Other Cousins

Cousins

Vidalia's fun bath

What Rachael and I did...

Cookies.

Dear Ryan,

Today is your birthday.  I thought I would remind you that you are now 27.  Maybe when I'm as old as you are I will be as smart and wise as you are.  Until then, I think I will continue to get super happy about all birthdays ever.  It would be helpful if you would let me know the answers to the following...

1) What do you want for dinner?
2) What kind of dessert/cake is your favorite?
3) What activity do you want to do today?
4) What activity would you like to do Monday (since we have all day versus a few hours) in honor of today?

Happy Birthday!  I love you and so does Vidalia.

Love,
Your Wife

P.S. I think I already know the answers to 1, 2, and 3, but if you would give me a few choices for 2, that would be appreciated.  4 is not at all urgent.

P.P.S.  We like you.

Granny-tude

This is a skit from girl's camp.  My sisters are the one who finds a bug and the granny.  Enjoy.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ge1AJLVleqI

Girl's Camp

Airport

How we got home.

In case you don't know, trying to get home felt like craziness.  So, skipping most of everything, we bought this car:

Except, not this exact one.  This is a picture I found online, but our car looks the same.  It runs well and we are so glad.  It is manual (I would prefer automatic).  Luckily, Ry and I can both drive manual, so it's not so much an issue.  

So...

Good News: We now have a working vehicle.

Bad News: It took essentially all the money we had saved.

Good News: It didn't take more than the money we had saved.

Bad News: This means that we'll be staying in Lincoln for Christmas, almost for sure.

Good News: We like Lincoln.

Armstrong Days Day Last

The last day of Armstrong Days was a Sunday.  Baby Mae and Baby Eliza were both blessed by their respective fathers.  We celebrated Salli's birthday briefly, but mostly it seemed like mass chaos as everyone tried to figure out when they were going where.  Suddenly it seemed like everyone was gone.  Only Matt, Bonnie, Me, Ryan, Kate, Richard, and appropriate children remained.  It was very quiet.

Ok, sorry for doing these updates in such a boring way.  I finally uploaded some pictures, so maybe I'll start having posts of basically only pictures and no words for a while.  Oh, and even though my posts may not have been the funnest to read, we had TONS of fun!

Armstrong Days Day 3

We went to the ampitheater by the Mount Timpanogus Temple and Emma met us there to take family pictures.  (In case you don't know, Emma is my sister, she lives in Logan, and she is a fabulous photographer.  She's currently studying photography and sooner or later I'm sure she'll set-up a website or something.  If you are looking for someone awesome to take some pictures for you, let me know and I'll give you her contact information.)  We all had a lot of fun taking pictures.  The kids ran around and were crazy.  That's the way I think kids should be when they are outside in such a fun beautiful place.

After pictures, we went back to Orem, got all prepared, and headed to the church for a Talent Show with Packer cousins.  It was so much fun watching all the kids do their stuff.  I sang (because Kate always wants me to).  I, of course, do not mind.  It makes me feel awesome that she always wants me to sing.  It's very flattering.  I really need to see if I can locate some Talent Show pictures or videos because my words can't do justice to the fun it was.

After the talent show, we had a potluck with Packer cousins.  I know some of them, so there wasn't as much of meeting new people as the Armstrong potluck.

After that, we went and saw the play Repunzel at the ampitheater we had been at for picture taking in the morning.  It was put on by some American Fork Youth Group.  It was fun.  The kids especially enjoyed it.  (Ry and I did too.)

Armstrong Days Day 2

We had so much fun the next day.  First there was crazy stuff going on.  Tons of people sleeping at Matt and Bonnie's and some guy came over for an important house closing signing papers (?) meeting.  Later, Matt, Bonnie, Kate, Richard, Ryan, and I went to the temple and did sealings.  I hadn't forever and it was fun to do them with so much family.

Pretty much immediately after, some of us went swimming, some of us played racket ball, and super nice Grammy (Kate) stayed at Bonnie's and watched some "sleeping" kids.  The idea was that they would all sleep at the same time, but Ha!  You know that never works.  I played racket ball with Ryan, Matt, Bonnie, our oldest nephew Tyler, and Papa.  We had a tournament.  Basically Ryan won or Richard won and Matt came in third and Bonnie, Tyler, and I all tied for third.  It was fun.  I'm not so good though and after about three games I'm also very tired.

We left racket ball and went to a park to have a little pot luck with some Armstrong cousins.  Mostly I had never met them, but they were nice and now I have met them.  I think Ryan really liked seeing his cousins.  Vidalia got to try cherries and she really REALLY liked them.  

Armstrong Days Day 1

We went to the classic fun park in Sandy.  Well, the waterpark part.  Some others went earlier than us and did other fun stuff.  I don't know exactly what though.  The waterpark has a kiddie pool and then lots of water slides.  It was pretty fun.  It occurred to me that it is cool to be an aunt because my nieces all liked me and I think just because I'm their aunt (and old?).  What an entitlement!  Not having to do anything to be liked is awesome!  (Although I am also the aunt of everyone's favorite uncle, so I'm sure that helps.)

After we left the fun park, we went to see Large Marge's new house.  I had seen it before, but Ryan had not.  I think he's really glad he got the chance.  There wasn't much time for him to do stuff in Utah that wasn't oober planned already, so the unplanned house visit was cool for him.

I don't know if we did much else that day.  (Not to be read wrong, we were at the fun park for a long time and that was much.)  We did regular Armstrong hanging out stuff;  playing games, eating whatever, and such. I think this was the day Vidalia tried a gummy worm.  I, of course, did not give it to her, but she's smart and she knows what is good and she found it.  I did take it away though.  (Weird mom I am.  Sure, you may eat paper (not food), but a gummy worm (food), no you may not!)

Dallin

So, if you were interested in my super detailed story about what we did in Utah, I'm sorry.  I'm going to interrupt it for just one day to say something more important.  (We'll get back to it.  No worries...or worries, depending.)

Seriously though, when I was in Junior High a girl name Elizabeth (Lis) lived with my family.  She was from Las Vegas and dating a member of the Struk Family (our good friends Toronto).  Eventually they got married and even later found out they have serious issues getting pregnant.  After trying forever to figure things out, they were finally able to have a son, they named him Dallin.  He is 3 now and after some more successful surgeries, Lis is expecting their second baby (a girl).  Last week Dallin was diagnosed with Leukemia (I just found out).  My ward from Toronto will all be having a fast for him on September 4th.  If you are willing, please join.  He's already had surgeries and started chemo.  I guess we're all hoping that God will grant them another miracle and let him live.

Transition

After getting back from camping, we prepared to move from my parents' house to the Parks house for Armstrong days.  We had a slow morning and then went to an afternoon mutual with my mother and her young women.  They had a giant tarp on the hill and had a chocolate slide.  It looked like a lot of fun, but we did not participate, since we still needed pack really fast before Richard (Papa) picked us up to go to Orem.  So, that is what we did.  Packed really fast and then Papa took us to Orem.  It was fun to see everyone and Ryan was especially excited to see our new nieces for the first time.  Not to mention that he had been dying for forever for everyone to see Vidalia.  He's a little obsessed with her.  ;)  All in all, an uneventful day in the best kind of way.

Camping

I (T.H.E.) will now describe the CAMPING!! compromising the period of the evening of July 24 to the afternoon of July 26.

We went to church with the Mikhails. We LOVE church!! As always we got a lot of attention because of our cute cute cute Vidalia.

Next we went up to Bear Lake. Nader was invited to bring his family to the campground by his former counselor if I'm not mistaken. We thought there would just be this couple and us there. Much to our surprise there were at least a dozen other people there.

We to drive the motor home through about a foot of water. That was cool. Melissa, myself and Vidalia slept in a tent! It was great! Vidalia's first time sleeping in a tent.

The next day we went to the lake and played... a lot. My chest was hurting from getting hit playing basketball the Saturday before I came. It was hard to swim.

So then we split off, Jeremy, his friend, Nader, Emma, and James went back to Logan. The rest of us went to camp a SECOND night by the river! Tons of fun! Wet firewood makes for a lot of smoke. Oh well.
Then we went back to the Mikhail's house.

I am most grateful to all the Mikhails but mostly to Kathy/Mom for making this camping trip possible!

Ryan Came!

I guess we were pretty busy because it didn't seem like as long as I was expecting before Ryan joined us.  I was so happy to see him!  Vidalia on the other hand, seemed to not have any feelings at all.  The day we came, we went to visit Matt, Kyoko, Kei, and Sei (since that would be his only day to see them).  Matt was SO tired because he works dumb hours.  Kyoko was also tired (I think a combination of Sei and Matt's dumb hours).  So, we visited them for a while. 

Then, we packed up Kei and took him with us to see the Bingham Copper Mine.  I had seen it once before, but Ryan had never seen it.  The trucks there are HUGE.  There was a picture inside and we counted the steps to get from the ground to the driver's seat (not to the top, just the driver's seat).  There were 20!  Can you even imagine?  Keitatsu absolutely loved the trucks and pointed out every one he saw.  We read lots of stuff and watched a video.  It was a lot more interesting this time around.  I think it is because I now have an engineering background.  It reminds me how interesting I find engineering and makes me want to design things in my spare time, partly for fun and partly so I don't forget how to do what I've learned.  I think the fact that I even said that makes me an engineer.

While we were there, Vidalia peed through all her clothes.  My kind mother volunteered to clean it all up.  When she came back, V was wearing no pants and Keitatsu's shirt because V's genious mother forgot to pack a shirt or a onesie or anything like that.  Oh well.  After we left the Copper Mine, we couldn't locate our camera case.  My mother asked me if there was anything inside it.  I told her only a button.  (It had fallen off some clothing and I stuck it there and hadn't bothered to sew it back on yet.)  So, we drove back up and Ry and I started looking everywhere and found nothing.  I saw an employee and asked if there was a lost and found.  He asked what I was missing.  I told him a camera case.  He asked me what kind.  I told him it was a black Nikon, but that it didn't have a camera in it.  He said that he already knew that.  He went in a door and came back with the case.  Then he asked me if I wanted the button that was found near it.  I told him yes and secretly thought it was funny (although I may be the only one who finds that funny).

We ate lunch, took Kei home, and came back to my parents' house with enough time to spare for Ryan to go target shoot with my Dad's rifle in the backyard.  I think we covered most of the things Ryan had even thought of doing on vacation in the one day (camping excepted).

2 Years!

Remember how you were going to propose to me, but you wanted to surprise me so you changed your mind?

And I'm guessing you don't remember this, but it happened.

And remember when we did this and your toe was broken.

And remember this?

And remember how we got married?

I'm guessing you do in fact remember this.

And remember how we were so happy about it?

And remember how I told you for so long that I was going to smash cake in your face?

And I added this so I could tell you we should pose like this more often.

And remember how we flew to Seattle?

And rode buses everywhere?

And I made you try different ice cream basically everyday?

And remember how we thought this "cruise" was splurging?

And remember how we road buses for hours to get here. 

So that we could ride this boat across the ocean for cheap.

And remember how we were so glad I brought jackets because it was freezing.

And how our only regret is that we didn't spend more money.  (A bit ironic.)

And remember how we then celebrated our life for the next year by not taking any pictures?

And remember how we did all that cool stuff for our anniversary last year?

And remember how happy we are everytime we can go to the temple now?

And how basically everything we do is fun, just because we like ourselves.

This picture says it best...

I'm looking forward to every minute for the rest of eternity because I married you.

P.S.  I think we should do something fun today.