Sunday afternoon

Rainy today. Just got back from hometeaching with Hal, then off to stake general priesthood. Pretty restful day for us.

The drama in church today was when Dan hit his head on the pew. His nose started to bleed a little bit, and I tried to hold it in by crumpling a piece of paper and holding it up to his nose. He thought this was the sign to blow his nose, and he immediately blew his nose and spraying blood everywhere, including my white shirt. He was in pretty good spirits, but Teresa ran Dan home to clean him up and get a new shirt. After you blow a bloody nose, you look much worse off than you actually are. He had blood smeared over his face and even in his ears.

Thursday evening

Just another week or so, and the kids start school. Courtney will be a Freshman this year, which is pretty amazing. Tyler and Hal got to go check out their lockers today at the middle school. Allie is going into third grade this year. Dan will start school next year, but has another year of fun with Mommy!

Took a walk around the block tonight with the family at dusk-- the weather is perfect here.

I tried out Twitter, and have a profile there now; HOJones4

Camera's broken, sorry no pictures :)

Camping Trip - Illinois Beach State Park

Had a nice time at Illinois Beach State Park this week. It was beautiful on Thursday, and I really enjoyed seeing the sun rise over Lake Michigan. Several of the kids woke up with me to see it. I went to work on Thursday, but Teresa and the kids stayed at the camp and rode bikes and played at the beach.

I took the day off work Friday, and we spent a little more time at the beach. It was not at all crowded, on account of the rain. The kids were brave and took a dip in the cool water, but it didn't last all that long. We spent a good part of the day playing Uno and other card games in the tent. Hal's scout skills were in good form, though, and we had a good campfire going almost the whole time despite the precipitation.

We left on Saturday am since the rain had continued. Went to see G-Force in 3D, which was OK, and then had some ice cream. We spent some time at the Chicago Botanical Garden, watching a kite-flying demonstration by the Chicago Fire kite-flying team, which was impressive-- kind of like synchronized swimming for kites or maybe those acrobatic jets at an airshow.

Heavenly Bed

Cousin Renita had a question about our bed buying experience. Here was my response to her, and may be helpful if anyone is into serious bed shopping.

It's one of our favorite things now. We had a mattress that was about 10 years old, and I knew that I always slept best when I was at a Westin on the "Heavenly Bed."

You can actually buy the bed and sheets etc. from Westin for $3200. I asked around online and from mattress stores & what I heard is that the Westin bed is a Simmons Beauty Rest Haynes Pillowtop bed. These beds, with the mattress and box springs I've seen for around $1250 to $1500. It is not a top-of-the-line Simmons mattress, which can be more.

We bought one in November, and got some high thread count sheets and a down comforter. I feel like I actually need to sleep less because my sleep is a lot more restful.

Hope this helps!

New York Trip with Tyler

Scout Camp at Ma-Ka-Ja-Wan in Wisconsin

Girls camp