Baltimore Trip

We took a fantastic trip to Baltimore to visit Ann and Andrew. They worked really hard the whole time we were there to make it to "favorite" aunt and uncle status. (Others beware: you have a hard act to follow!)

Now that we live in the middle of nowhere, no trip to a big city is complete without a stop at Target. Sammi insisted on getting her picture taken on this big red ball outside the store. So of course little sister, Elli, also insisted she get her picture taken on the other one! They are quite the pair. Sorry, we only had our phones for pictures so most of them aren't that great.
While in Baltimore we visited the zoo on a ridiculously hot and humid day. Unfortunately, we weren't the only ones who thought to go and the zoo was overrun with school groups. It was Brent's worst zoo experience and my second worst (the absolute worst for me involved a lot more crying.) We also visited the Science Center and had a fun, fun time there. We loved the dinosaurs and the lie detector test and the science in action room. Oh, and we had tons of fun in the little kids room with a water table, a play zone, a building area and a giant thing where you push the pins through back and forth and make hands, faces, feet and all kinds of shapes.
We spent a fun day in D.C. We made the mistake of asking a police officer the best way to the Smithsonian museums. He sent us up a boring street about 8 blocks. Only to find out when we got there that we had been one block from the museum we wanted to go to when we asked him. Must have been his first day. We walked 5 or 6 miles that day, but we got to see one museum, eat lunch in a quaint little burger joint and see the Washington Monument lit up at night. The girls were troopers with hardly any complaining or fussing from them. They loved the strollers and the times the chose to get out and run around. It was a long day and there was so much more I wish we could have seen. But in the end, we loved what we got to do. (Which also included visiting with a former companion of Brent's from his mission. We chatted for about half an hour in the shade outside the White House.)
Brent and I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the D.C. temple, thanks to great babysitting by Aunt Ann and Uncle Andrew. We needed to do some laundry so our church clothes would be clean. We were a little behind schedule with that and the dryer was taking longer than we thought. We were worried we'd miss the distribution center and we desperately needed to make a stop there. We kept checking the clothes and they weren't dry. Then at the last moment when we could still make it, I checked one more time. My skirt was dry, Brent's pants and shirt were dry. I checked the rest of the clothes. NOTHING else was dry. It was all too damp to wear! We felt the like the Lord blessed us with that little miracle so we could get to the temple and the distribution center before they closed. We had a lovely time and were able to do sealings. We were a part of a family file set and witnessed a whole family, mom and dad and their son and 6 daughters, sealed together. The mom of that family was also sealed to her parents. It was so cool to see a whole family at once be sealed together.

Sammi's highlight was playing blocks with Aunt Ann and Uncle Andrew. And she loved attending the baptism with them on Sunday after church. My highlight was all the friends and family we got to see who happened to live out there as well. Brent's was discovering my friends' media center and making plans to build his own (probably not actually his highlight, but the most talked of thing since we've returned.) And Elli loved going to the park across the street and all the chances she had to play, play, play.

p.s. We're looking forward to seeing more family in a few weeks!

Halloween 2009

Here are some pics from Halloween. Elli's costume was really warm so she only wore it when we were outside. It also happened to rain like crazy last night so we didn't take many pictures of the actually trick-or-treating. Sammi was confused when Brent brought her back to our friends' house. She said, "We can't be done yet. My bucket's not full of candy!" What a cutie :)

Updates and Pictures

So this is our last weekend before Brent goes to COT (officer training). I'm looking forward to spending the whole weekend together. We even get to go to the temple this afternoon! I'm rather nervous about his month-long absence and being a "single-parent." Fortunately we're here still in Utah where I have lots of family and friends to help me out, entertain me and generally make the time pass more quickly.

We went to CO last week to visit family and friends and to see Jonson graduate from college. We didn't know until we got there, but his graduation didn't start until 7:30 PM! So, we hung out with him in the afternoon, but we didn't go to the actual ceremony. Sorry! But we are very proud of him for reaching that goal and wish him the best at graduate school if he decides to stay in the country long enough to attend all his classes! Silly silly us, we forgot the camera. Very unfortunate since we had some really fun times.

While we were in CO we heard from a gal in TN that made a final decision about selling her house. She's not going to, which means that she wants to rent it to US! Yeah. It's big with a front room AND a play room. The backyard is HUGE and we're going to put a fence up so the girls can play and play and play outside while I do dishes and laundry and clean. (Or maybe I'll just sew and read and blog!) For those familiar with the area (all one of you, Jenny, who read the blog!) it's in Cumberland Gap but I think it's pretty close to the church.

You all know how much I LOVE sleeping baby pictures and I think this one takes the cake:

Here are some of our nature day at the International Peace Gardens in SLC.

And this is Sammi having lunch with the "boys" who worked on the water pipes on our street. We got home one day when they were having lunch. Sammi ran inside for a cheese stick and then ran out and sat right down with them. She was in heaven!

The Girls with Friends and Family

Thanksgiving: Elli with Aunt Claire, now board certified Pediatric Nurse Practitioner!

Elli and our friends' baby Amythest (about 3 months younger)

Sammi and Elli

Sweet Sisters!

Going for Walks

We had some friends over for dinner tonight. Their oldest is 3 now and he and Sammi have been friends since she was born. Tonight they went for walks around the house and yard.








It's so fun to see them grow and play together. Sammi had a rough start with the idea of sharing her toys, but after a few minutes she settled into the idea and they played so well together, along with our friends' younger son.

Sammi and Tyler Playing

Sammi and her friend Tyler having a fun morning playing together. They pulled out the dress-up box and went to town with the hats! Tyler was particularly adorable in the Aloha bear hat (that Sammi's wearing) but Sammi commandeered it for the pictures!

Here Tyler has traded in for a cowboy hat, but Sammi held on tight to that Aloha Bear hat!





Tyler was kind enough to share the cowboy hat with Mickey. I think he was trying to show Sammi how to share. She didn't catch on. Sorry Ty!

After the dress-up box, they pulled out the blocks and had fun making "towers." They quickly decided it was much more fun to lie down on the blocks (or in Tyler's case the Aloha Bear). I can't see how the blocks could be comfortable. Although I think Tyler has something there with the bear.



Once the blocks were boring they turned to the next best thing...the block box! They both climbed in and wanted me to push them around the room! I can barely push Sammi around without wearing myself out. So I had them take turns. Sammi tried to bully Tyler into more than her fair share of turns. But this time Tyler decided it was worth standing up for and he got all his turns! Good job, Ty!