Eye on the ball

Saturday was our 6th Anniversary. Yea! Damon has planned a lot of dates for us this year, so I told him I would be in charge of planning for our anniversary. It wasn't anything big, or romantic, but Damon has been wanting me to go to a driving range with him for a while. So I planned the babysitting and we were off. It was actually pretty fun, and I have to say I was OK. Damon was a good coach. But about halfway through my bucket-0-balls, I took my swing and then turned to watch Damon take his swing while my body was still twisted the opposite direction, and wrenched my neck bad. I couldn't hit any more balls after that. Then we just went to dinner and a movie, but we did get to check out a super-huge shopping area that I've never been to, and it is only about 1/2 an hour away from us. Happy Anniversary Damon!

I've fallen in love

It was very unexpected. I have fallen in love with the Northwest. The most I was hoping for was that I wouldn't cry myself to sleep at night because I missed my family so much (need I say I did that exact thing a few times on my mission). But we are all in different places now and raising our own families. And my sisters and I have already sworn to each other that when we are old and widows we will live together again and make our kids crazy, and make our grandkids come visit us. But back to Seattle. I really love it. I'm sure my sister Deborah and I will continue to complain about the rain when it returns, but there is so much to do and see, and I haven't even seen or done half of it. And there is so much natural beauty up here. And the people are so nice. Not just the church members, so many people in the little town I live in are extremely nice. So while I do miss my family and friends in Utah incredibly, and am sad that I am missing so much of your lives, I am happy for this time here. And to our loved ones in Texas who we haven't visited in years and years, if you read my blog, please know that we plan trips to Texas at least twice a year, but the plans always get abandoned in the end due to cost. Please forgive us.

And as a note: I've added a "I read Nie Nie" widget on my sidebar. This is an incredible blog. This woman and her husband were in a private plan crash recently and her sister is caring for their 4 children while they make their slow recovery. They are reposting Nie Nie's blog entries. And they are incredible. Her blog is warm and funny and definitely worth the read. I wish health and a quick recovery for her and her husband.

Brooklyn's first day of Preschool

Yea, Brooklyn had her first day of preschool today. I almost feel like I got naptime back because I put Devin down for a nap when I get home from taking her. But my freetime, at least today, was filled with cleaning my house because I asked a neighbor to come sit with Devin when I went to pick Brooklyn up so I wouldn't have to wake him. And the house has to be clean for the neighbor, hee hee! So much for free time.

Anywho, updates are: Brooklyn pushed a stool over square onto Devin's big toe a couple weeks ago. The toe immedialtely turned purple, and then bled for a few days. Alas, he lost the nail a few days ago. Gross. Poor kid.
And we went boating with some friends in the ward last Saturday. I didn't get out of the boat. The kids were whimpering and huddled on my lap, but maybe I'm just using that as an excuse. :)

Mystery Boy

So Damon committed me to going camping one last time for the summer. But the deal was the whole thing was going to be a surprise for me. I didn't know when, where, anything. Which was fine, because Damon said he would plan and pack everything, including meals. Yea! I'm in. He even called my work and asked off the days for me, which I thought was a little weird, but whatever. So last Thursday we headed out. And 12 hours later we arrived at our destination, IDAHO. Seriously, my statement was: We could have driven one more hour and been at my family's house in Provo. After that whenever I referred to our 12 hour drive, Damon would say, "It was an 8 hour drive with 4, 1 hour stops. Which was probably true. :) Devin threw up in his car seat on the way down. Poor kid, he inherited his Dad and Grandma's extremely sensitive gag reflex. He wasn't sick the rest of the trip, but he had just had a big lunch of chicken nuggets, fries, and chocolate milk. Yummy. So we cleaned that up and were once again on our way. We got where we were going, MCCall, ID at 10:00 that night. Set up our tent in the dark. But we were in the RV camping, and were told we had to move to the tent camping the next morning at 8:00 to secure a good spot, so the next morning we took down the tent, drove to the other end of the lake, and set up the tent again. Exhausted yet? I was. The good news was we drove out of a rainy day in Western Washington to a sunny day in Idaho. So we went to play on a sandy spot along the lake, which I loved. And the kids loved it. We are still not good at making sand castles. But I'm sure one day we will be great. Damon was acting weird though. He went to the bathroom and was gone for a long time, which isn't that unusual. Then he came back for about 5 minutes and then started to leave again without a word. I asked him where he was going and he said "to get water." I told him I had water, so he changed his answer to going to the bathroom. Whatever! I decided to sun myself. But as I lay on the beach, I saw our good friends, Heather and Micah Howard sneak up and hide behind a tree with their little baby, Megan. They didn't know I saw them, so I ran to the other side of the tree and scared them instead. There's the big surprise, the Howards were joining us for the weekend. Yea! We had a really good time. Saturday we rented canoes for 4 hours, rowed up a river, had lunch and rowed back. Brooklyn sat on my lap the first half of the ride, as she was still scared of the water from the last trip we took down a river. But for the second half, she jumped in with Heather and Micah and had a good time. Devin was then sitting by himself in the bottom of our canoe on the ride back and fell asleep holdong onto the center bar, how cute is that! We tried to lay him down so he would be more comfortable, but he wasn't having it. That night it started to rain on us as we were playing games around the camp fire. We went to bed, and it rained all through the night, and didn't let up the next day. It was so cold. We played games in our tent for a while, but eventually agreed to get a hotel room for the night. Heather and I played at a playground with the kids while Damon Micah packed up camp. Once again we were really cold. But the hotel felt totally luxurious. Sleeping in a bed, taking a hot shower, who could ask for more. Oh, and we went to a steak house for dinner. :). The next morning I took the kids to the indoor pool while Damon packed us up. What a good system we have! They loved the jacuzzi. I let them wade and kick their feet in it. Devin would have been happy there all day. Brooklyn, however fell face first into the water. I cut up my leg a little getting to her. Man, that girl and water, I need to get her in some swim lessons, soon! I don't know if she slipped or jumped. She was watching an older girl jump into the pool, so she was mimicking the girl holding her nose to jump in. But it looked more like Brooklyn leaned over the edge and then fell. But she was fine. Then we had lunch with the Howards and parted ways. We loved hanging out with you. Like Heather said, it doesn't feel like we only see each other now and then, 'cause we just pick up where we left off. You guys are adventurous, and fun. Thanks for meeting us!




So when Damon and I were dating, my roomates nicknamed him "mystery boy" because he would often disappear without a word. He doesn't do that any more. He has found a more productive use for his secrecy. He will often plan surprise dates for me, and he does a great job. Thanks hon, I had a blast!