Hello All,It has been over a month, so I'm due for another round of pictures. I
haven't been taking too many because we spend a lot of our days at the pool,
the zoo, and Children's Museum. I am reluctant to carry around a nice
camera to places where it may get broken. We enjoyed a relatively nice July,
but are now making up for it with lots of hot and HUMID weather. In fact,
the water levels are so low on the reservoir, that a toxic blue-green algae
has formed. Health officials are cautioning anyone from swimming in the
reservoir until the problem can be treated. There goes our night activity.
Brian has been so busy lately that we actually haven't gone out as much on
the boat this summer. It seemed like last summer we went out at least two
or three evenings each week. We are lucky if we make it out once. Brian
has had EQ visits/meetings, focus groups for work, and travel. He leaves
tomorrow afternoon to New Jersey to interview with this healthcare
consulting firm. Then on Thursday, we leave for Kirtland, Palmyra, and
Niagra Falls for our family summer vacation. I am excited to go, but not
looking forward to all the driving.
I can't believe that July passed by so quickly. We definitely kept busy.
We went to the zoo a couple of times and the Children's Museum. I love my
yearly-passes and being able to go as often as we do. However, I don't want
to return until school starts back up. There were so many big kids that
plowed through the little ones. It was nerve-wrecking just trying to keep
an eye on Elsa and Ava in the masses. They didn't seem to mind as much.
They always love it. On one of our zoo trips downtown, Brian picked up the
girls while I cut off 9 inches of my hair. It is a couple of inches longer
in the front, a modern bob. I love it. It is a little higher maintenance
since I can't just leave it wavy, but I can still manage to pull the sides
back into a tiny ponytail. I am now tempted to go even shorter, maybe the
next haircut. It is fun to have a change. My hair has been long for so many
years. Brian has only known me with long hair. After six years, I was due
for something different. Six years of marriage. Time goes by quickly!
We've filled with with lots of other changes - moved three times, two kids,
and finished garduated school. Those are a lot of big accomplishments.
Brian and I spent our anniversary in Chicago. My dear friend, Colleen
Douglas, offered to watch Elsa and Ava overnight so Brian and I could go
away. We figured opportunities like this are rare, so we accepted her offer
and headed north. We packed our bikes and rode along Lake Shore Drive. It
was beautiful weather. We then parked our bikes at Navy Pier and had dinner
along the boardwalk. It was so fun to get away, and even more fun to bike
around the city. Elsa and Ava were absolutely spoiled by the Douglases.
Colleen took them to Ratatouille, bought them popcorn (something I never
do), and then to Toys 'R Us to each pick out a toy to play with for the
weekend. They ate pizza, watched movies, played games, and read the same
books over and over again. Colleen said it was great practice for her
grandchildren. (Her first one is two-months old.) She kept gushing about
how perfect Elsa and Ava are. She said they were so obedient, polite, and
didn't fight or cry. I asked about her magic touch because when we had them
over for dinner the next night the girls were all tears and running wild. I
must have that effect on people. :)
It seems like we always have some project to plan. We spent last weekend
sanding the front-porch section of our house and repainting. I then climbed
two stories on a ladder to wash all the windows. They looked good for one
day until a 5 minute rain storm poured dirt back on them. Oh, well. I'll
cleam them again in another two years. Really, it made such a difference
with our house. We also put in a new doorbell. Our old one had been broken
for over a year. Why do we wait so long? I'll ask this same question six
months from now after we complete another all-day project. There are just
so many other things we'd rather be doing, mostly recreational activities.
Brian especially feels like he can't recreate as much as he'd like to. He
did get up early yesterday morning (6am) and drive to a river with one of
his co-workers, John Kreaggy, and his son Ben. They kayaked 16 miles down a
river. It sounds like they had some adventure when John and Ben were thrown
from their canoe. Brian was safe navigating the waters in his kayak. He
got home around 6pm. That is a full day of recreating! He says he now
can't stop thinking about kayaking. I told him now he knows how I feel about
Vampires! This is of course because I've been reading these young adult
books about a vampire romance. You can say it, I need to grow-up. But it
is fun summer reading for any of you who are looking for a good series.
They are written by Stephenie Meyer and titled "Twilight", "New Moon" and
"Eclipse", which was just released on Tuesday. So far, it has supposedly
sold more copies than Harry Potter #7. So I guess I am not the only one not
acting my age. I think what I love even more than the storyline is that the
author is an English Major from BYU. She wrote the first book after the
birth of her third child. Now she is traveling world on book tours. Now
why can't I do something as inventive with my English degree????
We are really liking Indiana right now. Life is just a little more relaxed
in the summer. Kids and moms are outside visiting and enjoying one another.
I love it! Everything-the pool, the parks, the playdates - just having so
much to do. There has been a lot of families move into our ward recently,
which makes that great too. In fact, we just had an LDS family move into
our neighborhood, right around the corner. They have a four (almost five)
year-old, Emma. She plays so well with Elsa and Ava, which makes it even
better. She invites both girls to come over to her house to play too. I am
grateful because Ava gets left out so often, and Elsa is her favorite
friend. It is so great to watch the girls grow. It is even better to be in
a neighborhood with lots of young kids for them to grow-up with. There are
now five 4-5 year-old girls just in the cult-de-sac. The girls get on their
bikes and ride around or get out their doll strollers and push their baby
dolls back-and-forth between houses. I love it, except for the fact that
90% of the time they end up here. That just makes clean-up more work and
more frequent. Since friends are over quite often, we've been spending a
lot of time around the house running through sprinklers and playing with
sidewalk paint and chalk. Ava loves anything with paint, but more gets on
her legs and arms than the driveway. She thinks she is a walking canvas.
I look at my girls and can't believe how lucky I am to be their mother. I
have to agree with Colleen, most of the time, that they are perfect. Elsa
is my helper and sometimes takes it a little further by implementing her own
rules for Ava or tattling on her. Most of the time she is eager to please
and do what is right. She is constantly drawing. She always has a pen and
paper nearby. She likes practicing her letters and gets great satisfaction
with writing them perfectly. She is also into spelling words right now. I
have pieces of paper all over the house with words written on them. She is
getting very good at drawing details in her pictures like hair bows,
eyelashes, fingers, as well as animals like birds, dogs, cats, horses. She
keeps on drawing and drawing. She may be our little artist. She is also a
fabulous swimmer. She now dives for sticks in the deep end of the pool. The
first time she wanted to show me, I told her that it was way too deep for
her. She then ducked under water and seconds later came up with the diving
sticks. She jumps in the deep now without anyone nearby and swims to the
end. I am amazed at good she truly has become at swimming. When she has a
goal, she goes all the way. I am eager to get her back into swim lessons in
hopes that she'll improve enough this year to be able to join the swim team.
Elsa is excited to start back at preschool. She knows that soon after, it
is her birthday. We have frequent chats about what she wants for her cake,
what friends she wants to invite, and what activities she wants to do. She
has it all planned out without any ideas from me. Luckily, she is simple
and easy to please. I can't believe she'll be five. When did I get so old?
Ava, lately, has been a fireball - or better said - goofball. She thinks it
is so funny to say "bum" or "bummy" with anything. It is hard sometimes not
to laugh at her because she gets this mischevious twinkle in her eye and
goofy smile when she says it. She also likes to expose her "bummy."
Countless times during the day I have to tell Ava to put her underwear back
on. A part of it is the frequent bathroom visits. Underwear is just a
hassle! She is coming out of her shy reserved self and turning into a
tease. She loves to tell stories, usually at 10:30 at night. She can talk
and talk and talk. Anything to delay bedtime. (Brian says she gets her
gift of gab from me. I can't deny it after seeing how long this email is.)
I just love her when she isn't being stubborn and driving me crazy. That is
a phrase she often says to me. "Mom, you're driving me trazy." (She uses
the "td" sound for "k" still.) It always makes me laugh, but I wonder if I
should try to teach her that she should show more respect to me. Maybe she
might if I could discipline with a straight face! Until then, I'll have an
irreverent naked 3 year-old, who couldn't be sweeter or "tuter."
I hope you're all well. We miss you.
Love,
Natalie
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