The L* Family Reunion

We've just returned home from a lovely reunion with Cori's family at Payson Lakes. I'd be lying if I said that I hadn't been a little bit worried about camping (being 8ms. prego, and with Gracie) for 4 days. But we had so much fun, and Gracie was a terrific camper. She slept, ate, and played as great as she always does. It was wonderful having everyone together... well, almost everyone. We really missed you Tiff, but we're glad you are where you are doing what you are doing!

These are photos of some of the week's festivities: Fishing, canoeing, bubbles, bubbles, bubbles, bike rides, little hikes, horseshoes, watching horseshoes, chats in the shade... smores, lots of dutch oven cooking... general merriment at its best. In my defense, the only pics that got taken of me with our camera were from day 4 of camping life. The last picture is me with Britt and Cory's little Ashton. Check out Cori's great goatee. Gracie kept touching it and saying "Off! Off!" (smart girl!) We are so grateful that our schedule allowed us this little vacation with these special people!

Fishing. Gracie loved the canoes and spent every moment on the water saying, "Fish! Fish! Fish!" On our first fishing outing, the women brought home the bacon. I caught the first fish, Sandy caught the biggest fish (the biggest fish anyone had seen come out of Payson Lakes) and Megan (first time camper and fisher) caught the most fish. Way to go ladies!

The horseshoe spectators
Grandma Sandy's blessed bubble bucket. Gracie worked really hard on this skill this week.
Cori on a stroll with Grace and Kourtni
The fearless mountain bikers. (Ethan, the photographer, not pictured)

Cori's 10 seconds of testosterone pumping fame at the grotto. That water is pretty chilly.

The L* brothers

Then and Now: July 06-07

What we've been up to

Hi! I've been away for a little while. We didn't go out of town. We haven't been sick. I've just been taking a break from a few things. We still don't have any news about our upcoming move, though we actually have plane tickets to go out and interview and look at houses. So we'll hopefully have some news soon.

In the mean time, we are enjoying some quite time before the hurricane of summer travel hits. We will be more away than home for the next 5 weeks. My blogging may continue its current trend of sparsity. We are really looking forward to seeing both of our families, and seeking "new friends and stranger companies" to quote Shakespeare's heroine Hermia.

Here are a few pictures of from the daily life of Grace lately. Every time we leave the house, there is a ritual. Gracie must get herself ready. She puts a couple of toys into her favorite pink Paris purse. Then we must get some "num-nums" to eat in the car. These also must be placed in the purse before we leave. The other morning she went the extra mile. Minnie hat, sunglasses, mom's keys... she was so proud of herself.

Cori had a little time off the other morning while his work computer was being serviced, so we went out to look at furniture. Grace takes her nap promptly at 11 AM everyday. I was racing the clock to get her and her new red balloon home before pumpkin time. She was super fussy until we pulled into our parking garage. This picture was taken at 11:03... she had seriously been fussing 20 seconds earlier.

We had a free Saturday and took a trip out to Cori's favorite place- the beach. More specifically, we went back to the tide pools. It was fun having Grace with us. She loved touching everything. She waded out with her dad and bravely stuck her finger onto and into everything he told her to! Brave little buggie!

Happy 4th

We had a wonderful holiday yesterday. The 4th of July is one of my favorite
holidays for so many reasons. Its great to spend a day celebrating our country
and our freedom. And it usually involves lots of outside time, friends and good
food. Yesterday, all these things were true for us. We went to our ward pancake
breakfast at the park. The food was great. We sang patriotic songs together. We
played with Gracie and the other kids. Later that night, we went with the C*
family down to 'rat beach,' the local's beach here. Every 4th, there is some
uberich lady that sponsers a world class fireworks show. The fireworks are shot
from a barge just off the shore. There was a blanket of fog rolling in which
made for small crowds and some pretty cool effects.

There were a couple of guys swimming during the show. You can
almost see them in the break on the right of this picture. Even though it
was back to life as usual this morning, I'm so excited that its Thursday
already. Hope everyone enjoyed the holiday!

Senior Year Meme

1. Who was your best friend? My sister, Sara. Though I was pretty close with the other kids my age from church...Heidi, Natalie, Anya, Dave, Jason- we were usually all together. I was in touch with my good friend Jessica, but she was in Oregon. Sara and I have always been two of a kind. We eventually came to regard ourselves as a kind of Frasier and Niles Crane duo of our little world. We would laugh for days about some literary/musical/cultural/film reference that would leave everyone else around us staring blankly.

2. What sports did you play? Nothing competitively. But my senior year marked the inaugural membership to 24 Hour Fitness. I didn't have a 6th block class, so I would leave school and go to the gym on those days. During the winter, I was skiing every Saturday.

3. What kind of car did you drive? Ford Ranger. 4 cylinders. White with a blue pin stripe. Manual. Room for driver and .75 passengers.

4. It's Friday night, where were you? During the Fall- at the football games. When the football season was not occupying the weekends, I was either hanging out with our group of kids from church + some other really neat kids that hung out with us at school, or I was en route to some music competition/performance. I spent my fair share of weekends sans plans and at home. But senior year, we played a lot.

5. Were you a party animal? Nope. I was invited, but never went. I had too many other good friends and good options.

6. Were you considered a flirt? We'd have to confirm this response with some of the guys in my class, but I'd say that I was. I could hold my own when it came to playful banter, and I was no respecter of opponents.

7. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir? Yes, yes, and yes. I played flute and piccolo in the band and was Drum Major my senior year. I also played principal flute in the Carson Valley Youth Orchestra. And I sang in the top choir at our school for two wonderful years.

8. Were you a nerd? Uh, it should be pretty obvious. I was stellar nerd material. Somehow, I was nominated to the homecoming court though. I think all the other nerds got together and marked me as their spokeswoman. So I guess that would make me the queen of nerdom for my class.

9. Did you get suspended or expelled? Never. It would have been a fate worse than death.

10. Can you sing the fight song? No. But I betcha I can still play it. That song will be burned into my finger muscle memory f-o-r-e-v-e-r.

11. Who were your favorite teachers? Hmmm. 'Z' (his name is Mr. Zabelski, so I'm sure you understand the extreme abbreviation), our music director, makes the list. Then I guess Mrs. T* and Dr. B*. They taught respectively Jr. and Sr. AP English. I loved their classes so much, though they were not the most warm and nurturing kind of teachers.

12. Where did you sit during lunch? There was a table in the commons where our good kid group would congregate for lunch. Most of us brought sack lunches every day. The table would seat 6 people comfortably, and we usually had 10-12 in the group, so it was quite the cozy party every day.

13. What is your school's full name? Douglas High School

14. School mascot? A ferocious tiger.

15. Did you go to prom? One too many times. My Jr. year, I went with Dave C* and enjoyed it. My Sr. year I went with Jason S* and enjoyed it. My post Sr. year, I went with one of my sister's friends. I enjoyed hanging out with my sister, but it was a little weird being at prom again considering I had just finished my freshman year at BYU.

16. If you could go back and do it over, would you? No. To me (at the time, especially), high school was but a stepping stone to bigger and better things.

17. What do you remember most about graduation? Being relieved that I didn't have to speak. I was the salutatorian of my class. That year, rather than having the valedictorian and salutatorian speak, they held a speech competition. I didn't enter. I remember having all my family there- both sets of Grandparents included. That was really special. I remember not feeling really sad that it was over until I hugged my sister. It was then that it hit me that I would be moving out of the house and not living with her anymore. That was the only moment that I cried.

18. What was your favorite class? I loved the academic part of school in general. Though I think I enjoyed my music classes the most. I still miss doing music every day.

19. Where were you on Senior skip day? At home writing papers for AP government. Nerd, remember?

20. Did you have a job your Senior year? Yes. I had 13 lovely music students. 11 piano and 2 voice. I loved teaching. Around graduation, we had a big recital. It was very rewarding work. So, I taught piano in the afternoons, and then practiced piano in the evenings. That was practically a part-time job. I also volunteered one night a week at a family counseling center (babysitting the kids while their parents were in class). Wow. I was busy.

21. Where did you go most often for lunch? Definitely the table in the commons. I didn't go off campus much at all for lunch. We had a club with the special ed. kids, and ate lunch with them on Fridays in a classroom. I did academic team for a little while, so I spent a lot of Mondays in Mr. Lippman's classroom.

22. Have you gained weight since then? Well, I'm 7 months pregnant at the moment... But before I married Cori, and then after we had Grace, I got back into shape.

23. What did you do after graduation? I took a deep breath. I was pretty burned out by the time it was all over. That summer, I spent a lot of time up at Lake Tahoe, or out at Topaz lake water skiing with friends. I went to the gym a lot with Natalie (and out for ice cream afterwords). My family took a trip to Washington D.C. that July, and I went to EFY with Jessica in Maryland. Then, I cleaned out, organized my stuff and vacated my room. My mom moved my youngest sister into my room a week before I left for college. Yep, I was sleeping on the couch.

24. Who was your senior prom date? Jason S*, my boyfriend at the time.

25. Did you go to your ten year reunion? Its next year. I would like to go, if only just to show off pictures of my adorable children. There are definitely a few people whom I'd like to catch up with.

Sunday School

This week I learned, or relearned:

• I shouldn't feel so sorry for myself. The pending move and undecided details (like where we are going or when we might be leaving) have really started to stress me out a little. I'm used to always having a plan... but its more than that. We have this baby that needs to be born in the fall, and I would l-o-v-e to be as settled as possible. In a conversation with my sister this week, I actually said the words "x task and x task are not going to happen before the baby is born, and I just need to get over that." I felt a little better after confirming that reality to myself. Then, today, we watched part of a video with the youth and it had a little segment about the Nativity. I thought of Mary, her uncomfortable journey, and the humble arrangements provided for the birth of her son. I really shouldn't feel so sorry for myself.
• Happiness and good behavior go hand in hand. Gracie has been so good this week. She has been the better-than-gold kind of good. She has also been so happy all week long. We haven't had many breakdowns, where I was getting used to at least one good one a day. Maybe its what she's eating, or how she's sleeping. Maybe she's just growing up too fast. What ever the cause may be, happiness and good behavior keep great company. Its hard to find one without the other. This is a good lesson for me to remember in my personal life.
• The power of scripture study. In the last interview I had with my mission President, he gave me some excellent council-- five pieces of excellent council to be exact. But the first two were these: 1. Continue a relationship of fervent prayer so that you can be speaking with the Lord 2. Continue a pattern of regular scripture study so that the Lord can be speaking with you. This mode of successful communication has been proven to me time and again. I take my thoughts to the Lord in prayer, and He responds through the scriptures I study. Every July to August, our ward has a Book of Mormon challenge where we all try to read the entire book. Our Bishop kicked the challenge off in church today. In the testimony meeting we had with the youth, I was so impressed to hear our kids share their testimonies about the Book of Mormon born of the experiences they've had reading the scriptures during this challenge over the last couple of years. We don't have to understand everything we are reading (though this does help--don't get me wrong). Even just an obedient pattern of reading the scriptures brings a Spirit and a power into our lives that we cannot get any other way.

South Coast Botanic Gardens

Less than 5 miles from our home is this wonderful treasure. We finally made a morning/afternoon of it and completely enjoyed ourselves.

The Children's Garden

Grace had to check to see if anyone was home.

They have a massive rose orchard with every kind of rose ever dreamed of. It was a pretty warm day which made it amazing. The air was heavy with the scent of flowers and life. (And honey bees, over which I valiantly did not freak out.)

There is a 'Banyan Tree Grove'. Actually, the trees were all Australian Fig, but the roots seem similar. Cori was bummed that there weren't any great vines to swing on (remind me to tell you a story sometime about Cori and me swingin' on a Banyan vine in Waikiki...). But Gracie loved going "uuUUuup" and "dOOoown" over the roots.

I don't remember the name of the tree that grows this flower, but isn't it amazing? Cori commented that its hard to imagine there not being a Creator when looking at something so detailed.

Ahh. My favorite of the day. We spent some time in the Magnolia trees. I love these trees for their huge white waxy petaled flowers. My all time favorite flower is the gardenia. But magnolia blossoms are almost as pretty and smell almost as great...

... an they can get so dinner-platter-sized huge...

...and they are just the right size for a girl to cup her face in!

After we had smelled all the flowers at Gracie's height level and walked through all the areas we wanted to see, we took our lunch out to the picnic area they have. A few sandwiches, grapes and carrot sticks later, we were all ready for a nap!