Good Bye, Old Friend

Dear Friend,

We had been together a long, long time. It seems only yesterday that I drove you into the AFHS parking lot for the first time. A mere 11 years ago we came together. And last week, that time had to come to an end.

There were a few rough spots for us during those 11 years. Once I thought I had lost you for good. I was driving you home from teaching in Hartford one night when you died on me. Alone, in the dark, in a bad neighborhood, a nice passer-by warned me to "just stay in your truck, Ma'am. Don't come out til your husband gets here." Scary night. We thought you were gone for good back then, but in a fit of sentimentality, we dropped over 2 Grand on a rebuilt engine and kept you around for 5 more happy years.

Remember the hearts painted on your window? Those were from my wedding. They were all that remained of the car decorating by friends and family that night. I never could quite bring myself to wash them off. And then it became a contest to see who would last longer, you, or the hearts. You won, of course. I never should have doubted.

The weekend before you left us, we had to wash them off. They were still there, if only faintly. But I just couldn't bear the idea of someone else driving you with the hearts still on. So they had to go.

You really have been around the country. You have been

A Beehive Stater

A Constitution Stater

A We Dare Defend Our Rights Stater

A Show Me Stater

Alas, that was the end of the road for you, at least with us. You will move on to the Land of Lincoln and who knows where to from there.

Your hearts will always be with us. Damon now sees this picture and says "Oh look, our cute truck." Many memories will remain.

Good Bye, dear friend. Happy Trails to you.

For anyone still reading...

There is no way I will ever get caught up on everything that I have wanted to write about in the last six months. So I may or may not try. There are a few things I do want to say, however. First of all, and drum roll please... Cameron found a job! He finishes his last year of training at the end of this month and after starting our job search last September, he finally accepted a position in Denver, Colorado. We are very excited about it. We went house-hunting last month and found a place that will work for a year. I should say that his contract is only for one year. There is a good possibility that it will be longer, but there is no guarantee. So we are all really crossing our fingers that we don't have to move again next summer. I am kind of tired of doing that. (5 states in 7 years). We will see. This is just the next chapter in this adventure of a life we lead.


And because I know that everyone reading this will be really wishing that there were some pictures of my cute boys:

Here they are in their Easter clothes, looking like they are ready for Oxford University or something.

Grady is a Preschool Graduate. Damon insisted on being in the picture too, and holding up a helicopter seed because Grady got to hold up something too.

Wonderful Christmas 2010!

Christmas was Magical this year. Magical. I am NOT a big shopper, and I really don't like crowds, but this year was different. Even the all the shopping was fun! I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that there was a certain 4-year-old in the house who was really beside himself with excitement all December long! I think 4 is the perfect age for Christmas. Grady just soaked it all in and loved every second of it in his sweet, innocent way. To him, getting mountains of presents wasn't the climax, but rather just another good part of an already great few weeks. I wish that could last forever.

Here he is starting the Season off right by letting Santa know what he wanted. We tried to get Damon to sit on Santa's lap, but he would have none of it. Apparently Santa can be a bit scary sometimes.

I always love Christmas music, but this year I went on a major Christmas Music kick! I couldn't (and still can't) get enough of it. Once again, the fact that both boys were as into it as I was made it all the more fun. Grady even had his first concert. His preschool class sang three songs at the school Christmas Concert. It was so cute! Here is a picture:

And here is a video:

One of the best parts about Christmas this year was that we got to spend so much time with Cameron. Oh we LOVED being able to see so much of him! One of our Christmas presents accidentally didn't get wrapped in time, and four little pairs of eyes found it a few days before they should have. It was probably better that way anyway, because it was thoroughly enjoyed all by itself. Apparently Damon thought the object of the game was to see how many red balls he could stick to his own target.

Santa had no shortage of sweets this year, thanks to these two fabulous cookie makers:

It snowed all day on Christmas Eve so we had a beautiful White Christmas.

Here are the boys sprinkling magic reindeer food on the lawn on Christmas Eve. It was supposed to guide the reindeer to our house. Apparently it worked, and we even found some "reindeer tracks" in the snow the next day!

On Christmas morning, Grady woke up early, of course, and ran into our room. I said, "Oh I don't know if Santa came to our house. Grady, why don't you go see if he did." He ran out to check, and then came running back. "He did! He did come! And I could hear the reindeer on the roof!"

I was too busy filming everything to get many good still pictures of the presents, but suffice it to say that the boys were in seventh heaven. Here are a few of the pictures I did get.

Here is Damon quite enthralled with the task at hand:

Amid the happy chaos:

Isn't this the perfect Christmas Morning view from our window?

One of the few things that Grady told Santa he wanted for Christmas was a train set. Well, Grandma and Grandpa actually supplied the train, and the giant box was delivered to our house a week or so before Christmas. We had to come up with quite a story to explain why the train was from Grandma and Grandpa, even though Grady only asked Santa for it. "It just must be magic," was our answer to that and a lot of Grady's questions throughout the season.

Here they are with the very well-received train set:

The giant box that the train set came in might have been as big a hit as the trains themselves.

Santa also gave the boys some snow tubes, which we tried out for the first time a few days later. We had a blast.

Damon loved being all decked out in his snow gear, especially the hat that kept covering his eyes.

Getting ready for the plunge:

After sledding we, of course, had to have a snowball fight. Grady loved it!

Damon, not so much. This was, of course after being outside for a while, freezing cold, and falling off of the swing at the playground (hence the fat lip), and getting hit in the back by a snowball, poor guy.

Overall, we loved the whole Christmas Season this year. We loved the music, treats, time with each other, and the Wonderful Spirit that stayed with us. The only thing that could have made it better was to be able to see more family. But we will be seeing them in a few weeks! Stay tuned!

Tattle Tell

How can I not be totally in love with these boys?

I love their energy, excitement for life, and how they love each other. They really play together very well for the most part. We have reached, however, a new height of tattle telling. I can be in the other room and invariably someone will run in with something like, "Mom! Grady took my car! Mom! Damon sat on my foot! Mom! Grady is touching my toys! Mom! Damon is hitting me lots of times and it hurts really bad!" Etc. Since I am not always a whitness to the aformentioned offenses, it is hard for me to tell who is really at fault. Sometimes the story speaks for itself, however.

It kind of reminds me of a story from when I was growing up. My sister Jill and I were playing one day. After a while she ran up to my mom with tears gushing from her eyes, clearly feeling wronged about something. "Mom!" she yelled. "Elise hurt my foot!" My mom must have asked for an explaination because Jill innocently continued, "I was just swinging my foot, and Elise got in the way!" Hmmm. Do you remember that, Jill? :)

O Christmas Tree!

Our wonderful 2010 Christmas Tree:

It may be small, but I really do love it. I love the pine smell it brings into my house. I love how excited the boys are to turn the lights on every night. I love the ornaments, because almost all of them have a story. Most of them came from a good friend of mine in Connecticut. She got new ornaments for her tree, and so handed these ones on down to me. I love them!

We also have a tradition to get an ornament for every state where we have celebrated a Christmas.

Here is the ornament for our home state of Utah. The Salt Lake Temple. It is where Cameron and I were married, and is probably the most famous building in Utah. The ornament itself is beautiful too. It makes me think of home.

Our next state was Connecticut. One of my favorite things about Connecticut was the beautiful fall leaves. It is Gorgeous! So bright and vibrant and beautiful. So, what else could we have for our Connecticut ornament but a maple leaf? It is supposedly made from a real leaf and then coated in copper.

Next we celebrated a Christmas in Alabama. Oh, I will always have a soft spot in my heart for Alabama! I loved it there. It just seemed to fit. One of the things I loved about it was how the people were all so nice, open, friendly, willing to help. I learned a lot about service to others in my short 12 months there. Here is our Alabama ornament, an angel, kind of like many of the friends we met there.

And our current state of residence, Missouri. St. Louis, to be exact. Now, all you Cubs fans in the family please don't dissown me! This is NOT a St Louis Cardinal as in the baseball team. But tell me honestly, what do you think of when you think of St Louis? Besides the arch? Cardinals, right? So, what better to remind us of our time here? Besides, we see a ton of these beautiful birds flying by our windows.

And here is our ornament for next year:

It is supposed to be a question mark, not a candy cane, in case you were wondering. We have no idea where we will be next year. It is kind of scary. Kind of exciting. Kind of driving me crazy. Cameron finishes his last year of training (YAY!) in June and now we are in the midst of a nationwide job hunt. Up until this point in his training, we have not been able to choose where we would live. We kind of just moved wherever Cameron got in. I used to think that once we were looking for a job then we could choose where we wanted to live. Well, it isn't really working out that way. There are not as many openings as I thought there would be, and not any in our top two states, Utah and Colorado. So we will keep looking. Something has to turn up eventually, right???

Really, all I am asking is for somewhere with mountains and trees and mild winters and nice people and good schools and lots of running trails and a choir and orchestra for me to be in and closer to family and lots of parks and a really good job situation for Cameron and close to the town library and pool. Is that too much to ask?!?

We Are Alive

Alas, three long months have gone by and I have not written about any of it. There is so much I want to write, I will have to be as concise as possible. And use a lot of pictures, if I can have the patience to download them all. (By the way, does it take forever for all of you blogspot users to download pictures or am I just doing something wrong?)

In August, Grady started Preschool! Hard to believe. He loves it, and looks so handsome in his uniform. I know. Uniform for preschool is a little much, but it really was the best (and cheapest) school we could find.

Damon was sure it was a big day for him, too. I guess in a way it was.

September was a fabulous month. Cooler weather, beginning of fall, fabulous visit from Grandpa Dale and Grandma Sharon. Oh how we loved having them here.

There was lots of story reading. Note Damon's two fingers in the mouth and the other hand twirling his hair. Typical pose.

We went for a few walks. This one downtown by the arch.

The walks weren't always on our feet.

And afterward, a few of the men in the house took a much needed nap.

It was a wonderful visit! Grandma and Grandpa we are so glad you could come!

October was eventful this year, as it always is in our house.

I ran my 6th marathon, the Kansas City Marathon on Oct. 16th. My time was 3:25:50. Not a PR, but for the amount of training I was able to do, it is alright. It was so fun to see the boys cheering for me at the end!

I have a goal to run a marathon in every state I have lived. I have done it so far, plus one in Massachusetts, so if next year we move to Utah, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Alabama, or stay in Missouri, I won't have to run another marathon! If we don't, well, then you can expect to hear about another one next fall.

I turned 28!?! It was a fun day. A big and belated thank you to all the friends and family that called or emailed. It really made my day!

As did this fabulous cake that the boys made for me. My favorite part was how Cameron mistook a tube of red gel food coloring for frosting and used it to write the words, which then was enough food coloring to turn the whole cake blood red. Oh well. At least red is my favorite color.

Then Cameron turned 37!!??!! As you can see, the boys were all quite excited--and relieved--that Daddy could still blow out all those candles!

Cameron had a lot of supervision and help while opening his presents.

I got this idea from my wonderful sis-in-law Klarissa. I took the boys to the dollar store and told them that they could pick out anything they wanted to give to Daddy for his birthday. Damon chose a balloon rocket car. Grady chose a Lightning McQueen jump rope. But then they really wanted the punch balloons too, so I said I would make the punch balloons from me. As you can see the presents were a big hit. And Cameron enjoyed them too.

And then on Halloween, there was a ferocious dragon in our midst. Luckily, two noble knights rode up just in time to finish him off...

...and the beautiful princess was saved once again.

And now skipping to Thanksgiving. There is so much to be thankful for. Jill and Grant were able to come visit for a few days. And although a blizzard robbed us of one day of the trip, we still had a wonderful time. Jill and Grant, we are so glad that you came to see us! We had a blast! And the food turned out pretty good too!

Whew. Well, that is at least skimming the surface of things that have been going on since last August, but I had to get it all in before Christmas was upon us. Lets just hope that I can post something about that before March. We will see...

Summertime

Oh what do you do in the Summertime

With a heat index of 109?



You go swimming! What else can you do?



Here is some footage of my two little fish. All I can say is, watch out Michael Phelps!