Sunday, November 24, 2013

Time Travel

November has been an exciting month! I have traveled across the country and, it has seemed like, through a time warp which began with going off of daylight savings time. Shortly after "falling back" an hour, I went back an additional hour when I switched time zones while traveling to Reno, Nevada for a conference.


I went to Reno with my supervisor Maryanne and the museum's art curator, Laura. We had a great time at the National Association for Interpretation conference and learned a lot of interesting things. Reno was not a place I had ever thought of visiting, but it was actually pretty fun. A few days after returning from Reno, I switched time zones again with Mom, Dad, and Rich when we went to New York to visit Sarah, Joel, and the kids!


One of the most exciting parts of the New York trip was getting to meet Baby Sawyer for the first time! He is such a cute, cuddly guy. He was a little suspicious of Rich and me at first, but we quickly became fast friends.


On Friday we had a fun time touring Sarah and Joel's new town in beautiful upstate New York. On Saturday we visited some of our favorite Church history sites. Sawyer took his job as a tour guide very seriously.  


Here is the crew at the E.B. Grandin printing shop in Palmyra, where the Book of Mormon was first printed.


For lunch we had a picnic at the Sacred Grove. It was an absolutely beautiful fall day--perfect for walking through the leaves and enjoying this peaceful, wonderful place.


Next we climbed the Hill Cumorah.


And that evening we ate at the Coal Tower Restaurant on the banks of the Erie Canal. Sarah and Joel live in such an awesome place!


On Sunday evening, Joel, Sarah, Richard, Eliza and I ventured to the shore of Lake Ontario. It was pretty windy, but absolutely beautiful. The Great Lakes are amazing--they look like the ocean!


On Monday while Eliza was at school, the rest of us ventured to Fayette, New York, and visited the Whitmer farm, where the Church was organized in 1830. On our way there, we passed beautiful Lake Seneca, where our ancestor Parley P. Pratt was baptized. 



For lunch we picked up sandwiches at this great Amish grocery store: Sauder's. If I lived in New York, I would do all of my shopping there! Here I am posing with a 10.03 pound candy bar--too bad it was too big for my carry on bag!


One of Grandpa's and Leo's favorite things to do during our trip was play trains. I can't believe how big Leo and Eliza have gotten . . . 


. . . and how cute little Sawyer is!


Here is Leo with his pals, Grandpa and Grandma, on Tuesday before we flew home.


And Eliza with Grandpa, Grandma, and Mom, waiting for the bus (in the snow!). We had such a fun trip to New York--it was hard to leave!!


This weekend, we got to go waaaaaaaay back in time to celebrate the first Thanksgiving at the appropriately named Thanksgiving Point near our house in Lehi. Mom, Rich, Greg, Camden, and I met up with some of my friends from the museum for our first annual "Eat Like a Pilgrim" event! Camden and I had a great time dressing up in pilgrim armor--but we are glad that we don't have to dress like that every day.


Mom and Cam had a great time playing pilgrim-era games like fox & geese.


We had a delicious Thanksgiving feast of salad, cider, salted bread, corn pudding, stewed pumpkin, pork, turkey, and berry cobbler. It was a little tricky to eat some things because we didn't have forks!


Miles Standish put Greg in the stocks for failing to eat his stewed pumpkin--because we have to be grateful for all food that we are given!


I ended up in the stocks for failing to wear a petticoat. The funny thing about that is that I actually own a petticoat, but I only wear it with my pioneer outfit at the museum :)


And Miss Cam ended up in the stocks for "showing her hair in public"! Thankfully none of us were publicly shamed like some of the poor folks who ended up in the stocks. We had such a fun evening, and we got our stomachs all warmed up for this week's upcoming Thanksgiving feast! Happy Thanksgiving!

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Anniversaries and Fall Adventures

I have been really bad about keeping up on my blog! I still have much to catch up on, but I'll begin with our most recent fall adventures, starting with . . . 


. . . our annual fall picnic up the canyon! It was such a beautiful evening, and we had a wonderful time eating KFC, playing games, and enjoying the amazing fall leaves.


Later that week we got to celebrate a very important occasion: Mom and Dad's 40th wedding anniversary!!! To honor this important milestone, we celebrated with some frozen yogurt at Orange Leaf. You can tell that Ben was especially excited. We are so happy that Mom and Dad were married 40 years ago and are grateful that they are such wonderful parents and grandparents!


The day after Mom and Dad's anniversary, I flew to Springfield, Illinois for a fun visit to see friends. Here are Laura, Emma, Jenn, John, Linda, Rose, Chris, and me at Olive Garden. It was great to see everyone!


I had an especially fun time staying with my cute friends, the Atkins. Laura, Emma, Connor, and I got into the fall spirit by carving pumpkins for the annual Spooktacular at Washington Park. Connor and I made a pretty amazing Batman pumpkin :) We also got to celebrate Emma's fifth birthday while I was there, so that was extra exciting. We had a great time watching movies, having dance parties, going out for doughnuts, and just hanging out together.


Laura Atkins is a really dear friend. I'm so glad that I was able to go visit her and her wonderful family. I have missed them a lot!


This past weekend, Greg and I got to celebrate our #5 anniversary! For this special occasion, we spent a couple of nights in Park City. The weather was perfect! We ate some delicious food and had a wonderful time together. We were especially excited that the St. Louis Cardinals won their game on Friday night and secured a spot in the World Series!!!!!!


This morning we left Park City bright and early so that I could make it back in time for our ward Primary program. As we were driving, we saw this beautiful fall scene--what a pretty place!

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Labor Day Birthday


Happy Birthday yesterday to my cute niece, Riley! Her birthday was extra fun because it was also a holiday :) I can't believe that she is already nine! Time flies when you're having fun ...

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Summer Sentiments

I realized that I should probably write about the summer before it's over! I have been a major blog slacker lately, but hopefully this catch-up will help to bring everyone up-to-date. 


Showing how behind I am, I didn't do a Father's Day blog post back in June--sorry Dad!!! I am lucky to have the greatest dad in the whole world! Thank you for everything, Dad!



I also neglected to post about Camden's birthday back in June! June was a month full of birthdays including Camden's, Lindy's, and mine. We had a lot of fun parties!


In July, we got to watch the July 4th fireworks from our front yard!!! Greg and I really do live in a great location--we are close to restaurants, the train station (I can walk from here), and we have a perfect view of the Thanksgiving Point Christmas lights and fireworks! I think that this will be our new Fourth of July tradition.


Also in July, Mom, Dad, and I went to the classic car show for the American Fork Steel Days celebration. I think that Mom and Dad need a '57 Chevy!



Right before we went on our fun Grand Canyon/Zion family trip for Pioneer Day (which, amazingly, I did blog about!), the new Boy Scouts and Norman Rockwell exhibits opened at the museum. For the exhibit opening, we had a fun celebration outside on the museum plaza. One of my main jobs was to serve popcorn. I love my job!


Greg and I have been enjoying going to baseball games this summer--the Salt Lake Bees and the Orem Owlz. At the Bees game pictured here, we were actually cheering for the team playing the Bees: the Omaha Storm Chasers, since they are the affiliate of the Kansas City Royals.


This summer, Mom and I have loved going to the farmer's market at Gardner Village. They have yummy food, tasty produce, and lots of fun things to see.


It's also been fun to hang out with the Barrett kiddos this summer--they are as silly as ever!


The other night, Camden, Riley, and Sidney joined us for an Orem Owlz baseball game. We got to meet hall-of-famer Rollie Fingers before the game. He has quite the mustache!


The girls weren't sure about the giant owl :)


Mom has been spending a lot of time this summer going through Grandma's things. She has found a lot of great pictures, including this one of Sarah and me with Grandma in the background. The funny thing is, this morning when I dried my hair with the blow drier, it looked almost as big as the wig I'm wearing in this picture!

Rich had his birthday earlier this month, and Riley's is coming up in September, so there will be more celebrations to come.

It has been a great summer, and I look forward to the last couple of weeks before fall arrives!

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Zombies

Preparations for the upcoming Fantasy Football season are continuing around here. I re-designed the Utah Yellow Jackets logo:


...and created one for Rich's cool team--the Detroit Zombies. It should be a great season!

Oh wait, I came up with an even cooler one for the Yellow Jackets:


And here is the logo for my fantasy basketball team: the Salt Lake Skullzz: