Dancing with Daffodils

 We've had another great week of summer fun. Saturday Josh got home about 1pm and we helped him unpack and do laundry. Considering how difficult the first day of camp was and that they had to completely re-plan days 2-4, Josh said camp went well and was a positive experience. Such a relief to be done and I'm so glad it went well. That night we went to a Blue Crabs game and it was fun. The night before had been rained out because of the tropical storm so it ended up being a double header. The downside of that was that the second game went too late and we had to leave before fireworks. But the games were fun and we were sitting in the second row right behind the dug out so Brandon and Curtis both got balls, Curtis got to go down on the field and say "PLAY BALL!" into the microphone to start the second game and they got fist bumps from some of the players. Overall a fun summer evening, though I was sad to miss the fireworks. As it was we got home at 11pm and the kids wer...

 It has been a busy, fun summer week. Last Thursday we saw Jana and Brylee some more and I think I took the younger kids to the pool. Friday was very busy as I prepared for our BBQ that night. There were a lot of families I had been feeling like we should have over for months now and it just hasn't worked out so I decided to just have them all over in one night and have a big bbq, which is what we did. I spent all morning grocery shopping and all afternoon setting up and making sure things were decently clean in case the rain didn't let up and we would be inside. Thankfully it all worked out with the weather and we ended up with about 50 people here for dinner that night. It had been a long time since I had hosted so I was not quite as relaxed as I usually am but I think everyone had a nice evening and besides having a ton of hot dogs left over, it all worked out well.  Saturday Josh and I went for a lovely bike ride while Lily spent all day with her friends doing manicures an...

Cute cousins! It was a great week. We left Monday (June 21) to drive up to Rochester. The kids were so good in the car and it was an easy drive; we didn't even stop once! We had brought food and had movies and Harry Potter to listen to and books to read and we just chugged along and made great time.  We had a nice evening with my parents and my sister and her family did come over for a few minutes in the evening so we could say hello. Tuesday we went to the mall and just walked around and shopped and had lunch at the food court. Everyone got to pick a book at Barnes and Noble and my mom also bought Lily a beautiful dress as an early birthday present. I also went to visit KayLee at work and sat with her while she had lunch since she was very busy all week and it was probably our best time together. After the mall the kids and I went over to the Jansson's house to just hang out with whoever was around. They are all very busy but it was good to see Erik who got home from his missi...

It has been a good couple of weeks. I took Lily to get her second vaccination, taught piano lessons, took the kids to the pool, did lots of reading, laundry, exercising and cooking. Last Tuesday afternoon we went over to the Shoeny's for one last swim and chat. I hadn't actually talked to Joni in a long time and it was nice to catch up but then we had to say goodbye, which is always sad. Friday we had planned to go to Six Flags on our way up to my sister's house but it was pouring rain. We decided to stop by anyway to pick up our season passes and by the time we got there the rain had stopped. We only had an hour but we went on about eight rides because no one was there. We walked right onto the rides and rode them by ourselves. Josh and I even did the Voodoo drop tower since the kids didn't have to wait at all for us and it was so fun. I wish we could have stayed longer but as it was we hit terrible traffic and were later getting to my sister's house than I told he...

Another week has gone by. Memorial Day was nice. We had a big family breakfast and then went to our church picnic. Last year we went to the park where we normally have it and just played by ourselves because there was no picnic so it was much better having our ward family back this year. We played games and had a relay (our team won!) and laughed and played and talked and it was really nice. Everyone was supposed to bring their own food but I don't like making lunches and we had just had a big breakfast so we stayed until about 3pm and then went home and grilled hot dogs and I made some salads and we had an early dinner sitting outside on our patio. It was really nice. The missionaries came over later and we had a nice visit with them--the first in person visit in over a year. I feel very grateful for my country and the many who have died and I like living in a very patriotic place that honors and celebrates that as well. Tuesday was school and laundry and we went shopping at Targe...