Abby's Prayers

I love Abby's prayers. These are a few things she has included in them lately:

"We're sorry that my plants are dying . . . "

"Thank you that we can bless this food . . . and I don't like my dinner . . . "

"We're sorry that Katie is doing loud things in the prayer, and that she's not folding her arms and closing her eyes . . . " (Hmm, I wonder how Abby knew that?)

My Utah Weekend Getaway

I had a great 48-hour getaway to Utah last weekend. Taking Katie with me and leaving Abby with Luke, I attended an overnight reunion retreat with counselors from Academy for Girls, a youth program that I worked with from 1994 to 1998. I had a fabulous time renewing my friendship with about 25 of these incredible women! AFG was a huge part of my life for five years, and my experiences there helped to strengthen my testimony of the gospel and to prepare me to be a full-time missionary, then a wife and mother. I'm glad I had the chance to step back in time for a few hours and relive some of those decade-old memories.

Although it was a whirlwind trip, Katie and I did get to see both sides of the family! Here are some photos.

Katie with some eye-level friends she made at the retreat.

Katie, Lucy, and Marian: cousins born within 6 weeks of each other . . . in the arms of Carrie, Martha, and Adam. (This photo should adequately confuse posterity! Martha & Adam are parents to Marian, aunt & uncle to Lucy and Katie.)

An early celebration of my big 3-1 with the Boyers!

A visit to Spruces campground with Scott and Nora.

All for a little piece of paper . . .

The Spokane DMV and I are not on very good terms right now. I have made the 25-minute trip there THREE times now, with Abby and Katie in tow, of course, to get a Washington driver's license before my Utah license expires. Highlights of the DMV visits have been: locking my keys in the car once, leaving in tears of frustration once, and dumping all of my documents all over the floor as soon as I stood up for my turn---twice.

I thought the painful saga was over, because I did successfully get my temporary licencse on Wednesday. But today I received a call from Beth at the DMV, who informed me that I need to return a FOURTH time and sign the application form in a different place before I can be issued a permanent license. Aaargh! (For the record, I signed where Beth told me to sign.)

The fun begins again next month when I need to register our cars . . .

"Mama's Busy Vacuuming . . .

. . . so I guess I'll just go to sleep right here, since I can't get to my crib!"

I'm constantly amazed at Katie's mellow, content nature. I couldn't believe it last night when I looked over and she had just fallen asleep on her toys in the high chair. It was about 9:30, and I kept meaning to get around to feeding her some pureed peas.

What do you think, should I run for Mother of the Year?

Who's Who?

Can you tell which of these jolly babies is Katie now, and which is Abby at 5 months? OK, if you've given up, Katie's on the left and Abby's on the right. You'd think they were related or something!

Tour of Pain

I'm so proud of Luke for completing the 200-mile Tour of Pain bike ride on Saturday! Here is his take on it: "The Tour of Pain, (http://www.cdabrewing.com/tourofpain.html) what a great ride!

We started off in Spokane and then headed south into a rural area called the "Palouse," with beautiful rolling hills and small towns that take you back to a time a century ago. Then we transitioned to the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes, a trail that traverses a number of lakes near lake Coeur d'Alene. We then went around the east side of the lake and arrived in the town of Coeur d'Alene. Finally, we took the Centennial trail along the Spokane River back to Spokane, where we started, to make it 200 miles total!

Fun day, long day . . . my rear end is sore. In fact, my whole body is pretty sore. Glad I did it."

Amusing Things Abby Has Said Recently:

--She asked me to cut her sandwich into four pieces, so I told her that was called "cutting it into quarters." The next day, she said, "Mama, please cut my sandwich into pennies!"

--When I caught her sprawled out on top of the kitchen table, she explained, "I'm having Tummy Time on the table."

--Noticing the princess coach on her underwear, she said excitedly, "Cinderella has one of those, and she rides in it to the temple to get married with her prince!"

--I told her we were going to a store called WalMart, and she said, "That sounds like 'wallermelon!'"

--Abby was saying the family prayer one evening and included, "Thank you that we could have that nice dinner," then she paused the prayer, looked up at me, and said, "DID we have a nice dinner today, Mom?"