We had visitors!

The last few days of September were super fun and super busy. 

My mom and dad flew in to celebrate Justin's baptism and so we packed those three days they were here full full full.

*Ate yummy pizza and salad at 600°F.
*Dad slipped in a little antique shopping while mom and I picked up a few birthday items at Wal-Mart.
*Had a mini birthday party for Judd.
*Watched the Benjamin Logan Marching Band, with Josie as Field Commander.
*Watched the Benjamin Logan Homecoming football game, with Todd as a corner. (It was a close game and we won!)
*Watched a soccer game, played by Mitch and his Zanesfield Black team.
*Attended Justin's baptism. 
*Grandma helped get Josie ready for the homecoming dance.
*Ate yucky Chinese food. Used to be a great place. New owners...now not so much.
*Went to church.
*Got mom & dad to the airport to head to North Carolina.

Whew. 

 

Josie and Logan Glauner

2012 Homecoming Dance

 

The kids leaving for school w/ a quick pic with Grandma Lucy.

 

The best clock story.

Here is one of my favorite clocks.  One of my oldest ones too.

She hasn't kept time in a long time.  Like, nearly a year.  I don't know how many times Layne and I tried to fix her.  She would get to seven o'clock and then stay somewhere in that hour all of the time.

 

I mentioned the problem to my dad cause my dad can fix anything, but even this I wasn't sure about.  He took it off the wall, did something for about one minute and she has kept time ever since. 

 

My father, from this time forth, will be known as The Clock Whisperer.

I couldn't be happier.

Thanks dad.

September 28th

Here's the birthday boy.

He still has his attachment to Curious George.

But who doesn't love Curious George?

 

He wore this jersey to school three days last week.

Guess I got the right one.

This jersey and that camo hat in a couple pics above. 

Grandpa & ma gave that to him and it hasn't come off either.

 

He said all of his dreams came true.

 

Eight is Great!

 

And this is what Judd had been anxiously waiting for.

His baptism.

September 29, 2012

(don't  you love the awkward smile stage?)

 

The other thing he is SO excited about is that he is now a Cub Scout.

I can't believe I don't have a picture of him in his uniform.  That is amazing because he has been trying it on for weeks in anticipation of the big day.  His first den meeting was this past Wednesday.  He said it was awesome.

 

We love having Justin in our family.

He's my sweetie pie.

 

What can you do in 3 days?

(I wont post ALL of the pictures, I promise.)

Day 1: Niagara Falls

The falls are so powerful.  You can feel the energy in the air.

Priceless! 

A picture of Todd facing the camera AND smiling.

It was a misty/rainy afternoon, but not enough to ruin our day.

So beautiful.  Have you been?

Day 2:  Palmyra, New York

The Sacred Grove

The Layne Colman Family at the Palmyra Temple

Can you find Mitch in this picture?  He blends right in. 

This is Smith Family's log cabin house.

Layne wishing that his orchard was as mature as the one

between the Smith Family log cabin and the Smith Family frame house.

A funny note, the log cabin house is in Palmyra and the frame house is in Manchester.  (or maybe the other way around?) They are only about 150 yards apart.  Same situation at the Palmyra temple.  The temple is in the Palmyra city limits and the parking lot is in the Manchester city limits.

The boys walking up to the Smith Family frame house.

Taking a little break after hiking around the Sacred Grove.

Alma the missionary, left (also a fellow Mud Lake, ID citizen, Daniel Hulse.)

Sam, the son of Lehi, right

Judd & Mitch posing with Laman, before the Hill Cumorah Pageant started.

It was the 75th Anniversary of the Hill Cumorah Pageant this year.

Here ware two characters in the pageant.

Waiting....

Waiting...

Yea, it is starting!

Awesome special effects.

This is Lehi's dream at the Tree of Life.

Mitch's hero, Joseph Smith.

The stage, while we were waiting for the pageant to begin.

We also visited other areas in Palmyra.  We really enjoyed touring the Egbert B. Grandin bookstore and print shop.  The Erie Canal.  A lemonade stand with awesome chocolate chip cookies.  As always, Josie found a candy store to buy fudge.  It was a perfect day.  It stayed overcast and didn't get above 70°.  We walked 13,746 steps and climbed 13 flights of stairs. (I know because of my fitbit Ü). 

Day 3:  Kirtland

The sister missionary, Sister Hillman, that took our picture here at the Whitney store is from the Terreton Stake.  Roberts 1st Ward.  Isn't it funny how small the world is within the church?

Josie had already been in Kirtland the week before, but she was sweet to let the rest of us tour without complaint.  Our young women go to the John Johnson farm for Girls Camp every year, and one day is always a tour of Kirtland.  I didn't take many pictures of Kirtland.  That is kind of sad.  I think our whirlwind trip had started to wind me down at that point.  We didn't even have it in us to go down to the John Johnson farm, so we'll have to slip up there in a month or two.  That will be more fun because the trees will be in full color. 

By the time we finished up the church's sites, the boys just wanted to drive by the temple.  I asked why and they said they were tired and wanted to go home to play with Jimmer.

Ya, they missed their dog.

I think he missed us too.  He about had a heart attack welcoming us when we got home.

We had a wonderful family vacation.  We packed food and were able to have picnics for our lunches at some of the most beautiful locations.  It was so much fun.  We got to see beautiful things and places.  We got to feel the sweet spirit that is always at the church history sites.  We got to take a break from our extra busy summer and just do things together as a family. 

Did you get to do something fun with your family this summer?

Do tell.

It has broke

The heatwave has finally broke.  Finally.

We had 11 consecutive days above 90° with several above 100° and don't forget to factor in high humidity.  That's another 10° to factor in.

The only word that comes to mind is

 GAG

Sadly, there isn't a drop of rain to be found any time soon.  But hey, it's only 83° and I'm loven' it.

The last time we had a heatwave like this was the summer I had Josie.  1995.  I remember that I'd go out the front door, sit on the bottom step to catch my breath before I made the last four steps to get into the car.  Yes, it was that hot.  I heard them talking about that heatwave on the radio this morning and surprisingly, I remembered that last month waiting for my first little one to be born like it was yesterday.  (Surprisingly?  I don't even remember what I packed Layne for lunch today!) Layne was in Japan and I just stayed in our apartment, in a slip with the AC on, and ate watermelon.  That's all.  I also remember watching the news and there were so many deaths because of the heat (even hotter than this year) they had to keep the dead bodies in refrigerated semi's.  Seventeen years later the only word that comes to mind is

GAG 



Just a side note:  The boys worked their butts off in that heat on Saturday, putting up fence with their dad.  So he thought it would be fun to take them to a Columbus Clippers game.  They were pumped.  It was 101° at the stadium and they handed sweat towels to wipe themselves off with as they walked in the gates.  Just going was fun, but the best part of the night was at the end of the game.  Mitch been waiting all night for a foul ball and the few that made it his way were a good 100 feet off.  He was pretty bummed out, but at the end of the game the right fielder tossed the ball up in the stands and Mitch caught it. He was on cloud nine for two days.  It's fun to see kids when they are beyond thrilled with life.

Thinking about Easter Traditions

I've been thinking about our family's Easter traditions for a couple of days.

I haven't come up with too many.  We do the usual egg decorating and maybe the not-so-usual with the Easter Bunny coming on Saturday morning so that we can focus on the Savior on the Sabbath day. 

So this year I've decided to try a couple new things.  I've ran into two articles about the origins of Hot Cross Buns this week.  They piqued my interest, so they are now on my list to make on Friday.  (Good Friday) 

I had to borrow a pic from The Frugal Girl

Josie has my camera this week (She is in FL.  It is spring break this week and our school's marching band is marching at Walt Disney World.  So they went for a whole week of fun.) but this is pretty much what my trial run looks like.  I had dried cherries in the freezer so I added them instead of raisins.  Yum.

I also like the idea of these Resurrection rolls that give little ones (and us big ones) a visual about the Resurrection.  I'm guessing I might be the last to give these a try, but I love the idea. 


Do you have some great Easter traditions that you'd like to share?

p.s.
I was just wondering, what happened to the 5"x3" Giant Peep Bunnies?  I can't find them anywhere anymore.  I may be one of the three people in this world that LOVES Peep Bunnies but I'm not embarrassed to admit it. 

Happy Easter

Ninety nine bottles of Iron Port & Cherry on the wall.....

Our summer started out with Josie flying out to Idaho as soon as school got out.  With her all by herself and hadn't flown since she was a little girl...well, needless to say I was so happy all went smoothly in Dallas for her change of plane and very relieved when she got to SLC safely.  Her Aunt Jill & Grandma Karen met her at the airport.  Then they ran over to Aunt Josie's house (she just turned 85) to say hello.  Josie hadn't seen Aunt Josie in probably 10 years or so.  Sadly no one took a picture at that visit.

She stayed with Grandma Lucy & Grandpa Jay, with weekend get-aways at Grandma Karen and Grandpa Bob's.  She worked at my moms store, Mini Bazaar, and helped around the house.  She had a fantastic time and would have loved to stay longer if girls camp hadn't gotten in her way.  And I think they would have kept her too.  But we missed her and wanted her back.

While she was away we wrapped up the boys baseball seasons.  Mitch had a really fun year on a new team and they won most of their games.  He got to try the catcher position for the first time and it turns out he's really good in that position. Todd played his last year in the county league, with several home runs, but none of them thrilled him more than his Out of the Park home run.  He said he finally got to cross something off of his bucket list.  Justin's team did awesome and even won the tournament championship.  He joined a new team too, and was the youngest.  He looked so little out there, but he pulled his own weight and really improved as the year went on.  He got to play catcher too and did an awesome job.  Even though the gear nearly swallowed him up.  It was a great baseball season for the Coleman Boys.

Then we headed out to Idaho and found Josie.

Home Sweet Home

We love spending the 4th of July in Idaho.  We have big family parties, homemade root beer, homemade raspberry ice cream (thanks Aunt Ellen), yummy scones (thanks Aunt Grace), and a million other way yummy foods to enjoy.

Thanks to Frank Vandersloot, our 4th of July fireworks display is never a bummer.  Mr. Melaleuca pulls out all the stops (and $$) and gives Idaho Falls a great show every year.

My Aunt Millie and Uncle Alan came from from their three year mission in Brazil right when we got there.  So that was a fun reunion to have everyone around.

And since Aunt Millie was back home we had an emergency Hen & Chicks party which worked great for me because I couldn't make it to the one in the spring.

My mom insisted Josie was to come too and she had fun.  Now she knows that my weirdness comes from a long line of weirdness.  Thankfully for those that married into the weirdness, they either fit right in or tolerate the rest of us well.  I have the best women folk for family!  My Aunt Grace was worried that Josie would learn some bad stuff from us, but Jo said that she goes to public school and we weren't anything close to that kind of bad.  Whew, now I feel so confident sending her off to school every morning.

I also found out that my grandmother thinks I'm a "jolly good fellow".  Not sure where to go with that one.

These are some pics out at Layne's parent's house.

 

And then we got home.  Our darling little neightbor keep our flowers, bushes, and gardens alive. 

 

Layne and Todd worked hard at both my parents house and his parent's house.  We got to meet Jack (Bobbi's baby, 8mts) and MaKadee (Marcee's baby,5mts).  We got to see all of our cousins and play play play. 

Great Grandma Fern & Jack Underwood

A four generation picture.  

Grandma Fern (85), Lucy (56), Cassie (37), Josie (16)

I have one from when Josie was a newborn.  I'll have to find it to compare.

Zoey, Carter, & Mitch playing some game on the ipad at Grandma Lucy's

Todd & Tyrel

These two are buds.  I'm so thankful our kids and their cousins love each other so much.

Mitch & Grandpa Jay

I got my fill of Iron Port w/ Cherry.  It is a soft drink that you can only find *according to wikipedia* parts of Utah, Southern Idaho, Western Wyoming, and Eastern Nevada.  I also noticed that there is also a place that you can now order the syrup.  When I read that I my head got dizzy just thinking about the happiness that could bring me.  I must investigate that option.  I got several raspberry filled powdered donuts digested, and a few other things consumed that can only be found 'Out West'.  

We had a fantastic trip to Idaho.  We all agreed it was our favorite trip out West so far.  I'm not exactly sure what made it the best one, but we sure did have fun. 

 Thanks for everyone for everything!

If you're lucky (and not sick to death of this long post) I'll find the other pictures I wanted to post.  Humor me, this is as close as I get for journaling these days.

Plus:  We had family pictures with both the Simmons Fam & the Coleman Fam.  So I'll post them soon too.

More on our trip at my mom's blog.

More on my Aunt Millie's return to Idaho at my cousin Becca's blog.