Sunday, June 24, 2007

The "Dawg Pound" Reunion

We got to go to Iowa for the weekend for the "Dawg Pound" reunion which was a reunion for Mike and some of his freshman buddies from BYU. It was fun for Mike to see his friends that are now scattered all over the US. It was a great time to catch up with everyone and talk about their memories from BYU.

Navuoo

As part of the reunion we got to go to Navuoo. It was a nice, cloudy day which made the visit a lot more enjoyable. It was fun visiting all the sites and spending time together.

Noelle looking at the burial site of Hyrum Smith, Joseph Smith and his wife Emma.

This is a view of the temple from "the Trail of Hope", which is the trail that the Saints walked as they left Navuoo and then crossed the Mississippi River.

Noelle loved meeting Gary and Gabe who are some of the oxen who pull the wagons that are part of the tour of Navuoo.

Carthage Jail

After visiting Navuoo we went to Carthage Jail were Joseph Smith was martyred. It was my favorite site that we visited. It helped me to have a greater appreciation and testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith.

Noelle and her new friend Henry (James' son) posing by the statue of the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Armed with a killer farmer tan and a fu-manchu I participated in the Topeka Tinman again. I was able to train a little smarter and harder this year which resulted in about a 17 minute improvement from last year. I improved on all 3 legs, which I was pretty excited about. It was a nice way to kick off Father's Day weekend!

Transition #1 and feeling good!

Noelle and Oreo waiting patiently for me to finish.

I was pretty excited at this point because I was about 3 minutes ahead of where I wanted to be, you can see the big smile on my face.

This is the final 100 yards of the race, and boy was I cruising! At this point I was definitely ready for a rest!

Me and Nicole after the triathlon.

Me and my dear ol' dad after the triathlon.

Friday, June 15, 2007

Baby Einstein

 
Noelle loves to watch Baby Einstein. If she has some snacks and her sippy cup, she can sit and watch almost the whole show. Good thing grandma and grandpa got her a couple more Baby Einstein DVD's, because now she has more of a variety.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Sick Girl!

 
Noelle had a fever yesterday and was really sleepy all day. She was really clingy and wanted me to hold her. I needed to do some work around the house and she started to cry on the floor with her face down. The next thing I knew, the crying had stopped and Noelle was still in the same positon on the floor. Poor thing, she was so tired she feel alseep.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

I looked out the window...

 
Noelle loves to look out our big window in our living room. She likes to watch the birds and the squirrels play outside by the big tree in our yard.

Thursday, June 07, 2007

Leaving on A Jet Plane

 
Today we came home from Maui. It is always so hard leaving and I always get emotional, even though I have done it so many times. Our fight back to Kansas was a rough one and I was so glad to finally get home. Tonight at 11:00, Noelle saw her rubber boots that my parents bought her and walked to the door and wanted to go outside to play. She always got to go outside with "Ma and Papa" to play in her rubber boots. So we went outside on our porch in the dark for awhile, and then came in. I already miss being home with my parents and I know that Noelle misses them too!

 
We had fun so much fun spending time with my parents. One day I decided to see how many bows as I could in Noelle's hair. Noelle almost always has a bow in her hair when we go somewhere, since she doesn't have lots of hair so sometimes people mistake her for a boy.

 
My mom bought this floaty for Noelle. She loved floating around by herself and had fun splashing the water and kicking her feet!

 
Noelle loves to eat shaved ice, so my mom took us to eat shaved ice twice. We got shaved ice with icecream, azuki beans and condensed milk. Yum!