Frustration

We found out last night that a house we were hoping to rent in our ward is going to be rented out to someone else. Once again I got my hopes up, only to be let down. It's not like it was our dream house or anything but it would have had enough room to have all our stuff out of our storage unit. It also would have had a dishwasher and a backyard for the kids to play in. I am just so tired of being crammed in this apartment! There are very few houses for rent in Price, and we have finally decided that we don't want to own a house here. We don't plan on being here for too many more years and the thought of having yet another house that we can't sell helped us make the decision to rent. We looked online at the houses for sale in Boise in our price range and it made us sick to think of buying a run down, 30-40 year old house here. I am trying really hard to be grateful and count my blessings. I know that we have a lot more than most people, I am just ready to move forward.

More Special

Haylie has always wanted to know everything about just about everything. She asks tons of questions and draws a lot of conclusions about the information she gets. That is why she knows that the tooth fairy or any fairy is not real. The other day she was thinking about this and asked me why it was that she knew that fairies weren't real but that most of her friends thought they were. I wasn't sure how to answer that question but I was saved by Haylie once again drawing a conclusion. She said, "I guess I was just born more special than other kids." She said it so matter-of-factly, without any pride or anything. What confidence! Recently, she has been comparing herself to other kids and getting upset when she can't do something that they can. It was kind of heartbreaking to realize she was no longer oblivious to social pressures. I am glad that she has a knowledge of how special and important she is. I told her that she was born more special but not to tell the other kids. Hey, I don't want them to get jealous. ;) I hope she can always carry a bit of that self confidence.

DC-the last installment (finally)

Our second day in DC we went to Arlington National Cemetery and got to see the changing of the guard. It was a very patriotic experience. It was also EXTREMELY hot. I felt bad for the soldiers in their full uniforms, it must have been miserable for them but you would have never known from the way handled their responsibility.

After visiting the cemetery, we went to satisfy Dave's obsession with cheesesteaks at a place called JJ's Cheesesteaks. They had a menu with at least 20 different sandwiches to choose from. It was delicious.

We spent the afternoon at Ford's Theater where President Lincoln was shot. You have to have a ticket in advance to go in the museum and theater. When we got there they were all given out but luckily a lady in line to get in had 2 extra tickets. They have all kinds of artifacts in the basement of the theater including the suit that President Lincoln was wearing when he was shot shown in the picture above. After a little while in the museum they herd everyone into the actual theater which has been renovated to look like it did when Lincoln was there. The ranger gave a little speech about what happened that night but it was a little redundant after walking through the museum. Dave and I were so happy to be sitting down in air conditioning I think we both took a little siesta!

We had an afternoon flight the next day but wanted to sneak in a couple of things before we headed to the airport. We went the Natural History Museum where we saw the Hope diamond (for about two seconds as we edged our way through the crowd) and lots and lots of dinosaurs. We then rushed to the airport and on our way were notified by Delta that our flight time had changed and would not leave until much later than originally planned. We were glad we rushed so we could wait in this line for over an hour just to check our bag and then wait for another 3 hours for our flight to leave! Overall it was a great vacation despite the waiting. It was fun to be away from the kids for few days and to know that they were having a great time too.