Palmyra, Kirtland and an Eight Year Old

We have had one fun filled week. It all started last Saturday when we left for Cheyenne. We stayed with Brandon's sister, Nicole, and her family. The girls had fun playing with their cousins and we were well fed (cooking is a little bit more than a hobby for Doo Sung). On Sunday we went over to Grandma and Grandpa's for a birthday party! That's right, Sophie turned the magical 8. She opened some gifts and then ate cake and FRUIT! But then we had to head off to Denver for we had a very early flight the next morning. We were up Monday morning at 3:45 AM. We flew to Rochester and then drove to our hotel near Palmyra. We stayed there for three days -- seeing all the sights and watching the Hill Cumorah Pageant. Of course, every day we spent some time at the pool.

On Thursday we left Palmyra and drove to Niagara Falls. When I first saw the "Maid of the Mist" boat tours I was so excited, but Sophie was extremely scared and since this was her trip I wasn't going to make her do something she didn't want. But then the week before we left I was talking to some people at church and they told me we HAD to do it. They told me I could blame them if Sophie was upset. So, then I was all excited again and thought I couldn't pass it up. After telling Sophie I really wanted to do it she relented -- as long as I promised to hold her the entire time. She was still pretty scared up until the minute we started to get wet. And suddenly it became fun and amazing. She took her rain coat off and laughed through it all! Well, there's another lesson learned.

After Niagara we drove to Kirtland, Ohio. We just hung out at the pool that night and then went and saw all the sites the next morning. We did all the "Historic Kirtland" stuff, then went and had lunch and finished up with the Isaac Morley Farm and the Kirtland temple tour in the afternoon. Saturday morning we drove an hour out to Hiram to the Johnson farm. We tried to find something else to do to kill a little time afterwards, but the one place we went was closed so we just went and grabbed lunch before heading to the airport. We flew in to Denver at 9:30 (but we were still on Eastern time), then drove to Ft. Collins where we had a hotel reservation, but we had to go do some shopping first to stock up for our drive home. It was a late night, but we were used to a crazy schedule. We drove home Sunday and had a few hours to relax a bit -- while we waited for the air conditioner to kick in and cool our house back down.

Then this morning we were up bright and early again, as I had to send my girls off to their first Activity Girl's day camp. They're growing up, and going off to places without me.

Clothes Cost Money

How do you teach kids about money? I think this is a problem most parents wrestle with. I have a lot of ideas, but not much that I think my kids are ready for yet. But I just solved one problem at our house. Clothes! I'm raising girls, so I know I have a tough job here. For some reason our issues with clothes almost always seem to arise on Sunday mornings. I am tired of buying my children clothes, only to have them tell me a week later that they don't fit or they don't like it anymore. So, I've handed their clothes shopping over to them. I took our clothing budget and divided it into 4 (Brandon, Candi, Chloe, and Sophie). Now we'll each get equal amounts every month instead of it going into one big pot. They know how much money they have. The responsibility is off my shoulders so I don't have to worry about it anymore. They can buy whatever they want (as long as it meets our modesty standards). And I already see them making smarter choices. Someday I hope to do this on a large scale, but right now I know if they did the grocery shopping we'd all be sick, and what happens when they don't pay the utility bills because they'd rather have a toy? Yeah, we're not ready for that yet.

Good TV?

As much as we try to avoid TV at our house, I do have something to say about good entertainment. My husband likes to hang out on his laptop and occasionally one or both of the girls will come in and hang out with him, and they end up watching crazy movies online. I don't mean bad crazy -- just things I wouldn't normally go looking for (like things about animals). They're usually very educational, and I'm grateful for those opportunities. One time they got hooked on Jamie Oliver's "Food Revolution." I don't know if it's still out there, but that's good TV. I don't really agree with all of Jamie's ideas, but I know he got people thinking and moving in the right direction. Last week I found a show that drew the girls in. I had actually seen it advertised a long time ago, but since we have so little time for TV we never got to sit down and watch it. The show is called "Who Do You Think You Are?" I love that the girls will come and sit with me and watch it together. We get to talk about all the historical events they deal with, not to mention the main point of working on your family history. So, this is my plug for a show. It's online until September 18th. There are 7 different episodes. Don't ignore more important responsibilities to go watch it, but if you have some down time it's definitely worth it.

Dressed in White

Ok, I've made you wait long enough. This is just a little movie I put together of my photo shoot with Soph. I've had this idea for a long time, but finally made it happen. I tried to do it with Chloe's baptism pictures, but the battery in my video camera died about two minutes after starting, so we didn't get far. This time I was charged and ready. Sophie was a little impatient with me after her shoot. She wanted her pictures, and she wanted them now! I wanted to make a movie and do some cute things. She wanted a DVD just like I give my clients, so I made her one. Today she went and hooked up her mini DVD player, and watched it several times. I love it. It makes me happy that she loves it (especially after all of her complaining). And the picture looks much better on her DVD player than on Blogger. Thankfully.

And since I couldn't include ALL the pictures in the movie, I guess I'll let you see them too. We're getting excited for the big day, but still no time set. They should let us know in a week or two.

Worth Repeating

We had a full day today. After all the morning routine, Sophie was getting stir-crazy sitting around waiting for 4:00 to get here, so we went for a walk. Ended up playing in the creek. I so wish I'd had a camera. The girls came home soaking wet. When 4:00 finally got here they ran across the street to the neighbors for a primary activity. As soon as that was over we had to hop in the car -- we had an appointment to get Sophie's hair done. Again, I wish I'd taken my camera to get a shot of the process. That took way longer than I expected. I was getting a little nervous, and Sophie had left her shoes at home so we had to run home quick before heading to Salt Lake. She REALLY wanted the Salt Lake temple. She has been planning her baptism pictures for months! I finally agreed to doing them on Friday (she wanted them way earlier), but then we saw the forecast and I really didn't want to be outside taking pictures in 92 degree weather. Today was the last "nice" day for a while, so we snuck it in. It was perfect, and I'm glad she didn't let me talk her in to changing the location. It all worked out. She was beautiful. And I actually took pictures -- but you'll have to wait. On the way home Sophie asked, "Can we do this everyday?" I think she approved.

Sum, Sum, Summertime

School ended and I disappeared. The girls' last day was June 4th. Two days before Chloe had Colonial Days for the 3rd graders. She got her dad to take the day off and go help out with it -- the whole day. He's a great guy.

Once school was no longer tying us to their schedule, I got to come up with my own. We started our family work camp, although I'll admit it's not quite as rigorous as I'd like. But hey, our house simply isn't big enough to spend 4 hours cleaning every day. We do 2 rooms each day, takes us about an hour total (or less when they're really motivated), and my house is looking super good. But more importantly, my kids are learning valuable skills and they have something to occupy their time for a bit.

Aside from cleaning we do math every day. Chloe got so excited at school when they finished level 3 and got to move on to level 4. They got about 30 lessons into it before school got out. She wanted to try to finish level 4, so I bought the curriculum and we've been working on it. I like to harness that excitement, and take advantage of it when it comes along because it certainly isn't always there. Sophie plays her own math games and does worksheets while Chloe is doing hers.

The only other thing we've been doing is swimming lessons. Just Chloe; Sophie wasn't interested. Chloe loves the water and she's been loving her lessons! She finished level 4 and will start level 5 on Monday. It's a lot of fun to watch her swim. She does a great job. Brandon has told her after she passes all the levels (there's 6 of them) he will hire her to teach him how to swim! I think she's excited about that.

I Love Memorial Day

Growing up my family always celebrated Memorial Day, and I have fond memories of it. We'd go to the Paris and Bloomington cemeteries and put flowers on all our ancestors graves and then have a big picnic at my grandma's. But after leaving home Memorial Day just wasn't the same. I didn't know if it was not having family around to celebrate with, marrying someone who didn't have Memorial Day traditions, or what exactly. Then I moved to Utah and realized that everyone here celebrates like I'm used to. I guess it's a Mormon thing. We honor our ancestors, while the rest of the country seems to treat it as a second Veteran's Day. I never got that.

This year Brandon was trying hard to make the holiday special for me and he offered to take us down to the Bingham cemetery where he has some relatives buried. I was excited at first, but then I decided it probably wasn't worth it. It wouldn't be the same without Grams telling us stories about everyone buried there, and I didn't have enough time to prepare something that we could teach our kids. That's my goal for next year. Instead, we decided to just do some fun things.

We started out by having breakfast out on the patio. Brandon got out his little stove and cooked pancakes for us. You may notice Sophie's plate with a waffle. She made her own, but the rest of us did have pancakes (I'm not confused). And if you really study this picture you'll also see how our house is rotting away. Oh how fun these projects are! It's never as simple as we hope, and I think we'd be much happier just living in our rotting house if we could be ignorant to the fact and just ignore it.


Then for lunch we threw together a picnic and took it to one of my favorite parks. As we were making lunch, Chloe burst into singing "God Bless the USA." I joined her, and then Brandon says, "I wish Lark was here." I'm not sure if he was just really missing her, or if he was hoping to see her sing along with us. So, off to the park we went and on our way we passed the Farmington Cemetery. What a beautiful sight that was! That's the Memorial Day I remember. Love, love, loved it!



We ate, played at the park, hiked around, and just had a great time together. The weather couldn't have been more perfect. Beautiful day. We worked on the deck a tiny bit and then had FHE, which required going to another park in town and playing some crazy "tennis ball" game Chloe invented. It was a fun day with a fun little family.