He's Got the Bug

It's official. Chris has been bitten by the tennis bug.

Hooray!!!

I'm a believer that tennis is an addictive sport, once it gets under your skin it's hard to get rid of.

If you read my previous posts you'll know that I always thought I'd marry someone who really liked tennis and that we'd play together as a family. Well, I married someone who didn't play tennis. At all. Seattle really isn't known for being a tennis hotspot (O.K., I guess Boise isn't either, but certainly more than Seattle) so I guess I can let that slide. The other day I had a conversation with someone in my ward who played tennis for BYU (he was Catholic at the time) and it hit me how few Mormons I knew who played competitive tennis when I was growing up. Really, in Boise I can only think of one other Mormon family who belonged to the racquet club that we did (and there are a lot of Mormons in Boise and the club was one of only two in the area).

We've been married 15 years and in all that time we've only played tennis maybe 5 or 6 times together. Don't ask me why we haven't played more, maybe it because he's always been kind-of interested, but not enough to do anything about it, maybe the cost of joining a club (that's a big one when you're in med school, etc.), the time commitment (another big one), maybe it's because I stopped playing for a long time???

But Chris has been taking lessons, since July and this week we hit together. He's liking that he can get a workout without being bored and that it's fun! He's more athletic than he believes he is, and in my opinion he's doing really well for the few lessons he's had. Anyway, Thursday he did a hit-and-run clinic and his response to how it went: "We started playing out points and I didn't want it to stop!"

Oh yeah, he's got the bug. I couldn't be happier!!

Super Trooper and the Start of School

Lisi finally got her cast off this week! Hooray!!!!

I have to say that she's been a super trooper all throughout the past (very long) four weeks of having to wear a thigh to ankle cast.

She's rarely complained, and has kept a smile on her face for the most part. Within a few days of getting her cast she started dragging her leg everywhere. She walked up and down the stairs (which made me pretty nervous) and tried to do everything she normally would.For example, one day she tried to vacuum, and did a pretty good job with it:

But yay! The cast is off and we can now go outside again! (Although with the humidity, I'm not sure how much I want to be outside...the pool's looking good, though).

School started this week, and just like I say every year I can't believe how quickly my kids are growing.

Abs started 2nd grade.

And Kierst started 5th grade.

Preschool and some of our extra curricular activites don't start for another week, but PTA meetings and other activities start this week. I'm ready for the fun and excitement of another school year. Here's to a great one!!

The Pirate Don Durk of Dowdee

As a little girl I loved laying on my mom's bed while she read children's books to me. We would put our heads together on pillows and she would start reading and the books would come alive. She was a wonderful. She had been an elementary school teacher before getting married and her voice would change with each character, would speed up, then slow down, her voice rising and falling, grow softer and louder. It was captivating.

Sometimes she would open her big, orange book of children's poetry, and read one of my favorite's (and one of her's), "The Pirate Don Durk of Dowdee." In my mind I can hear her reading that poem out loud (Ho--my mom's voice would raise here--For the Pirate Don Durk of Dowdee (a light lilt on the end of the phrase)...But oh, he was perfectly gorgeous to see--here my mom would get a little twinkle in her eyes--the Pirate Don Durk of Dowdee). I could picture this swashbuckler, his black mustache curving, his chest full of gold, his parrot named Pepperkin Pye.

I have a real love for reading to my children because of my mom.
.

Tonight Abs wanted to read to me and said, "How about the Pirate Don Durk of Dowdee? I know the right way to read that one because you've read it to me." She recited the first paragraph of the poem from memory and we laughed when I said that's all I could remember, too.

We layed down on her bed, our heads sharing a pillow, as we opened up our poetry book and she read aloud the poem, her voice speeding up and slowing down, getting softer then louder, falling and rising with the verses:

My mom would have been proud.

Rock Geeks

If you read any of my posts from last summer you already know that Chris and and I like rocks.

Growing up I had a few boxes filled with rocks, and these weren't pretty ones, mind you, these are ones you find on the side of the street in Boise, Idaho.

And you already know that last summer we went rockhounding in southern Utah with Chris' parents, and that it was a blast. And this summer we fit in a little rockhounding on our way to a wedding.

But we've reached the point of certifiable rock geekness.

Chris bought a tile saw to cut rock.

O.K., maybe that doesn't mean total geekdom, does that come when we buy a rock polisher? I don't mean a tumbler, I mean a rock polisher with belts (yes, we do want one, does that count?)

Anyway, we spent an evening when it wasn't over 100 degrees last week cutting rock. Or I should say Chris cut rock, I just ooohed and awwwed.

We had jasper and wonderstone to cut. Jasper is really really hard to cut through, but worth it--this was Chris' favorite piece:

Lisi kept her hands over her ears, cutting rock is really loud!

When you cut it wonderstone out of the hill in Vernon you never know exactly what you're going to find once it's cut; from the outside it may look like nothing, but once you slice through, you might find something like this:
Abs and Lisi picking out rock.

This is my favorite piece of jasper so far:

We've already been talking to Chris' parents about searching for thunder eggs next year in southwestern Colorado (google it, they're beautiful), and septarian nodules in S. Utah. And we made sure when Chris bought a new car last week that it had off-roading capabilities.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that we're rock geeks.

Fun in Utah (Except for a Broken Leg)

It's August, and I'm still catching up on July, but be patient...I'm almost done!

After my niece's wedding, Chris flew back to KS and the girls and I spent another week in Salt Lake City visiting my sister and her son (my bro-in-law was in CA). Hmmm, this always seems to be the way we work vacations, Chris flying back on a nice, comfortable airplane, reading his kindle all the way, I get to drive for 2 days, chugging diet coke and listening to my ipod trying to stay awake...I guess someone needs to work, haha! Truthfully, it doesn't bother me, I've been driving cross-country by myself since Abs was 2, and it always means I get to stay and play longer!

We started off the week at Lagoon.

You have to know that I went to Utah thousands of times growing up (I had relatives there), and even went to school in Utah but in all that time I never went to Lagoon. I figured it was time to go!!!

What I liked about Lagoon is it had a great variety of older kid and younger kid rides. Abs and Lisi were content on the tamer rides. Boy, does this picture capture their personalities!

Kierst and Kendon couldn't wait to get on the rollercoasters.
This was Kierst's favorite, I'm not sure how many times she and Kendon rode it, but it was a lot!
The great thing was that my sister could take Kierst and Kendon to the older rides and I could take Abs and Lisi on the younger ones, it worked out really well.

Little info about me: Growing up in Boise, the Idaho Fair in the summertime was a BIG deal. There were always tons of rides and of course I always went to the fair (who didn't?) but the rides were not my favorite. Give me some speed in a car or on the back of a motorcycle and I thoroughly enjoy myself. Rides at Disneyland? Love them. Rollercoasters that turn upside down? Not so much.

On the other hand, my sister, if memory serves me correctly, was always the one to go on all of the rides, the scarier and more stomach-churning the better. She says that's changed as she's gotten older, but she was still willing to go on a few.

The day we went to Lagoon turned out to be the hottest day of the year in Utah to date. Fortunately, it wasn't hard to find overpriced icees to slurp...

Or water to jump in...

The next day we met my sis-in-law and nieces at Jump on It, for a couple of hours of trampoline jumping fun. I think they should rename it Injuries on It.

Ten minutes after we arrived (and I'm not exaggerating), Lisi broke her leg.

We've never been injured on a trampoline, I keep asking Chris for one and he always refuses, claiming that he's seen too many broken bones in the ER. After our little trip, he now says, "Guess I'm right."

Guess he is.

Anyway, Lisi's leg-breaking ordeal changed all of the exciting things my sister and I had planned to do while we were in Utah. We had even planned to drive to Idaho, but realized that it would be hard on Lisi.

So my sister took the other kids to the pool for a couple of days while Lisi and I hung out in the air conditioning. Lisi didn't mind, my sister has some pretty cool toys at her house!

We did go to the aquarium which is close to my sister's house.

Abs spent her time petting the sting rays.

My cousin was in town from California and she joined us for the afternoon and dinner in the evening.

Kendon's favorite was the boat.

My sister, my cousin, and my kids.

We measured how tall Abs was against a penguin. They're a lot taller than you might think they are!

The day before we left, we went downtown to Liberty Park.

They have a really neat sculpture that recreates the canyons surrounding Salt Lake City, with water falls, etc., that end up in a pool.

All of the Nielson cousins: Lisi, Kierst, Abs, and Kendon.

We cut out trip short by a couple of days because we had to get Lisi's leg cast. Next time we hope to stay longer! Thanks to my sister for all the fun!!

Two Wedding Celebrations and a Reunion

July 3rd we drove to Colorado and Utah for two wedding celebrations and a Stapley family reunion. I think I took around 600 pics, but here's just a few so you can see what we did during our week together.

When we arrived in Castlerock, the girls joined in the tye-dying fun. Then it was off to Wendy's for a few family pics...

A, B, and C--the three cousins born in that order a month apart from each other.
Poor Abs was pretty sick in these pics, she came down with strep the next day (wouldn't you know that Kierst did too the following day??).For the 4th of July we had BBQ, lots of cousins around and the best fireworks we possibly could considering city restrictions and the fact that it was only about 50 degrees outside and rainy. Since when is it that cold on the 4th???
The next day was a reception for Chris' parents to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. Congrats to Julie and Ron!! And kudos to Wendy for all of her hard work!

The younger grandkids sang a song to Grandma and Grandpa afterwards...

And the brothers joined together for a song accompanied by their sister.

The kids had a blast playing with their cousins.
One night was an Iron Chef competition. Chris helped Kierst and her cousin Brynn make sliders.
A talent show followed all the yummy food. No surprise that my girls were eager to perform:) Lisi did a dance to a Justin Beiber song.

Kierst did a comedy skit with Brynn and then a dance (throughout which Brynn hula hooped, pretty amazing!)
David was a good sport to play prince charming in Abs' and Callen's rendition of Sleeping Beauty.

Lisi was tuckered out by the time the other cousins performed.

Breakfast time! I have to add here that Kierst the big breakfasts every day at Grandma's! At our house we usually only make something special on Saturdays, so Kierst was in breakfast heaven.

The aunts and girl cousins held a shower for the bride-to-be, Coryn.
Everyone went on a hike just outside Castlerock.

A little celebration for Andrew's upcoming birthday.
Our family left Wednesday afternoon from Denver, and got in a little rockhounding on Thursday. Here's the San Rafael Reef, where we picked up jasper.

We also picked up a little pyrite and a lot of wonderstone along the way. It was so hot that we could barely touch some of the rock. By the time we rolled into Salt Lake City that night we were pretty t-i-r-e-d!!

Friday night was a family picnic in Provo Canyon.

Lisi had her older cousins convinced that she needed to be carried around most of the time. She can certainly turn on the charm when she wants to!

Saturday was Coryn's wedding in Manti.

Where are your glasses, J?

Stapleys and Hesses and the newlyweds outside the temple.

Nothing like a wedding to bring out the cheese in me.Coryn's reception that evening was in Provo, at a charming historic home.

Coryn and Joe--aren't they a beautiful couple??

Chris and his mom.

Love David's expression.

The little girl cousins were eager for cake.
If only the cousins lived closer!!

We so enjoyed our time with family, it was over all too soon!! We can't wait until the next time!