2017 :: week 39

September 24

Sunday evening we went to an Eagle Scout Court of Honor for Ian Kirk in our ward. Elliott audibly gasped when he saw the Wilsons walk in. Elliott really likes his cousins. After the ceremony while everyone else was eating dessert Elliott and Mikey ticked the ivories.

September 25

Several neighborhood kids came over and played with our toys Monday after dinner. There are nine kids 10 and under (1 ten year old, 1 seven year old, 1 five year old, 2 4 year olds, 1 three year old, 2 two year olds and one 6 month old) on our end of the street. It's fun to watch them enjoy each other's company. I always envisioned living in a neighborhood with lots of kids and I am so grateful that we do. Will and Lauren have several classmates that live within a block as well.

September 26

Elliott and I walked to the toddler story time at the library Tuesday morning. It rained the night before and the temperature dropped quite a bit. Unfortunately it was much more humid than I anticipated and I worked up quite the sweat as we walked. I felt a little self conscious about how sweaty I was when we walked in a few minutes late. Next time I'll plan an extra few minutes to cool down. Elliott had fun at the story time. There was a 2:1 song to book ratio, which is a nice fit for Elliott's attention span.

September 27

Elliott's hair has a lot of body. After I bathed him Tuesday evening I combed it and thought I did a good job of taming it. I literally laughed out loud when I saw it sticking straight up Wednesday morning.

September 28

Will and Tony were living a charmed life Thursday evening. About two weeks before the end of the season we remembered we had two ticket vouchers for view level cheap seats that we didn't want to go to waste. When we looked at our calendar we determined that Thursday night was the best option and Anthony took Will after he got home from work. When they pulled up to the gate, the attendant gave Tony a prepaid spot in the reserved lot. Because they didn't have to pay for parking Anthony decided they could get some food (hot dog and pretzel) and because there was confusion on the hot dog size Will ordered (regular or foot long) the manager decided to just comp their order. The game was not crowded and the boys moved down, eventually sitting right behind the home team dugout. Will was not used to seeing the players at such close range and told me, "I'm used to the players looking like action figures. Tonight they looked like giants." He also got his best hit ever in the Little K. Pretty fun and memorable night for those two!

September 29

Friday Elliott and I tagged along on the second grade field trip to the KC Zoo. My extensive zoo knowledge came in handy as navigated the zoo and attempted to see everything in four hours, which is just not possible. It was a gorgeous fall day and Will had a lot of fun. Will was grouped with Walker and Porter, and both of their mothers were there as well. My favorite part of field trips is becoming more familiar with Will's classmates and their parents.

September 30

We made our second annual pilgrimage to the KC Pumpkin Patch Saturday morning. Anthony did not go with us because he was overseeing a viewing for the daughter of some good friends in our ward. I attended the funeral later that day. The kids had a great time playing and riding the animal train was a highlight.

2017 :: week 38

September 17

Singing time is my favorite part of nursery. We get a little break from entertaining the kids and only have to keep them from hurting themselves and others. Also, I never realized how many blonde boys we have in nursery until looking at this picture.

September 18

One of our favorite things to do in the summer is grill burgers and top them with fresh tomatoes from our garden. As the summer draws to a close our garden's productivity is way down so we are taking advantage of these delicious tomatoes while we can. I made a tomato-based gazpacho for me to eat at lunchtime this week too. We believe that a near perfect burger can be constructed using the following template: Pepperidge Farm Sweet & Soft Slider Bun  + burger salted with Red Robin seasoning + cheese + tomato + red onion + chipotle Mayo. Yum!

September 19

Lauren had her first Daisy Girl Scout meeting Tuesday evening. She had a fabulous time with friends from her class and the other kindergarten classes at her school. There are about 17 girls in the troop and so there are lots of opportunities for making new friends.

September 20

We met up with cousins Tyler and Micey at the Lenexa Gym-for-Me. Elliott loves getting together with his cousins. Now that the Lenexa Rec Center has opened the Lenexa Community Center is much less crowded.

September 21

The Lego situation in Will and Lauren's room got out of control this summer. As they have acquired more Legos the storage system we had set up was not up to par. This week we bought and put together an IKEA TROFAST. The kids spent hours taking apart their creations and organizing them by type/color. I love walking into their room now.

September 22

Now that they are in school for seven hours a day I am really cherishing the time I have with Will and Lauren in the morning before school and in the afternoon and evening. I really like Will. He's such a good boy. This week he was selected to be a peer model based on his good attitude and positive example in the classroom. We are so blessed to have him in our family.

September 23

One of our favorite fall traditions in going to the parade at the Overland Park Fall Festival. This year it didn't feel much like fall (it was almost 90 degrees?!) but we still had fun. We spent the afternoon running various errands, taking naps, and grilling and eating burgers. That evening Anthony took the kids to the park where Lauren successfully went across the monkey bars by herself and Will got in some quality pumping practice (we recently realized Will hasn't done much swinging since he started kindergarten) because he prefers playing kickball and climbing). I went to the church and watched the LDS Women's Conference.

2017 :: week 37

September 10

Tony had the YM and YW over for a BYD Sunday evening. They talked about agency and the kids seemed to have a pretty good time. Will, Elliott and I went for a walk during the discussion, but Lauren chose to stay and participate. The kids really like it when "the youth" come over.

September 11

Our Monday got off to a great start. I went for a walk with Will before we got ready for school, went to the gym, did three loads of laundry and attended the Lackman Library toddler story time all before lunch. We planned to meet Stephanie and Kendall and Emily, Tyler and Mikey at the library, but ran into some other friends too. That afternoon we made some cookies to share with friends for FHE and then went and had a really fun time at the park together. I feel like having a productive Monday is the key to a productive week. I'm not always this productive, and it felt good to get the week off to a great start. Especially since I went to bed with a headache that night.

September 12

I woke up with an even worse headache Tuesday morning. Anthony walked the kids to school for me and Elliott and I lounged around the house all morning. I took some migraine medicine that enabled me to meet my friend Elena for lunch, but then I laid down again while Elliott napped in the afternoon.

September 13

I pretty much had a headache for the rest of the week. I started taking a decongestant late Tuesday that made a difference Wednesday. Elliott and I visited Anthony at work and talked with the health insurance representative. I spent some time going through piles of papers, filing things that need to be filed, taking care of unfinished business and getting rid of things that need to be thrown away. I often take pictures of the kids drawings and this BYU-themed drawing Will drew this week made me smile. I especially like the way he drew himself with spiky hair and headphones and the random salt shaker on the top left.

September 14

 Elliott and I met Tyler and company at the park before his 2 year check-up Thursday. Elliott has a lot of fun playing with Ty Guy. Elliott weighed in at 22 pounds which puts him in the 2 percentile for weight. We are going to work on getting him "quality calories" this month.

September 15

Will walks from his classroom to Lauren's to pick her up each day. It makes me smile when I see them walking down the hill together. They stay up late and talk about what's happening at school. Mutual friends, the troublemakers at recess, library drama, etc. I'm glad they have each other and love their growing friendship.

September 16

Our ward organized a service project at an independent living facility in Lenexa. Anthony, Will and I got to help a couple pick up the apples that had fallen in their yard, clean of their patio and get their garden and flowerbeds ready for fall. The highlight for Will was riding on the back of the golf cart to take the debris to the dumpster.

2017 :: week 36

September 3

Lauren and I read some books together on my bed Sunday evening. It is amazing how much Lauren's literacy has improved since she started school!

September 4

Happy Labor Day! We spent the day doing summery things. We went to the ward picnic in the morning, hit up the T-Bones game in the afternoon (Bill Murray was there and lead the 7th inning stretch!), and then ended the day with pizza at the pool. One last quintessential summer day to end a pretty awesome summer.

September 5

The temperature dropped about ten degrees overnight and now it feels like fall! Anthony started his new job and we are loving the ten minute commute! We took a family walk after dinner and ended up at the neighborhood park. August was a busy month with lots of traveling and family visitors. I am hoping to finally get into a routine!

September 6

Another pretty day, another after dinner walk. Mutual is Wednesday nights now so we took our walk without Anthony. Will is a tiny speck in the distance.

September 7

Will and some of his buddies went exploring at Shawnee Mission Park during the Labor Day picnic. It turns out they may have gotten into some poison ivy. Will had complained about how itchy he felt for a few days before I gave in and realized he had something more than chiggers. What was so interesting about Will's case is that the rash traveled up his trunk. It started out on his pubic bone below his belly button, then gradually worked its way up his belly. Over the weekend his chest was completely clear but he had rashes down his arms!
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September 8

We watched the movie Boss Bay for our movie night Friday. In the movie the parents sing the Beatles "Blackbird," and after it was over Anthony and Elliott rocked out singing and playing "Blackbird" on the piano.

September 9

Elliott has turned into a little Picasso lately. Unfortunately this was not the first time he has colored on our couch.

2017 :: week 35

August 27

Sunday was my parents' 35th wedding anniversary. We're pretty glad they got married. It was fun to have all the sisters in town on the big day, even though everyone flew in for different reasons. This Sunday marks my first "official" day as a nursery worker. I come home from church more tired than usual!

August 28

We took the kids out of school an hour early Monday afternoon and flew to Washington DC for Tony's last trip as a federal employee.  He recently accepted a job offer at a local company and we are excited for the new opportunity! In the meantime, we wanted to take advantage one last partially subsidized visit to DC. The kids were very good on the flight, especially considering our flight was delayed about an hour and by the time we landed it was WAY past dinnertime. The kids were pretty excited to ride in a taxi to our hotel and to be one step closer to dinner.

August 29

I had been watching the forecast for the week before we arrived and was nervous about the weather Tuesday. It ended up raining all day. Luckily there are a lot of great things to do indoors in DC. Anthony helped me call my first uber and we got dropped off at the Smithsonian Museums. We visited the Air & Space, Natural History and American History Museums. It stopped raining enough that the Nationals' game was only delayed about twenty minutes. There was a pretty steady mist throughout the night and we were grateful that our seats were covered.

August 30

The sun was shining Wednesday and we took the metro to the zoo after breakfast. I really wanted to see the pandas and had read online that they were most active and easiest to see before 10 am. We made it and were able to watch a panda play with a crate and caught a peek of another taking a nap up in a tree. The National Zoo is pretty cool and we were able to see some of our favorite animals. After a few hours at the zoo we headed back to the hotel for naps. Ha! What was I thinking? I was the only one who tried to sleep. That afternoon we had ticket to visit the new Museum of African American History. Because it is so new (it opened in September 2016) you have to have a ticket to get in and I was able to secure us tickets for the last 90 minutes of the day. It was so cool and I could have spent all day reading and listening the the vignettes. We left at closing time, grabbed a bite to eat, then walked the monuments. My feet were very sore that night! 

August 31

The kids and I walked to the north side of the White House (the night before we started on the south side). There were several groups protesting. I saw signs in support of DACA and something to do with Korea. There are additional barriers set up around the WH so we were unable to get as close as we had in times past. Our next stop was to buy a few souvenirs and a return trip to Museum of American History. There is a play area and Spark!Lab that they kids really enjoyed. We met Anthony when he finished with his training and grabbed a bite to eat at Shake Shack, then headed to the airport. We had a great time, but were absolutely exhausted by the time we got home.

September 1

It was a rainy week while we were gone (it seemed like it rained everywhere while we were gone!) and our garden was very productive. Cherry tomatoes are my favorite!

September 2

A few second grade moms organized a potluck lunch at the Roe Park spray ground . It was fun visiting with other second grade families we don't see very often.

2017 :: week 34

August 20

August 21

Solar Eclipse Day! We live very close to the path to totality, but opted not to travel the approximately thirty miles to be in it. I waffled back and forth and am still undecided about our decision. Regardless, we had fun. Tony worked from home and we went up to the school to watch with the kids. Unfortunately it was pretty overcast so it was hard to tell if it was getting dark because of the sun getting covered up or the cloud cover. Thankfully it cleared up right before we hit peak coverage. I believe we had 99.7% coverage. It got pretty dark, the street lights turned on and the cicadas got loud. It is amazing how much light .03% of the sun still provides. A few days before the eclipse I talked with the kids about how important it was to NOT look directly at the sun. Apparently I did an effective job because I made Will cry and tell me I ruined the eclipse. Lauren refused to look at the sun and had to be lead around because with her eclipse glasses on she couldn't see anything.

August 22

Elliott and I are still trying to get into a routine. This is the first time I haven't had a midday pick-up or drop-off in four years! Tuesday we met up with Stephanie and Kendall at Sheridan's for some delicious food.

August 23

August has been a lot cooler this year than I remember it being in years past. We went tot he pool after school Wednesday afternoon and the kids had fun jumping off the diving board. I zoomed in to take this pic of Will and Lauren jumping off the diving boards at the same time as I sat next to Elliott while he played with the over-sized Connect Four game. It feels good to see my kids have fun together and enjoy doing the same things I enjoyed doing when I was young.

August 24

Melanie and Leah, the first family visitors of the week arrived Wednesday afternoon. Thursday morning Elliott and I went over to my parent's house so hang out with Memaw, the aunts and cousins. Memaw bought some lemon cookies that Elliott likes. Tyler, Leah and Elliott collaborated to get some.

August 25

Laura and Jill arrived Thursday night and Friday morning. Friday after school we visited our dad at work. The kids like to m&m machine in the break room and watching the cars drive by on the highway. We have a good dad.

August 26

Our eleventh anniversary! It was a busy day. Yard/housework in the morning. Baptism at noon. Haircuts for TJ and Anthony. BYU football game. Visiting with family. Pool time with cousins!

2017 :: week 31

SUMMER 2017 :: WEEK 11

The week with a lot of housekeeping...

July 30

We went for a family walk Sunday afternoon. I subbed in nursery which is more taxing than a usual Sunday.

July 31

Monday was the first of many days of errands.  The drain next to our hot water heater and HVAC system backed up and a small amount of water began to accumulate on our basement floor. We called Snake-n-Rooter and sent Dave out to clear the drain. In less than half an hour we were as good as new.

August 1

Tuesday we took our car to the Honda dealership to get it checked out before we drove approximately 2,500 miles to North Carolina and back. They recommended new tires and brake fluid. We hit the dealership on an extremely busy morning and after waiting ninety minutes for our diagnosis decided to come back another day. I also wanted to call around and check prices. We met up with the Throssells at Valley Park in the late morning. The kids had fun exploring and climbing after spending the morning stuck in the lounge at Frank Ancona.

August 2

Elliott wants to be like his big brother. Will has been wearing a hat to and from the pool and Wednesday afternoon Elliott insisted on wearing the hat home. We made a late afternoon trip to the pool after a long day of getting new tires, replacing my driver's licence and shopping for travel supplies.

August 3

Thursday evening we made our last visit to Bluejacket for the summer of 2017. Insert crying emoji. The pool was open for another ten days, but we would be out of town. We love this pool and the many neighborhood friends we see when we visit.

August 4

On the road! We had a great day of travel even though we left later than I had planned. We stayed up late and slept in to make up for it. The beauty of driving and making your own timeline. Despite our "later" start we made great time and arrived at our hotel around 8:30pm.  The kids were fantastic travelers! We drove across the entire state of Missouri before we made out first stop. In fact, we traveled through five states (KS, MO, IL, KY, and TN) and only stopped three times all day. I packed a lot of food so we could stop at rest areas to eat. The Smokey Mountains in Tennessee are beautiful. It was so green! We traveled through rain and fog and can understand how the mountains got their name.

August 5

Saturday was another great day of travel. We got up and on the road in good time and were able to visit our friends the Tanzies in Hickory, NC. The kids had fun playing together for about an 90 minutes while the adults visited. They graciously fed us lunch too. We made it to our beach house on the Outer Banks in time for a late dinner and quick trip to the beach. The joyful noises my children made as they frolicked in the waves made all the prep work and time in the car worth it. Look at that gorgeous sky! A perfect ending to our roadtrip and start to our week at the beach.

2017 :: week 33

August 13

On the road again! We had planned on attending church in Mt. Vernon at 10am, but we got up and were finished with breakfast by 8:30am. I found a 10am Sacrament service in St. Louis and we hit the road, arriving with ten minutes to spare. We drove across Missouri and arrived home around 3pm. As great as our vacation was, it sure felt good to be home. We took short naps, unpacked and...got ready for school the next day.

August 14

We got right back in the swing of things and Will started school at 8:10am Monday morning. He was a bit nervous about it, because we didn't know who would be in his class and he hadn't met his teacher before. He was very pleasantly surprised when he walked into he classroom and saw several buddies from kindergarten as well as kids he had played kickball with at recess last year. Lauren had a "meet the teacher" conference in her kindergarten classroom that started right after school started.

August 15

Lauren has been helping me walk Will to school for the past two years, but Tuesday morning it was finally her turn to walk to school for herself! She was very excited to start kindergarten and picked out the new outfit Nana bought her to wear for her first day. After school Will walks to her classroom and "picks her up" and then they walk down the hill together. Elliott and I will wait for the kids at the playground most days.

August 16

Elliott and I spent the morning looking for eclipse glasses. Our hunt took us to Union Station where we spent some time looking at the train exhibit. Elliott loved it and I had to literally tear him away. Last year Elliott and I had some alone time while Lauren was at preschool. but he spent most of it napping. I am looking forward to spending some quality time exploring the world with him this fall.

August 17

Some more garden produce. I am so excited that our zucchini plant did well this year! We added a grape tomato plant this year as well and it has been the hands down favorite. Lauren and I fight over who get to eat them. They are like candy!

August 18

Hillary and Matt drove to from Dearborn and arrived just before dinner. They are both in between semesters and graciously offered to come see us on our home turf. We ate with them and then joined some friends at church for a dessert potluck at the Shawnee Mission Park. We roasted marshmallows and made s'mores. Elliott really wanted to get in the water.

August 19

We hung out at our house most of the morning and then went to the pool in the evening. Hillary and Matt were good sports and went down the water slides with Will and Lauren several times. That evening Matt and Anthony went on a hunt to find cookie dough candy. They were unsuccessful. Hillary and I discovered that Hy-Vee has some pretty decent and reasonably priced fountain drinks. Matt introduced us to Better Call Saul (prequel to Breaking Bad.)