Sheila and Tim's new house

I love Sheila and Tim's new house - it's very cozy and cute! It's got three floors. The first floor contains the office and formal dining room when you walk in the front door, and then the living room/kitchen at the back of the house. There is an enclosed patio too, where we enjoyed putting up a new ceiling fan and then having surf and turf for dinner on Tim's birthday. The second level has three bedrooms and two baths, plus the laundry room, and the third floor is a huge bonus room that could be a bedroom, or a game room, etc. Granny worked hard on making all the curtains and bench cushions for the house, while I put together the swing set and re-upholstered the dining room tables. We worked hard to unpack, but played hard too!

Tour of Charleston 2010

We decided the best way to see Charleston was on a horse-drawn carriage ride. The houses are just gorgeous! We were able to go into one that had been turned into a museum. The houses have side porches that face towards the ocean breeze. They have doors to the outside front yard and back in the day, if the door was open, that meant the ladies of the house were accepting visitors. If the doors were closed, that meant the ladies less dressed in order to cool themselves off on the porch, so gentlemen were not to call then. There is a market downtown where people sell arts and crafts. There are a lot of woven reed baskets being made right there. The cobblestone streets are charming!

On the way to Charleston 2010

When my mom and I drove down to Charleston to visit my sister, Sheila, we took the opportunity to stop by the dorms at U. of Kentucky and U. of Tennessee to see where my niece Kaitlyn (UK) and my nephew Dylan (UT) would be living for this school year as freshman in the dorms.





















Kaitlyn's room
























Dylan's room








Mom's dog, Sophie, came along on the trip too. She's really cute except in the middle of the night in a hotel in Knoxville where she barked all night long! She'll eat anything - including my salad with bleu cheese dressing on it!

Waiting for Shelby's arrival

We had a visit from grandpa and Miriam a day or two before she went into the hospital to have Shelby. Looks like she was pretty ready! Kirsten flew in the day of the induction and brought her youngest son, Luke with her. He got to stay at our house with his Uncle Lars and Aunt Lynda while Kirsten was helping Miriam deliver at the hospital!

Sedona 2010

The annual ward camping trip was in September. Last year, we didn't get to go because we were moving into our new house. This year, the kids have reached the major teenager age where they didn't want to go. So I just decided to go along with a good friend of mine and her family, the Lopez's. They hadn't camped before and had a fun time trying to put up their tent for the first time in the dark (he, he, he). I had brought our little two man pop up that didn't require any effort at all.




Gracie is Melissa and Richardo's third child. She loved the creek but the water is really cold because it comes down from the mountains!












The Lopez's youngest is Kolby (aka Tutu). I was his nursery leader when he was two, along with Cambria who is pictured next to him. They are three now and all grown up in the sunbeams class.









This is one of the cute little Manwaring girls who recently had to move out of our ward. We miss their adorable family!







We played some fun games with the kids that was sort of like horseshoes but with balls on strings that wrap around a stand. Once in a while, Big Foot could be spotted running through the woods!One of the kids ran across a baby Arizona diamond back rattle snack on the pathway in the woods, so one of the adults came to the rescue and killed it. But apparently snakes, like most things, still have nerve movements for quite awhile after death. This thing kept wiggling for hours afterwards - gross! But the kids loved it...





After we left the camp ground, we went to Slide Rock Park and let the kids slide down the waterfalls for the rest of the afternoon. I love Sedona!

Columbus, Indiana (July 2010)

When I was home in July, my mom and I took a trip to Columbus, Indiana, about an hour and 1/2 north of Louisville on the way to Brown County. It's an adorable little town that is known for it's world renowned modern architecture. Yet it also has wonderful historical buildings. We took a bus tour of the town, and ended up at Zaharakos' for lunch. It's an old-fashion soda fountain and candy store that serves wonderful lunch too. The fountains are made of onyx and granite stone; just beautifully ornate and gorgeous. They can mix any kind of flavor you want! They had these self-playing organs that played old fashioned songs randomly and they had a small museum of soda fountains and displays of what the old time candy stores looked like. We had the most delicious real root beer sodas and ice cream for dessert!





























































































The end of the bus tour stops at the Visitor's Center where you can see a gorgeous Chihuly sculpture that is 9 feet high. Very few places in the world own a Chihuly, even Phoenix doesn't, so that's why it's so unusual to have not just one, but two in this small town of 50,000 people. The town is #7 in the country for modern architecture thanks to Cummins Diesel, whose founder set up a trust for the city long ago to donate all the architectural fees for any public buildings that are built. That's how Columbus ended up with so many famous buildings being designed by classic architects. It's a diamond in the middle of no-where Indiana!