Live, Laugh, and Love!: August 2009

Monday, August 24, 2009

First Day of School

First day of school for Cade and Dillon. Paige started a week later (I still haven't taken a photo. . .oops!) and Brooke and Kelsie started at 7:00 a.m. Too early to remember to get out the camera.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

NYC

Dillon said, "I've waited my whole life to see the Statue of Liberty!"

FAO Schwartz was a favorite store to visit

You may recognize this Museum from the movie "Night at the Museum"

Rockefeller Center

Central Park

Bridge in Central Park

Sooo hot in Central Park that Cade took off his shirt.

LDS Temple

Jeff and I got second row seats to David Letterman

Broadway

Every night we were all wiped out!

The Hershey Store was hard to beat!

This was a random sculpture of lawn chairs in Times Square.

We found this weird family on the streets.

Kelsie, Brooke, and Cade found Nicholas Cage

And Morgan Freeman!

Times Square! One of our favorite places.

Here is the famous street corner--Wall St. and Broadway!

New York Stock Exchange--

the security around this place was intense!

Brooklyn Bridge

Thursday, August 13, 2009

New Jersey Beach

We all had fun on a relaxing beach day. We body surfed and dug in the sand. A few of us got buried too. Someone accidentally lost their head in the sand. . .

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Philadelphia

Ben Franklin

Betsy Ross House

Liberty Bell

Independence Hall--George Washington

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Gettysburg

Cannon--Cade

It was very interesting to learn all about the Civil War and the sacrifices that

both sides made to fight for what they believed was right.

Monday, August 10, 2009

Washington DC

We saw the original documents of the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution at the National Archives. That was really cool.

This is the very center of Washington DC.

Iwo Jima

Washington Memorial at Night

Lincoln Memorial

Jefferson Memorial

We had the rare (10%) opportunity to tour the White House. Luckily the background check they did on our family didn't catch all the crazy stuff Jeff does on a daily basis. :-) While we were on tour, we watched Pres. Obama take off in his helicopter right outside the window.

The Capitol Building

Ford's Theater--this is the balcony where Abraham Lincoln sat the night he was shot.

Air and Space Museum

Washington Memorial

The Funny Things Kids Say. . .(idea stolen from Sharon :-)

We have a Vietnamese family that lives on the other side of our lovely neighbor, George. Jeff lovingly refers to them as "the Chinese kids" since our kids can't really say the word "Vietnamese". For Kelsie's birthday dinner she wanted Chinese takeout, so when Jeff left to go pick up the food, Paige asked, "Did Dad go to pick up the Chinese kids?"
Tonight Cade proclaimed his latest discovery when he said, "Mom, did you know that 'hello' spelled backwards is Hola?"
Last night our kids had their opening night of their show, "The Velveteen Rabbit." I was putting Cade's makeup on and he said, "Tonight is my first play, Mom." I replied, "I know, are you excited?" He immediately replied, "NO! I'm scared." That wasn't exactly the response I expected! The show was very cute and Cade made Jeff and I giggle as we watched him dance around as Raggedy Andy and then play the part of the Doctor, who was at least a foot shorter than the mother and Uncle Brad. He was so cute. He even hopped around the stage as a cute little bunny. As the director said, "I could just eat him up!" I don't know if he will do more theater, but he might.

Just some thoughts . . .

Sometimes life is just plain hard. You have to dig deep to find the faith you need to go on and let the Lord take things in his hands. Jeff has been out of work since the beginning of August and we haven't really worried about it until now. He interviewed for two months with a great company and we were feeling pretty confident about getting the job until we got word otherwise on Wednesday. It was devastating to say the least. Jeff prayed like Enos, I went for a long run/walk. I kept thinking about a quote from General Conference. It was by the YW General President I think. She said, "With the Lord I can do all things." With that I set to work. I went over all of our finances to see how we could make our small amount of money (normally one month's salary) last another three months. I think we can do it, and I know that with the Lord's help we can definitely do it. Tithing blessings are in store. I hope and pray that Jeff can find a job soon. We certainly need that blessing!

Live, Laugh, and Love!