Christmas in July

The last two weeks of July were like a gift that kept on giving.  I can't believe how much we packed in to 15 days.  Here are the highlights...

Palmyra/Letchworth State Park/Niagara Falls:

• Hill Cumorah Pageant
• Meeting friends from the ward at the historic sites
• The anti-Mormon protestor who shouted on a bullhorn up until the start of the pageant and right after it ended
• Being in the Sacred Grove
• Andrew's head getting closed in the car window
• Convincing the kids to eat at a "Greek" restaurant (the only thing Greek about it was its name)
• Sweaty hikes to see the awesome falls at Letchworth
• The worst hotel room ever known to man in Niagara
• Staking out a great viewing spot for the fireworks over the Falls at night
• The fun Maid of the Mist boat ride that nearly ruined my camera
• Glenn, Andrew, and Brooke getting soaked at the Crow's Nest
• The long, hot walk to an amazing pizza place

Swim Championships:

• Thousands of kids packed onto a small pool deck
• Sitting up in the spectator seats while trying very hard not to melt (remember, heat rises...)
• The storm that blew through and cooled everything off so that I could wait outside for the next event
• Emma and Leah putting in great races to finish off the season

Girl's Camp

• Becca's amazing braiding skills
• The Siamese Triplets (+ Alisha)
• Hiking at Nelson Kennedy Ledges, one of my most favorite places ever
• BUG BITES!!!
• Games in the field
• Canoeing
• Tipping the canoe, getting soaking wet, and not able to dry off for the next 24 hours
• Glenn coming up for the day, going canoeing with us, and deciding to stay for testimony meeting
• RAIN!!!
• Emma's, Leah's, and Becca's sleeping bags getting soaked and being taken to a laundromat to be dried
• More rain!
• Scrambling to get tents taken down Friday morning before even more rain came through
• Losing a tarp on the freeway on the ride home

Glenn's birthday (can you guess how old he is???)

Brooke's play, "This Just In..."

• landing the role of the mayor's wife in "Here On Who" (the number that the theater camp kids performed)
• getting a speaking part as a roving reporter
• AND performing in "Never Fully Dressed," "Lonely Goatherd," and "Go, Go, Go, Joseph"
• Emma and I working concessions and helping backstage
• Warm-ups with Harold
• Sound/mike problems
• "Jump in, jump out" backstage during intermission
• Long rehearsals during tech week
• Flowers from friends who came to watch
• Cast party at Buffalo Wild Wings and seeing Brooke have such a great time with her new friends

You can hear me exclaim as exhaustion I fight,

We sure had a great time, but to July--GOOD NIGHT!

8 miles? Or a marathon?

Today (actually yesterday at this point) started with my first 8 mile run since high school.  Early high school.  And maybe if it had ended there, it would have been fine.

Except that when I came home, I recruited the kids to help with the yard work.  Divide the mowing 3 ways, the 4th kid pulls weeds.  But I forgot that I have to get the kids started by mowing around the bushes and right next to the fence.  So there's another 20 or so minutes on my feet.

Then there's the laundry.  Not sure that those front loaders are all they're cracked up to be, especially with our laundry room configuration.  It's like a game of Twister to switch the loads around.  Lugging baskets downstairs (stairs!) and repeated bending over.  Still no rest.

All right, so I got to sit down while I did a little taxiing around town for a couple hours.  But still going.

And going.  Right through the Relief Society activity, begging children to lug baskets of clean laundry upstairs (stairs!) for me (but ending up doing most of it myself), and folding said laundry. Waiting for Glenn to get home from DJing a dance in Hiram.  So that I can take my two teenagers and their friend to the midnight premiere of the new Harry Potter movie.  (Did I not learn my lesson at BYU?  Holy Grail, anyone?)  Oh yes, after this long, physically exhausting day, where I feel myself getting more and more sore with every step, I agree to go hang with the Harry Potter crazies in the middle of the night. 

And did I mention that we are leaving for Palmyra in the morning? Like in a couple hours? I feel like I have had an entire day full of running.  And the end won't come till we're on the road and I am fast asleep in the front seat.

I am clearing my schedule for next week's 10-miler.  Bet on it.

Andrew and the wonderful, incredible, no-bad, very good day.

It may seem like just an ordinary day, but July 12th was one of the best days of Andrew's life.

Early that morning, he got his braces off.  He had been anticipating this for a long time.  He was praised over and over about what a great job he did and how nice his teeth look.  He had a long list of food candy that he was had been looking forward to chowing down on.  And so, we had to make a stop on the way home for Milk Duds, caramels, and sour gummy worms.

Later that night was the first playoff game for his baseball team.  With a losing record, which seeded them against one of the best teams, everyone's expectations were fairly low.  But with a lot of focus, determination, enthusiasm, and a couple key plays and an RBI from Andrew, they pulled out a win! No major league baseball game was any more exciting than this one, let me tell you.

After the victory, the team was treated to Mitchell's ice cream--TWO scoops for the win!  It was awesome to hear the boys congratulating each other, telling the winning pitcher that he deserved 37 scoops, and hearing boys from other teams come up and saying "We are so glad you beat the Bats!!"  I guess news travels fast.

Simple things, yes, but it was everything to a nine-year old kid.

Other days that made his list? The day he went to an Indians game and saw Travis Hafner hit a walk-off home run, and the day he watched Travis Hafner hit a walk-off grand slam in the bottom of the 9th. I'm sensing a theme here...

Faith, Family, Friends, FREEDOM

Our city's 4th of July parade was a little bigger this year in honor of it's bicentennial. Several of the city's churches marched in the order they were established, and our church was one of them.

Now, a little explanation of how our church is organized. Our members are divided geographically into smaller congregations called wards. Because church membership is a little smaller out here, my ward is not only comprised of the city I live in, but also several other neighboring towns.  Our building is in my city, however, and so that's the parade we participated in.  But my family is one of a very small handful of Mormons who actually reside here.  And go to school here.  And work here.  And help with the PTA here.  It's not like I go out of my way to NOT talk about my religion, or that I am necessarily embarrassed by it, but I also haven't shouted it from the roof tops of Crocker Park or Holly Lane Elementary School, either.  So, as I said to the missionaries who were also walking with us, I felt like I was being "outed" yesterday.  I was coming out of my self-made Mormon closet.  I donned my bright yellow Mormon Helping Hands t-shirt and marched behind our Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints banner that the city supplied, and waved to PTA presidents, neighbors, teachers, house contractors, and swim coaches.  Yes, I am Mormon.  And proud of it.

After the parade and a picnic with the ward, we came home for some Guitar Hero, naps, and air conditioning.  We were joined by the Chatty's and Grandma and Grandpa Franklin for a little indoor BBQ, yummy salads, and pre-fireworks ice cream cones.

Then is was on to Clague Park to enjoy the fireworks with friends.

The fireworks show was amazing as usual. Here is the grand finale, with repeated sonic booms that shook us over and over again.

It was a great day, with plenty of reminders that we have so much to be grateful for.  And really, it was quite fitting to celebrate not only the birth of our nation, but also those freedoms that we have--and especially for me, today, to worship according to the dictates of our own conscience.  How blessed we are to be FREE.

Elphaba came to town.

And it may come as no surprise to anyone that I jumped all over it. Not being successful in getting my husband or son to come with me and the girls, I recruited the next best Elphie fan (Melissa) and her girls to join us. We got lawn tickets to Blossom and the best part--the kids were free! It was a great night--not too hot (that is, after the loooong hike from the grassy knoll we parked on to the grassy knoll we would be sitting on), with a picnic dinner, and various snacks that must have been inhaled by the girls because that food was gone in 60 seconds, and pre-concert games.

The Cleveland Orchestra played some Americana songs to start, and then Idina came out!!!  From what I could tell waaay back on the edge of the lawn, she was just as beautiful as ever (although not green this time) and her voice blew me away.  I started recording her singing "I'm Not That Girl" but put the camera down because I needed to experience the song in real life and not through the viewfinder as I try to hold the camera steady.  Incredible.

She sang several more songs, including one of the nicer ones from Rent, and a couple from her album, and of course--the one we had all been waiting for...

But she began with an a capella version of "For Good"... (Throughout the concert I figured out that I could use the cup holder as a perch for my camera, allowing me to both record and experience it live--I'm so glad I did it.)

...which just about killed me...until she hit us with "Defying Gravity." I had to cut the recording short because I had to stand and scream and applaud like nuts.

We all loved the performances,but we hightailed it out of there because we saw lightning and a storm looming in the distance. It held off long enough for us to get on the freeway, and then the skies opened up as we drove right through the eye of the storm. Zero visibility. It was like someone was throwing the rain at the windshield, rather than it merely falling. Melissa sure must have defied a little something of her own to have navigated that storm as well as she did. Elphaba inspires in more ways than one!