Vermont

Our first destination was to Joseph Smith's birthplace. Now, normally, there is no way that I go to some touristy site and walk around with an elderly tour guide, but it was a Sunday, we just got out of church, we're still dressed up and we're visiting the birthplace of the man who restored the Lord's church, the very same church that we just spent 3 hours attending. This all came together to force some immense spiritual peer pressure on me and we ended up going on the guided tour. Not only was the tour the snoozefest that I was expecting, but the guide quizzed me on scripture, questioned my member missionary dedication, and challenged me to share the gospel more... awesome. Of course, he's right, but can't you just make me feel good and pat me on the back for even showing up, I mean come on, I wore a white shirt and tie for goodness sake.

We were ripping through the woods in this rugged six passenger golf cart with another couple (he took the picture) and this Elder/tour guide (not the same one that made me feel really good about my scripture studies), I just thought it was pretty funny. The other couple was taking pictures of all the sites and what do Ginger and I want to remember. Hey, we all have priorities, ours are just dumber.

Forget the monument, what you need to take from this picture is the fact that I set the timer on our camera, put it on this wall and ran up those stairs to pose with Ginger, all in under 10 seconds.

The next day we, of course, had to go to Ben & Jerry's. Ginger was pretty determined to be Ben in this picture, I thought she had some weird affinity for the the hat or something, but she's telling me it was the shorter face of the two, very practical of her.

This is the flavor graveyard, which is what it sounds like, flavors that didn't quite appeal to the masses. There were definitely some interesting concoctions.

Now this is a very special find. Let me introduce you to... the world's largest filing cabinet. I'll give you a moment to take it all in. This is our favorite so far, incredibly ridiculous and absurd, made even better with the rust and the half opened drawers.

Costco Shopper, you should be ashamed!!

I just hate it so much when this happens! Come on people, you really can't put the turkey back in the refrigerated section. What a waste. I have to admit that I am guilty of not returning items to where they are supposed to be if I decide I don't want it later. I would never do this though. I will at least return it to the refrigerated section so it doesn't have to be thrown out. Some people!

Sam's Birthday Fun

Sam's birthday was last Thursday. Let me tell you this, it was way better than last year's birthday. I made Sam a Texas sheet cake which he loves. I always have the hardest time thinking of what to buy him. He just tells me that he doesn't want anything and to just get him a nerf basketball and hoop to hook on the door. He tells me that every year. I ended up giving in and getting it for him and it is really his most favorite present I have ever gotten him. He absolutely loves it and plays it every day. Who knew that I just needed to think what I would buy for my 4 year old nephew and he would be happy. It is fun to see how much he really does love it though. We then went to Fuddruckers for dinner for his birthday burger. The fun didn't last too long or should I say the burger. The food made him sick and he had to stop on the way out of the parking lot and throw up in the bushes (maybe a little too much info). He felt a lot better after that and just went back to playing with his nerf basketball. He told me that I am going to regret getting it for him, I am thinking maybe I will. I am just glad he actually liked a gift that I got him this year and it was only $5, you can't beat that. We also went to Vermont for his birthday but we will post about that later.

Whale Watching

While my parents were in town My mom, dad, Kelly, Zack, Sam & I went whale watching. My sister, Kelly heard of this place called 7 Seas Whale Watch out of Gloucester, MA so we gave it a try. It really was one of the coolest things that I have ever done. We went out on a yacht looking boat and were out in the water for about 5 hours. We ended up seeing about 12 whales (humpback, finback & minke). We mainly followed this little family of humpback whales.

Matching, matching green squared.This is my mom posing inside where we hung out while we were riding out to the "whale hotspots". It was fun to have the tables so we just played a few rounds of Idiot (card game) while we were waiting.

Zack got to come with us mostly so he wouldn't be a home to bug his sisters. It was fun to have him there.

Here the whale was waving to us and putting a little show. It was so funny.

Here are the 3 whales that we followed a lot of the time. I just loved to see their tails. It was such a perfect day to go.

Family Overload!!

The past couple months have been jam packed with family. It was so much fun. It all started back the end of June, yep you heard me right, the end of JUNE! My parents came out to visit for 1 1/2 weeks and then the day they left my brother, Paul and his fam came for a 1 1/2 and then the day after they left, I flew out to Utah and just got back 2 weeks ago! Wow that is some extra extra family time.

Here are just a few highlights from the last couple of months of family fun.

Boston with Paul & family

Paul, Rachelle and kids and I went downtown to Boston and toured the USS Constitution.

At the USS Constitution, they had a museum with a lot of fun interactive things that the kids could do. This is Sadie and Spencer.Yes, this is the only other picture I took on our Freedom Trail walk of Boston. I am really bad at remembering to take pictures. This is the robot girl. She would just stand still and then move like a robot if you gave her a tip. A little creepy but well worth the picture!


Sand Sculpturing at Revere Beach
Brooke and Sadie came and slept over so we headed over to see the sand sculpturing at Revere Beach. It was so amazing to see the detail of the projects. We only saw the finished products. I wish we would have been there while they were working on them.


East Canyon

We went to East Canyon with the family for a week. It was fun to hang out. I only got a few pictures of some of the little kids while we were watching some movies. I think they are pretty cute!


Bowling & Arbys Tradition
Sam and I have an ongoing tradition with the 3 oldest nieces and nephew (Sadie, Brooke & Christopher) to go bowling and then to Arby's after. We do this every time Sam and I are in town. Brooke was actually able to join us this time since she was visiting from New Hampshire. Oh it is hard to believe that 2 years ago we drove across the country with these 3!

Mini GolfFor one of Brooke's last nights in town we hit the mini golf course.

Seussical, The Musical

I heard on the radio that Seussical was going to be performed at the Sandy amphitheater. I just had to go! It is based on the Dr Seuss books (mostly about Horton). I absolutely love the music. I did see my nephew, Josh in the production of it at his school but I wanted to see it again. It was so worth it even though it was like 45-50 degrees outside! It was fun to go with Cami, Juan, Heather, Sami, Griff, Adrian and Hayley. If you ever get the chance to see it you must and you can invite me to go also.

It is good to be back home and have things back to normal! Sam only has 1 more year of school before he gratuates. Hooray!

Mary had a little lamb

We were reaching on this one, but Ginger's nieces were staying with us and we couldn't travel too far, so this was the best we could do. Besides, Natalie was weirded out by the largest set of wooden praying hands that I wanted to see. I know, unnecessarily oversized religous artifacts and the opportunity to traumatize my niece, how did I get talked out of that.

This is supposedly the schoolhouse that Mary and her lamb went to. Brooke and Natalie were kind enough to act it out for us. They were surprisingly very excited and actually regretted that they didn't have costumes to go along with their reenactment... um, yeah. It was about this time I was having a few regrets of my own.

We wanted to see Mary's house, but it was burned down by arsonists a couple years ago and all they have now is this monument in the town center of Sterling, MA.

So that was our visit into the world of nursery rhymes. It was fun, but I'm thinking our next trip needs to be somewhere in "Guinness Book of World Records" territory. I would love, for one day, to just visit something so horrendously ridiculous and absurd that it makes people question my ability to reason and make judgements, not that people don't already.

Saved by the Bell Reunion

I have been a supporter of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon from the start. I listen to it while I am working during the day. Jimmy Fallon has been trying to get the cast of Saved by the Bell together for a reunion show. There have been a few that have committed. Mark-Paul Gosselaar was on last night and acted like Zack Morris the whole time. It really was the greatest. You can watch for yourselves. I just love Saved by the Bell and have even got a few of my nieces and nephews addicted to it! Great times. I am excited for when they have the reunion show if they can get Kelly and Screech to commit!! See the clip below, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Video Recaps | Full Episodes | Webisodes