Back Seat Conversations

Burke: "Ugh! My car seat is all wet from my water bottle!"

Charlie: "Burke, don't worry. Burke, don't worry. Burke, Hakuna matata...it means no worries."

We speak a lot of Swahili in our house.

Ten Years

So, it really has been ten years. Ten years ago yesterday since I married my knight at the Salt Lake City temple in Utah. I was telling my boys yesterday that it was our ten year anniversary. They asked if that was a big deal. Of course it is! That's a long time! Then I thought about how many times I've heard people refer to how long they have been married and make a comment about how they never thought they would make it this far. It occurred to me that I fully intended on making it this long with my guy. I just didn't think the time would go by so quickly.

So what do you get after ten years of marriage? Well, a lot of things. BUT one of them is not a photo taken on your own camera of the happy couple together. I looked through the entire year and came up with nothing. This is as close as it gets. We were sitting at the same table, enjoying the same child's birthday. This is also proof that our love is so strong that even the iphone can't interrupt ten years of bliss. I even think it's quite handy.

So far since we have been married we have lived in 6 states and added 4 new roommates. Next year we'll be able to up our states to 7, as we will be packing up yet another moving truck on Monday, and our number of roommates to 5, as we expect a baby girl to join our family in October. I get lots of huge grins and inquiries as I take my crazy boys in and out of stores this summer sporting my growing belly. Yesterday, one woman responded to me, "You sure are blessed." I proudly replied back, "I am."

Love you Trav.

Higgins Armory

We took the boys to the Higgins Armory right here in Worcester MA. It is is the sole museum in the Western Hemisphere devoted to arms and armor. It is a pretty neat place.

Travis helped the boys build a castle with an archway entrance. It was fun and educational because we got to teach them what a keystone is and why it is the most important piece in the arch.

They tried on real helmets, gloves, and mail. The mail was so heavy!

The helmets were a little big.

So were the chess pieces. Theron and I tried to play a game of chess but random kids kept running across our board and moving our pieces. It was fun for a few minutes.

Being around all these weapons and armor really got our adrenaline going. We simply couldn't resist showing off our muscles (and belly) for the camera.

Books and Beyond

A good friend of mine is in charge of this program that the PTO runs at Nelson Place school where Isaac and Theron just finished 2nd and 1st grade. The program is called Books and Beyond and runs for all of the students from kindergarten through third grade.

Each child is to read either 20 books (anything goes) or 300 pages. The students can also fill this requirement if someone else reads to them. There were small rewards at the end of each month for each student who filled the requirement. Then at the end of the year all the students who completed the program were awarded medals and the students who read the most pages in their class were awarded a trophy.
We had two pretty excited boys that day. I really enjoyed the program and look forward to the possibility of bringing it with us to our next school in Washington.

Pine Wood Derby

Isaac participated in his first pine wood derby race with the cub scouts in our ward.

They were all just a tiny bit excited.

Isaac designed his car all by himself. There was no brainwashing involved but it did take a bit of dad's help to actually pull off the finished product. Go Cougs!

Huh?

Burke: "Dad, what is that?"
Travis: "It's my toiletry bag."
Burke, looking all around the bathroom: "Mom, where's the toilet tree?"

Two year anniversary

I just passed my two year anniversary on the 7th of July. Two years ago that day I had a major hip reconstructive surgery and that was only the beginning! Look at the length of that screw. I sported those two screws for the next year until they removed the longer one. I had to hang on to the little one for a souvenir.