First Day of School 2012-2013

Ding, ding, ding!!  School is in session!! Girls started back to school on Friday, the 17th. I can't believe it! Where did the summer go?!?

Don't they look fancy?!? And all growed up!?! LOL!!

Maryn is in MIDDLE SCHOOL!! A big (little) 6th grader!!

Avery is starting 5th grade!!

I think Charlie is thinking he's going with Avery to TGS!!

Believe it or not, but Maryn has grown a lot this year...she is wearing a ladies 7/12 shoe now!

Action shot with the backpack!!

Look, Avery's shoes match her backpack!!

Here's to another great year at Tonica Grade School!!

Westward Migration Summer 2012--Part 2

After our time in Utah, we headed north to Idaho. We stopped in Preston, outside of Logan, to take a little "Napoleon Dynamite" greatest hits tour. We found everything except Rex Kwon Dojo, and their house. The cashier at the King's was actually in the movie, she was one of the kids screaming on the bus when the cow gets shot. She seemed pretty unimpressed though...although we thought it was hilarious!!

Girls on the steps of Preston High School where Pedro, Deb, and Napoleon talk.

The Cuttin' Curral is a REAL thing!! I love how they spell it Curral!!

Avery poses as Summer Wheatley, cashier at King's

Uncle Rico buying supplies at King's. "I said the 12 pack, not the 24 pack, you're just gonna have to mix and match!!"

The DI where Napoleon finds his sword, and his sweet suit for the dance.

After Preston, we headed over to Malad to visit Grandma Brown. We were really lucky to have stopped by when Aunt Janiel was there because she was able to take us to the house/farm so we could look around and visit. I just love that place!!

The wheat is ready to harvest!!

Parker on the porch of the farm.

Grandma and the girls

So glad we got to spend some time with her!!

After Malad, we headed up to Rigby to spend the rest of our trip with our family up there. We stayed with Dan and Shalee, which was great! We felt like we had our own little apartment setup in their basement. It was so comfortable, and we loved getting to know Hadley, Blake, and our new little niece Amaya better. Thanks so much you guys!!

Sunday night we were able to have a big family dinner with everyone at Dave and Melanie's place in Rigby. They inherited the BIG dining room table from Dennis and Laurie and it was just like old times eating around the dinner table as a family. Sniff, sniff...it really was probably the greatest moment of the whole trip!! Thanks Dave and Mel for the yummy ribs!!! The following pics were taken that night.

Kate, Dylan, and Mindy Brown

Shalee and baby Amaya (and another baby sister on the way!! Due December, woo hoo!!)

Brianna, Avery, and Maryn

Dan, Hadley (left), and Blake (right) at the little kids table!! :)  Melanie in the background.

Cousin Kathy showed up to cuddle baby Amaya and take our big family pictures!!

These two are something else...simultaneously adorable and mischevious...Naomi and Parker.

After taking pictures, we let the kids play on the infamous rock climbing wall park in Rigby.

It was kind of surreal as the sun set with all the grandkids playing and the rest of us watching...we all could feel Dennis and Laurie's presence that night. We sure miss them still!


Of course, no trip would be complete without lunch at Big Jud's. It never disappoints!!


The girls decided to give each other makeovers the night before we left. We all figured the next time we get together they will probably look like this for reals. Yikes, scary thought! LOL!!


We had to say goodbye to this little beauty the morning we left. She is so darling, we loved getting to hold her!!  She will probably be so big the next time we see her. 

And these two funny boys...it was so much fun getting to spend so much time with them during this trip...we will miss them!!

We said goodbye to our Rigby family and headed south again to Idaho Falls, where we got to spend some time with cousin Kathy, Karen, and Aunt Fay and Uncle Bob.  That's always a treat.  After that, we went further south to Pocatello and dropped in on Jason and Mindy's family for awhile.  Wish we had had more time to visit there as well.

From Pocatello, we drove to Little America and stayed there for a night.  Staying at Little America is like walking back in time...everything is circa 1960's, I love it!!

After Little America, we stayed in Kearney again, and then we got home late Friday night.  Everything since then has been a blur.  We are still recovering from our vacation.  LOL!!

We are so glad we went, we had a great time, great weather, great visits with great family, and can't wait to see them all again!!

Westward Migration Summer 2012--Part 1

The Brown's went west for summer vacation 2012. It was a long journey, but we had lots of fun!! We left on Monday, July 30 after getting the girls registered for school. We got as far as Kearney, NE. the first night. The second day we drove towards Denver. We made a few stops along the way.

Maryn and Avery at the Lincoln statue Visitor Center in NE.

Mark and Parker...she was a little apprehensive of the grizzly bear. She said it reminded her of Brave...lol!!

We stopped in Denver our 2nd night and stayed with the Pierson's!! I am kicking myself because we didn't take any pictures while we were there!! It was fun to catch up with Shauna and Daren and the (grown up) kids. We did so much in a short amount of time too! We went to the park with Daren, Maddi, and Buddy (whom Avery took quite a liking to!), and of course the infamous long board! (It's like another member of their family!) LOL!! After that, Shauna made us a delicious dinner! After dinner, Shauna and Maddi and the girls and I hit up their local rec center pool for a quick dip in the pool. After that Daren, Shauna, Collin, Kristen, Paige, and Mark and I got to see a late night movie! After that we pretty much crashed until we could smell a yummy breakfast cookin' upstairs. We ate breakfast and got to talk to Andrew for a little while before we hit the road again!!

We drove over to Evanston, WY for our 3rd night. We wanted to stay in SLC but all the hotels were booked up. Evanston was close enough. Although our hotel pretty much sucked. Oh well.

The next day we drove into SLC and hit up Temple Square. We hadn't been in quite a few years. It was nice to see all the new construction and have some open time available to walk through the visitor centers and take some of the tours. We got to see the Joseph Smith movie and that was a real treat for the girls and I!! Mark and Parker napped in the car at that point.

The Christus

This is a ballroom in the Joseph Smith Memorial Bldg. Parker exclaimed, "It's Belle's Ballroom!!" when we entered. She and Avery did some dancing while the rest of us sand "tale as old as time, song as old as rhyme...Beauty and the Beast!!" It was pretty cute!!

The pretty floral display in the lobby at the JSMB

Atop the Conference Center After finishing up at Temple Square, we headed north to Logan.

I haven't been back to Logan in ages...probably since I graduated! It was so fun to go back with some time to just wander around and reminisce. We stayed there for two nights, it was so great!!

We walked around campus and this is in front of the Old A in the background. I just love USU campus!

We took a drive through the Logan canyon. Mark freaked me out taking this pic. Maryn actually took this because I refused to even get out and look down the steep drop off.

And of course no trip through Logan is complete without some Aggie Ice Cream at the USU Creamery. It was soooooo good!! Just like I remembered it!

We also had a chance to visit Mark's cousin, Kristen. Sad that we missed her hubby, it would've been fun to get to know him better!! Thanks Kristen!!

After our time in Logan, we headed north again towards Idaho. I'll save that part for another post.

Casualties of Summer: Parker vs. a bunch of bananas

What do these 2 things have in common?


a. they are both rotten!! LOL!
b. they have both been subjected to regular beatings, thus the bruising.
c. they have fragile, delicate flesh that flinches at the least provocation.
d. you can bake them into delicious pies, breads, and cookies!! (insert witch cackle...heh heh heh!)
e. even though they look a little rough on the outside, they are pure gold on the inside!!
Awwwww!!

Midterm of my Madness

So today marks midterm for the summer semester.  I can honestly say I can't believe I made it!  The time has really flown by, and I am still standing.  I really wasn't sure what or how I would be feeling at this point.  Surprisingly not that bad!  Ha ha!  Teaching this summer has been a real learning experience for me. One of the biggest lessons I've learned is that I can do hard things.  This was a really tough challenge for me, but I have conquered my fear (for the most part), and am figuring things out as I go.  I am working hard, and it feels good to overcome my insecurities.  It's definitely helping me to figure out what I want to do next.  It's nice to feel like the world is my oyster.  I can do anything I want, I just have to choose.  Time is still a big factor, but that will work itself out.  I figure I just keep doing what I'm doing until Parker is in school.  Then I will probably start applying to grad programs.  Hopefully I can find something with a tuition waiver and teaching assistantship.  I guess that's where I see the purpose behind me getting some teaching experience now...hopefully that will make me a better candidate to getting an assistantship, which will essentially pay for me to go to school.  Which is where I also see divine intervention because at this point, we cannot afford any more student loans.  (Aye yi yi, different subject for another day.)  Anyway, it all seems to be unfolding before my eyes.  Hopefully it will continue on that trajectory.  I feel peaceful and trusting in this path.  It just feels right. 

In other news, summer is marching on.  We've started making weekly library trips on Mondays.  What is it about libraries and summer?  They are just meant to go together...like peanut butter and jelly, milk and cookies.  It's been fun.  Avery is sitting on her bed reading while we speak, and Maryn is reading her books under a tree on the west side of the house.  I read Parker several of hers while she was sitting on the potty before her nap.  (No, she didn't pee...aye yi yi!)  When it's too hot and humid to go outside, I guess this is the next best thing.

Maryn asked me an interesting question on the drive to her flute lesson this morning:  what are your 3 most favorite things about summer?

Her answer was going to Avery's softball games, vacation, and lemonade.

My answer is vacation, grilling out for meals, and watching the garden grow.  We have some early girls coming in already!!  Oh and fireflies too!! That's our favorite time to play outside lately...the fireflies come out just when the sun has first set...it's a small window of opportunity and only lasts for an hour or so.  Then they shut down for the night.  The girls chase them and capture them (they're really slow), while Mark and I watch from the porch.  Probably one of my favorite things about living where we do in the summertime.  It's really quite magical.

What about you, friends? 

Nobody Wants To Wake Up To This

Nothing quite like waking up to get the mornin' paper and finding this document wedged between the screen door and the storm door.  Ugh, are you freaking kidding me?!?  Days like this make me wish Tonica was never born.  So next time you see us and we've grown tails and a third arm, you'll have our lovely groundwater to thank.  House guests...BEWARE!!  LOL!!

And to make matters worse, this isn't the first time our friendly Village board has given us such pleasant news.  Flashback to 2009 right after we moved here and we received a similar notice informing us of high levels of arsenic in our groundwater.  So instead of just killing our babies under six months, we are ALL in danger of being eradicated.  Imagine, Tonica circa 2020...a dried up ghost town with tumbleweeds blowing down Main street.  It could totally happen. 

Luckily we will soooo be outta here by that time!!  Ha ha suckers!!

:-)

Crazy Days of Summer

So much for the old saying, "lazy, hazy days of summer"...in our house lately it's been more like the CRAZY days of summer!!  Everyone is back into the swing of things with schedules and activities. 

Maryn is taking flute lessons on Mondays, and art lessons on Thursdays.  She will start soccer in August.

Avery is playing softball right now, just got done with basketball camp last week, and will also take art lessons on Thursdays with Maryn. 

Both of them will go to IVCC daycamp in July.  They loved it last year, and are excited for another year!  Besides that, they are also involved with a little "activity group" here in town that tries to go and do an adventure once a week.  So far they've gone hiking at our state park, they went on a 14 mile bike ride from LaSalle to Utica last week (Mark went too!), and this coming week they'll be learning tennis.  That should keep them busy and happy too.

Parker is a whirlwind of energy and happiness.  She loves her shows and movies, if it were up to her this is how she would spend her entire day.  Lately she's getting more into the princess movies.  "Beast, Laddin, Ariel, and Tangles" top her list.  But she loves her some Toy story too, especially the love triangle between Buzz and Jesse.  She is too cute!  She's a funny little couch potato.  On the other hand, when you get her outside she loves that too!  She loves playing with the girls most of all, but also likes her bikes and balls and chalk and shovels and buckets.  The challenges we are facing with her right now are typical toddler things, let's just say she is well-accustomed to "time-out".  On the list of items to do:  potty train, ditching the binky, and transitioning to a big girl bed.  I know it's time, but gosh darn it!!  I don't wanna!! Can't she just stay little forever?!?

I am trying to figure out how to act like I'm a teacher this summer.  It's going okay so far, but I still feel like a nervous wreck every time I teach.  As a matter of fact, after my first class I came home and got really sick...I literally broke out in hives and was up all night.  Could it possibly be an allergic reaction to teaching?!?  LOL!  I'm finding it takes a LOT of prep time, and am spending way more time than I expected.  Luckily I don't have too many other demands right now and am diving into it with all my heart and energy.  I hope that it goes well and I can keep doing it.  We'll see.  It sure beats tech writing, that's for sure!!  :)  Items on my summer bucket list?  I would love to landscape the front yard this summer, and see our sunroom painted.  Maybe even tackle our bathrooms.  I guess we'll see how far the budget goes.  

Mark is teaching a couple sections, doing some tutoring, and working on his PhD.  He really wants to check a few items off his bucket list too.  I know he wants to see the Robie house in Chicago, and eat at one of Jeff Morrow's sandwich shops...I also know there's at least a couple items on my bucket list he'd rather NOT think about.  See if you can guess which ones...ha ha!

As far as our summer plans go we will probably go out to Idaho and Utah at the beginning of August.  Stay tuned for details!  Also we are planning on hooking up with the Piersons in July so that we can say hi to our recently returned missionary nephew Andrew!  Should be fun!!

What are your plans for summer?!?