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!
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!
le family!
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!
When we went to Kentucky in July (2010), we made a stop up in Cincinnati as well to meet the newest (at the time) Beck grandbaby - Olivia, Tricia and Bill's fourth.
Sarah wanted to be a vampire for Halloween this year. Her and her friend, Emilee, went out together. Erik decided he is too old now. My friend, Cyndi, was in town for the weekend. We hung out in the front yard with the fire burning and roasted hot dogs waiting for the kids...who never came. We only had about four kids come along as our house was about the only one with lights on. It wasn't worth the walk down our street for just one house!
So after we got the tile backsplashed in the kitchen, the sink faucet, which was silver and had been here since the house was built 15 years ago, started spewing water out from all sides, so we had to get a new one. I looked into maybe replacing the sink at the same time because this one is so shallow, it won't hold anything. Only 6 inches deep! Unfortunately, that's because the plumbing line comes out of the wall that high up and so to get a deeper sink, would have required re-plumbing the water lines (not cheap). So we kept the old sink and just went with a new faucet. My old one didn't have a sprayer, so that was the first priority. I found this one at Lowe's and really liked it! It's the same polished brass that matches the cabinet doorhandles that I installed. I bought the matching drain stoppers so that there isn't any silver left, and we painted the ring around the sink. I think it looks pretty good! Never thought a sprayer and faucet could make me so happy... hopefully if we have to sell the house, these little, inexpensive changes will pay off!
So having seen how easy it is to tile when my in-laws did my kitchen backsplash, I got the same tiles but in blues to do our master bathroom. There's this odd kind of seat right above the garden tub and I thought it would look good to tile that. And at only $4.99 a square foot - it only cost about $50. I did this one myself, with some help from Lars. I think it looks good too! I still need to hang the curtains and put back the candles and picture that I had sitting up there, but I am pleased with the result. Probably doing all these improvements, to then just have to turn around and have to sell it unless we gets jobs soon, knowing my luck!
