Sunday Evening Love

Aren't you jealous? I get to love on this ball of cuteness whenever I want :).

Nauvoo

On Friday Kenny called me at 2:30 and told me he was getting off of work early and was wondering what we wanted to do that night. We were deciding between going to St. Louis or Greenville for Heritage Days. I think we were both missing out on Pioneer Day celebration since we don't live in Utah or Idaho anymore. Somehow we ended up going to Nauvoo instead. We knew the pageant was going to end Aug. 1st, and Kenny's never been to nauvoo. So I hurried and packed some stuff for overnight, we got in the car and left. It's only a little over 3 hours, which was so nice. I called my Uncle Glen and Aung Phyllis, who live there, and asked if we could stay with them that night. They said yes, and told us it was perfect timing because my Andelin cousins (who got to be in the pageant) were getting there the next day and there is certainly not room for all of us. So I was very glad we had come when we did.

We went straight to the pageant and had fun with the pre-show activities. The pageant started at 8:45 and was awesome. I just love love love church history and I always feel the spirit so strongly when I'm in Nauvoo. It was my 4th time there, but I want to go back a million more.


Here's Ty dancing with dad--he was having a ball




After the pageant got over around 10 or so, we went over to my uncle and aunt's house and put the kids to bed, then stayed up till 1:30 a.m. talking to them!! My uncle is quite the talker and likes to delve pretty deep. I was exhausted. But we never get to see them so it was fun. The next day we got to see a lot more things. We tried to do all the fun things because Tyler and Bryn are not exactly known for their reverent natures. We had fun at the pioneer pastimes, the family living center, going on the wagon tour of Nauvoo (pulled in a wagon by horses, ty loved it) and some of the tours where you get nail rings, bricks, cookies, etc. but we hope to go back another time and do a session in the gorgeous temple and see some of the other homes and more spiritual side of Nauvoo. I've been to all of it, but Kenny hasn't so we will go back when summer's over when there's not SO many people.

We left around 3 with exhausted children and had a nice drive home in time to mow the lawn, bathe the kids and get ready for bed. It was a great weekend, and a perfect way to celebrate Pioneer day. I am always so humbled when I remember their lives and their great sacrifices. I had a lot of pioneer ancestors on both sides so I feel very blessed. We love living so close to cool things, and can't wait to go back.

Future Picasso, or just confused?

They continue to get worse (and funnier) each time he plays with it.

Mouth Milestone

Brynlee just cut the first tooth of her life!! Saturday night was one heck of a night--probably the worst one I've had with her in months. Then the next day (Sunday) that darn bottom tooth finally broke through, and the one next to it looks like it's coming soon. It's a sharp little bugger. I wish teething wasn't such a painful process for little babies, but we're glad to have that one over with. Here's the cute little girl herself. This is what happens when daddy tries to feed her baby food for the first time (his first, not hers). Just for the record, she's never that messy with me haha.

Lake/Soulard

Friday evening we went on a walk and ended up at the lake again, after our plans to head to Soulard were spoiled. We ended up having a great time and were glad that we weren't keeping the kids up late even though it would've been cool to see the mock beheading of Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI in honor of Bastille Day!!

Saturday morning we headed out to Soulard to continue the Bastille Day festivities. We started out going to the Farmer's Market because they say they're the oldest one on the west of the Mississippi.



I loved walking around soaking up all the sounds, sights, and smells. It was HUGE. There were people on all of the ends playing their fiddles, banjos, etc. to earn a little cash. It was so fun. We bought a few things there, including a baguette because my mood was so very frenchy.

Don't ya love this guillotine they put up? I thought it was quite appropriate for the occasion. The plan was to stay all day and check out the flea market, restaurants, jugglers, the live music, art show, etc. that they were doing that day. We were also planning on staying for the free Sheryl Crow concert that night under the arch. BUT. It started pouring rain, and then just went off and on (more on though) for the next couple hours. We were trying to wait it out, but we gave up. If it was just me and Kenny we would have stayed with an umbrella, but you can't really do it all with a toddler and baby. Plus everyone had all their stuff covered up with tarps and what not so it was kind of a flop. We came back and went straight to the Porter's house. They were goign to spend the day with us down in Soulard, but we told them not to come cuz of the rain. We had lunch over there and played games and had a great time with them, like always.


We drove by the Stadium and wished we could take part in all the fan fest activities for the week because of the All-Star game (that was yesterday). But a lot of it was pretty expensive, and we're not that big of fans to pay all that. pretty fun stuff though.

Peachy

Kenny and I have somewhat of a love affair with peaches. We've got history, peaches and us.

When we were dating, one day I came home from work (or class?) to find a plate with 6 peaches piled on top of it and a note from Kenny:
Linds-I hope you had a great day. Love, Kenny
I was smitten. You see he had been listening carefully when I mentioned earlier how much I missed being at home and eating bowls and bowls of peaches with brown sugar and milk on top. A favorite treat of mine.

The first summer we were married, we were about to move from our apartment in Clearfield, back up to Rexburg for the fall semester to start. It was the week we were moving and Kenny comes home from work with 4 BOXES of bruised peaches. He was so proud of himself that he got such a good deal on them, because obviously they were the peaches nobody wanted haha. We didn't have much time since they were going bad fast, and we were moving, so we stayed up almost all night watching tv while we peeled, cut, bagged, and froze all 4 boxes of those peaches. We enjoyed peach smoothies for about a year with those babies.

One of our dreams is after we become rich and famous, we'll buy a lot of land and have a huge garden and an orchard with LOTS of fruit trees, but mostly peaches! Then Kenny will trade stocks all day and I will ride our horses (the ones we buy with all of our money) and learn to paint and do ballet. And we can eat peaches every day.

You want something done right, you've got to do it yourself!

This morning I decided to take matters into my own hands. I am so sick and tired of having a billion projects and "to do" lists that I put off until Kenny can be home to help me do them. The list will never get done! Not because Kenny is lazy or anything. He actually helps a ton when he's home. But Saturday is a very short day compared to all the projects we've got to do. Not only that, but we've got a lot of playing to do!! There's so much to go do and see when you move to a new place. We would love to discover more of St. Louis, Chicago, Nauvoo, and other places around here. Because I believe that cities, like people, have different characters and you've got to get to know them.

So I decided to suck it up and take on things myself. This morning was the garage. I had to start with the garage because my hypocritical lifestyle was wearing on me. You see I am a firm believer that garages should be used to park your cars in, not as junk houses. Yet here we were with two cars, and a nice 2-car garage, and we never put both cars in. This is no longer the case.

I forgot to take a before picture, but here's the after:

I just lied to you. I totally thought about taking a "before" picture, but decided against it. Not only was it very embarrassing, but I'm sure my mother would have come right over (walking the whole way if she had to) with pine sol and rubber gloves in hand, to remedy any of my other housekeeping (and now garage-keeping) flaws that her grandchildren might be subject to. Just kiddin, mom :). It was atrocious though.

I organized our bins/boxes, destroyed hundreds of spider webs, killed a plethera of spiders, and swept up mass quantities of dead flies. GROSS! And before you go accusing me of being a pack-rat because of all those bins and boxes stacked in nice rows, I will quickly tell you that I am not. In fact, I am very good at throwing things away, just ask Kenny. We just have to keep some stuff that doesn't go in the house; maternity clothes, boy clothes from 0-24 months, baby girl clothes are also quickly piling up as Brynlee grows, childhood bins of mine and Kenny's with who knows what in it, and of course textbooks and binders from college that we can't yet part with.

I feel good to have that taken care of. Now So go ahead, Kenny, park your car in our clean garage. I saved a spot just for you.

And I need a new broom.

No shoes, no shirt, no problem

See all the ducks in the picture? They were lucky enough to be the recipients of our left-over ritz crackers. Then ty decided to throw sand and massive sticks at them because he's a little boy and that's what they do. No ducks were injured in the taking of this picture.

This little beach area is about a quarter of a mile down the road from our house. It's our new hang out spot since the dreaded snake ruined our other one. But this one's much better anyway; what with the sand, mini-playground, picnic tables, and a couple of swings to boot!

We brought a little picnic lunch and stayed for a couple of hours. Ty never wants to leave. I have to say that he takes the best naps after mornings like these :). It obviously wore Brynlee out, too. She is such a water baby and loves being outside more than anything. I'm not a very big fan of the green, slimy water (I'm always weary of any natural bodies of water--I blame it on growing up in clean, public pools in Houston) but Tyler didn't mind a bit. He wished he had his arm floaties though. I'll have to get some for him, I'd feel better about him swimming.

Have I mentioned I love living here?

July 4th Weekend in Houston

We left here Wed. around 2 or 2:30 and didn't get to my parent's house until about 5:30 a.m. We took a different way there that we thought had more freeways than it did. So it ended up taking an hour or two more than the other way. But we did drive through a lot of Kenny's mission in Missouri and Arkansas, and that was really fun. More for him because it brought back so many memories to him, but I enjoyed listening to him talk about it all. We also drove through Plano (near Dallas) where I used to live and I wanted to show him my old house and where I went to school and stuff so bad. But it was like 1 or 2 in the morning, so we just hope to do it some other time. It was so great to be home. My sister, Steph and her two kids had gotten there a couple days earlier. I love hanging out with them. Here's our weekend in more pictures than you care to see.

Tim's reaction after Ty gives him a hug and then says, "Tim you all sweaty!" (which he was)

Ty and Eva helping grandma make some bread/scones. These two were inseperable.

Even our food was patriotic

My most adorable nephew, Leighton

The whole fam damily. Everyone but Kim and Caleb, and Andrew that is. We missed you two! Don't you LOVE our matching shirts? "Awesome Andersens 2009" Andrew, Steph's husband, is currently deployed (he's in the Air Force) and living in Kuwait. We are so proud of him, and grateful for their service to our country.

The happy couple! Cami and Tyler get married Aug. 8th and are very anxious :)

It's too hot outside to do anything but swim. And swim we did.

I loved watching Ty at the pool more than anything. He progressively got more and more brave in the handful of times we went to the pool. He loves to jump off the edge and he'll go all the way under the water and then come up, swim back over to the edge and do it. Again and again and again.

Popsicles help keep them cool while taking a break from jumping on the tramp.

Hydrating himself at the mini-parade we went to where my lil sis Sarah, showed off her cheerleading skills.

Ty with his soon-to-be-missionary, uncle Jeff

Other things that happened that aren't photographed: I got my hair cut, Steph, kenny and I went to the movie theaters (that's been a while) and saw "My Sister's Keeper" and I cried. We also gathered around the piano and sang on Sunday night, just like old times. I love that more than anything. We left Sunday night around 9:30 and drove through the night again. Ty threw up a ton, starting around 4, which made for an interesting remainder of the trip home. We got home around noon and Kenny showered, then went into work. We're just getting back into the swing of things and trying to catch up on sleep where we can. Travelling at night is sure the easiest with kids, but it's so hard on us. All in all, we are so glad we went and had a wonderful day celebrating our great nation. I love America!