Jake's Lifelong Dream Fulfilled

Our 21 day vacation was awesome! I am not going in order of events to say the least...In the process of trying to document our vacation memories I am also going to try to keep up with my usual, normal, every day, life ramblings! I was just going through the millions of pictures and decided to start with: Abraham Lincoln. That is right we fulfilled Jake's lifelong dream of seeing the Lincoln Memorial. It was so fun and well worth the long, almost 9 year wait! :) But the word of the day was: HOT. Yes, HOT. I think Wednesday August 4, 2010 will hear by be known as: The day I realized our next sight seeing trip in DC will be in the dead of winter, Day. I know the title of the new holiday is long but you will see exactly what I mean when you look at our pictures. In most of them we are dripping with sweat and trying to show enthusiasm. When what we actually wanted to do was go and jump in the big pond in between the Lincoln Memorial and the World War 2 Memorial (What is that called again? The reflection pool?) ! But other than the HOT temperatures we got to see a lot and it was amazing to explore our wonderful countries Capitol! Here are just a few (20 something....) pictures of our day.

The Metro! We were already dripping sweat by this point. We walked something like a mile and a half to get there. The metro is pretty interesting place to people watch...One of the Metro employees came out of his air conditioned station to volunteer to take a picture of all of us. He deserves an award for being nice enough to leave AC.
Skip ahead several minutes and miles later and we were on our way to see President Lincoln. We saw the Washington Monument on the way.

Then we stopped by the World War 2 Memorial which was very impressive.
I loved this view...

I considered swimming here but thought better of it...


Guess what that is in the back ground??? The Lincoln Memorial! Almost there!!!

We stopped and ate our lunch at on the mall and made some friends.

Yes, this little ducky really did eat it right out of my hand.

And here is Jake for some reason imitating a chicken...You would think he would being acting like a duck...But no he went with chicken...I wonder what goes on in that head of his...

We made it...

Sitting down to take it all in...


Me and Jake

Tina and all her kiddos.

I love that he took his hat off. He was probably doing it because he was hot, but I am pretending it was to show respect. :)

The boys found and interesting way down.

I love this picture. Cousins rock...

Nee requested a picture of the grand kids from oldest to youngest. This works right?

The long list of men and women who died in the Vietnam War.

We thought we would take crayons and paper and do a rubbing at the Vietnam War Memorial and have a really inspirational moment as we thought of those brave men and women who died serving their country...


It didn't work...This happened...And the moment was gone...But it was still awesome. Not sure why I thought 250 degree weather and black granite would be a great life changing experience...But it is an amazing place to remember who we have to thank for our freedoms.

Ben was a trooper! He just hung out in the stroller all day and never complained!
Jake was the map man all day.

That is the White House way in the background...It required too much energy and was too hot to get any closer. At this point Tina was on the way back to the Metro with her boys, while Anika, Jake, and I were headed to the Air and Space Museum. Can you believe they were still posing for me at this point?
The Capitol Building....

Sadly I don't remember what this building was...But it's pretty don't you think? And no it didn't rain. Anika was using it as shade...smart girl.

Jake touching a moon rock at the Air and Space Museum.

Anika touching the moon rock too... It was very smooth. Not at all what I thought it would be.


Okay this one is obviously out of order...Interesting sculpture on the way to the Museum...It seemed sort of out of place.


The Wright Brothers Plane and a bench! I don't know which one I was happier to see!
As you can see, we saw tons of amazing things and had a great day. I have a bout a million more pictures from that day but I decided to spare you. Here is one more picture for Nee and Papa! This was when we got there...maybe...or when we were leaving...Don't know really. But aren't they cute?

How the first day of school changes when you get to the 4th grade....

And it changes people! As I hit the 1st of 3 alarms on my cell phone to go off this morning (yes I said 3...I know myself and I am paranoid. I have had bad dreams about missing tests, not finding my locker, and forgetting what classes I had for a week now...I am not a huge fan of going back to school) ,I thought...WHY?!! I love school supply shopping. I love the you need new shoes and WHAT?!! Your feet grew a WHOLE size and a half? (seriously from size 1 to 2 1/2-yes Jake has oddly small feet)-HOW have you been wearing those sneakers??? I love the meet the teacher-Jake's regular teacher and AIG teacher seem AWESOME!!!! Thank you Heavenly Father for that prayer I needed answered BIG TIME! But the going to school part? I am not a fan. I don't tell Jake that of course. I do the cheer leading for school, but he does know I would keep him home with me if I could. What can I say I really like him?! Why does some random stranger get to spend so much time with my child while I wait anxiously at home to see how his day was? But anyway...Yippeee! First day of school!!! :)

So, here is how it goes when you are starting the 4th grade:

Paperwork:
4th grade:"AHHHH! Why do they send the same sheets home every year to sign? I will finish them today dude and you can bring them tomorrow."
Years past: Neatly filled out and in the backpack the night before. Now don't worry too much they aren't due until Friday. I am not that much of a slacker...At this rate though, next year I will probably be running in the school with my PJ's on Friday after forgetting to put them in Jake's bag!

Clothes:
4th grade: "What are you going to wear? I don't think you have to wear khaki pants buddy it is still hot out and that is pretty dressy...Your cargo shorts will look awesome with your polo shirt! I just ironed them and they are laying on my bed-now run and get dressed while I try to fill out at least some of these forms! We only have 5 minutes until we have to leave!!!"
Years past: "Please Jake will you wear this outfit? It matches perfectly! I washed and ironed it last week so it would be perfect."

Bedtime:
4th grade: "Ahhhh!!! It is 8:15 dude! You should have been in bed 45 minutes ago! Why did we decide at 6:48 it would be an awesome idea to make collage covers for your 2 (last minute run to the store to get) binders (after meet the teacher when I realized we forgot to get those 2 things off the supply list)!!!! By the way where is your clipboard from last year? We forgot to put that in your backpack too!!!!"
Years Past: Two weeks before school starts we start the going to bed early routine to prepare. Not too mention I have already called the school to find out what time his lunch and snack would be in order to get you on that schedule...

Wow...Times have changed. In a good way? Not so much...Or maybe it is a good thing. I am definitely less stressed now! (Believe it or not!)

One more thing that has changed: Picture taking! We really had no time for posing this morning. This is as good as it gets folks:

Breakfast: No pancakes or any other special breakfast? Nope we are down to the last little bit of milk-there isn't enough to make pancakes...(Notice the cut up magazine pictures from the collages we made last night...)

Hurry turn around and smile quick-but not a fake smile! Well that was only sort of fake-Perfect!
I can't forget the traditional picture of the backpack shot-but don't stop walking we don't have time! Blurry but it works!

The "hold the picture up while driving and shoot" shot. Jake asked if he looked dead in it because that was the look he was going for.
See "the blues" (dark cirlces) he has...I feel horrible but I just had to eek out a few more minutes of Jake time before I could let him go to bed...He will go to bed extra early today....
Oh yeah! We always take a picture together...We will have to take a picture of you and Daddy when he gets home. That will still count, right?
He wanted me too just drop him off but at the last minute changed his mind and wanted me to walk him to the door (good thing I put on a bra!). He also wanted me to give him a hug in the kiss just in the car....Sniff, sniff: picture a little piece of my heart breaking off, never to grow back...I did talk him into a quick picture at school...AND he wanted me to hold his hand as we walked up to the school. He also gave me another hug and kiss in front of the school and I didn't even ask for it. :) My heart is healed-but I did leave most of it there at school as I watched him walk into school....

I just hope his first few minutes with out me were better than mine. THIS IS 100% TRUE (unfortunately)-I PROMISE! While driving home in complete silence (No Jake in the background explaining what super powers he would have if he could choose) and feeling a little melancholy setting in I saw a black and white blur out of the corner of my eye. A CAT A FULL SPEED RUNNING INTO THE ROAD! I slam on my breaks while screaming at the top of my lungs. Luckily I didn't get rear ended and the cat made it! Phew! While trying to calm my heart beating in my throat, 5 seconds later I see a tiny red blur out of the corner of my eye...A small thud and a check in the rear view mirror let me know I just hit and killed a sweet little Cardinal. REALLY????!!! PLEASE let Jake be having a better morning than me!!!! AND I got home only to realize in our rush I forgot to lock the door. I hate that!! Now I am going to have to check every inch of the house to make sure no one is here! Oh, never mind. One look and a thief would turn around thinking someone had already bet him to it based on the wreck before him! It is probably a good thing it is a mess otherwise I would crawl back into bed and dream of homeschooling Jake! And yes I do dream of homeschooling him!!!! Some day....

Blessed, Thankful, and Contemplative...

I was just washing the dishes and trying to wrap my head around how on earth I am going to blog about the amazing vacation that somehow, I still feel like I am on. It is so much more than the pictures I took and the activities we did...I went home. I haven't lived in New Hampshire for 21 years, this summer. I have truthfully never lived in Vermont, and yet more than any other place, I felt the draw of home as I traveled there. I felt like a kid again as we drove down the old railroad tracks that lead to camp with the windows rolled down. But, I felt very much like a grown up driving all 18 hours by myself for the first time ever. Jake was with me of course, but we still have several years before he can help out in the driving department. I loved watching Jake relive and recreate my childhood memories. I felt so grown up after Jake went to sleep and I had all of camp to myself, again for the first time ever. I feel blessed beyond words. I am thankful that 52 years ago my Grampa Smith created this haven that generations to come will be shaped by. I am still contemplating how to put all these feeling into words. I am a blog off the top of my head kind of person-type as I go, but this seems to warrant some more thought. It is that important. I hope I can record these cherished moments in a way that will really share the life changing experience this trip really was...So, for that reason I am still thinking and deciding how to do it, the right way. No rush, but there is such a rush to put all the feelings down so I won't lose them...I am working on it....

Curse You Blogger Template Designer...

Almost home from vacation (at my sisters in DC)...Almost ready to post...SO, ready to change back to the Blogger classic template layouts and get back to cuter backgrounds...But every time I do all my blog lists DISAPPEAR!!!!!! No more Blog girls. No more private blogs. No more people I don't know but wish I did....AHHHHHHH! Help. I even asked Blogger for help. It was no help. SERIOUSLY?????!!!!????? Am I going to be doomed to copy and paste all of it?

Update: 8/19. We are home...ahhh. The vacation was wonderful and so is being home again. Jake is in bed and I am waiting for Aaron to get home from training and decided to blog...I couldn't resist! I figured it (it being the whole background thing) out. I am awesome. I just had to add the picture of Jake. I love it. I love that face with his summer freckles. "A face without freckles is like the sky without the stars..."-Natasha Beddingfield from her song Freckles. It was my ring tone last summer when Jake decided he didn't like his freckles...It changed his mind.
Expect pictures (my normal HUGE amount of pictures) and details soon...

My Biggest Loser Week 4 Results and C-ya in about a month!

I lost 3 more pounds! Go me! I am up to 25 pounds lost and plan on losing a lot more in the month of August. BUT, I won't know how much until I get back from our extended vacation! We leave on Saturday the 31st and get back the 19th or 20th of August. Vacations are the best when the lodging is free. :) Buena Vista, DC, and CAMP HERE WE COME! We will be swimming, visiting family, swimming, hiking, and did I mention SWIMMING?! We are buying a bunch of paper plates and easy food to make and calling it good! So, for the 5 of you who may or may not notice my absence: I bid you farewell! Expect tons pictures of us tan, me skinnier, and splashing in the water in about a month! C-YA LATER!

A Week in Review...

We are on the countdown to our vacation and can't wait!...But we have to and all I have to say is: Jake is a trooper! He had to spend a total of 11 hours with me at work this week. So, I tried to make up for it with some fun with friends. Here is our week in reiview....

Sunday: Went to church of course and I was supposed to greet at work from 4-7...but I didn't have to. They didn't make the weeks goal (it happens the middle of every summer I am told) and they had to cut hours. We were all so excited! Except this was my last week working for a while and I only had 19 hours scheduled for the week...I ended up making up for it on Friday so it all worked out.
Monday: I had the day off. We walked, cleaned, read, played the Wii and just hung out. It was a good day...
Tuesday: I had to work 11 to 7 (and Aaron is gone from first thing in the morning until about 9 at night) , so Jake spent the day with Nina (a good family friend from church) watching movies and playing with Maren (a sweet girl from church). He had a good time, but was happy I had the next day off...and so was I!
Wednesday: Errand day-and we had a bunch of them...Pick up Papa G's hearing aids. Check. Get the food for Cub Scouts. Check. Return a bathing suit (I ordered the wrong size of from Land's End clearance-GREAT PRICE, and I luckily got the right size in the next day) to Sears. Check. Post office. Check. Bank. Check...You get the idea...I bribed Jake (really rewarded him. He is a great helper and makes it fun by always playing in the car where ever we are headed) with Chic-fil-a at the mall while returning the bathing suit.. We also had Cub Scouts and the boys had a blast. We had an outdoor flag ceremony and Brother Russell taught the boys fire safety. Which you can imagine they LOVED! We roasted hot dogs and the boys ran around in the "forest" behind the church. In fact they had so much fun that we just had to have them over the next day! Thursday we had 5 friends over to play!

Milkshake face!
Trying to get the fire started.

Cooking their hot dogs on a fire they started (with a little help)!

Thursday: Play date! Including Jake we had 4 boys and 2 girls over (Kevin, Kelly, and Megan's dad had an appointment in the morning. Ian and Williams mom was headed on a temple trip-so it worked out perfect for everyone) from around 8 in the morning until we dropped the last 2 off (and they took a dip in their pool) right before I had to go to work from 4 to 7. I had to greet which is getting paid to talk and I am good at that. Jake hung out in the deli (right beside me).

This is what the boys did:
And the girls had a ball playing with toys from my childhood! My Little Ponies, Flower Petal Girls, and Strawberry Shortcake dolls.
We also played at the park near our house for about 2 1/2 hours and they had a ball pretending to be mythical creatures or something-I was reading in the shade. A nice break, because usually I am the one having to pretend to be the mythical creature...They were all excited to get to ride (slowly-all parents approved) in the back of the truck. They drank around 3 gallons of water! They needed it in the heat!!!

Luckily there was food left over from the night before. I am jealous of all of you who have this many plates to fill ever meal... :)


Here are the crazy kiddos eating lunch. You can't see it here because I hadn't brought it in yet but they polished off a whole bag of green grapes and about half a bag of red ones!
Jake and William in the pool to cool off. I dream of having a pool in our backyard! Someday...
I was so jealous...I knew I wouldn't have time to swim and shower before work...It was H-O-T. Glad they had fun!

Friday: JAKE IS A TROOPER. He had to come with me to work from 11-7, poor kid. He had an awesome attitude about it and of course everyone loves him and thinks he is hysterical. (Our Ward was having a pioneer camp out so no one was really available to watch Jake.) One of the girl's at work quit and they asked if I could come in on Friday. Since they are giving me a month off I couldn't say no! I told them I would have to bring Jake and they said it was no problem. Do I work at a great place or what? Jake ended up watching a couple of movies and I showed him how to run U-Scan, which he thought was awesome. There were meetings on Friday that a hand full of us didn't get to go to because our hours to work were during both the hours the meetings took place. My manager gave me this after:
I turns out 3 cashiers and 2 service people got $10 gift cards. They based who got it on: most positive feed back from customers in the store and on phone surveys. It was also based on which employees got letters from corporate for thanks on great service after their in store visits. I have gotten 3 letters...I assumed everyone was getting them. I guess not!
Saturday: I SLEPT IN!!! And it was so nice. I got out of bed at 9: 57...I was awake for about an hour but just laid in bed and thought about all the things we would need to accomplish the coming week in order to leave poor Aaron alone for 20 days!
In the mail that day, Jake got an interesting package from Nee that he can't open until we are in the car on our way to VA and VT. He says it is torturing him...It has been a day and a half since he got it...It is going to be a long week! Most importantly I worked from 4-7 on Saturday. My last hours to work until after school starts again! Now summer vacation is really starting!!!!

My Biggest Loser Week 3 Results

No loss, but most important, no gain. Which to me really means a loss. Confused? With my PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome) I sometimes go months without having my period. Sorry, I know this is too much information.... I have not had my period in 3 months (no I am not pregnant) and I am having it now. And when I don't have it for a while, it is not fun when I do...So, since I am swollen and bloated, I am thinking I will have a good week next week. :)

Lego Wii Games, The Best Vet Ever, And A Puppy (not ours unfortunetly)

Jake loves all the Wii Lego games. He has Star Wars and Indiana Jones. We have rented Harry Potter and Indiana Jones 2. We keep noticing on the extras section something that says "Poo Money". Yep, poo money. We never knew what it meant until yesterday while playing Indiana Jones 2. It turns out that if you have the poo money setting on and are riding say a camel or a horse you push "z" and it makes the animal poo the Lego studs (you know the little tiny circle Lego's that you use as headlights or other things I can't think of right now...) that you collect throughout the game and use to buy things with. We earned well over 50,000 Lego studs after we figured that out. The blue ones are worth $1000. It is hysterical! I am sure you mothers of girls are thinking I am crazy, but trust me it is so funny!

If you remember back in March we had to put our sweet black lab Emily to sleep. We took her to what we think is an amazing Vet's office. I now KNOW it is the best. They make you a paw print in clay of your dog if you would like them to. We thought that would be great and told they us we could come and get in a few days when the clay dried. Needless to say I was a wreck and couldn't bring myself to go back. After about a month and a half I totally regretted that I hadn't made the trip. I figured it was long gone. Well, I just got a call a few minutes ago from the Vet's office and they told me they still had it and were wondering if we wanted to come by and pick it up. I was thrilled and told them I had assumed we waited too long. They said they would never throw it a way with out making sure that we didn't want it first. Bringing Emily that day in March was the first time they saw our family and they still took care of our sweet girl and us as if we had been life long clients. I am so impressed and as soon as we get a puppy (who knows when that will be) we will be right back there!

...Speaking of puppies we saw the cutest little guy this morning on our walk. He was in the middle of the road, saw us, started wagging his tail, and ran right for us. We sat down and cuddled him hoping (kind of...) his owner would come along to rescue him from the street. The owner came out a few minutes later just as Aaron was jogging by and saying we are not taking that puppy home...What a party pooper! Let me tell you if it was a girl (we are a strictly girl dog family) and it had been just a couple more minutes (we pet the dog for at least 5 minutes. Who lets a little puppy roam the streets at all!) it would have been on its way to our house. We would have put up signs of course saying we found a puppy...They may have been small and poorly placed signs but we would have put some (maybe just one...) up. Does a person who lets a tiny little puppy roam around the street (the man came out of his house to look for it. It isn't like he was in the yard or something) really deserve to have it? He told us it was a lab/collie mix. It was a tiny Emily with a white patch on his chest. He then went on to tell us there were 4 in the litter. The others were girls he had just given a way!!!! GIVEN AWAY-FOR FREE!!! I wish that would have happened a few days earlier...We would have had ourselves a little puppy. I think we would have named her Lucy....

So I do things a little backwards...

Most people have their blogs public and then decide it is time to go private. I am doing it the other way around. This is my own personal therapy. Letting go of the paranoia and embracing my fears. No one is going to read my blog and stand outside my house and stalk me or my family. Maybe this will just make it easier for the less computer literate people I know to keep in touch. No having to sign in any more. For anyone that stumbles upon my blog, please look else where if you are expecting correct grammar or incredible insights. This is just me rambling to document my little family, the things that clutter my brain on a regular basis and I must release, and me trying desperately to look like the person I see in my head-the person I used to be, on the outside. I am a work in progress-we all are. So, nothing is going to change her on my little blog except maybe a few more friends and family members will be able to see how we spend our days! I thought I would have that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach...But, I am good! No one is in my front yard hiding behind a bush or anything....Baby steps to sanity...One foot in front of the other...I can do this people!

One more thing...(Picture me whispering this to you) Don't tell Jake I am writing this...He asked me what I am doing and I told him I was making our blog public and he was about to cry! I asked him why (have I created a paranoid child? probably...) and he said "you know that the things you write on there embarrass me! Like that I call Nee, Nee". (what he has called my mom since he was a baby-it was one of his first words). I then went on to tell him that lot's of people have different names for their grandparents. I also told him I recently read a post about someone's child pooping there pants. That made him feel better. It also made him feel better that I told him everybody thinks he is funny...He then told me I should change the title of our blog because it doesn't make sense... You get it right? I ALWAYS seem to have one more thing to say and it is taken from the lyrics of an awesome John Mayer song...Maybe it is a stupid title...