Baby birthday safety

So we celebrated Dan's birthday today, with a cherry pie in the grass in the front yard. Much easier to keep the house clean for prospective buyers that way--

We lit the pie with three candles to celebrate Dan turning three as he sat smiling on this very pleasant summer day. It was somewhat tough to get the candles lit with the light breeze in the yard, but we managed. After singing "Happy Birthday" Dan promptly blew out one of the candles but leaned too far forward and put out the other two candles with his cheek and side of his nose. He fell too fast for us to catch him, and he ended up upset with two white waxy patches on his face which turned red from the mild burn. He was surprised and a little upset, but he came out of it OK and forgot all about it after he opened a couple of Hot Wheels cars.

Yesterday was spent at the church historical sites in Palmyra like the E.B. Grandin book store, Joseph Smith home, and Peter Whitmer Sr. home. We also walked in the rain up the hill Cumorah and around the sacred grove. We said a family prayer there even though it was a bit wet.

Things cleared up in the evening, and we went to Niagra Falls. I was too tired to do any tours, but we did get to look at the American falls and Horseshoe falls. We were close enough to the falls to get wet for our second time in the day, which was pretty fun.

I took a secret picture with my camera phone in priesthood opening exercises at church. This is Hal conducting the opening hymn. They have the young men take turns directing the music. He's been a deacon for two weeks now, and he's doing a good job passing sacrament.

















We went to dinner at the Hayes family's house tonight. Teresa spent time with Sis. Hayes in the Young Women presidency at church, and this was a going-away for us. Enjoyed having some time with them.

I picked up a rental car for my two days in Columbus this week (I fly back to Chicago on Wednesday). I had Allie with me, and she wanted to ride in a convertible, so I asked about it, and they were willing to switch me over to a blue Chrysler Sebring convertible. I ended up spending a while this evening taking kids for rides in the car with the roof down.

I got some nice gifts for father's day, including a wallet that Allie made with pretend money & gift certificates for things she would do for me (one included going outside whenever a realtor came to the house) :) I also got a Monopoly game that electronically keeps track of the money, and we played that out on the lawn for a while this afternoon while Dan played with his new Hot Wheels.