Remembering

This time of year always makes me think back a few years. This year is especially reminiscent for me, as the actual dates and days match up again. It was Monday, July 16, 2001 that my mission papers went in. (Wow. Has it really been that long?) A week and a day later, (Tuesday, July 24), at our stake Pioneer Day activity, my stake president asked me if I thought my call would come that week. Since it usually took about 3 weeks for calls to come back to Arizona at that time, I told him that I definitely wasn't expecting it for another week or two. He said something along the lines of, "Well, you never know!" Looking back, I wonder if he knew something that he wasn't telling me.

I got my call 3 days later on Friday, July 27, 2001. We almost didn't even check the mail that day--and you can imagine how surprised I was to see that big white envelope with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for the return address. My parents and sisters had plans and my brothers were both at work. So, with a phone on each ear, (to each brother at work), I opened my call--which told me that I was going to the Lithuania Vilnius mission, Russian speaking. RUSSIAN?? I was totally surprised. I didn't even know where Lithuania was! When I got out my parents' encyclopedia, Lithuania wasn't even in there because at the time the encyclopedia was printed, the USSR was still one big country. I was so surprised that I was being sent to a formerly communist country. As a side note...There really is no feeling like opening your mission call and reading where you get to serve the Lord for the next couple of years. There is a definite power in each mission call. I KNEW that's where Heavenly Father needed me.

That night, I had a date with one of my good friends, Joe. He were going to a Chinese restaurant and then to watch movies at his apartment. On the way out to the car when he picked me up, I asked him where he thought I was going on my mission. His facetious response was that he was going to have to fast and pray about it before he could tell me. When I told him that I already had my call, he was shocked! I think I made him guess and then I couldn't contain my excitement any longer and told him where I was going. I was so excited about it all that I had to call a few friends and tell them about my call--which I did on the way to the restaurant. At the end of dinner, we each took our fortune cookies and read what they said. Mine read, "You will take a pleasant journey to a far away place." How appropriate!! It's been six years and I still have that fortune in my wallet. All through the movies that night, I couldn't stop thinking about the next part of my life. I barely remember what we watched--or what happened. For several months, I had been searching for the right place for me to be--and I finally knew what that place was!

The Watermelon Days of Summer

Kallie has been begging for watermelon for a few weeks now. She discovered the sweet treat a year ago and since then always gets so excited when watermelon is on the menu. So, now that summer is starting to wind down, we finally bought a watermelon. Since Kallie loves it so much, we gave her an entire 1/2 of a HUGE round slice, which she sunk her teeth into immediately. She did a really good job and ate most of the red part. (This is an improvement over last summer, when she also ate the white and green parts as well.) When she finished as much as she could, she turned the rind over and announced, "Rainbow!" Of course, I thought that was totally cute--and I couldn't help but document Kallie's love for watermelon.

*Grumble, Grumble*

So, I knew that Ryan and I would both be making sacrifices in order for him to go to grad school. Among many other things, Ryan's sacrificing a dishwasher, (since he's the main dish do-er in our home), and I'm sacrificing having a washer/dryer in our apartment. It hasn't been TOO big of a deal...before tonight. Admittedly, it IS a pain to drag my 5 loads of laundry, 2 different detergents, baking soda, (boosts the detergent so it cleans better), and dryer sheets over to the building, and then walk back and forth a couple of times to switch the loads to the dryers. But, it's definitely not the worst thing that could happen.

However, tonight, as I was taking the first 2 laundry bags in to the building, I was struggling to get the door open. I was trying to balance the bags so the laundry wouldn't fall out all over the place. I finally swung the door open--right into my second toe--and it hurt like CRAZY! When I first looked at it, I thought it had just sustained a minor injury near the cuticle. After a few seconds, it went numb and I finished getting the laundry started. About halfway through, I realized that my toe was bleeding and starting to hurt...and then I realized the corner of the door had actually ripped the majority of my toenail up. So, I walked home, (since we're pretty close to the laundry building), and washed it and bandaged it. And, Ryan, being the wonderful and amazing husband that he is, has taken care of the rest of the laundry tonight. My toe is still throbbing. :( Maybe laundry won't be so bad after my toe heals.

The Binky Fairy

Tonight, the binky fairy visited Kallie...and I am so sad! I don't know why it makes me sad to think of Kallie giving up her binky--but it does. We've been planning to take it away for a while now, but kept putting it off for various reasons. First, Whitney was coming, then we were living with my parents, then we were moving, then she was moving into a big girl bed, and then we were going on vacation. Now that we've been home for a week and have nothing big coming up, we decided to take advantage of the calm and get rid of the binky.

We had a ward ice cream social tonight by the playground behind our building. So, Kallie left her binky under her pillow and then Ryan took her outside to play while I stayed home and put Whitney to bed. After they were out back, I brought in the Curious George Bedtime doll that we bought today and swapped it for the binky. I actually threw the binky away so I wouldn't cave and go get it for her.

About an hour or so later, Ryan came back in with Kallie, (who was VERY upset that she couldn't keep playing), and I got stuck outside talking with someone. Ryan said when she first saw Curious George, she backed as far away from him as possible. But, when I came in, I helped her get acquainted with her new friend and she was snuggling him before too long. As we did the bedtime routine, she asked for her binky at the usual time--and I had to tell her that the binky fairy took it away. I was so sad to tell her that because I know how much she loves her little binky! She fussed/begged for a couple of minutes, but I just rocked her and sang to her and she calmed down. When I put her in her bed, she asked for it again and I had to remind her that the binky fairy took it. Then, I gave her George to cuddle with, sang one more song, and left the room.

Usually, she'll get up and come investigate what Ryan and I are doing--because that's surely more interesting than trying to go to sleep. But, tonight she didn't. I'm sure it's just because she got to bed a little later than usual and was super tired anyway. But, I was impressed that she didn't cry too much or too hysterically for her binky. Hopefully, this transitional experience will be like all of her other experiences--a little bit of fuss and then moving on like a pro.

The Love is Gone

After 2 1/2 years of enjoyable times, the Love is finally gone! We sold our LoveSac tonight...and I'm sad. After all, it was the ONLY place I could comfortably sleep during the third trimester of my pregnancy with Kallie. By the time I was pregnant with Whitney, we had run out of room for it in our little condo. It sat in our storage unit, (very well covered), for about a year before we moved in here. Once we got here, we once again determined there was still no place for it to go. We thought about keeping it until Ryan was out of grad school, but that's going to be 2 (or more) years and we didn't want to store it for that long. So, tonight, a very happy engaged guy bought our lovely LoveSac. While I'm sad to see it go, at least I know it's going to a good home where it will be well loved.

I'm sorry...WHAT are you prescribing for me?

For the past few weeks, I have been feeling completely NOT like myself. I thought it was something hormonal resulting from weaning Whitney a month ago. After reviewing my options, I decided that going to a naturopath was the best way to go to get it all figured out. So, I went yesterday.

Apparently, I have adrenal gland stress. (The adrenal glands are what regulate estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone.) According to the Dr., that can happen when having babies, especially when you have them close together, throws your body off. So, I'm now on a "get the adrenals back in shape" plan. The very first and most important thing is for me to get more sleep--the Dr. actually wrote a prescription for me for SLEEP. Go to bed earlier and, the Dr. emphasized, sleeping in late is imperative--past 8 a.m. if at all possible. I'm also taking some mood improving vitamins and a couple of other supplements that will help balance my body again. I'm also supposed to drink water mixed with sea salt a couple of times a day. I know that sounds strange, but really, it sounds so good to me! (Probably because my body needs it!)

Another important point in achieving adrenal balance is getting rid of stress...and that's a big one for me. I go through times in my life where, for some reason, I feel the need to be perfect. I have to adjust my perspective and learn what I have to let slide and what things are really important. Along with this, I'm supposed to keep my blood sugars up...the typical "don't go too long without eating" thing. Although I've known that's better for your body for a long time, I've never really been a grazer--so that's going to be a change for me.

Anyway--it seems a little strange--but even after sleeping in until 7 a.m. today, I can tell it really helped. Hopefully, this improving trend will continue!

Kallie Funnies

Today, Kallie did a couple of funny things that I wanted to get written down--so I figured there's no time like NOW and here they are:

--We were playing her matching game once again. (And, the Beeber got another "No, no!" This time, there was an added finger shake to emphasize the no's.) As I pulled the cards out of the box, Kallie said, "Mommy, wiggle cards?" I was stumped for a second and then realized she meant shuffle the cards! For some reason, she is completely entertained by the wiggling of the cards. I guess if you're 2 and have a limited vocabulary, wiggle is as good a word as shuffle for mixing those cards up!

--Several months ago, I made Kallie some letters for the fridge out of magnifoam. They're way bigger than the plastic ones you can buy--which I love. Kallie's latest pastime is pulling each letter off the fridge and throwing it on the floor. I'm not quite sure why she does this, but maybe it's because she likes cleaning them up? Today, she threw them on the floor, as she usually does...but instead of picking them up and putting them back on the fridge, she decided that it would be way more fun to use her little broom and dustpan to sweep them up. I found her just as she was dumping the letters from her dustpan into the trash. I quickly rescued the letters from the germy depths, amid explanations of "Cleaning, mommy!" I had to do some explaning of my own that the letters are not trash and don't belong in the dirty trash can. Hopefully next time, they'll go back on the fridge where they belong!

--One other thing that I almost forgot! Recently, Kallie has started asking if she can burp Whitney. As soon as Whitney finishes her bottle, Kallie is at my knee, patting Whitney on the back. It doesn't matter what Kallie's doing...playing the piano, feeding her Little People dolls, or reading books, she'll drop anything to burp her sister. Then, when the burp finally happens, Kallie's eyes get really big and she smiles a HUGE smile like, "I am SUCH a good helper!" I love that Kallie loves to help...Now if I could just teach her to do laundry...

My Talk and A New Calling!

Well, I gave my talk today in church. Ryan was wonderful and sat with the girls by himself so that I could sit on the stand and focus on my talk until it was time for me to speak. I think it went really well. I got a few compliments from ward members, but my favorite was from my bishop. You have to have a little background on my bishop to really understand why it was important to me. My bishop is an extremely well educated person. He is the General Counsel for a local business AND has a degree in Theology along with all of the other credentials. So, on the way to Sunday School after dropping Kallie off at nursery, Ryan suddenly disappeared. (Apparently, he went into the chapel for a second.) When he finally reappeared, he told me that the Bishop had told him that I am quite the talent. He thought my talk was very well prepared and very well presented--and that made me feel great because I had worked so hard on it.

Also--I got a calling today! I am going to be a Relief Society teacher. I could not have picked a calling that I would love more than that! I love teaching and I am so thrilled about it! Both the bishop and the Relief Society President told me today that they are very careful about who they choose as teachers because they need to know that the person will represent the ward well. That also made me feel so good about myself. Apparently, during the 2 weeks, (not including today), that we've been to church in this ward, they got the feeling that I would do well in this calling. I thought for sure the calling was going to be something that would be a huge challenge for me--but I am so grateful that it's going to be more uplifting than stressful at this point in my life. I'll either be teaching the 2nd or 3rd Sunday--and I can't wait to get started!

A Voice from the Past

The other day, as I was writing my talk, I decided to read my journals from high school and college to see if I had any special experiences in there I could use. Well, I didn't. BUT--it was SO fun to read about the things I thought about then. I had so many concerns and frustrations, and here I am, 10 years later, (give or take a few years), and I know how most everything I worried about has worked out. It was amazing to read about the inspirations I had, and realize that every one of them happened. It was so fun to read about the silly things and even the things that I worried so much about--that now aren't even flecks on the fabric of my life. I know that if I could have seen where I am now, I wouldn't have grown in the ways that I have. Life has turned out so different than what I would have imagined for myself back then. But, I can't imagine it being any different than it is now because it has gone better than what I had planned for myself.

I always worry about how things are going to be in the future...but reading back, I realize that there was never any need to worry because it all worked out so beautifully. I guess that's one reason we have the scriptures. They show us that God loves His people and that He will always work things for their good. What a wonderful thing!

I Love Linux!!

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am speaking in church Sunday. I spent about 6 hours actually writing my talk this week--and just finished it last night. This morning, I went to turn on my computer and it kept booting over and over again. Thank goodness I'm married to the Geek Squad. After working on programming issues all day today and even staying late at work because of them, my sweet husband came home and started working on my computer. Turns out that the hard drive is dead. I don't know what happened between last night and this morning, but apparently it involved a hard drive homicide!

Anyway--thanks to some Linux program, Ryan was able to recover my talk. He's currently trying to save my "Tumblebugs" game--but that is seriously secondary to the talk. I don't think I've worked on a talk this much in my entire life and the possibility of losing it was making me feel sick to my stomach. But, I am now quite relieved and grateful that I can get the normal Saturday things done tomorrow, instead of rewriting my talk. And, just for the record--I LOVE LINUX!!

Kallie's New Pets

Today, Kallie and I were reading her favorite book, "Goodnight Sweet Butterflies." It has really cute, bright pictures and there are little bugs and things on the edges of the main pictures. Today, as we were reading, Kallie noticed a little pink worm at the bottom of one picture and asked for the worm. I pretended to pick it up off the page and put it in her hand. On the next page, there was a little orange worm, and she asked for that one, too. I figured a worm for each hand wasn't bad, so I pretended to give her that one as well. As soon as we finished the book, she started playing with her wormies. She put them in a bottle and carried them around and then took them back out to hold. We went to my mom's to see Kallie's cousins, and she left the worms at home. I totally forgot about them until Ryan was reading with Kallie right before bed--and of course, they read, "Goodnight Sweet Butterflies." Kallie once again requested both the orange and pink worms, then carried them to the bathroom and held them as Ryan brushed her teeth--and then took them to bed with her. To encourage Kallie to stay in her bed, we tell her that if she gets out, we're going to take one of her stuffed animals. (She takes 4 to bed every night...her Larry the Cucumber, doggie, Elmo, and kitty.) Tonight, we told her that we were going to take her worms away. She was SO sad when she got out of bed and lost those little imaginary worms! I'm glad that Kallie has found these new little friends--I love seeing her imagination flourish. It will be interesting to see how long these little pets hang around our house.

Writing a Talk

A few days before we left for Seattle, the 2nd Counselor in our Bishopbric came over to ask me to speak. They didn't ask Ryan to speak, just me--which has never happened before and is a little strange to me. I guess they figure that battling 2 kids on the stand just doesn't set a great tone for Sacrament meeting?

Anyway--It's now been 2 weeks since I accepted this opportunity. I really don't mind speaking in church--performing of any sort in front of people has never been a challenge for me. BUT--I wish they could have waited until THIS week to give me the assignment! I've been thinking about what to say every day since they asked me to do it. I finally sat down and wrote most of my talk yesterday during the girls' naptime, but now I'm rehashing it over and over again and thinking about what needs to be changed and what doesn't. Had they waited longer to ask me, I wouldn't have to agonize over it as much.

My topic is the power and importance of prayer and scripture study. My talk is about 8 1/2 minutes long so far and all about prayer. This morning, while I was out for my walk, I decided that I need to cut some things out and then add a lot more about scripture study. Hopefully, I'll be able to find some quiet time tonight to get the rest of it written!

Seattle: Thursday thru Sunday

Thursday morning, we woke up, got ready, and packed the car to head back to Ryan's parents' house. We decided instead of driving down through Tacoma, we would take the ferry and spend part of the day in Seattle, since we missed doing that on Tuesday. Our ferry was scheduled to leave at 11:30--and we left the house a little after 11. I was SO nervous that we weren't going to make it! But, at 11:25, we paid our ferry toll and got in line. We only sat for about 5 minutes before it was our turn to drive onto the ferry. Although we were further back in line, we ended up being parked RIGHT at the front of the boat. We didn't stay in the car, though--we went up to the deck to take in the sights of the Sound as we traveled from Bremerton to Seattle. While we were outside on the deck, a few people started feeding the seagulls Cheezits. It was fun to watch the birds try to keep up with the boat. We were moving fast enough that at times it seemed the birds were just hanging in mid-air. After a while, (not looking forward to sunburned babies), we went inside and found a place to sit while we ate lunch and looked out the window. When we docked in Seattle, the traffic director waved us off the boat first--which was nice because we didn't get stuck behind people trying to get out.

Once in Seattle, we meandered over to Pike's Place Market. I really enjoy going there! We explored many levels--although most of them didn't interest us very much. We did find a gourmet olive oil and vinegar store and I bought a small bottle of each. (www.sottovoce.com, if you're interested. I got Olio Pomodoro and Aceto Balsamico.) The have an AMAZING cheesecake store there called The Confectional. They sell single serving cheesecakes, cheesecake truffles, and gourmet chocolate there. Ryan and I HAD to stop by and pick a few up! I got a coconut cherry and Ryan got a peanut butter chocolate. We also got a triple berry and a New York style to share with his parents. They were all SO good! I think The Confectional will probably become a regular stopping place on future visits to Seattle!

After we finished at Pike's, we decided to head back to Auburn so our girls would be able to spend some time with their Nana and Papa. We started following the signs toward the freeway, but after seeing a couple, they disappeared and we kept missing on-ramps! It happened that same way about 3 times before we finally drove past the Boeing plant and located a REAL on-ramp. That night, we just hung out with Ryan's parents.

Friday morning, we got up and got ready to take the kids to the Point Defiance Zoo. We thought about going into Seattle to the Aquarium or to the Woodland Park Zoo, but decided that Tacoma was closer and Kallie would tire of the experience long before we got our money's worth at either of the other places. We had a great time at the zoo! Kallie LOVED watching the fish in the aquariums there. She also begged to see the penguins--and then when we got to the penguin exhibit, she acted somewhat uninterested in them. Oh well! Such is the fickle nature of a 2-year old girl! She did, however, love watching the walruses, as did Ryan and I. One of them was almost swimming laps across their large pool. She would swim toward the front of the exhibit climb partially on the rock, blow out a big breath of air, and then hold her breath as she dove backward into the water and swam to the other side of the pool. It was really funny watching her! (For some reason, it reminded me of "Bobs on the Tide"--a joke from my mission about the Russian babushka's swimming in the ocean.) We also got to see a couple of Beluga Whales swimming in circles aroung their tank. At this point, both of the girls had seen enough and were ready to go home and take a nap.

After we all napped, we ate dinner and watched a movie called, "Breach". It was about the catching of Robert Hanssen, one of the most successful, and therefore, most devastating, double agents in American history. He provided Russians with extremely top secret U.S. information and was finally arrested in 2001. I thought it was going to be one of those boring car-chase, blow-everything-up guy movies...but it was nothing like I had imagined, and I REALLY liked it! It probably helped that I was reading "A Train to Potevka" at the time, which is about an American from Utah who was a spy in Russia. (I also definitely recommend this book!)

Saturday morning, we packed the car and left for home. This time, instead of stopping in Le Grande, we stopped in Boise--which was about a 10 hour drive. On the way there, we stopped at a park in Yakima and let Kallie run around and play for a while. We didn't end up stopping as much as we thought we would with 2 small kids in the car, which was an unexpected bonus. We had promised Kallie that she could go swimming as soon as we got to the motel that night. A little while after we arrived, Ryan and Kallie got their swim clothes on and headed down to the pool. As luck would have it, someone had barfed in the pool earlier in the day, so the pool was closed for the entire time we were there. Since we had promised Kallie that she could swim, and she was dressed in her swim suit...so we filled up the bathtub and let her play in the water for a bit. Amazingly, she didn't seem disappointed that her pool was more shallow and a bit smaller than the last time she'd been swimming!

The next morning, we were planning to go to church before we left town. We didn't set an alarm clock, though, because our girls usually wake up at 6:30 a.m. Well, of all days to sleep in, they both chose Sunday! Whitney woke up at 7:30 and Kallie didn't get up until 8! It was a complete shock for us. Needless to say, we didn't make it to the 9 a.m. meeting that day. Instead, we hopped back into the car and drove home. The trip from Boise to Provo seemed SO short! Maybe it was, in comparison to the day before. And, it totally helped that the girls were WONDERFUL that day and slept a lot of the way home.

I have to say, I really wasn't ready to come home. Sometimes, when you go on vacation, you're so ready to go home and get back to the normal routine that you're chomping at the bit to get out of there. But, this time wasn't one of those times for me. I could really have stayed another week in Seattle. I guess the fact that I was coming home to a few unpacked boxes, no ward calling yet, and still settling into a social group here made Provo much less enticing than Seattle. I do have to say that I know both Ryan and I wished we had been able to stay longer so that we could have visited more family members, instead of just seeing them in passing. We can't wait to go back in December and see everyone again!

Seattle: Monday thru Wednesday

Monday morning, we got up at the normal early hour--thanks to Kallie and Whitney--and got things packed up to head to Ryan's brother's family's home. We got there around 10 a.m. and had breakfast. Then, we just hung out and talked while the kids played. That afternoon, we went to Sizzler for lunch, (the only place in Bremerton/Silverdale that had a salad bar--which is what my SIL and I both wanted), and then took the kids to see Ratatouille. Both of our kids acted just like we thought they would! Whitney had a bottle and then slept through almost the entire movie. Kallie, on the other hand, got bored after about 30 minutes and started vocalizing it. Ryan had to take her out and missed probably 20 minutes of the movie. He actually used the "Church Foyer" technique and didn't let her run around in the hallway. So, she decided that being in the theater and being quiet was better than hanging out in the hallway doing nothing. And, miraculously, she was quiet through the rest of the movie! As far as the movie itself--I thought it was cute--although more of a grown up Pixar than a kids' movie.

After the movie, we took the kids to a park to play and get out all of their pent-up movie energy. The playground where we took them was a fun place. My SIL and I saw and watched the kids and other people at the park. There was a group of skater-type kids who were causing mischief near some picnic tables across the playground from us. They were all teenagers, the youngest being about 10 years old, and they were all smoking. At least 2 of the girls were literally throwing themselves at the guys in the group. I was incredibly sad. It made me wonder what their parents thought and if they even knew what the kids were doing.

That night, Cami and I stayed home with the kids and got them to bed while Ryan and his brother, Heath, went to see Transformers. I was definitely relieved that Ryan got to go with his brother to see it because it's definitely more of a guy movied that I wasn't thrilled about seeing.

The next morning, my SIL was teaching piano lessons, my nephew had a swimming lesson and Ryan needed to go to Costco...so everyone but me and my girls left. (Well, my SIL was there--she just wasn't available because of the lessons.) Our plan waas to leave on the 12:30 ferry for Seattle and spend the day at Pike's Place and maybe the Seattle Aquarium. Ryan and his brother got back around noon--and we hurried to get everything together and make it to the ferry. At about 12:20, we realized that we were still too far away to make it. With a car full of kids and now no plans, we decided that taking them to a park was going to be the best option. The playground we went to was incredible! The play structure looked like a castle and was HUGE! We were there for quite a while letting the kids run around with each other. While I was sitting in a parent's area of the structure with Whitney, a little boy--probably about 9 years old--came up and sat RIGHT next to me. He started talking to Whitney and playing with her. (Being the paranoid mom that I am, I had to remind him to please not touch her face and hands.) He scooted up next to me and even laid his head on my shoulder while he played with her. I have to admit, I was somewhat uncomfortable with the situation, but I was pretty sure that the poor little guy just didn't get enough loving attention from his parents. (I think he was there with a baby sitter.) So, I just sucked it up for about 10 minutes and then it was time for us to go anyway.

That afternoon, after the kids had napped, we let them play in the front yard in the sprinklers. In the evening, the boys went and bought fireworks. We thought about keeping Kallie up to see the fireworks, but she was so sleep deprived on Sunday night that she threw a MAJOR screaming tantrum. Since we didn't want to revisit that experience, we put her to bed at her normal time. That night, we started the fireworks--and they were so fun that I couldn't let Kallie sleep through them. So, I got her out of bed and brought her outside to watch. I was SO not disappointed that I did that! She loved every second of the fireworks and begged for more! (Guess she's got some of her mommy in her...) Heath has a really cool camera and got some fun pictures of us writing our names with sparkler. It took a while for us to do the fireworks and we got to bed around midnight or so.

Wednesday morning, Ryan and I ran a few errands while Kallie stayed and played with her cousins. And, I think most of us took a nap that afternoon. After Heath got home from work, we went to a park on the beach near the Hood Canal bridge. Ryan's entire family, (minus one sister), was there to have a BBQ and celebrate the 4th of July. Kallie played with her cousins and played in the sand on the beach. My nephews found some dead jellyfish on the shore and brought them over to show everyone. Having never seen a jellyfish in my life, I thought it was pretty cool. It was a very relaxing afternoon for me--although I'm sure not as much for Ryan, as he was chasing Kallie around all afternoon. (Which, I must say, I was TOTALLY appreciative that he did that. After trying to keep tabs on her while unpacking the house, packing for the trip, and the normal every day stuff on top of it all--I desperately needed a break from chasing a toddler around 24/7.)

As it got to be evening, everyone left the park and we decided to go find a place to watch fireworks. We drove through Bremerton looking for people gathered to watch the fireworks. We found a spot across the street from the inlet where the fireworks barge was anchored and parked Maybe by now you can tell that I am a HUGE fan of fireworks...and being where we were for the 4th of July was the best!! There were hundereds of people around us waiting for the official show to begin--and in the mean time, they were putting on fireworks shows of their own. There was literally no more than 2-3 seconds between the fireworks, with many overlapping each other. I don't know how it is elsewhere, but in Utah, the biggest fireworks you can get are fountains. There are laws about how high they can shoot into the air, etc. In Washington, you can get the kids of fireworks that shoot into the air and then explode. And, those big ones were the kind that almost everyone waiting for the fireworks was setting off. When the official show finally started, it was kind of far away, but we still had a great view and definitely enjoyed the show! It was SO fun! Once again, Kallie LOVED the fireworks--and every time we got in the car after that, she would ask if we were going to see more fireworks. I do have to say, though, that the most amazing part of the evening was that when it was over, we got everyone in the car and headed straight home--NO TRAFFIC!!

I think that 4th of July was one of my favorites. The fireworks and company were wonderful and we wish we could do that every year!

Seattle: Friday thru Sunday

I've wanted to write down our trip experience in a journal, but I don't have one here with me--so it's going in the blog. :)

Friday started off really well. We made it on to the road about 15 minutes later than we had planned, which, to me, was close enough to be great. We were meeting Ryan's brother's family in Bountiful to start caravaning together. We decided to say a prayer before we left, and I am SO glad that we did. I was driving the first few hours and we were in the "spaghetti bowl" section of the freeway in SLC, trucking along at about 72 in the carpool lane. I saw the car in front of me put on their brakes, so I started to put mine on as well. There was no backed up traffic on the freeway, so I presumed they were just slowing to drive the speed limit. It suddenly occurred to me that the car in front of me was completely STOPPED in my lane! I stood on the brake and tried to maintain control of the car without hitting the one in front of me. I screeched to a stop, slightly in the shoulder, missing the car in front of us. Turns out the people in front of us had to stop hard, too, because a TAXI DRIVER, that's right--a man who drives for his profession--had voluntarily come to a complete stop in the middle of the car pool lane because he wanted to illegally cross the double white lines and get over. THERE WAS NO TRAFFIC ON THE FREEWAY--HE COULD HAVE GOTTEN OVER WITHOUT STOPPING!!!! I got the phone number, but didn't catch the cab number, which is unfortunate, because I would have called immediately to report the dangerous driver that should have been fired. Oh--and when he finally got over, he was going about 20 mph in the other freeway lanes, continuing to work his way over into the right hand lane. Anyway--needless to say--it was pretty scary!

So--after that, things went pretty well. Whitney wanted her bed at one point a cried for a bit, but both girls were really so good. I didn't even have to use everything I brought to keep Kallie busy. That just means I'll have a few things left for the trip back. That night, when we got to the motel, we put Whitney in bed and she slept until her normal 6 a.m. wakeup. We had light and the TV on, plus Kallie was running around everywhere--and Whitney still slept! Looks like our girls are going to learn to sleep through anything. There was a pool at our motel, so Ryan took Kallie swimming, which of course, she loved. She was also enthralled with the phone in our room, so we ended up unplugging it and letting her play with it. I seriously think that room was almost the ultimate playroom for Kallie. She jumped on the beds, played with the phone, and climbed on every climbable surface--and Ryan and I didn't care all that much.

The next day was also a good travel day. Kallie had a bit of a meltdown when we couldn't find her binky at one point. After missing out on naps, and an extremely late bedtime the night before, I couldn't really blame her--but it was still a bit stressful. We arrived in Seattle around 3:30 and went to my in-law's anniversary dinner that night. We had a wonderful time hanging out with Ryan's family.

Today, we went to church with Ryan's parents and his brothers' families. On the way into church, Kallie tripped and skinned her knees. Thank goodness for the 72 hour kit in our car! We slapped a couple of bandaids on and went on with the day. Tonight, everyone came over to my in-laws house and we had a luau celebration. All of the grandkids were running around everywhere--which is pretty fun when they're not together very often.

Tomorrow morning, we're going to Silverdale to spend a few days at Ryan's brother's house. We enjoy spending time with them, so it should be fun!