Jess and Chris Tied the Knot!

I have been on "Team Chris" since the beginning. Jessica had a couple of guys pursuing her and she made the right choice. Andrew and I have spent lots of time with Jess and Chris over the past year. In fact, I remember telling Jessica soon after they started dating that she had my approval to marry Chris. I think she was a little alarmed. Jessica is such a catch and obviously deserves the best. She got it marrying Chris. They are so good for each other.

Jessica and Christopher got married on Thursday, August 9 in the Salt Lake Temple. I'm so happy for them! It has been pretty smoky here, but the smoke seemed to clear out just for their wedding. The smoke was much worse the next day and following week. 

The sealing was powerful. My grandpa passed away in March which was sudden and hard. The sealer talked about people being present in the sealing who have passed away which hit me. The spirit was palpable. I'm grateful that James was in good hands while we were in the sealing. (Thank you Kaylee Beck!)

The luncheon was in the Joseph Smith Memorial building at the Garden Restaurant. It was at 2:00 and my stomach was rumbling LOUDLY during the sealing. Luckily mine wasn't the only one. I was worried that everyone in the room could hear my hunger.

The reception was later that night outdoors. It was hot, but what else can you expect in August? Jessica has a knack for decorating and everything was beautiful. The reception was a blast! I wish I had been hungry enough to eat more from the food truck. The waffles and fries were fabulous. There were also Italian Sodas and lots of outdoor games to play: bocce, ladders, spikeball, etc. Rob joined Andrew in a game of spikeball. It was his first time playing and he's a natural. They were both drenched in sweat afterwords. 

As soon as Jess and Chris got engaged, I told Jessica about my friend, Mandi, who is a photographer. Jessica ended up using Mandi for the wedding and loved how the pictures turned out. All (but 1) of the pictures in the post she took. Check out her website: http://www.mandiraephoto.com/ 

I can't believe my baby sister is married! Here's to spending another year hanging out with the happy, now married couple. Welcome to the family, Chris! 

Camping with a Toddler

Andrew and I have never been camping together for a reason. The reason being that I'm not much of a camper. I'm to blame and I take full responsibility. Andrew once found a steal of a deal on a tent and asked my thoughts. Why would anyone waste money on a tent? Clearly, I talked him out of it.

This year, the Ditto's decided to go camping for their annual summer get together. I wasn't necessarily thrilled by the idea, but we went anyway. Knowing that we would have a camper to sleep in helped. 

The campsite we went to was Camp Na Bor Lee which is about 2 hours from Spokane adding to our already long drive. The campsite was spacious and secluded. I could tell that it was beautiful. Unfortunately, it was smoky and we didn't see many blue skies in our time there. All of Andrew's family was there except for Birch and Sara's family who were welcoming Alex home from his mission.

I have categorized some memories from the trip into 4 categories: things that were hard, things I want to remember, things I want to forget, and camping tips.


THINGS THAT WERE HARD 

• Getting enough sleep.
• Going potty.
• Being filthy.
• Keeping an energetic toddler from drowning.
• Being eaten alive by mosquitoes.
• Eating food with annoying bees.

THINGS I WANT TO REMEMBER

• Andrew and I won the rook tourney! This resulted in Andrew giving me one of the biggest compliments he has ever given me-- that my rook skills have surpassed his.
• Singing songs by the campfire (before fires were restricted the next day).
• How much James loves his Granny. He has a hard time saying, "Granny," and started calling her, "Gaga," which was adorable.
• Seeing James interact with his cousins. He especially loved being around baby Rhett and using his baby walker. (Hopefully James' 26+ pounds didn't break it.)
• The adults going wake-surfing one night. I tried it out, but couldn't get up. Maybe next time.
• Loud music playing on the beach while volleyball, spike-ball, and other fun activities were going on.

Andrew did some cool tricks and his facial expressions were indescribable. 

THINGS I WANT TO FORGET

• How much dirt James ate.
• The number of bees there were. 
• James waking up hours before everyone else each morning and attempting to keep him from waking up the whole crew.
• The car ride home which lasted from 9:00am-11:20pm on Saturday.
• How sore I am. James slept between Andrew and I and it was a tight squeeze. 
• Andrew missing the turn towards Pocatello while I was trying to sleep. I opened my eyes and realized we were headed towards Boise. We had to turn around and I definitely wasn't happy about it. I have something to tease Andrew about now though. 
• Andrew mentioning mid drive, in the middle of the night, that he needs an eye appointment and that things look blurry. He has noticed his poor eyesight for a couple of months, but didn't bring it up because he knew I was worried about money. Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep during the drive because I felt like another set of eyes was needed. (FYI-- He has an eye appointment scheduled for Wednesday.) 

CAMPING TIPS FOR NEXT TIME... IF THERE IS A NEXT TIME

• Bring hand sanitizer. This would have been a life saver! 
• Bring bug spray or long pants to avoid looking like you have the chicken pox.
• Bring a flashlight!
• Bring a trash-bag to put dirty clothes in.

Yes, I'm glad we went and we made lots of memories. Will we make a drive that long again, to camp? Who knows, but at this point I would probably say it's unlikely. It might be a little too soon to ask. I just finished doing 5 loads of stinky laundry. Boy it's nice to be home in my large, child-free, king-sized bed.

Summer Reading at the Library

As a kid, I remember doing the summer reading program at the library each year. One of the prizes was a free pizza coupon, which was motivation enough for me. Friends who know me today are always extremely surprised to hear that I haven't always loved to read as much as I do now. My parents used to put me to bed pretty early with one stipulation--I could stay up as late as I wanted reading. By doing this, my parents tried to encourage me to read. (Boxcar Children, Nancy Drew, and Babysitter's Club were some my favorites.) 

Now that I'm not working, I have much more spare time than I've ever had. Plus, school has taken over Andrew's world, so I've learned to keep myself busy while he studies. I love reading more than ever before. I have been reading about 2 books a week. I set a goal on "Good-reads" at the beginning of the year to read 40 books this year. I have already read 31. I guess I should have set a higher number.

I decided to participate in the adult summer reading program at the library. Going to the library (at least) once a week is part of our routine. For every book I read, I filled out a review and entered it into a drawing. (While filling out the reviews, I always gave James fruit snacks or M&M's freely, so I think he's sad this is over.) Every Friday, one winner was picked. I was shocked that the winner wasn't me since I turned in so many reviews. Anyway, this last week was the final week of the adult summer reading contest. Knowing that I only had one more chance to win the drawing helped me remain focused and I read and submitted 2 more book reviews.

I got a call Friday evening to let me know that I won the drawing! I was so excited-- more so than I should probably admit. It's not like it was an amazing prize or anything, but I wanted all of my reading to pay off! When I got the call, I asked how long I had to come claim my prize. The librarian told me that I had a week. Who was I kidding? I got in the car immediately, rushed to the library, and picked up my gift-bag and free book ten minutes before the library closed.

I was disappointed in the lack of book selection for me to pick my free book from (but beggars can't be choosers) and ended up picking something I haven't heard of that doesn't have amazing reviews. My gift-bag included a: water bottle, lanyard, free movie ticket, coupon for free ice cream cones, coupon for free doughnuts, Del Taco coupons, a pen, etc. I was really hoping to win the grand prize drawing. I thought my chances were pretty good because they put all of your entries in for the whole summer and I had a lot. I shouldn't complain though because hey, at least I won something!

Here are the books that have been consuming my life as of late (this summer):
They are in order from the most recent that I've read. I put a star by the ones I recommend. You can check out my Good-reads account if you want a full review.

*1) The Glass Castle By: Jeanette Walls

2) Chances Are By: Traci Hunter Abramson

*3) Ready Player One By: Ernest Cline

4) A Gentleman in Moscow By: Amor Towles

5) The Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency By: Alexander McCall Smith

*6) Salt to the Sea By: Ruta Sepetys

*7) Educated: A Memoir By: Tara Westover

8) Sarah's Key By: Tatiana de Rosnay

*9) Beneath a Scarlett Sky By: Mark T. Sullivan

10) 84, Charing Cross Road By: Helene Hanff

*11) The Secret Life of Bees By: Sue Monk Kidd

*12) Magpie Murders By: Anthony Horowitz

Currently, Andrew and I are reading "The Kite Runner" together. 

Recently, I was with some friends. Most of these friends are in book club with me and of course we ended up discussing books. One of my friends said that her mom told her in High School that before she could read another book, she had to read the Book of Mormon. She said she has never read the Book of Mormon so quickly. This helped me realize that my scripture study should not be put on the back burner now that I'm reading so many other books. I have since started the Book of Mormon over and set a goal to finish it by October 13.

Nowadays, I put myself to bed early to give myself as much reading time as possible. Thanks Mom and Dad for starting that habit early-on.

Independence Day!

We had a memorable fourth of July. It's always fun when Daddy is home! We headed to the mountains early to get a hike in before the heat and crowds were unbearable. I'm so glad we went so early because when we finished the hike, it was so crowded and there weren't any parking spaces left.

We hiked Stewart Falls which is about 3.5 miles. This felt ambitious with a wiggly (almost 16 month old) boy. James impressed us and enjoyed his ride in the backpack. The temperature was cool, and the trail was pretty deserted on our way up. We let James get out once we reached the falls, but the ground was uneven and it was hard for him to walk. James liked seeing the "wa-wa." Although, the water was pretty loud up close which was a bit scary for him.

James has never been a fan of hats

On our way back, we encountered lots of people. At the end of the hike, I ran into one of my former 4th grade students which was cool for me. Her mom took a picture of us together. When we got home, we made a well deserved, high-calorie breakfast.

Later on in the day, we headed to my parents' house. My dad watched all the grand-kids while the adults went to the movie "Won't You Be My Neighbor." I enjoyed the movie and liked learning more about Mr. Rogers.

After the movie we had a big BBQ at my parent's house. Grandma and Grandpa Denning came as well as Grandma Langlois. The little kids did sparklers and we roasted marshmallows for s'mores. The evening went by way too quickly. We weren't sure how James would do staying up late to watch fireworks, but he was a champ. Watching him see the fireworks was one of my favorite moments of the day. His sound effects were adorable. "Ooooh." "Awwww." He didn't get to bed until about 10:30, (3 and 1/2 hours past his bedtime!) but he was such a trouper. 

He ate SO many marshmallows

Action

Cousins

What a day!

Catching Up

Lots has happened this month and I feel like I'm playing catch-up. Here are 6 big things that have gone on: 

1) We painted our kitchen cabinets white. Our house is much improved with this update and I regret not painting the cupboards sooner. I always felt like the floors clashed with the cabinets. The white in the kitchen looks so fresh and clean. (The cabinets were filthy we discovered as we were sanding and painting them.) We appreciate all the help we had from family to get this big project done.

Out with the old

Cutest helper there ever was

In With the New

2) James got his first haircut. This was much needed, but I didn't want to get rid of his precious curls. He did really well and was able to sit still while sitting on my lap eating his first sucker.

Look at those curls

Check out my hair and my new pajamas.

3) My mom successfully defended her thesis and now has her Master's Degree in English from BYU. I was able to watch her talk about her 30 plus page thesis and was impressed by her knowledge and research. She has taught me to value education.

4) I went to Park City with some friends from my ward. We went to Suss Cookies in Midway on our way. I'm mad at myself for only ordering 2 cookies because I think they honestly are the best cookies I've ever had. We went shopping, ate way too much, went hot-tubing, stayed up past 2:00am talking, and had a blast. Some of my friends ran a half marathon Saturday morning. I trained with them and thought about joining them, but have been having some knee problems and didn't end up running the race. I'm kind of glad I didn't because it was an extremely hilly course.

5) Andrew and I ran the Strawberry Days 5k yesterday. The course seemed much easier to me this year, but I'm in much better shape. I improved my time, but think I could have gone faster because I had a lot of energy left at the end. I finished in 27 minutes and 17 seconds and Andrew's time was 27 minutes and 47 seconds. My grandma and James cheered us on at the finish line. We're hoping the tshirts will be better next year. My knee felt pretty good during the run, but is sore now.

6) We bought a new car! This wasn't something we were planning on, but Andrew's car broke down a few weeks ago on the freeway. The timing belt broke and because Andrew was going freeway speeds, it also damaged the engine. His car was only worth about $2,000 and to repair the engine it would have cost $1,800. I've been talking about the Lancer dying/blowing up for years and I guess it finally happened. My parents were so generous to let Andrew borrow their truck for a couple weeks until we figured out what kind of car we wanted. After much debate, we finally decided to purchase a Hyundai Sante Fe. We test drove several cars and were surprised by how much we liked a van. I don't want to drive something so huge quite yet. We bought a 2017 Hyundai Sante Fe and they call it "Storm Blue" with a gray interior. I will not miss car shopping one bit or dealing with pushy salesmen.

This was the car I drove in High School. I'm not too sad to see it go.

Love the car, dreading having a car payment

Here's to a less chaotic July!