fun! I was having a hard time pulling them away because it was so fun watching them. I kept feeling bad for keeping them up so late, until I would remember it was a Saturday, so it was ok.

{video will be uploaded here as soon as I can sort through all the ones they took and find the best one}

On Tuesday we had a field trip to Cornbelly's -- a pumpkin patch/corn maze at Thanksgiving Point. It was so flippin' cold! I wished we hadn't gone. Sophie was determined to make the most of it. She still wanted to do everything she could. Chloe was ready to head to the car. We tried to be good sports and follow Sophie around. I know we cut it way shorter than we would have in nice weather, but Soph still got to do a lot.

Now that my computer has taken about 30 minutes to upload those 3 little photos, I can move on!

Wednesday we went back to Centerville. I had signed up for a class at my old bread store, but they called me the day before to tell me they canceled it. Bummer! I had already placed an order with Bubble & Bee that I had to pick up, and I had told my friend I would drop off her pictures from their photo shoot, and I had told the girls they could play with their friends again. If it wasn't for the B&B order I would have just canceled the whole trip. But we went. The girls actually got to play with both sets of their friends, and we were able to make a trip to the pumpkin patch to load up on pumpkins we would need later in the week.

Thursday we went back for the follow-up visit with Sophie's orthodontist. We received some really good news -- she won't need to have the surgery to put the chain in to pull her teeth back into place! That was all we prayed for. She wasn't sure it was good news, though, because she's still going to need braces. I knew that was coming, so I didn't even bother to pray to get out of that. They're probably going to start her next summer, but she'll just get done that much sooner than most kids.

And that brings me to Saturday... but I'm somewhat of a scheduler {ok, I'm very anal about my schedule}, and it is past my bedtime. I will be much happier if I wait to finish that story up another time. And it will be fun to leave you in suspense!

Ron Paul

A little after 11:00 this morning Brandon IM'd me. He sent me a link to a story announcing Ron Paul would be in Orem today -- at 1:30. We kindly thanked the news reporters for being so prompt with the announcement. Brandon had a meeting at 1:00, so there was no way he could make it. I sat and debated back and forth about whether I should go, but I finally decided I just had to. I'm supposed to be teaching me children, and what better education than getting to go see someone like that speak. Doors opened at noon, so we quickly threw some lunch together (a jar of peanut butter ended up on the floor), and took off. It was really fun. While standing in line, a truck pulled up right in front of us and starting passing out all kinds of free stuff -- t-shirts, books, posters. I got a book (Latter-Day Liberty, looks pretty cool)! I was going to post some pictures I took, but then I just saw the story on KSL. The video summarizes what we saw, and if you look at their pictures, they're just as fuzzy as mine would be. Several people in the video are ones we met in line waiting to get in. That was fun for the girls to see. They were sad we didn't get in any shots, but I told them that's what they get for refusing to stand up and shout and wave. I did a good job of embarrassing them :)




http://www.ksl.com/?sid=22597067&nid=148&s_cid=rss-extlink

My Less Miserable Birthday

Another year older -- and wiser too? I'm not sure about that. But we did have fun celebrating. My birthday was kind of a chaotic day. Well, a little bit. My landlord had to come work on my garbage disposal, and the whole day we had someone here fixing our radon problem. That brought more excitement than usual. We still got most of our work done. I ground some wheat so we'd have flour, but I didn't want to make dinner. I was sure Brandon would want to do that for me, but then we found out the girls weren't willing to help him, and we were so short on time that I pitched in and did a lot. We barely got dinner made when we had to shove the girls out of the house for one of their activity days. They ate their dinner on the way, while Brandon and I sat down to a peaceful meal. I'm not sure what he'd had at work, but he actually never touched his dinner. He ended up putting it in the fridge for lunch the next day, but I still enjoyed our conversation while I ate.

Brandon and I watched a movie (October Baby) while the girls were gone, and I took a few phone calls. After they got home we quickly opened gifts, and then headed out for my birthday ice cream.

My real celebration came a couple days later. I had requested a trip to see Les Miserables at the Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City. My parents offered to pay for our hotel as my gift, so they brought grandma and came along. We met them in Provo on Friday for lunch, and then drove down all afternoon. We went out to dinner, and then made it back to the hotel with a little time left for swimming.

Saturday after breakfast we ended up at the Frontier Homestead State Park. They had some cool quilts my mother was excited to look at, but the special part was they had one quilt on display honoring someone's 50th wedding anniversary. They had made the quilt to match the 6 dresses of their 6 daughters from an old family photo that was on display. But while we were there, the mother and all 6 daughters came in to get their picture taken next to the quilt. That was pretty neat to witness. We checked out all the carriages and pioneer houses they had.

Then we made time to stop by the pumpkin festival. Sophie had seen a sign for it and was very interested. They had all kinds of games for the kids: ping pong toss, pumpkin seed spit, cake walk, eat the doughnut off the string, balloon animals. And they got to pick out a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch. Chloe won the grand prize when she spun the Wells Fargo wheel, and got a frisbee and a full size candy bar! Sophie also landed on a space that awarded her a candy bar, but she opted for a pen instead. Kind of surprising, huh? They had so much to do, but we were in a bit of a rush. Had to get to lunch before our show started!

We had a very delicious and filling lunch, then went straight to the theatre. The show was very good. I've read the book, Chloe has listened to it on CD, but Brandon and Sophie had no background. After a couple discussions I think Brandon now understands the storyline. Here's a great big thank you to everyone who made my birthday special.

Oh, one last thing: do you have a cool bank? I do. I've been very happy with my bank, ever since my old one got shut down. What a blessing! But look what they sent me for my birthday -- what kind of bank encourages you to be less materialistic? One that I'm happy to do business with.

Moving Van

Yesterday we took a little break from school and went to Logan to help Ross and Melanie move. I miss the days of owning such few things. We had them out in such a short time. My van held almost all their boxes, and my dad took the furniture in his truck. He had to go back for a second trip, while I escorted my mom to the Verizon store. Sure made me appreciate Ting even more! Then we all got to go out to dinner. Not a bad way to spend a Thursday. Oh, and we got some Nigel time in :)

BYU * MINE * BRIDAL VEIL FALLS

We're still staying active. I know winter is creeping up on us, so things will slow down, but for now we still have a lot of things to see and do. On Friday we got to attend a puppet show of "The Man Who Planted Trees." There were two actors, and two puppets. These guys from Scotland travel around putting on the show. It was a very intimate, lovely show -- and got several laughs. Here is Sophie outside the building we saw it at, on the BYU campus.

Then later that afternoon we had another field trip (what's up with us planning two field trips a day!) -- a family one. Brandon's been wanting to take us out to the Kennecott mine. We wanted to take Mamkio, but she wasn't interested in it, so we waited. Then our school planned a field trip for a little later in October, but it was on a day Brandon couldn't go, so we decided to go on our own some other day -- but then they sent us a message saying the mine would be closing Oct 7th, so they just sent us a coupon to use on our own. Works for us! --- BUT, then I went to their website and noticed they were having a free admission period anyway. So, we were covered anyway we chose, and we finally went. Here is my panoramic shot of the hole in the ground:

And to give you a little perspective, if you can pick out the little trucks in the picture above, this is how big one of their tires is:

And some facts about the tires:

My family studying the hole:

Chloe is working hard to get pictures of me, so she always offers to take the camera.

Then we had an unexpected "field trip" on Monday. I found out my cousin from North Carolina was in town, and she kindly invited us to crash their party. We ended up going back to BYU. This time we got a tour of the campus. It was really fun to just ride around on a golf cart and learn interesting facts. Erin & Andrew got to reminisce since this is where they met, and they were here celebrating their 15th anniversary.

Their son was a little ball of energy and wasn't as content as I to just ride on a cart, so I kept him preoccupied with my camera.

After the tour we explored the Museum of Art. They had a new Andy Warhol exhibit that was cool to see, and this mylar balloon room was fun for the kids to play in.

Next, we went over to the Eyring Science building. They had a few things that were interesting to play with. The vortex cannon scared me! That thing is powerful. Then we took our starving children over to the Wilkinson Center and battled all the hungry college students for some lunch. We took our lunch to go, so we could have a picnic, but we needed to make one stop first. The BYU Creamery. Oh my goodness, that ice cream was good. Sophie and I both chose the mint brownie, and I would highly recommend it. We ate our ice cream on our way up the canyon, and stopped at Bridal Veil Falls for our picnic. After eating we just hung out, watching the kids play in the water and visiting. Sorry for Sophie's crazy face. I would have reshot it if I had known.

A fun, candid shot of everyone:

Andrew was actually posing for this:

Here's their family:

And the kids feeding the fish. They have so much fun doing this. Sophie begged me to do it, which doesn't bring me any satisfaction, but she told me it would make her so happy if I would -- so I did. I like to make her happy.

You may have noticed we got to spend the day with a girl in a wheel chair. As soon as we got in the car to leave Sophie told me, "That was interesting. I just finished a book about a girl in a wheel chair." That's all she said, but I know it was a positive experience for her.

Rowley's Red Barn

We had a field trip yesterday at Rowley's Red Barn in Santaquin. We made it all the way down there, and had a really fun time. It was just a tad bit on the warm side, but overall a really nice day.

We started off with a wagon ride out to the apple orchard. We got to pick an apple from the tree, but the pickin's were slim!

Sophie with her apple:

I got to sit and listen to the farmer talk about apples, and other fruit trees. Then we took off for the slide! We were one of the first people there. I told the girls to get to it before the long got long. They went back later for a second turn and had to wait quite a while. I went first so I could be at the bottom when they came down. It was pretty fun -- and now Chloe is asking Brandon if he can build her one of these.

Then we walked through the maze of crates. A little different than a corn maze, but the same idea -- I guess. There were a few "helpers" who wanted to show everyone the way through. I asked them what the point of a maze is, if you have someone directing you at every corner. Doesn't that take the fun out of it?

Then I got a picture of the girls next to the wagon while we waited for the others. Then the girls got back in line for the slide.

I was trying to take a picture of Chloe on the wagon, but she wasn't being a good sport. Sophie told me I could take her picture, so I did.

When the tour was over I went and did a little shopping in their store. We got a bunch of peaches to can (and it sounds like Brandon wants to make a pie with some), I found a really good book on canning, and I got the kids a treat to eat on the way home. None of it spilled!

When we got home I had about an hour to work with the kids. I was honestly ready for a break (AKA a nap), but the girls wanted to work, so I helped them. Then Brandon came home a little early and I turned around and made the drive again. His department planned a field trip of their own, to the new motion picture studio out by Goshen. I was really excited to go, but he delayed in replying. When he finally did they were already full, but they put him on a wait list. Later he heard that they had room for us so I was very happy! I guess it was just bad timing that I had two field trips so far away on the same day. With him being on the wait list I guess we didn't get the word that we were supposed to bring our own chairs. It turned out ok, we just sat on the steps next to the buildings, and it was shaded there. I was starving, though! I had packed us a meager lunch to take to Santaquin, and then we didn't have time to eat dinner before the next trip. Once the stomach pangs went away we had a good time. They broke us up into groups and took us on a tour of the set. I took several pictures, which they said was fine for personal use, but asked us not to publish them on the internet. So, I guess if you want to see them you'll have to come visit. It was a cool tour, and I'm so glad we were able to make it. Afterwards we stopped and grabbed some dinner, and then I was really good.

Today was date day with the girls. Sophie and I went to see "The Odd Life of Timothy Green." She told me it was different than she expected, because it had a lot more than what was in the trailer. Wow! I hope she wasn't expecting a 2 minute movie.

Boondocks & Capitol Reef

So, what do I have to talk about this time? A few things. Last week I finally had a chance to take the girls to Boondocks. We've needed a "fun day" for a while, but I've been waiting for a good Tuesday to go, when it's only $12. I thought it would be good to wait until after school started, but it was eerily uncrowded. I didn't mind too much, but the girls thought there should be more kids there. There was some company who sent their employees for the day, so it was pretty much just us and a bunch of geeky men. We played 2 rounds of miniature golf, rode the bumper boats at least 4 times, the speed way several, and lots of the 4D movies and flight simulators (Sophie did not like the ones that went upside down).

The following day we had a hike to go on with a group of homeschoolers. We hiked up to Battle Creek Falls in Pleasant Grove.

Friday we took a little vacation and went camping. Finally made it to Capitol Reef. The first thing on our agenda was to find the open orchards so we could go pick some free fruit. They only had apples and pears at that time, but that was good enough. We got several apples and filled our bellies. We drove around and stopped at a couple of the historic sites -- the schoolhouse, the petroglyphs, and the Gifford Homestead. Couldn't pass up the pies there. Then we went back to our campsite to make dinner and eat our pies. Then we went for a short hike and wandered through another orchard before it got dark. Our neighbors all quieted down by 10:00, and we had a good nights sleep! Our first camping trip this year we didn't freeze! I could have stayed another night. In the morning we packed up, and then went hiking. We drove the scenic route and stopped at a few places to climb on the rocks. I don't know what it is about those rocks, but the kids just love them.

You can view all the pictures from camping here.

Sunday I made a decision I've felt needed to be made for a long time. I closed my kitchen. I don't know how you do things, but I've never been one to believe in being a short-order cook for my children. You either eat what I make or you don't. More often they choose not. So, what's worked for us for quite a while (years) is that they make their own breakfasts about 1/2 the time (if we have pancakes or muffins they'll eat what I make -- usually), they always make their own lunches, but I insist that they eat dinner with us. If they try it and don't like it they can get some fruits or vegetables to supplement, but not much else. Well, being responsible for themselves for such a long time you'd think they'd be really good at taking care of themselves. But they're not. They have such a hard time with the clean-up. I don't want to be too hard on them and be nitpicky about every crumb, but it really bugs me! I finally decided that if I want my kitchen to be as clean as I need it to be, that I have to be in charge of it. So... no more making their own meals. They now have to eat whatever I fix for them. They thought it was going to be miserable at first, but they're doing pretty well. I think they even like feeling like I'm serving them. And I gave them the privilege of filling out the menu so that they get to pick the meals I make. But just between you and me, I absolutely hate making the menu (one of my least favorite chores), so it's a win-win.

Monday night David McCullough was speaking at UVU -- on Constitution Day. But it was FHE, so unless we made it a family activity I couldn't go. My family didn't want to go, so we didn't. I only mention it so some day they will know what a huge sacrifice I made for them. And maybe you can offer me a little sympathy?

When You Don't Feel Good

What did I do last week? To start off with, last Saturday we got up bright and early to go to Centerville (where else?) for Makenna's baptism. We couldn't miss that! We joined the Stephen's for a little luncheon afterwards, and then headed up to Brigham City. Met my parents, grandma, Lark, and the Tooele Bateman's for a very early dinner (we don't usually eat dinner at 2:00). We tried to have a picnic in the park, but the rain interferred, so we had a picnic in the van! Good thing we still hadn't put the seat back in from when Mamiko was here. Then we ventured over to join the zillions of people there for the Brigham City Temple open house. They did a nice job with this temple -- very cute, and loved the peach blossoms and local paintings everywhere. My feet were done long before the tour was. I wish I had been smart and just taken my shoes off, but I didn't. They recovered sometime that evening.

My throat had been a little scratchy/sore all of Saturday. Sunday I woke up feeling congested on top of that. If it hadn't been my turn to teach primary I probably wouldn't have stayed home. Instead I went to church and made everyone scared who looked at me. In fact, I had to help out with Brandon's class after mine was over, and I used it as a threat to keep his darling children in line. I threatened to cough on anyone who misbehaved. Surprisingly, it seemed to affect to a few (he he he).

By Monday I needed a day off. Good thing it was Labor Day. Brandon had planned to work that day, and trade it for another, but staying home he got nothing done. He did a great job playing teacher for the girls (they too had wanted to keep it a school day), but that only lasted for the morning. Then he changed the oil in our cars. I know there were a lot of other things, but I was a little out of it.

Tuesday I begged for a day off. I knew the girls could do their work on their own, I just had to convince them. They were so great! They left me alone all morning, and were so quiet. I was actually starting to feel some improvement. Chloe came and offered to make me lunch. They let me eat lunch in bed, and then I felt well enough that I wanted to read to them. We were in the middle of our fascinating story when the doorbell rang. And everything went downhill from there. They have these friends that show up every day, and they stay forever. I like having their friends over, but it's getting to be a bit much.

Wednesday I thought I needed to get back to work. My house and my kids really needed me. But I really wasn't ready. I think I just made myself worse. We did get a lot done, but by the end of the afternoon I was ready for another day off. Brandon had been a saint the whole week. He took care of everything I couldn't.

I was determined to be better on Thursday. The rest of me didn't get the message. We came up with a new rule regarding friends. No more than one hour per day at our house, then they must go outside or to someone else's for for another hour. No more than two hours a day with friends max. That sounds like a ton, doesn't it? My children think it's pretty harsh. Brandon had a programming thing to go to Thursday night, so we skipped our date. Sophie went over to a friends, and Chloe and I made 2 loaves of zucchini bread and froze 12 cups! I may not have a garden anymore, but I have neighbors who do :) I'll take all the zucchini they want to bring me (and it keeps coming).

Friday I was just about there. In addition to all our regular work, I got laundry and grocery shopping caught up. My house was starting to look put back together. I went to the farmer's market and loaded up on ingredients for peach salsa! I was so late getting that done I didn't have time to make dinner, so we just had corn-on-the-cob I just gotten at the farmer's market. Yummy! And then I made a batch of granola bars later, when I had a spare minute.

That brings us to today. Full circle -- another baptism this morning for our new neighbor (and she's in my primary class), and a baby blessing for her little sister. Then we went over to their house for lunch. Brandon was busy participating in another programming contest. We had to run to the store for a couple things I forgot yesterday, and then we got to work on all those ingredients for my peach salsa. I got 7 pints canned. And then when we were done I realized we had no tortilla chips to try it out on :( I think tomorrow I'll see if I can't whip up a batch.

No More Mamiko

Last we left off we were packing for our next adventure -- to Afton, Wyoming! Yes, it's that time of year again when we get to go to the Lincoln County Fair to watch the impressive talents of the Tap Classics (classic? yes).

Then we spent the rest of the afternoon playing around at the fair, ate dinner there, and then went to the rodeo.

On Sunday after church we thought it would be fun to take Mamiko to see the fish hatchery. Wouldn't you know it, they were closed! Go figure. But my dad (in true Todd style) just went right up to their house and asked if we could go in anyway. We got permission -- which put us all at ease. I'm not the only one in my family averse to trespassing.

Back at Grandma's house the girls got in their trampoline time, as well as fell in love with the neighbor's new kitten. Unfortunately the kitten made Chloe way too sick and we had to ground her from it, but the other girls would sneak out to play with it whenever they could.

On Monday my dad had to go to Bear Lake to do some work at my grandma's, and for some reason I thought it would be a great idea to tag along. I wasn't thinking that we'd have to take 2 separate vehicles, so I'm not sure what we really saved, but it gave us a good excuse to go to the lake. We had actually told the girls earlier in the summer we'd go sometime, but then we weren't sure how to fit it in -- but magically it happened! Brandon was gracious enough to go help my dad, and Mamiko now thinks we paint our driveways in America.

We had to hurry home from the lake because we had an appointment that evening. Mamiko's one and only request was to ride a horse. I knew my dad could hook us up, and he came through. Mamiko went on a ride with my dad and his neighbor, and after they got back Sophie got to ride around the property for a bit.

You'd think we'd be about done here, but I'm not. Tuesday morning we got up early and headed north. We stopped in Jackson to play tourists. Mamiko is no more a shopper than I am (or apparently my children). No one was really enjoying it, so we just headed on up to the park. We stayed in Grand Teton National Park in hopes of finding a campsite there. We couldn't find any vacant sites to make reservations at in Yellowstone, so this was good. We camped at Lizard Creek, right next to Jackson Lake. We were hoping to stay 2 nights, but the next morning when we gave Mamkio the option of camping again or going back to my parents she chose the latter.

That meant we had to fit all our Yellowstone plans into one day. It wasn't ideal, but we gave it a good shot. The girls have now seen Old Faithful erupt 4 times this summer. I think the miraculousness of it was starting to wear off of Sophie. Just as we decided we were done and it was time to leave the park we saw this amazing waterfall. I made a spit-second decision to pull off and go check it out. That was the best move of the week. I got high approval ratings for doing so. We stopped in Jackson on the way home to stock up for breakfast and called my parents to let them know they'd have visitors for one more night.

We hung out at their place all day on Thursday -- did some tidying up. We bribed the girls with Red Baron milkshakes, but we ended up going out to Pizza Hut for dinner as well so it was a completely indulgent evening. In fact, in this week alone I broke every single one of my dietary rules. I fell off the wagon, but I'm getting back on track. We were going to leave Friday morning to head to Laramie, but the girls had started a puzzle the night before and they became addicted to finishing it up. My mother was supposed to be at work, but even she couldn't pull herself away. That's ok, I told them they were only losing time in the pool. It got so late we had to have lunch before we could leave! We quickly threw some sandwiches together and ate them in the car. We got to Laramie, checked into our hotel, went out to dinner at what the internet had told us was a Japanese restaurant only to be told by the lady running it that she was Korean, and then went back to the hotel to swim.

Saturday morning the Kangs came over and swam with us. Afterwards we went up to our room and got cleaned up, and then met everyone over at Grandma Rosemary's for the reunion. The weather was a little unfavorable (windy and wet), so we hung out in the garage for most of it. The aunt and uncle who traditionally bring homemade ice cream with their own waffle bowls couldn't make it this year, because Brandon's aunt's brother was just killed in Afghanistan. He was a Command Sergeant Major, and if you click the link Rachel Maddow will explain what a big deal that is. So, even though we missed the ice cream, we missed seeing his family more, especially knowing what they were dealing with. We are grateful that we made it to the reunion and got to see those who came.

Again, we were hoping to camp on our way home that night, but knowing that Mamiko didn't enjoy it so much the first time, and it was even colder and raining in Laramie we decided to pass and just drove straight home. It made for a long night, but it was good to be back in our own bed.

We were grateful for our Sunday as we finally had a day of rest! Monday we just ran errands and tried to get the house back in working condition. We went up to the flight park and watched the paragliders from the top. We hadn't done that before. Tuesday we had a fun day planned, but the girls were being naughty and got it taken away, so it turned into a very un-fun day. Wednesday we went to the gardens at Thanksgiving Point with my neighbor. She was so excited to show us around.

Thursday we needed something fun to do, but I was running out of ideas and we were tired of running all over the place, so we just stayed home and made some cookies (they were even vegan -- getting back on track, remember?)

Friday we got to go to a Japanese film! It was truly quite miraculous. When we were at my parents house Brandon and the girls were talking to Mamiko about anime. I was on the computer, so I pulled up some pictures to show the girls to help them better understand what it is. In doing so, there was a link on the side to a Japanese film maker whom Mamiko pointed out to me, and told me he was her favorite. She was telling me something about Ghibli (I could barely pronounce it, let alone knew what it was), but then I saw a link to onlineghibli.com. I asked her if that was what she was saying -- and it was. So I went there, and lo and behold what do I see? "Upcoming Cities for the Studio Ghibli Retrospective, New Studio Ghibli Museum Exhibition" And Salt Lake City just happened to be at the top, and just happened to currently be playing. So, I asked Mamiko if she'd like to go to one of the shows. Yes, she did, so now she had a few choices. Her favorite one just happened to be starting on Friday, so we took her to that. Afterwards, we ate dinner at Noodles (Chloe's request) and then went to City Creek. It was our first time there, so we have now experienced the new downtown Salt Lake City. Chloe even bought something! Matching shirts for her and her sister. Then we walked around Temple Square for a bit, until it got dark, and that was our sign we needed to go home.

We had to take Mamiko back on Saturday. We had more sprinklers at the Centerville house to fix, and Chloe's friend had been dying the whole three weeks (and before) to meet Mamiko so we stopped and fixed the sprinklers and let the girls play for a bit before we dropped Mamiko off. They had a little program, had some kids speak about their experience, and then showed a little movie they'd made before we said goodbye.

And now we're back to real life. We're trying to get back into a good routine. School started for our district yesterday (the 21st), but a bunch of our neighbors from Centerville were meeting at Thanksgiving Point to do the museum, so we met them there. It was good to see everyone, and so great for Sophie to get to hang out with her best friend. It's been too long! I haven't had time to even look at my pictures from that day, so I'm going to skip them for now. This has already taken me long enough to get this much done! I'll come back and add the pictures later, for anyone interested. But now I've got to go get some exercise -- my neighbor is waiting!

Too Much For One Small Title

I need to get back in the game here! Sometimes I don't write because I have nothing to write about, sometimes it's because I have no time to. This time it would be the latter. We have been so busy -- not in the uncomfortable way that I preach against, just lots of fun stuff. Like...

• a mermaid birthday party for Makiah.

• A mother/daughter tea party.
• Hanging out with Dallas, Evan, Makiah, & Daphne for an evening.
• A super fast trip to Afton to work on my parents computer that we broke.
• Speaking in Sacrament -- oh wait, did I say fun stuff. Maybe it wasn't all fun!
• Working on our yard in Centerville, again not so fun for us, but for the girls who cherish any trip to Centerville.
• Picking up our exchange student, Mamiko.
• Going out for smoothies.
• Opening gifts from Mamiko.
• Going to Cabelas to look at the animals.

• Playing lots of UNO (and other card games).
• Making play dough.
• Making chalk paint.
• Driving the Sunset Loop (is that what it's called?) over the mountain from Draper to Lehi.
• Science experiments!
• Went to Park City -- rode the Alpine Slide! And did some shopping.

• Hiked to Donut Falls, actually made it to the donut this time!

• Learned I have muscles that don't get used traipsing around Traverse Mountain :)
• Quickly hiked around Silver Lake

• Brandon took Mamiko miniature golfing while I took the girls to "Wicked"

• And today we are resting: going to the park, playing with friends, getting ready for our next trip... stay tuned!