Journey's in June

Lots of travel in June!


Hannah gets to visit family

Hannah got to go and visit family while Nathan and I did some church service for a week (girls camp, see section below).  She loves going to see Uncle Dale and family.

Throughout the week, we'd get photos of her exercising, playing with instruments, lounging around in the hammock, snuggling with the cat, picking blueberries, seeing the movie Finding Dory, etc.  She loved it!

In fact, when we picked Hannah up and we were traveling on our way home she was so sad.  I looked in the back seat and asked if she was ok.  Her response: "I miss my Uncle Dale."

Thank you family for watching her while we were at girls camp!


Girls camp

I was on the stake girls camp committee this year, which means I went to girls camp for the entire week!  And Nathan got to come for the entire week too.  I'm so glad he did because he was VERY helpful.

The weather was great.  We had a few periods of hot and muggy temperatures, but compared to the last few years the weather was ideal in many cases.

The girls had fun doing their individual skits the first night that were very entertaining.

We got to do a vertical adventures course.

We had an awesome spiritual night that was all coordinated by the YCLs (youth camp leaders, ages 16-18).

We had a fantastic testimony meeting too!  In the 4 years I've been to camp I cannot remember a better meeting.

The older YCL girls pulled a prank on me.  They posted this awesome picture of me in the lodge:

They even used it in their skit:

It started with one photo on the first day full day of camp, but as each day progressed the pictures multiplied all throughout the camp.  On the last day, they posted a very large poster sized picture of me in the lodge (which I didn't get a pictures of.  Oh well).

The story behind the picture is that I was substituting a Young Women class in May, and there were two girls that started texting during the class (both of which I have good relationships with).  So, I decided to play their game and I texted them the picture above.  Soon after they had received the photo, they had agreed to utilize it during girls camp.  Honestly, it made me feel loved.


Swim lessons

Hannah started swim lessons this month.  She LOVES it!  She has been asking for weeks "how many sleeps till swim lessons?"

This is the first time she has ever been in a pool, or has had any swim lessons.  I was a little nervous that she would hate it and would never want to learn the important life skill lesson of learning how to swim. Luckily, I was wrong and she went all in (quite literally).

Miscellaneous

We did some work outside our home at the beginning of the month.  Nathan power washed the front of the house while Hannah played in her little pool.

She also decided that she was going to scrub the driveway.  She is always willing to help.

At times, we get some winds around our home.  Sometimes we like the winds, sometimes we don't. Hannah was excited about the winds and wanted to fly her Elsa kite.  She bought the kite with her own money (it was only $1) so it didn't too so great, but she enjoyed it!

There was one night that Nathan went to be really late and fell asleep in the guest-room.  When Hannah got up, she went in to snuggle with Daddy.

While Nathan was weed whacking he chipped some of the siding off of the house (oops).  So we had to order a replacement part and pick it up.  The piece was so big that we had it hanging outside our passenger window.  Poor Nathan had to hang on really hard to ensure we didn't loose it.  It was kind of funny.

Nathan and I got to go to the temple again in June.  We set a goal to attend the temple 3 times in the year 2016 -- and we did it! (FYI -- we live about 4 hours from a temple so this is not an easy goal when you have a little one at home).

On Father's Day, the primary chorister recruited several of the guys to come into primary.  She had them change into some old ties that her hubby no longer uses (the kids didn't know about it). Throughout the singing time she cut up the ties and the kids LOVED it.  It was really fun to watch.  The louder they sang the higher up the tie she cut.  When they sang Nathan's favorite primary song, they sang quietly so his tie didn't get cut much.

Well, that was our June.  Busy with journeys.

May 2016

Temples

May started off with a temple trip up to Palmyra.  It was so great to be in the temple and feel of the spirit, and Heavenly Father's love for us.  We had a remarkable experience and we are so glad we went.

I love the tulips that were in bloom there too.

Later in the month we were able to go to the D.C. Temple too.  I still cannot believe that we attended the temple twice this month.  That is quite the accomplishment for living out here.  Each of these temples is a 4 hour drive from where we live!

Tuscaloosa, AL

On Mother's Day, Nathan and I headed out for a business trip to the University of Alabama.  Nathan went out for a presentation and I got asked to accompany him (thank you UofA for the trip!).

We loved our little excursion.  After arriving at the airport, we drove by the Birmingham, AL temple. We couldn't go inside because it was closed.  In fact, the entire property was closed and gated off that day so we couldn't walk around the grounds, which was a bummer.

The university put us up in a nice hotel.  Even the public bathroom by the restaurant was luxurious looking.

We got to see a few of the sites:

The Magnolia trees were starting to bloom, which warmed my heart.  I love the south!

We also got to see around campus.

It was very warm outside so we got a driving tour of campus which is why I don't have much pictures.  But all of the buildings are built to resemble the southern plantations, which made me really miss the south.  I LOVE the southern plantations!

I even got to attend Nathan's presentation.  Now I know I may be a little biased, but Nathan KICKED BUTT!  He did such an amazing job and I'm so proud of him.  I can't imagine presenting in front of so many accomplished professionals.

One of my favorite parts of the trip was eating frozen yogurt while walking along the Black Warrior River there.  It was so pretty at dusk.

Zumba

Hannah came with me to one of my Zumba classes.

She was good for about 25 minutes, and then checked out.  One hour is too long for her.  But she enjoyed the first part of it for sure.  Especially Taylor Swift's Shake it off! song.

Daddy Daughter Date

Hannah and Nathan went on their first official Daddy Daughter date.  This is something we decided to start doing.  In the world today it is crucial that fathers date their daughters.  These girls need to know what a proper date looks like, and how they should be treated.

They went and got some strawberry ice cream at the PSU creamery, then headed over to the Arboretum, and then to target to buy some belts that Hannah has been saving up for.

Pre-school is over

This was a sad day.  Hannah has finished pre-school and is now ready to go to Kindergarten!  Where does the time go?  I can't believe how fast she is growing.

I'm also sad because pre-school provided a great outlet for her abundance of energy, and now it's gone.  So we enrolled Hannah in some swim lessons.  Too bad they start in June.


Garage Sale

The street that we live on did a garage sale one weekend.

Hannah liked the fact that she was able to go buy something at someone else's house.  She came back with a craft/project toy -- making crowns.

She made a crown for herself, and then she ended up making crowns with the sister missionaries later that night after dinner.

Visit from Grandma and Grandpa

Grandma and Grandpa came out for a visit.

It was really nice to see family and spend a day with them.  Hannah really enjoyed seeing Grandma and Grandpa, and Scooter too (the dog).

She especially loved the surprises from Grandma.

FPU class #2

We are coordinating another FPU class!  There are 7 households taking the class (about 16 people), which is a good pretty good number for us.  We love coordinating these classes.  It is so motivating to see people get excited about becoming better stewards of their own personal finances.

As we were preparing for class one day we told Hannah that if she behaved during class then we would go get ice cream.  Well, we ended up stopping at McDonald's the next day to honor that promise.

While she was licking the ice cream, I started thinking this might be her very first experience with ice cream on a cone.  Remember folks -- she wouldn't even touch ice cream till about a year ago.

Miscellaneous

Hannah and I stopped by Nathan's work one day.  We walked around some and got to see LOTS of baby ducks.  They are all over campus!

Our ward here in PA had a painting activity.  We have several talented artists in our ward, so one of them walked us through how to do a water color painting.

Here is what the painting was supposed to look like:

And here is how mine turned out:

I thought for sure the next morning Hannah would tell me my painting was beautiful.  Instead, she said "Mommy, what is that?"  Clearly, I have no artistic talents.

The weather has definitely been warmer around here lately, which means Hannah loves to go out and play with the neighbors.  We like it too because it is an outlet for her abundance of energy.

One morning I woke up and saw that Nathan and Hannah were playing Sorry.  Hannah likes this game, but Nathan HATES this game.  He hates it with a passion.  What a loving dad.

University of Alabama picture courtesy of University of Alabama: http://dialog.ua.edu/2010/08/campus-changes-reflect-uas-growth-with-quality/