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.

Washington DC Trip: Part 2

After a long day of riding roller coasters we ate at a quaint little restaurant called the Smokey Pig. It was a delicious BBQ place, complete with complimentary hush puppies. The next morning we got up and drove to the DC area with a short detour through Bowling Green, VA. Our first stop was the National Air and Space Museum. It is unbelievable how much stuff they have in each of the museums that we visited. We could have spent a whole day in each museum and still not have seen everything. We saw some very interesting stuff though and were also in awe at the largest McDonald's we had ever seen that was inside the Air and Space Museum.

Huge McDonalds

That afternoon we visited the American History Museum. This was my favorite of all of the museums we saw. It has all kinds of artifacts from American History. I wish that our feet weren't so tired from the previous two days. It would have made walking around museums all day a lot more comfortable.

A "hero in a half shell"

A car from the Dumbo ride at Disneyland

Dorothy's ruby slippers

After our visit to the two museums it was time to meet at City Segway Tours for our tour of the city via segway. I absolutely LOVED this part of the trip. I was a little leery at first when Dave signed us up for this tour because I was afraid of wrecking my segway. Then I figured that is couldn't be too hard if they were letting just anybody ride one. Turns out that I love to ride segways! It started out with a 30 minute instruction on how to ride then the first stretch was a straight shot with our speed regulators set a 6 miles per hour so you really got a chance to get comfortable with it. There were 8 of us on the tour plus our tour guide. You should have seen some of the stares we got from people when they got passed by a gang of segways. We got to see all of the sites of the city and hear a little information from our tour guide at each one. We all got off the segways at the Lincoln Memorial and spent about 1/2 hour looking around there. We also saw the White House, the National Archives, the capital building, the FBI building and Ford's Theatre just to name a few. We also rode past a newer museum called the Newseum. It has artifacts from major news stories inside. Outside have a display case that has that day's newspaper from a city or town in every state. The one from Wyoming was the Laramie Daily Boomerang for the day we were there! Pretty cool! It sure looks different from the days of helping collate it with Mom and Dad. It was a great tour and after we got done we walked a couple of blocks (we did a LOT of walking) and ate at the Hard Rock Cafe before catching the Metro back to our hotel. We knew we were too late to catch the shuttle from the Metro station to our hotel but the hotel boasted being 1 mile from the Metro station so we figured hey, what's another mile, right? Well, it turns out it might be a mile away if we could have flown over buildings and stuff, but it was quite a bit farther (yipee! more walking!). We made it to the hotel and I could barely stand long enough for a shower before I collapsed into bed. This is certainly not the vacation to take if you are looking for some relaxation. Lots of fun and interesting things to see though. Next up, Cheesesteaks and Ford's Theatre!

Dave wanting to be an agent

My first time on the segway

Visiting the Obamas

Waiting to shoot you if you act up

Washington Monument

Lincoln Memorial

Cruising--I think they had turned the speed regulator up to 10 MPH!

Capitol Building

The Boomerang

Washington DC Trip: Part 1

In celebration of our 10 year wedding anniversary Dave and I went on a trip to Washington DC. We left Haylie and Zander with my mom and dad on Monday evening, July 19th (I will post some of their adventures when I get pictures from my mom.) We decided to save ourselves a hotel night stay while getting an extra day in the area by sleeping on the plane on the way over. We had to switch planes in Phoenix and Philadelphia before we landed in Baltimore. Needless to say that it was not a very restful night especially with a few children behind us on the Phoenix-Philly flight that took turns screaming for most of the night. I was very glad for my MP3 player to drown out most of it. We took a short flight into Baltimore, but not before I drank a giant swallow of sour milk in the Philly airport...yummy.

Once in Baltimore we rented a car and took off down I95 towards Doswell, VA where King's Dominion Amusement Park is located. We were both impressed by the trees everywhere in that area, especially since we live in the desert here in Price. Once we got to the amusement park we ate a Chic-fil-A (one of my favorites) and then, since we had slept on an airplane and hadn't had a chance to freshen up, we decided that the water park portion of the park might be a good idea. We had lots of fun riding the water slides and finally had to call it quits for the day when a HUGE rainstorm rolled in. It was fun too since I was already wet and still in my swimsuit. We just splashed through the puddles and ran through the rain not worried about getting wet.

The next morning we headed back to King's Dominion to tackle the roller coasters. There were lots of fun ones and since it was a weekday there weren't very many people there. It was very hot there though and I remembered that I am not the biggest fan of humidity. I was sweating like crazy! It was a really fun place but by the end of the day our feet were killing us after running around the day before on hot sidewalks in bare feet and then walking and standing in line all day the next. In fact, sore feet turned out to be the recurring theme of our vacation. There sure is a lot of walking involved in a vacation like this. We spent the next 3 days in the DC area taking in all the sites and museums. That will be part 2. I am too impatient to wait for all the pictures to upload at once.

Ready to ride!

King's Dominion from their "Eiffel Tower"

A fun water slide

This was their new roller coaster for this year, both times we rode it I blacked out for a couple of seconds. We heard several others saying they did too. I will claim that is why I look the way I do in this picture. I have no excuse for all the other pictures though, maybe humidity and TONS of walking??

Dave didn't black out! He was feeling great!

Independence Day

We didn't do anything too exciting for the 4th of July. On Saturday the third we got together with the Bohmans for a little BBQ and fireworks show. The kids had a great time playing together and the grown ups even had a chance to play a couple of games while we were waiting for it to get dark enough to do fireworks. That is rare when you have 2 two years olds and 2 four year olds running around. When it got dark enough Dave and Will put on a nice little fireworks show for the moms and kids. A few of the neighbors even came out to watch. It was a fun evening, and we were glad that we got to do a little bit of celebrating but I guess it wasn't noteworthy enough to take some pictures. Barely worth the post but I when I go to put it in my blog book I will have to go back and try to think of what we did for the 4th of July this year if I don't post something about it!

A Test

Back in May I posted about my the decision I had to make about taking a teaching position that I interviewed for. I was so worried about making the right decision and felt so unsettled after I interviewed. I was absolutely relieved when I found out that I didn't get the job. I was, however, submitted as an alternate in case the other person fell through, and that is exactly what happened. The principal called me yesterday to offer me the job (part time with another teacher). After praying about it the first time around and being so relieved and at peace when I didn't get the job, I knew what the answer should be. I prayed about it some more yesterday, this time having made the decision that I would not take it. I knew without any doubt that Heavenly Father was pleased with that decision. The way I felt in May as I was prepared to accept the job if offered was completely opposite of the way I felt when I knew I had to turn it down yesterday. I was completely at peace even with having to call my would-be team teacher and the principal and turn it down. It was like a little test to see if I have learned anything about listening to the spirit and if I would act upon those feelings. I passed!! I am so grateful for the influence of the spirit. I am grateful that Dave has a job that allows me to stay home with my beautiful children.

Bottles are for babies

I am a little embarrassed to admit that Zander still has a bottle before going to bed each night. I have been trying to hint to him that bottles are for babies but he didn't seem to care too much. Last night he wouldn't drink the bottle so I thought that maybe his stomach was bugging him or something. Tonight he got out of the bath and after he got his PJs on he immediately asked for his bottle. I got it ready and then when I went to give it to him he again didn't want it. He said, "No, bottles are for babies. Bottles are for Afton." Afton is his cousin that is about 14 months old who never would drink out of a bottle. So he didn't drink it tonight either. We may be on to something here. I thought it would be a major fight to get him to give it up but it is looking pretty good! Now, if we can just convince him that pacifiers are for babies too...