Sunrise to sunset...

On any given Saturday no one in their right mind should have to wake up to a blaring alarm clock at 3:00 am. But every quarter we make the trek up to Birmingham with the youth of our Ward. We meet at the chapel at 4 am and load everyone into our van. After a 4 1/2 hour drive we find ourselves entering the parking lot and arriving at the Birmingham Alabama Temple.
By the time our session at the temple is over we have just enough time to grab a bite to eat and head back home before the sun sets. All in all its not a very bad trip to make. Especially with a van load of silly teenagers and a couple of "old people" to keep us entertained! What a great way to spend a Saturday!

Back to school...

School is back in session and both Kenny and Jessica are enjoying being back in the classroom!
Nothing starts out the school year right like a rose for the teacher on the very first day!
No reason NOT to start adding up those brownie points as soon as that first bell rings!

Reality bites...

One morning you wake up and you realize that your children no longer require that kind of attention you are use to giving them. They know how to dress themselves. They know what foods they like to eat. They even have the occasion to clean their rooms now and again. And you start to realize that they are also old enough to leave home. Walking right out into that big scary world you hope they are prepared for. That same big scary world that is just waiting to see if they are capable of overcoming the odds and if they can put to practice all the many different things you have taught them over the years.
Lisa isn't quite old enough to prance off to college just yet, but this summer she had the opportunity to fly alone for the very first time and spend a week in El Paso. I have to admit that after her first night away I was so glad she had her dad's cell phone with her and that she was actually using it! Not just to check in with us for our sakes....but to let us know how empty she felt without us there. To let us know how homesick she was. And to let us know how lucky she feels now that she sees that stark contrast between our home and that big empty scary outside world. Reality bites...but it can also sometimes help us see how fortunate we really are.

Transfers and turnovers...

On my birthday the Elders in our area asked if I would drive them over to Pensacola, Florida for transfers. Three of our missionaries were being transfered to different areas and we were getting three new elders to serve in here in Mobile. The mission office is in Tallahassee Florida so the central meeting spot is a large Food World grocery store parking lot off of I-10 right in the middle of Pensacola, Florida.
Its really a sight to see as several large vans and overloaded trailers make their way to this one spot every six weeks. The missionaries unload, shake hands, snap a few pictures, and load back up to head to their new areas. We've helped with transfers every month since we moved here. Its been a fun tradition for our family! One I hope we get to continue for a very long time...

They call it the "leaning tower of Lisa"...

After being locked in Jessica's room for longer than I would've liked I was invited out for my birthday surprise! Arnold and the kids had wrapped their gifts up in large oversized boxes then placed them one on top of the other like a tower. How on earth was I suppose to get to that top one?
Usually I am the one taking all the pictures. Today...it was Lisa's turn. I don't think I'm as photogenic as the rest of the family. I'll stick to just taking them from now on!

Turning forty....

Okay so I only turned thirty nine this week but I am a year away from 40 and this has caused me to think. Think about what I have done with my life. Think about what I am doing currently. And to think most of all about where I want my life to go. They say that the 40's are the new 30's. I'd have to say my thrities turned out pretty well. Let's hope the 40's are just as rewarding. I plan to enjoy close friends both near and far, take advantage of the time I have with my loving family, relish engaging conversations with those that I meet, and tackle head on the next exciting decade of my life. Thanks to those who remembered me this week. And to my family who worked so hard to let me know how much they love me...

Celebrating Pioneer day here in the South...

On the 24th of July hot dogs, hamburgers, Jell-O salad, and root beer floats were all on the menu for our Pioneer BBQ! We invited three local families (all with Utah ties) and all six missionaries from our ward! We ate, shared pioneer stories, lit off fireworks and watched the Elders try "NOT" to blow their fingers off! What a great way to celebrate Utah's birthday all the way out here in the South!

And they call him Daniel...

So we had our very first missionary come back to visit us after returning home from serving in the Tallahassee Florida Mission! Elder Daniel Snow from Snowflake, Arizona brought his mom and dad back to the Mobile area to tour his mission district just a few short months after he was released. It was great to see him and to hear all about what he was doing now that he was back to being a 'civilian' again! His hair was a bit longer and it looked like he could've used a shave, but he still emulated that awesome spirit he had while serving in our ward! What a great opportunity it must've been for him to serve here in the South!

Dorm rooms, dances, and breaking curfew....

During the second week of July, I spent three days at Troy State University being a chaperone to nine young women at Youth Conference. Dancing until midnight, eating in a cafeteria and having to share a bathroom with four other people were a few of the things that made me re-live those BYU days of long ago!
We met four other LDS Stakes there and had a total of 428 youth and 165 adult leaders. The stakes involved with our Youth Conference were Mobile Alabama Stake, Tallahassee Florida Stake, Pensacola Florida Stake, Ft. Walton Beach Florida Stake, and Panama City Florida Stake. Except for the time we spent in Utah, I had never seen so many LDS Youth in one place all at one time standing for the same truths here in the South that they have there in Utah! What a feeling! It was simply amazing!

And in the end...its all for them

I guess what it really all comes down to is that we hope the two weeks we spent traveling the east coast this summer will be something our children remember for a very long time.
We hope that it opened their minds to the idea of how big and powerful the world really is.... to how diverse and fragile our lives sometimes are especially here in America... and how precious the time we spend together as a family really can be when we set aside the time to put away the hustle of the world around us and just focus on each other for a time.
Without computers, iPods, and PS2 games. Without all the phone calls and pager beeps. Short simple conversations about everything we could think of to a mere conversation about nothing at all. Holding hands and lingering closely together under a deep blue sky. Seeing a smile on the face of a child as she learns something for the very first time or remembers a silly tale from the past.


Those are the things I will remember the most about our trip to New York this summer.

K-Town, Chinatown, NBC Studios, and more...

We couldn't get over Korea Town! Kenny's 2nd grade teacher - Ms. Nik had never even been there! We spent several hours there walking through the markets, bookstores, bakeries, and outdoor shopping carts. Everything was exactly as if we were back in Seoul, Korea. We ate Melona bars, Pot Bing Soo, and had a Korean BBQ dinner at a restaurant that cooked the meat for you on a burner in the center of our table.

In Chinatown we found a small hole in the wall type of place that served the BEST chinese food! It was located in the basement of a large apartment building. When we were done eating and walked out the door of the basement entrance there was a line of people out on the street waiting to get in. I guess we had gotten there just in time to beat the rush!

NBC studios was a fun place to stop and visit. Too bad they weren't in need of any more audience members for shows like SNL and Conan O'Brien!

World Trade Center site...

While in NYC we toured the World Trade Center site where they are building a memorial to honor all the people who died during 9/11. A tall chain link fence surrounds the deep cut hole where the twin towers once stood.
There was a unique quietness there as we stood and read the names of the people who died in the attack. In the corner lay a clump of flowers with a handwritten note from a child that read, "Happy Father's Day" and "I love you".

By subway, train, and ferry...

We used several different modes of transportation on our two week trip. Automobile, Trolley, Ferry, Train, Tram, Railway, Subway, and good old fashioned walking. The favorite seemed to be the Ferry boats and the trains. As we found out on our trip to Disney World last spring, sightseeing the various different places can add several steps to our daily excercise routine! I wonder how many miles we clocked this trip?

After a long hot day of traveling we certainly took advantage of the hotel swimming pools! Did we mention that we ran into a celebrity while in Manhattan? As we walked by the NBC studios...out walked David Hasselhoff! We caught him just in time to snap a photo! Arnold and I recognized him from Knight Rider. The kids recognized him from "America's Got Talent" and of course who can forget that he was on "Baywatch"?

Statue of Liberty...

We spent our first day in NYC taking the ferry boat out to Ellis Island and touring the Statue of Liberty. We met Kenny's 2nd grade teacher, Ms. Nikolakis there. She filled in as our personal tour guide for the day! She spends the summer months working as a part-time nanny for several large hotels in NYC. Her job the night before we met was for the Producer of the broadway show "The Producers". She watched their daughter while they went to a show and met some friends for dinner! Wonder if she could get Lisa involved with that gig?!

We spent the second half of the day touring Manhattan. Times square was one of our favorite. The kids stopped to pet a Police horse that was on the side of the road. They couldn't figure out why the policemen wouldn't let them feed the horse an apple like they do here at our neighbors house! We also stopped by the Manhattan Toys R Us store. They had a full sized working Ferris Wheel in the lobby of the store! Unbelievable!

Nikola Tesla....

Arnold remembers hearing his dad talk about the man this statue portrays. We spent several hours at the Power Vista Visitor Center in Niagara Falls, NY learning about how the water flow from the falls generates power for the entire area.

We couldn't resist getting a picture by this sign before we walked over Rainbrow bridge to Ontario, Canada. Half way across there was an American Flag, a light pole, and then a Canadian Flag. A plaque on the walkway showed us exactly where the border ended and began again. It cost nothing to enter the Canadian side from the American side, but upon our return we had to put 50 cents into a turnstyle in order to return to the states.