Cami's Senior Photos

Before I get too distracted with getting Cami settled at BYU, I figured I'd better post  Cami's senior pictures before they're totally old news.   

Our talented friend, Alia, who has a photography business, is the one who took all the photos.  

They spent an afternoon in Georgetown  doing the photo shoot and had a great time together!  

   

Cami's far more photogenic....

than I ever was...

 although I do have to take a little credit....

since I was the one who suggested Georgetown as a location for the photo shoot....

and I did give birth to her 18-years ago.  

We all are excited for her to go to BYU, 

but we're certainly going to miss her when she's gone.  

We sure love this sweet girl! 

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Magic in DC

On the final day of genealogy camp I dropped the kids off at the National Archives....

took Ellie and Hannah on a stroll through a garden and did some watercolor painting.

When their masterpieces were complete, we headed to the American Indian Museum, where we the very first visitors in the front door.     

We spent the entire time in the children's room playing in teepees and building foam igloos.   

Then when we went to a show at the Discovery Theater in the Ripley Center.

His name was Robert Strong and he is billed as a comedy magician for kids.   

It was a fun interactive show and it was a great way to end our week!  

Now camp is over and I'm working on making my blog the most boring in the universe.   

Last Week...

All of the following are totally true stories from the past week:

1.  I employed one of my children to help me eat healthier this week by offering them a small monetary bonus  if he would discourage me from eating junk and offer me healthy snacks in its place.   His first day on the job involved scolding me for eating crackers, handing me a bowl of raspberries after witnessing me wandering aimlessly through the kitchen,  and begging me to take him out for gelato while we were out running errands.   Meanwhile, another kid is vying for his job and is constantly offering to make me smoothies.

2.   Glen always picks the craziest weeks to go out of town.   Or maybe they're crazy because he's out of town...I guess I'm not really sure.  So last week we had the genealogy camp at the National Archives which brought me downtown every single day, the Young Women held a charity bake sale, our ward hosted the stake dance, one of my YW counselors had a death in the family,  my sister-in-law arrived into town, we had activities Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday nights, Emma was giving a talk in sacrament meeting, I had early meetings on Sunday morning, and I was teaching in YW.   By Sunday night, I was wiped out to the extreme and slept very, very, very soundly...through Glen arriving back home and through a thunderstorm!

3.   The other day one of my kids excitedly called out to me that the orangutan she was reading about was born the same year as me.  She thought it was a cool coincidence that I had an orangutan twin somewhere in the world.  Another kid, though, overhearing the conversation, said in a shocked tone of voice, "Whoa!  Is that the oldest orangutan ever to live?!"  

4.   Glen's been working night and day on a deal at work and now it is finally done.

5.  My kids learned a lot about genealogy research at the National Archives camp, so we decided to round off all that knowledge with a meeting with a family history guru from our ward.   After a couple of hours, Cami, Emma, and Adam all found names to take to the temple.

6.  WE've been through 20 lbs. of butter,  10 lbs. of cream cheese, over 16-oz. of vanilla, and untold amounts of sugar and flour over the last three weeks.    I guess a  20-dozen cupcake order, a wedding cake topper, a bake sale, and a week-long cupcake camp at our house will do that.

Blast Off!

One of the best parts about driving downtown every single day in a week for the kids' genealogy camp,  is that I'm suddenly becoming a lot more familiar with the lay of the land in DC.  While we've come downtown countless times over the course of the 18-years we've lived in the East, but  normally we are there to do one thing and one thing only.    I go straight from parking to a museum, then home again.   Last week, though, I got to experience the city more as a feast than a nibble.   I parked by the National Archives every day, then had to figure out our way to all over the Mall and back again.

On Thursday while the kids were at the camp, Ellie and I trekked over to the Tidal Basin and tried out the pedal boats!  

Our legs were burning with the effort, but it was cool to see the city from a new vantage point on the water!

After camp we all went over to the Air and Space Museum where Ellie got to be the honorary astronaut for the day during a presentation on the International Space Station.  

She made a cute little astronaut, but I must say that I'm glad she didn't blast off into space...

because I've been rather enjoying all the time we've been spending together and waiting for her to return from a trip to outer space would have been a pain!  

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Genealogy and Foxes

While Adam, Emma, and friends continue with their week at genealogy camp at the National Archives...

Ellie and I are enjoying our daily mornings on the town.  

We're doing a ton of walking around, which is something Ellie doesn't normally love, but she's being a good sport about it and hasn't complained a bit!   On Wednesday we hit up the Library of Congress (a good 1-1/4 mile walk from the National Archives), then did some watercolor painting in the Botanic Gardens, but weirdly, I have no photos of either.  

After the camp was done for the day, we all went on a little stroll through the sculpture gardens.


Then explored the Natural History Museum for a while.


The kids enjoyed some silly photo-ops...


which got sillier...


and sillier....


and sillier...


and sillier!  



After we finished exploring, we went to the airport to pick up my sister-in-law and nephews.     They've been living in England for the last few months and we were SOOOOOOO excited to see them again!    

After the airport, we got home just in time for me to order pizza for dinner and head off to mutual.   I then had a horrible night's rest when we discovered first-hand exactly what the fox says and it wasn't anywhere near as melodic as that dang song that gets stuck in my head far too easily!   

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How to Charm a Butterfly in a Few Easy Steps

In case you ever wondered how you can get to know a butterfly a little better, Ellie is here to tell you how in just a few easy steps.   

 1. Go to the Natural History Museum in DC on a Tuesday and get free admission into the Butterfly Pavilion.  

2.   Wear bright colorful clothing.

3.  Get warmed up for your butterfly meeting session by getting acquainted with other large insects.

4.  Sit quietly and patiently observe butterflies in action.  

5.   Approach butterflies gently with a small flower petal in hand.

6.  When all else fails, start walking around and looking at other things and wait for the butterfly to land on your shoulder.   

Voila!   Guaranteed success!    

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See below for more butterfly acquaintances made today.