Sunday, July 29, 2007

Monday, July 23, 2007

A Rainy Hill Cumorah





Jeremy and Clara and I went to the Hill Cumorah Pageant last Tuesday evening, where we met up with my aunt, uncle, and two cousins who were touring with the Utah Valley Children's Choir. The weather held long enough for the choir to sing a few songs, for us to visit and walk around for about 3 hours for the pageant started (we were very early!), and for us to see about half of the pageant. Unfortunately, after that Clara was a bit fussy and we were a bit tired of crouching under our umbrella in the ever-increasing rain! We're glad we went though; it was fun to see family, and the pageant is always a fun time. Hopefully we'll have better weather next summer (although I think we picked one of only two nights where the rain fell steadily--oh well).

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Free-ninety-nine













Imagine our surprise--and elation--when we were driving home from having dinner with friends and found this beautiful TV cabinet sitting on the side of the road, lonely, waiting just for us. Syracuse definitely embraces the culture of putting unwanted items (usually junk) on the side of the road rather than being bothered with a drive to the Salvation Army. All the better for scavengers like us, apparently! We somehow managed to get about 1/3 of the armoire into our hatchback (I wish we'd taken a picture of that!) and also somehow managed to get home--slowly--with no incident. And now look at it! I have had to fight off the urge to troll the streets of Syracuse hoping for my next big find--like a mint condition leather armchair, for example.

Friday, July 13, 2007

And we're back...

I don't know why, exactly, but when Jeremy and I decide to take a vacation, we remove all connotations of "relaxation" from the word. For example, our most recent vacation, which lasted for 10 lovely days, took us through seven states (New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Delaware) and over more than 2000 miles. And all of this was with Clara in tow! When we got home last Sunday evening we were totally exhausted (and poor Clara had no idea where she was), but we had a wonderful time and would certainly do it again! (Though probably not right away.)

Over the course of our 10-day trek, we saw Jeremy's dad, all of my immediate family, and our fab friends Steph and Steve and their cute boys (they are the beeeest!). I wish we could've stayed longer in every place we visited, but we're so grateful to have been able to pack everything in. No one will be surprised when I say that, overall, Clara was a complete angel. We just love our darling girl!

Jeremy's dad put us up in this great bed and breakfast, where an uber-friendly couple have converted old tobacco barns into little cabins. The highlights of the stay were three-fold: 1)eating our weight in meat at 9:30 p.m., courtesy of Short Sugar's Pit BBQ of Danville, Virginia; 2)our little friend the field mouse that joined us for some post-dinner conversation before finding its way back outside to bay with the coyotes; 3)breakfast, which was immense, delicious, and delivered to us in a wooden basket by our friendly proprietor.



We spent about 20 minutes in Savannah on the way to visit my sister, and we can't wait for an opportunity to go back. Easily one of the most unique and amazing places we've ever seen.


The main event of the week (also known as the reason for the seven-state Tour of Glory) was a family reunion with my family in Amelia Island, Florida. We braved wind, rain, and sun to enjoy our three days together. Here's the crew, sans me (behind the camera) and my brother-in-law, who had to work for part of the reunion (how lucky for us that they only live an hour and a half from where we were!).


Jeremy and Clara shared a birthday on July 4th (his 28th, her 8th month). Clara was so, so happy about Daddy's balloon bed!


On our way to Philadelphia, we stayed the night at a run-down little motel in one of the most charming towns I've seen: Edenton, North Carolina--yet another place I wish we could've spent more time in! Clara and I are posing on the shore of the historic Albemarle Sound.


In Philadelphia: Clara's first cut-out photo op. Seriously, if every 10 dollar bill were this cute, I would never spend them!


Finally, at the top of the famous "Rocky" steps outside Philadelphia's museum of art.