Supersize Me

I thought this was an interesting movie - not completely fair at times, but it has made me think twice about what I eat.

Settling in

Here's a picture of Allie from the Kirtland temple. I downloaded it from our camera and thought it was cute.

The bunnies left our yard after enough handling by the kids, and we no longer have an excuse not to mow the yard. Teresa is watering our flowers with Dan right now, and we are getting pretty used to the new house. Chores have been allocated to the kids, and we are back into a similar schedule as before the move.

Enjoyed seeing Dewey and Susan this weekend-- they brought Hal back from the UP from a week at Camp Hiawatha scout camp. Did an afternoon session with them at the Chicago temple, which was great. Had a good time with them, and we were also surprised to see several friends from when we lived in Appleton WI.

Hot dogs, schools and bunnies

Here are some pictures of the kids in front of their schools also in front of an authentic Chicago hot dog restaurant. We also found some baby bunnies from our back yard! The bunnies are about as long as my index finger, and do not yet seem big enough to hop away.

Move in for Teresa and the kids

Teresa and the kids have left Ohio and are driving to Chicago now. The moving van with all our stuff is in town now and will be unloading early tomorrow morning. We're excited to be together and to get settled in!

The report is that the kids are in good spirits and all are asleep in the van except Courtney and Hal.

Closing went through!

We've got a house now, and here's the proof :)

I found a red raspberry bush in the back yard and ate a raspberry from it today. Teresa and the kids will be here on the 4th of July. Yay!

Summer pics

Here are a few pictures from this summer. We lost our camera' s battery charger, and picked up a new one today. Had several shots on the camera, including some from Hal's bowling birthday party.

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.