Summer Wrap-Up Part Five - FINAL Installment!

One final post about summer!  But this one will be a long one as there is a little bit of everything to record.

Mary Gets Her First Haircut
As Mary's hair has been getting longer and longer, it has looked scraggly at times.  At this time she was really into Rapunzel too, and insisted that she would NEVER cut her hair.  Kind of on a whim one day, she wanted a toy or something, and I told her she could have it but only if she let us get get her hair trimmed.  She agreed!  Yay!  That was easy.  (I dread the day when I won't be able to bribe my children to do what I want).  I only told them to cut a little bit as I didn't want to traumatize Mary and have her never want to come back.  So it only made a small difference.  But it was still good.

Botanic With Hannah and Joe
One day in August, my married niece, Hannah was in town.  We decided to hang out together at the Botanic Gardens.  We had a really fun time!

Do you see the dragonfly?

Feeding the goldfish

It's a tradition when we go, to eat lunch and then enjoy one of their DELICIOUS popsicles!

Just amazing isn't it?

So many interesting things that God made!

Leaves bigger than heads!

And at the end, we have to roll down the large hill!

At the end, I had to go back to get a picture of this set up for encouraging bees to be in your yard.  I thought this was very cool and interesting.

Centennial Spray Park with Stephanie and Sigmund
One day we went to the spray park with Stephanie and Sigmund.   Isn't summer fun?

A few more random pics:
Jeff's brother and his family came over to Jeff's parents one afternoon for a bbq while we were staying there.  I always enjoy spending time with them.  We don't do it nearly enough.  But one thing we did was hike down to where there was some construction happening a ways off behind their house.  Jeff's brother had 4 boys at that point (now 5!).  So we HAD to do that for the boys.  Us girls wanted to come too.

That's a big wheel!

The Crew.

Mary had to share GrammE with cousin, H (her closest cousin in age).  Isn't H a cutie?

 Jonathan starts walking!
This summer Jonathan started walking.  I think it was official at 13 months (one month earlier than Mary).  But he really started moving at 14 months.  I was originally trying to get pictures here of their new pjs.  It was really hard bc Jonathan just kept moving.  But though these pics are a bit blurry, I love to watch a little one learning to walk.  It's adorably fun!

 Best one I got, even though Mary's a bit sad here.  How often do you get to dress your boy and girl alike?  I take advantage of the rare occasions.  ; )

And finally, I will close with one of the highlights of my summer.  Kantorei was invited to sing with Foreigner.  It was super fun!  And I realized I knew all of those songs....Double Vision, Hot Blooded, Cold As Ice, I Wanna Know What Love Is....  Music really has such power!

That's it for summer!  Onto Fall!

Summer Wrap-Up Part 4 - Swimming Lessons

I thought I should include a big part of our summer - Swimming Lessons!  Mary took two sessions back to back at the HR rec center.  It was fun.  We'd usually walk there - well I'd walk and push the kids in the sit and stand stroller- so I could get a little exercise, Mary would have her 30 minute lesson, and Jonathan would play in the shallow end.  Then we'd pack up and come home.  Perfect!

Mary had a fun time!  But I wouldn't describe her as a fish.  She didn't really like getting her face in the water.  But as the lessons continued, she got better and better as you will see.  Here are some pics:

First Day.  Isn't she adorable?

Her teacher, Christina.  Notice Mary keeping her head OUT of the water.  : )

Jonathan looking intent by the pool.  He liked to drag the chairs into the water.  Whatever floats your boat son!

Towards the end of the first session, Mary had made definite improvement.

Yay!  Certificate and sucker upon completion of first session.  Isn't it amazing how happy kids get at the reward of something simple - like a sucker?

Second session with instructor Matt.  By the end she still didn't love sticking her face in the water.  We will have to continue to work on that.  

One drawback to the swimming lessons, was that Mary developed some major skin reactions including eczema.  Had to finally go to the doctor to get it cleared up.

This is a result from all the scratching....  poor thing.

Here is something for which you can judge me...  I didn't realize that she really needed to rinse off after being in the pool.  She'd have her baths that night, and I just figured that would be sufficient.  Well, clearly I was WRONG.  But at least I learned my lesson.  : )  Even when she has gone and has rinsed off, her eczema rears back.  But we are more on top of it now.  So hopefully we won't have the same issues this year.  (I was just today trying to sign her up for more lessons.  Ran into some red tape.  Of course right?  ; )).

Summer Wrap Up Part 3 - Annabel and Quinn Are Sealed

I have mentioned my friend Annabel before on my blog.  I posted pictures of her wedding a couple years ago and various pictures throughout.  She has become one of my best friends.  You know, sometimes you develop a friendship with someone that withstands the test of time.  I actually call these friends, "life-long friends" because I know we always will be just that.

 

Annabel and I met while doing The Will Rogers Follies at BDT.  As we auditioned, we helped each other as we rehearsed the steps.  She and her sister complimented me on my double pirouette.  Ultimately, I was cast as Z's Favorite and she was my understudy as well as one of the Ziegfeld girls.  It was a super fun show to be a part of!!!

As time progressed, we sat by each other in the dressing room, bonded over the horrible cattiness of that show (we were picked on a bit), and about a month before we closed started hanging out outside of work.

I remember our first dinner date.  We sat at P.F. Chang's in park meadows outside and watched a beautiful sunset.  We talked about lots of things including religion.  She respected me as a Christian as she herself was a Christian (something else I guess that bonded us together in a sea of non-believers and scoffers backstage).  She asked me that night, "What is the difference between regular Christianity and Mormonism?"  I told her there was a lot.  But I tried to sum it up by using a metaphor.  I told her that I thought regular Christianity was like bread and water.  It was good and it would sustain you.  But that Mormonism in comparison was like a marvelous feast with succulent meat, mashed potatoes, vegetables, bread, drinks, desserts, etc.  We went on to talk about the Book of Mormon and she told me honestly how far fetched it all sounded.  I agreed with her.  She asked me for a BOM and the next time I saw her, I gave her one with my testimony in it, which simply said, "I feel closer to God when I read this book".   I could tell she wasn't really all that interested in pursuing it, but it did make it so we could talk freely about why I do things or don't, my values, etc.

Throughout the next couple of years,  Annabel and I probably hung out every week or two - going out to dinner or shopping and we'd talk about life.  Part of what she'd tell me about was her dating life.  It seemed she just met scummy guy after scummy guy.  She wanted a Christian man to marry.  Doesn't seem like that hard of a thing to find.  But it is!  She'd find guys who said they were Christian but only went to church twice a year.  Or guys who were willing to go to church, but didn't really understand how a Christian man should treat his girlfriend.

A couple of years later, she was introduced to a Mormon guy named Quinn.  He gave her multiple incentives for looking into the Mormon religion a little deeper.  And once she did, she had some many "coincidences" that it seemed more than just chance.  The truths resonated with her and she had the desire to be baptized.  It was hard because her family and other Christian friends did not approve.  Ultimately though, after the stress of their wedding subsided, Annabel decided for herself to get baptized.  I only recently got a hold of these pictures.  It makes me happy to look back and see the journey that has happened and that I've gotten to observe it.

This past June and July, Annabel took out her endowments (Denver temple) ...

...and got sealed to Quinn for Time and All Eternity in the Salt Lake Temple.  Several of us went to Utah to be a part of it.

So I had to include this as one of the highlights of my summer.  It was very special.  And now... Annabel and Quinn are about to have their first baby (due Valentine's Day)!  I can't wait to meet this little princess who will now be born in the covenant.