New pics for the wall!

The pictures of the kids on the wall have been up for over two years now, so I took them all in during the last few weeks to get their pictures taken. They turned out great! (I also didn't want to take the chance with the school pictures again. It's always a gamble and they're more expensive!)

A little comparison

People keep telling me that Hannah looks just like the boys, so I went back and pulled out a few pictures to see them side by side. What do you think? One thing's for sure, we have cute kids!

Dividend Day

We went to King's Island on Saturday for the annual P&G Dividend Day. We love it because we get to go for free and the kids get their fill of rides and roller coasters for the year. We also get a bag of P&G products, a nice added bonus. (People ask if we get products for a discount. The answer is no, but we do get a bunch of free stuff a few times a year. Can't complain!)

Hugging the Charmin Bear. Isaac is our first child who actually likes people dressed up as cartoon characters. Josh and Nathan were terrified at his age.

Planet Snoopy!

Isaac loved the bumper cars.


So did Josh. Nathan preferred to sit this one out.

Race cars. I think this one was Nathan's favorite.

Isaac on the carousel. I took pictures of Nathan and Josh with my phone, but I haven't figured out how to upload them yet!

The boys really wanted a picture with Linus, but he started heading back inside! Sean caught him right before it was too late. The boys were thrilled.

The BIG swings. Josh is now tall enough to got on pretty much every ride in the park. When we first got there he wanted to go on the Diamondback, but when he saw he chickened out. Sean and I decided that next year, we're going to take the kids in the morning, get a babysitter and come back in the evening so we can enjoy the big rides together.

The 3rd Annual Trip - Plano Texas

Clark hosted the "Annual Trip," this year, in Plano Texas. We started the "Annual Trip" our second year in the MBA program with the purpose of getting together once a year to talk HR related topics, watch baseball, golf, and enjoy one anothers company. Not much has changed from the first year, except that we spend less time talking about work and more time enjoying the time together. Unlike previous years when the trip was scheduled around baseball our main focus this year was on BYU football, although, in the end we got the best of both worlds by catching a Texas Rangers game and the BYU/Texas football game.

Clark did a fantastic job with the itinerary. He exposed me to everything good about Texas - youth football, freshly baked donuts, a fantastic BBQ joint that was absolutely delicious, and a disabled vet dressed like Elvis singing "Blue Suede Shoes."

The only disappointment of the trip was that Ryan and Chris were unable to attend (Chris was moving to England and Ryan had too many trips in a short period of time) and Melissa did not get to enjoy the festivities with me (we talked about making the trips in the future husband and wife trips which would make it even better).

9/11- My memories of that day

I found this going through our memorabilia boxes in our basement the other day. I wasn't actually looking for it- I was putting together Hannah's baby box and organizing some other things and came across it, just in time for Sunday. Memories came flooding back from that day ten years ago, so I thought I'd record some of them.

I had just started at BYU. I was living in the dorms and Sean and I were dating long distance at the time. He was at Oregon State and we were calling each other several times a weeks, emailing several times a day, and even writing traditional letters each week. Our phone calls would last for a couple hours or so. We laugh about it now, because we were each heartsick for each other and tried to fit in phone calls at any time we could. That morning we had one of those calls. My roommate had an early morning class at 7:00am so I knew I'd be alone. We talked for a couple of hours and afterwards I walked out into the hall to head over to the Cannon Center for breakfast. A friend of mine was in the common area of our floor watching the TV. She told me that the Twin Towers had been bombed and that they were gone. What? You don't just bomb the World Trade Center. Someone had tried that already and it didn't work, they're too big. After watching the TV for a little bit I soon found out what had really happened.

As I headed up to campus that morning there was a totally different mood than normal. People were somber. The devotional was abnormally crowded as we wondered what Pres. Bateman was going to say. He was scheduled to speak with his wife for the regular school year opening devotional. Instead they had a prayer meeting that was short, but comforting.