A wonderful Thanksgiving in Florida

We had such a great time in Florida with the Francises and Grandma and Grandpa!
Our kids want to move to Florida.  I had to keep reminding them that this is November and Florida is very different in June-August.

Anyway, surprise, surprise, Karly made a video of our trip.  See it here.
(Her style is like video images flashing before your eyes, but she wraps up a 5-day trip in a neat little 2-minute package. I personally have to watch them a few times to understand what I saw.)

Thanks to Mom and Dad for a wonderful trip!  Now I know where I want to serve my mission!

Sister Ena Ena's Addresses

As requested by mom, here's Annmarie's email address:

annmarie.brown@myldsmail.net

and her mailing address for letters and packages while in American Samoa:

Sister Annmarie Brown
PO Box 608
Pago Pago  AS 96799
United States

and her mailing address for when she's serving in Western Samoa:

Sister Annmarie Brown
Apia Samoa LDS Mission
PO Box 1865
Apia
SAMOA

Thank you so much for supporting her!

Ofu & Olosega

We are just happy for Annmarie!  She will really get to work on her Samoan language and culture.

It is so beautiful there, but really small.

Check out some of these pictures from Ephraim's trip there in 2009 >>  Dropbox folder of Ofu

Recent trip to PA/VA, Part 3

Sunday of Labor Day weekend, we attended church with the Browns. 

After church, Shellie organized a mini-MTC for the kids, complete with mission calls and name tags.

Stations: ironing/sewing on a button

Cooking (in which they helped prepare Sunday dinner)

Talk preparation (and a quiz on nation's flags)

Proselyting took the form of drawing a big diagram of the Plan of Salvation in the street in front of their house.

Everyone pointing to where they were "called."

Notice the "dork dots"?

And here's a photo with Chance.

 That night we all attended a Family History activity planned by their ward. Family scripture study and the Fillmore hangout followed, and we had one busy Sunday!

We packed up and drove home the next day (Labor Day) and resumed our normal schedule on Tuesday. All in all, it was a great trip!

Recent trip to PA/VA, part 2

On the Saturday before Labor Day, we ventured into Philadelphia. No tickets were available to go inside Independence Hall, and the line for the Liberty Bell was around the block, so we settled for exterior shots.

I included another photo of the temple here to compare to Independence Hall. The temple is not an exact replica, but the designers definitely borrowed some elements from Independence Hall. 

Anyway, so instead of seeing just those two sights, we found some benches where paid storytellers tell stories about people and events in historic Philadelphia. There are 13 around the historical district, and the kids got a sticker for each one they visited. Using a map, we made it to six of them, and it was an interesting way to see parts of the historical district even I had never seen. 

This statue is called "The Signer." See the quill pen in his right hand?

 

Ol' Ben is still kickin'

 Another cool place we saw was the US Mint. (Photography not really allowed.) We learned a lot about the manufacture of coins.

Next stop: Wyomissing!

While stopped at the old house, Paige needed to use the restroom. I knocked on the Bleakley's door, and they happened to be home. We got the updates on everyone. 

 I had to show the kids my elementary school. With all of its expansions, it really sprawls. The grassy circular area that we'd march around for the Halloween parade is still there.  

To the far right is the wing where Jan attended kindergarten. I remember when that was built.

Time marches on, but the Berkshire Mall is still there.

Then we headed to the Browns' house. See the exciting conclusion in part 3!

Recent Trip to PA/VA, part I

We (I) really wanted to attend the Philadelphia Temple open house. With school starting the same day as the open house, Labor Day weekend was our only opportunity without missing a bunch of school.

We took the Friday off, so we'd have more time. After driving Thursday night, our first stop Friday morning was Hershey's Chocolate World.

Spiffy new entrance.

Chocolate World still has that ride that takes you through a chocolate factory simulation. Updated to include singing cows and talking Hershey's candies (see characters on portico in the first photo.)

The ride still dumps you out in a huge marketplace. Remember the tall trees inside? Still there!

The town still has kiss-shaped street lights. The kids didn't notice a chocolate smell in the town.

Then we stopped at Jason's Uncle Del & Aunt's Mary Lou's house (condo)near Lancaster for lunch. 

At the park, I taught the kids how to play Got It/Dropped It, on maybe the last turntable thing of its kind. 

Brief rest stop in Valley Forge (no interesting photos taken), we made our way to Philly. 

First view of temple, right next to the freeway.

 We met the Browns there and got on the last open house tour of the evening.

The temple's underground parking garage has two stories above ground. The top is like an observation deck.
(Despite the limitations of red-eye correction, this photo isn't bad considering the low light.)

 We spent that night with friends who used to like in Bloomington, who now live in Philly area. See next blog post for more!

A Close Shave

Warning: Yucky pictures... but not sickening like Shellie's thumb accident post or Mom's spider bite pictures.  

Back in June, we went to Texas for my sister-in-law's wedding.  The day of the reception, Friday, (the actual wedding/sealing was on Saturday), I shaved my legs with True's electric razor (not an unusual occurrence).  

I'm not going to pretend that I am as advanced in the shaving department as the rest of my sisters, but this was not a rookie kind of mistake.  After I cut the hairs with the detailing edge, I used the foil part of the razor to finish off the stubble and get a smooth finish.  

It wasn't until I was "smoothing" the second leg that I felt a burning sensation on the leg I'd just finished.  Little did I know, the foil had a small chink in the metal, hardly noticeable to the finger--but quite noticeable when pressed on the leg.  By then it was too late, and the damage had been done.  

The pain felt like the worst sunburn imaginable.  If anything touched my legs, they burned!  I put A&D on them (because that's what I had on hand), hoping to ease the pain and expedite recovery.  The scratches got more noticeable and stayed pretty painful for the next few days.  These pictures were taken on Sunday, two days after it happened.  (Even after the pain was gone, the scratches took about a month to fully heal.)  As fate would have it, I'd only packed knee-length dresses and shorts for the trip.  Only one person actually asked what happened.  I'm sure others noticed but were too polite to ask.  Or maybe they figured I'd lost a fight with a cat.

Utah in Motion

Karly has made a video of our Utah adventures.  It's posted on vimeo.  Here's the link!  Enjoy!

West Coast adventure

Utah Fun Times, part 4: Finally Heading South

We spent a night in St. George with the Peterson's and the Brown's.  It was a great way to break up the long drive.  And the pool was definitely a high point.

Rachel & Trent had a good attitude when they had to stay in the hospital overnight.  

Good practice for when it's baby time.

Sadly we had to head back to Arizona, where it's not as green, or cool, or mountainous.  But it's home.

 Car sick pics (posed)

The End

Utah Fun, Part 3, featuring costumes, scripture power, a blowout, and fashion

We had one-ton-o-fun just being with cousins.  My kids of course loved being with the Judd's, had a blast playing Scatterball with grandma, and went crazy over all the cool stuff at the Craig's house.

A messy blowout.

Mom made these scriptures for Primary.  I thought they were so clever.

We made a girls outing to the mall so Ella could get her ears pierced.  Don't tell Ephraim.  He still doesn't know!  We're waiting to see how long it takes him to find out.

Cuties at the Fillmore picnic (Linus is holding a roly-poly bug.)