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!