Fast Sunday

Since tomorrow is Fast Sunday, I thought I would give my travelogue here instead of in Fast and Testimony Meeting.

We took our first long road trip together and with Russell to the Duvall Family Reunion (that's Ben's Mom's family). It was an enjoyable trip all around, but we were most impressed with Russell's pleasantness in the car for 4.5 days of total driving. That made up for his horrible sleeping the whole time we were gone.

Our first stop was Sacrament Meeting in Ames, Iowa. The speakers were great, and we were both wishing that our ward would have such good speakers. Several people were hoping we were a new family moving into the ward....

We stopped at the Winter Quarters Temple/Mormon Trail Visitor Center in Omaha for lunch. It was a nice break in the trip. We were both impressed by the temple. It's a two story version of the St. Paul temple.

We made it to Sidney, Nebraska the first day. The second day, we stopped in to check on Ben's Grandparents in Laramie, Wyoming to make sure they were getting everything ready to head to the reunion. I was quite surprised that Ben could actually remember how to get there (and I can now point the general area out from the freeway. You can't see their house from it.), and that they were home! We enjoyed our stop with them, and Russell enjoyed picking and eating their unripe chokecherries.

We finally had our chance to stay at the legendary Wood Hotel. I would rate it a 4.5 out of 5 stars. My only complaint about our stay there was Camille started crying as soon as she saw us out the front door. Other than that we had delicious food, fun company, a friendly kitty, awesome toys and Camille to entertain Russell, and satisfying Graham Canyon Creamery Ice Cream to make our stay worth all 19 hours of driving. Too bad we have zero pictures actually documenting the occasion.

Showing Russell where he will go to college :)

 On our way up to Bear Lake, we met up with a couple of my roomies from college. It was so nice to see them again, and I'm sad we don't live closer to get together more often (ok, it had been 3 and 6 years since I had seen each of them, so anything less than that would be more often). Ben was very impressed with how awesome they were. Way to go Nikki and Lisa! Sadly, we had to leave too soon to continue on our epic journeying.

We stopped in Logan to buy food for our meal at the reunion and get a quick bite of Chik-Fil-A. Russell poked his finger through a cup of ice water in the drive-thru and soaked himself. They were kind enough to give me another cup of water, but poor Russell had to sit in cold wet clothes for the next hour. Luckily, the dum-dums distracted him from that.

The reunion was at Bear Lake. The first day we went to the beach was cloudy and cool.

 The second day we went it was so sunny and warm that we didn't take any pictures. Russell was not a big fan of the water. The first time we went out into it he was walking by himself and tripped getting his face in the water. After that he preferred digging in the sand.

The house we stayed at was quite large, but had enough room for everyone that came. We lucked out and got our own room with a crib that Russell kind of slept in.

 The bonus room over the garage had a big screen tv and foosball table. Outside this room was a loft area that had a pool table.

 The main living room had a great view of Bear Lake from the deck.

 The only place large enough for 50+ people to eat was the garage.

Hmmm. Not the best picture...

We all had fun with Ben's family. Russell especially enjoyed having other little people around him. He'd walk up to them and give whoever a big smile and then just start jabbering away at them. It was nice for me to put faces to names of the extended family members and for Ben to get reacquainted with his younger cousins. We look forward to seeing Ben's immediate family again in December.

 The trip home was nothing exciting. We were super tired from the lack of sleep that we stopped at 5 the first day. I was so tired I didn't even hear Russell wake up that night. We made it home the next day about 5. It was nice to have people waiting for us. One of the old ladies told me she missed seeing Russell walking around the place and was happy he was back.

Now we have to catch p on all the work that needs done here.

First Haircut

Last night, we gave Russell his first haircut. We figured out on Sunday the reason why he was always messing with his ears was because his hair kept tickling them, so we decided to trim his old man hair.

 It is a good thing it took him 14 months to grow all that hair because once I trimmed it off and felt the back of his head, I got pretty sad. I realized he is not my little baby anymore and growing into a little boy more and more each day. :(

And, that is all that came off. I know. It's not that much. I shouldn't have gotten so emotional about it.

Parades

Living in the Mid-west gives us lots of chances to go to all the surrounding towns little 'fests' and 'days' and 'counts'. I like to take Russell to watch the parade and he really enjoys it. He gets into waving at everything that goes by and points as all the trucks, and emergency vehicles go by.

The first parade we went to was the Viola Gopher Count parade. I wasn't expecting much because I have driven past Viola, and it is 3 streets. We got there a few minutes early and had to park way far away because so many people were there.

We needed this when we sold corn!

We also let Ben away from studying to join us at the Rochesterfest parade. It started at 6:15 and we stupidly choose a spot at the very end of the parade route. As we were waiting for the parade to come a storm blew in and we got rained on. We stuck it our, only to have rain come on and off through the first half of the parade. Russell was tired and crabby, so we left. The highlight of the evening was the smoked turkey leg and Ben shouting and waving to the DESCH band. His students tried to ignore him, but Ben has a pretty loud voice and was standing on the road flailing his arms at them.

A rainbow after the first band of rain.

Summer break

We wasted no time starting our summer break. While on our way to a graduation party for one of Ben's former young men, we stopped at a cheese festival and got free fried cheese curds and lemonade thanks to a deal we made with some of the workers. They used our outside outlet to plug in the freezer holding the cheese curds, and we got free curds and lemonade!

While in the cities we had fun visiting with old ward members but also a stop at Ikea. Russell really enjoyed the kid decor area and wouldn't get off the little rocking moose they had.

We also enjoyed the Scoresby reunion in Nauvoo. Russell pointed at all the trucks we passed along the way and shoved lots of food in his mouth. Sylvia also reached the 100,000 mile mark on the trip. We decided it was a good thing Ben married me so he could put lots of miles on her.

After the Scoresby Scamper where Ben and Russell took home the Outstanding Award for pushing Russell on the almost entire gravel road.

 Some people would make better pioneers than others.

 My boys

 He was whispering secrets into my ear. At least that is what I was hoping, but I'm pretty sure he was trying to take a big bite out of me.

Russell loved Camille and her pink crocs. He also loved pushing her around in the stroller. He would have been happy doing that the entire time we were there.

Russell and I made out first trip to the pool yesterday. He was scared at first, but then decided it was pretty fun. He even would sit in the very shallow part by himself and splash. We are both looking forward to going again, but wish Ben could join us for all the fun we plan on having. Only 6 1/2 more weeks!

So we are Apartment Managers

What were we thinking!? 

Ya, it's nice to not have to pay rent and only have one utility bill to pay. Plus, we have the nicest apartment (probably so we didn't get scared away and not want to take the job). But, seriously!? This place is not what we would typically want to call home.

I think we should have known when we learned it was government subsidized housing.

But, it is free and so close to Ben's school. And, I just want to hide out in our apartment away from everyone.

The one good thing is the senior apartments. There are some really nice old people there who just want someone to talk to. Russell really enjoys them,too, and smiles and flirts with all the old ladies.

We moved

Our new place is quite different from all the other places we've lived. We have put about half our stuff in storage thanks to limited space. We our now out of the ground and on the second floor. Our neighbors are much different from all the other neighbors we have had.

But, it isn't too bad. I like the floor plan of this place much better than the last. I feel like it uses the space much better. We are also back to paying just electricity! Yay! It's the only thing we pay to live here. And, surprisingly, it doesn't smell. I opened a box this morning and the nasty stale cigarette smell of our last apartment came wafting out. Bleh.

Russell really likes this new chair in his room. He sat by himself on it for about 45 minutes yesterday while I was putting stuff away. It has replaced the futon that used to be in Russell's room. We got it for $12.99 + 30% off at Savers and are going to reupholster it in August. I'm a little scared of re-upholstery, but everything I've read says take lots of pictures along the way and you should be fine.

Oh how much can change in one year. Russell was super happy to drive away from our old apartment for the last time because he knew he wouldn't have to sit in his stroller for hours with only a few snacks and watching the Yo Gabba Gabba playlist on youtube. He was a trooper for putting up with it. All our hours of hard work sure did pay off in the 10 minutes the property manager spent casually walking through our apartment talking about how they wanted to put the nice cabinets (like the ones we had) in all the apartments but it was so hard to get it done instead of checking all the ridiculous things they made us clean. Anyway, we are done with that place and now we get to do the walk through with people.

He was trying to hide from me. Russell, not Ben. All of his cuteness sure impressed our new ward today. Ben and I are going to ride on the waves of his popularity until they realize what awesome people they just had move into their ward. Seriously, we are probably going to get ridiculously time intensive callings. Multiple people have commented that they were so happy that another family has moved into the ward and this ward will really need you. It is by far the smallest ward we have been in. Ben counted 30 total in priesthood opening exercises, and there were about 15 in Relief Society. We are happy to be in the same ward as some of our friends who moved from our last ward and some friends who moved from the ward before that (but they are moving soon so they don't really count).

And, last but not least, apartment managing has already turned out to be a super awesome experience. Not. Within the first week of us being here (and we hadn't even technically started) we had repairs, maintenance requests, fire alarms accidently set off by plumbers (really? they were working on the plumbing not electrical!), tornado warnings, big hail storms, boiler issues, complaints about the heat being turned off, loud neighbors, master keys and phone accidentally locked in office with no back up key, over zealous helpers, a move out, etc. Hopefully once we are trained things will be a little more sane. Who throws new managers into the job with no training?
  

While we move

Here is a little something to tide you over while we are busy moving over the next week or so.

 He must have a horrible life or something in order for him to do this. And, he does it all the time.

 This is his birthday present from us. He really likes it, and so did his babysitter the other night. There are a few thing he can't do yet, so it can grow with him as he figures out how to do them.

 I don't know where he gets these faces. I don't make them all day long.

 SSSHHHHH!!!!!

 Russell really loved this little piano toy at the people's house we babysat. Unfortunately, so did their 2 year-old and she would come and shove Russell off it. She even hauled it into her room once so Russell wouldn't get it.

We've been enjoying the weather and the chance to use our bikes. Russell especially likes it when we go really fast on the bike. He squeals in delight