For the Birds: July 2005

Sunday, July 24, 2005

Monthly Friday Night Paint Fest

Our monthly turn for babysitting on Friday date night usually begins with pleas to paint. We wrap the kids in plastic trash bags and let them go to town with the finger paints.

Breakfast Time

We were eating some waffles for breakfast and I got up to get Mikayla some milk. Josh quickly noticed my unattended plate and siezed the opportunity to grab a full quarter of my waffle. Then he proceeded to stuff it in his mouth as rapidly as possible.

He's Figured Out How To Get Himself Stuck

Yeah, Josh has figured out about enough movements to get himself stuck. The pictures not in very good focus :(, but you'll get the idea.

Mikayla Still Enjoys Reading to Josh

Yes, Mikayla still enjoys reading to Josh (and we threw a couple of pictures of Josh in his rally-cap style Steve Spurrier hat for good measure).

Mikayla and Josh In His New Swing

We finally got around to getting a swing for Josh to use on the swingset in the back yard. Mikayla enjoys pushing him. And when he sees her in the swing next to his, he gets really excited.

Sunday, July 17, 2005

Mikayla's Phrases

Mikayla has already started to claim amnesia for her faults. The other day she exclaimed in the car: "I just for-keep-getting!"

She also gets after her babies when they aren't dressed modestly and insists on wearing her hair out (no ponytails) because that's how Ariel does it. We overheard her talking to her babies and she said: "They want me to put it in these [ponytails], but I want to be beautiful like Ariel, so I don't want to put up my hair."

Off to Topsail Beach...Again!

Make sure you click on page 2 of this set of photos on the frame that comes up.

We went to Topsail Beach again on Saturday, this time with Spencer, Brooke, and Kirsten Cutler. We had a great time and this time we didn't get sunburned! I guess our tanning sessions at the local pools are working. We picked up the "Freaky Tiki" body board on the way to the beach. The Cutlers already had a body board, so we all had a great time riding the waves.

On Sunday, Mikayla kept saying: "And the bubbles, the bubbles were going to get me, the bubbles!!" We finally realized that she was referring to her brave venture into the ocean captured on photo for proof.

Mikayla's Ballet Skills

Mikayla was demonstrating her ballet skills last Sunday. She was making up new words to "I Hope They Call Me on a Mission" as she flailed her arms and danced around.

Meanwhile, Josh was busy doing what he likes best: adding some more weight to his huge girth.

Working in the Yard

We had a lot of fun trying to find the leak of the water main in our front yard. Merrill dug a trench about 8 feet long and 2 - 3 feet deep. He had to get some of those sweet plastic goloshes to wade in the muck. The ground was so saturated that every time he'd shovel out some mud, more water would pour into the hole from the sides. Well, after a day or so of digging we finally found the pipe and then took about 20 minutes to fix it. That night, we used our hot date time (with Mikayla at the babysitter's) to backfill the hole with the nasty clay mud.

On a happier note, we've been working on terracing the playset area in the back yard. Here's some photos of our action in that arena. This is a multiple weekend job, so we'll post some more photos after we've completed the job.

Sunday, July 10, 2005

Nauvoo Temple Replica

Cami sewed and sewed and drew and drew and cut and cut for a couple of weeks in order to make this Nauvoo Temple panorama that was used for a Stake Youth Conference trek in June. The Raleigh-based newspaper did a nice piece on the trek.

Some Pictures in the Yard

Here are some pictures we took in the yard a few weeks ago.

4th of July Fireworks

Josh was looking pretty smooth in his Yankees hat (even though they stink) and Mikayla was ready for some serious fireworks action. None of us were disappointed.

Museum of Natural History

Mikayla really enjoyed the fossils. She ran around saying: "I haven't seen that one before." There are a lot of pictures on this page, so it may take some time to load.

Iwo Jima Monument

You can't get a sense for how large this monument is from pictures. The platform is about eight feet tall and the soldiers must each be 15-16 feet tall. Their determination is unmistakable.

Vietnam Memorial

These rows and rows of names go one for about 100 yards in each direction from this corner of the monument. It seemed fitting to get the Washington Monument reflection in the background.

Korean War Memorial

Some nice night photos of this memorial that really makes you think about what these people did for us.

Washington DC Temple

On Sunday afternoon we paid a visit to the beautiful Temple in Washington DC. After we'd been there a while, Mikayla decided she needed to go...and the caught her doing 'The Dance.'

Lincoln Memorial

Some of these pictures of Lincoln Memorial are blurry for the same reason as those in the National Archives, it was nearly dark and we didn't have a tripod to steady the camera for night shots.

Washington Monument

A few photos of Washington Monument. The really good ones on the bottom were taken from the base of the reflection pool near Lincoln Memorial.

The White House

Our visit to the White House. Don't try placing your backpack on the ground when you take a picture. A few people did and the people with big guns promptly told them to pick up their bag.

The Capitol Building

Here's a few pictures we took near the Capitol Building. The latter pictures were taken from our location for the fireworks show.

National Archives Room

Here's a few photos of the room that holds the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and Bill of Rights. The room is fairly dark and there's no flash photography allowed. We were able to use the night photo setting on the camera, but with no tripod they turn out blurry (I guess I don't have surgeon's hands after all).