If you build it, won't they come?

Before I left to come back to Richmond, my good friend Nikki gave me one of the most thoughtful gifts ever. It's almost as if she'd figured me out in the short time we'd come to know eachother. She knew I loved all the flowers she had around her perfect little house, so she gave me some bulbs to plant when I moved in (the kids planted them, btw, and they're coming up all over-in the strangest places-it's really quite funny). She also gave me Sour Patch Kids, noticing that I devoured quite a bit when I was at her house one time, and thought I might need a bag to myself (I can't eat those like I used to-my teeth start hurting almost instantly, dang it!). She'd overheard me say at one point that the brown tootsie roll pops are my favorite-and a bunch of those were found in my gift bag-it was great! I won't forget the darling head bands that I'd mentioned I wanted to buy-the kind with the great big flowers on them, you know? And there they were-in my gift from Nikki! How perfect was she to know all these things about me?! And lastly (the reason for the pic at the top of this post), she included a hummingbird feeder. She knew I LOVED that she had one right outside her kitchen window and could watch hummingbirds come along flapping their wings at an astonishing rate-all while she hummed along doing dishes (am I right, Nikki? (;

As soon as we got here, I bought some hummingbird juice, filled up the feeder, and stuck in right outside MY kitchen window..., and waited, and waited. Nothing. NOTHING! It's been what-almost 2 months? I even emptied the feeder out, cleaned it, and put more in (even though the bottle said that was unnecessary). So I'm a little sad no little hummingbirds have come across the endless meal waiting for them in my back window. What do I do? Any suggestions?!

Thank you, by the way, Nikki-for possibly the most thoughtful gift ever received.

More of D.C.

Great news, Dayne's officially potty-trained-through the night!! She's my first kid and I think Cole might be close behind her. Yea!! I don't know how it happened, but it finally just clicked with her. I guess she cared enough to do it. Thank heaven's for us. The first thing Geof. said was, "This is gonna save us so much money". We'll have to wait until Cole and June are completely diaper free..and then we really will be saving money. I really hate buying diapers. Hm...what else is new with us? Well, I don't think I mentioned how PERFECT our weather has been lately! The whole time we were up in D.C. it was nice and sunny, but with a wonderful cool breeze-very unusual for this time of year. I'm not complaining, it was so great! My cousin Ivy, who lives real close to D.C. and works there..., and is also the designated tour guide whenever someone comes in town, kept telling us about different exhibits and museums that we'd never heard of before. There's SO much to do there-and so much is free!! It's the perfect place to live when you're dating-that's what I think. Non-stop fun-very little cost. Almost like Provo, but...much cooler. (;





Here's Amy showing her continued affection towards babies. This one happens to be Ivy's Christian.

I believe Daph found this crazy huge bug (dead, fortunately..so we could all play with it). Cole was so excited and had to get a pic with it. Did I mention how much energy this kid has?!! We walked around ALL day-all over! It was around 9:30 when we starting trekking our way back to the Metro station to take it back to our cars. It was quite the walk. We were all exhausted. Not Cole. He couldn't, for the life of him, walk in a straight line. He climbed on everything in sight. He jumped off things, scaled up things..it was amazing. I think there's a new sport similar to what he was doing. Freestyle walking? Extreme walking? I dunno..but it was crazy.

Pretty Amy highlighted in orange. Fun camera feature!

We ate lunch here- The American Indian Museum. It's a beautiful museum and has a yummy restaurant with great vegetarian choices. mmm...I love food!

Ivy's little sister Natalie (pictured holding June in mid-sentence) is visiting from Cali. for a while to help Ivy and Shane out with Christian. Can't believe how much she's changed (those 12 and 13 yr. olds are not babies anymore!).

This picture does not even come close to showing you how many people were camped out waiting (2 hours early, mind you) for the fireworks to start. It was insane! I usually don't like crowds like this, but it was a lot of fun. The kids stayed close which kept me from pulling my hair out in anxiety.

Geof. loves this pic because we were there- watching the fireworks right underneath the Washington Monument! Truly surreal. I love this pic because, come on, look at Geof.'s hot bod! (;

Shane met us that night to watch fireworks (lots of studying when you're in law school, right?).

4th of July, D.C., part I

Here's some pics. Don't even have time right now to post these..so not much description. Stayed up in D.C. this past weekend. Loved it! My cousin Ivy's neighbor let us stay in her apt. while she and her fam were outta town. Lucky for us! On Friday we went to Great Falls National Park (I think that's the name) which is beautiful-Geof. and I were jealous of the kayakers on the river. The next day (the 4th) we took the Metro into the city and started the morning out watching the 4th of July parade. The kids were in HEAVEN!

Daphne's 4th attire.

The beautiful Potomac River!

Geof. was a bit jealous of the mtn. bikers and kayakers playing around the park on Friday. Soon Geof., soon..

This is the house where I lived for a short year when my family moved out to northern VA (Springville..., or was it Springfield?) when I was 5. The house is still as beautiful as I remembered, but a bit smaller. Isn't that how it always is?

Our June turns 2 today! I would say, "I can't believe it!"..., but I do. Time flies and at the same time moves very s l o w l y when you're raising small children. We sure love our little June-bug, even if she IS transforming into some kind of high pitch, screaming, spoiled, "mine, mine!" type monster. At the same time, she's still the best snuggler, loves giving us all kisses after prayers, says "shoes" in the most adorable voice ever, laughs hysterically at herself and her siblings, and still shows a significant amount of favor towards her favorite...me. (:

I'd post about our 4th of July weekend in D.C., but it'll have to wait until later. Just a quick Dayne quote from today..
~When we got home from D.C., the kids were all starving of course, and I was rummaging through the fridge for something to make and Dayne calls out, "Mom, I want a girl cheese sandwich, and a boy cheese sandwich."
Too funny!!

They're here!

My older sister (let me just state for the record that everyone thinks she's younger than me..great) Amy felt bad that she never was able to come visit us when we lived in Richmond before, so as soon as we found out we were moving back, her husband Steve was online looking for flights out. They surprised Daphne, my niece, and she and Amy flew out Sat. I drove up to D.C. by myself (so nice!), went to IKEA, went to the D.C. LDS temple, and savored the alone, quiet time.

Sunday after naps, we went here. We talk about Maymont all the time and are thrilled to be able to show it off to anyone new in town. And we love that it's free (not for long I heard)! Amy and Daph were quite impressed.

On Tuesday night, we brought them here and had a close to perfect evening talking and swimming in the warm river. Soooo great!!

The above pics were taken last night when we went down to a different part of the river to walk down the canal. Geof. saw this group of drunk teenagers rope jumping off this bridge, and immediately tore his shirt off and ran in with Cole following closely behind.

Can you see little Cole swinging from the rope? I wish I knew how to circle him and write on the actual picture itself. He was hilarious! Too bad all those kids around him couldn't keep their language cleaner!

After waiting for what seemed like forever for Geof. to have his turn to jump, we walked over to this bridge that Richmond city has redone into a sort of civil war monument. As you walk along the bridge, little quotes are inlayed (word?) in the bridge itself describing the feelings of local Richmond residents and national leaders when Richmond fell (when the North took over) and was burned.

Just trying to get a normal pic, Cole!! I'm sure he was driving Daph NUTS!

Daphne contemplating what all happened here. (; She's 12 now, so I could be wrong on her thoughts...It's crazy how different she's become!

More pics of the amazing James River.

Amy was scared to death that Dayne or June especially, would jump through the bars. Yes, a few times they came close. Note that in one hand I'm holding on t0 June who was throwing a fit, and with the other, trying to keep Dayne from getting too close.

Steve's visit and a lot of pics!

My sister Amy's husband Steve was in D.C. on business all last week and made the trip down Thurs. to play with us for the day. Here's the photo documentary to prove it. Wish I was more clever and could type up some funny post to make you and myself laugh years later. Not happening. I was thinking today while folding clothes that I should take a writing class since I'm always without words to express. It drives me crazy! And, it would be fun. So, we'll see. I have so many classes to take..

I
thought I'd get a pic of the guys on the couch with my finished wall. Whatd'ya think? Tacky? I like it and plan on adding a few more pics and some blue accent pillows. Not just any blue...kind of a grey/green blue. See wreath below. See the little bit of blue in there? That's the color I wanna bring out. We painted two walls a light mustardy yellow and the other two beige. Turned out nice.

Steve went with Geof. to do a few jobs and they came back STARVING, so we took Steve to our new favorite restaurant downtown, Bottoms Up Pizza. You know the one right next to the train? Yummy, YUMMY pizza and a relaxing atmosphere. Especially with kids!

Oh Cole! You're happy, admit it! Such a Geof face.

You want this straw mom, right?

Steve!! Steve married Amy when I was 13, I believe. He's kind of like a father/older brother figure to me. He and Amy have been so great to us.

I was happy the train came by when we finished up eating. The kids LOVED it!

June really loved the treat of going out with mom and dad. They were doing some construction/remodeling on the balcony where we ate...June didn't mind. We kept having to pull her out of the "construction zone".

We took a walk down by the river canal afterward. We knew Steve was impressed because he told me NOT to bring Amy down when she comes to visit next week. He didn't want her getting any ideas on moving here..

We'll see, Steve!

Cole (and now Dayne) are obsessed with bugs! Ever since Cole was little, he'd lay on the driveway looking for bugs. Now, when we go to the pool, he spends more time slowly, cautiously, creeping around trying to catch dragonflies. It's hysterical, because other kids will notice and come barging up to play and they always scare away his prey. Can I say that, prey? Whatever...the thing he's trying to catch. Better? Anyway, so here they were looking at some spider crawling on the railing. Lucky for them, we find at least one cockroach a day in our house. We have more caulking to do in the bathroom (there's some huge holes in the floorboards that the landlord didn't care to fix) that'll hopefully keep the bugs out.

Almost 2 June refused the stroller and NO WAY was she gonna be held. It was the longest walk ever..and pretty humid at that!

Another reason why Geof. is the favorite.

Some cool monument thingee that Geof. knows the history behind. I just like the turquoise cross. Love turquoise.

Oh my goodness, were the girls thrilled to find this fountain (Cole was too, might I add..he just had to use the restroom)! Sorry about the underwear shot of Dayne. Don't wanna to o-f-f-e-n-d.

Yes, June DID throw the biggest fit when we pealed her off of the fountain edge (it was 8:45 for peets sake!).

Our pool

We spend a great deal of time here..and I'm sure even more when the sun gets hotter. Richmond's funny, it's hot all morning and early afternoon, and then the storm clouds come in as soon as I'm ready to take the kids swimming. We don't mind. Last week we were the only family there! It was fabulous.

Baby pool, lifeguard and all! I can just sit and read my smutty magazines ALL day if I want. Not even one glance up to check on the beebs. (;