Summer nights

Just a quick entry: one night a couple of weeks ago, the girls decided they wanted to "camp" out on the trampoline.

Out came the sleeping bags and blankets, and the girls nestled in to watch the stars come out and drift off to slumberland. Em and Jen were a little inconvenienced by the slope that was created with Anya in the middle, but they were determined enough to stick it out.The next morning, we woke to find Anya and Emily asleep in the living room and Jenna in her bed. It got down to the upper 50s that night, so at about 4am they all woke up shivering and decided to head for a warmer locale.

Big fun for the Smith girls!!

Water War!!

On a recent day off, we considered heading to a pool, or going to play mini golf, or ride go-karts.

But why, we reasoned, when there is so much fun to be had in our own backyard?

A hose, some super soaker guns, an old syrup bottle and plenty of heat. It's the perfect mix for a family battle. Jenna's game face is on:Emily spies a vulnerable opponent:It's amazing how cold the water is when the air temp is hovering near 90. One of our favorite things about the war was hearing Karen scream when she got torpedoed by a blast from a gun or an exploding balloon.

We were all merciless. And you'd think we would get used to it after a bit, but every time that water hit you, it was a shock like the first time.

I'm pretty sure our water came straight from some melting snow pack up in the mountains.

We all agreed, a great way to spend a summer morning.

Shelby the wonder mutt

I have been chided, nay, even chastised for not including any picture of our dog, Shelby, on this blog. My children, especially Anya, have lamented her absence from this record of our doings. So here she is.

She is definitely not the brightest of her species, or even her breed. She's far below what anyone could describe as energetic. Playtime lasts for 10 minutes a day if we're lucky. Sometimes the best that can be said of her is that she recognizes her name.

But, she is housebroken, she can go for hours and hours without peeing, she is fond of affection and thus loves to be pet for longer than we can stand. And she doesn't shed.

I suppose there are other, more subjective, positive qualities about her, but honestly, I have trouble naming them, because to me, she's just a dog. I know that there are dogs in the world that somehow connect to their owner, that provide a kind of solace, affection or understanding that is different from fellow humans.

But Shelby? She looks cute and doesn't cause much trouble.

I'm pretty sure the rest of the family has a greater fondness for her, so I'm grateful we have her for what she means to them.

I'm just saying...you won't be reading any articles about her rescuing one of us when we fall in a well.

Although it's entirely possible that she would fall in with us.

Sundance...a nearby getaway

Once in a while, we just want to get out of the valley, find a place that feels a little less inhabited, less hectic, but still has flushing toilets. It's in those moments that we say a little prayer of thankfulness for Robert Redford and his foresight in establishing Sundance Resort.

Just a short 20 minute drive from our house, it feels like hundreds of miles from the place we call home.

Last weekend, we took two separate jaunts up the canyon to Sundance. First, Karen and I headed up for a hike to Stewart Falls; the trailhead begins at the base of Sundance. Along the way there are beautiful views of Mt. Timpanogos and the falls growing ever closer.

I took this one of us, with my arm outstretched elastic-like. You notice we weren't exactly alone.It is a truly gorgeous hike, not just for the falls but the views all along the trail.

Later that weekend, we decided to take the whole crew, G'pa included, up to the resort for a picnic at the base. The resort has a stream that flows through it, a great deli and coffee shop, as well as two restaurants (neither of which earned our business on this trip up).

We grabbed coffee for us, hot chocolate for G'pa (yes, it's much cooler up there in the evening), and spread out our abundance of food on a blanket. Sometimes the girls ate, sometimes not:Sometimes you have to check out what exactly is in the bottom of the cup when the drink is all gone:

Jenna tried to warm up her legs...inside the arms of her jacket.

Em catching a ride on Daddy:Parents utterly embarrasing their children:

The girls and their G'pa!A lovely, cool, restive break from the hub-bub of the city.

Thanks, Bob!

While Dad is away...

Last night, I attended the longest board meeting in the history (or at least the 5 years I've been here) of our church. However, while I was at the office, working tirelessly, helping make decisions, agonizing over the work of God's kingdom (have I gone a little over the top?), my women were otherwise occupied.

Silly string, the working girl's day at the spa. Stress relief, giggles and anger management all in a delightfully compact aerosol fueled package.

I think the girl's got these at a recent birthday party. I also think they were trying to keep this a secret. I didn't even know they'd done it until I downloaded pictures off the camera.

"Oh," they said innocently, "did we forget to tell you we did this?"

By the way, does anyone know what exactly silly string is? Plastic...rubber...liquid...solid...do any of it's ingredients occur in the natural world? And is it any way related to one of the four horsemen of the apocolypse?

The Final Trip-o-logue

Okay, first of all, sorry for the lo-o-o-ng delay in posting. It's been a crazy week, with regular worship leading responsibilities, plus I did the preaching this morn, and I've been putting together our church's budget, compiling everyone's individual budget amounts and getting them all put into one master budget to present on Monday night. So, any free time has been with the fam, not much in front of the computer.

In any case, here's a brief summary of the end of our trip across the US of A...

We left Philly on Friday the 13th and made a 4 hour stop in DC. While there we went to the National Archives where we saw the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, all locked away in specially lighted, hermetically sealed, bullet proof cases. No pictures allowed inside, but we did snap this one on the front steps.

Those little colored stick figures you see under the banners are Karen and the girls.

While there we grabbed some hot dogs and pretzels for a quick snack at the fountain outside one of the Smithsonian Museums.

As I said, it was only four hours, so we drove by lots of stuff, but only got out to see a few things. We did go check out Abe, and sat on the steps of his Lincoln Memorial and gazed out at the reflecting pool and the Washington Monument. Once again, this was reminiscent of a scene from National Treasure (and many other more historic events...but National Treasure is the girl's reference point).It was extremely hot and sticky that day, so you might notice we look a bit, uh, dampish and weary in the above photo.

After DC, we headed south to Williamsburg. G'pa was meeting us there along with Aunt Sharis (my sister), Uncle John and cousins Kennedy and Jack. We spent three days together in and around Williamsburg. Lots of cousin love in a short amount of time.

The first day, all the kids, Aunt Sharis and Uncle John went to Water Country USA for some serious water slides, games, pools, etc., while Karen and I picked up G'pa from the airport. The second day we spent at Busch Gardens, and while there the adults (except Karen) had to ride the Griffon. It's a roller coaster, three rows on a car, each row 10 people wide. It starts with a steep climb, then slo-o-o-o-o-w-ly hangs you over a straight vertical drop before letting loose to fly through the twisted steel. Here we are at the top, hanging out before the first cookie-tossing drop to our death.

The children were afraid they might never see their parents again...We survived. Obviously. Or I wouldn't be writing about it, would I?

The last day together we went to Colonial Williamsburg for a little living history. We wandered through restored homes, shops, blacksmiths, arsenal, courthouse, schoolroom, pharmacy, all with costumed "residents" who explained and elaborated on life in the 1700s. We met Martha Washington, and Anne Wager the founder of a school for slave children. Here the kids tried on some period hats.Adorable, aren't they?

We had a good time that day, although once again it was a bit warm, but not totally unbearable. We were hoping for a little more revolutionary times re-enactments, but there weren't many going on while we were there. Mostly it was just fun having all the kids together.

The next day was the beginning of our journey home. We had thought maybe we would stop at kitschy interesting places along the way, but once we started west, we pretty much just wanted to drive as far as we could each day and get home as soon as possible. So we traveled from Williamsburg, VA, to Orem, UT, in three days. Yahoo!!

And after 3 weeks on the road, living together in a van and hotel rooms, there really is no place like home!

An Historic Birthday

The continuing (neverending?) story of our trip to the east...

June 12, Emily's birthday, and we braved the Philly traffic (ugh) again to head into historic downtown. We began our day at the visitor center, which is kind of a parking garage and tourist history hub. We got our free tickets and assigned time (2:45 in the afternoon) to tour Independence Hall, and a map of the city so we could plan what we wanted to see.

We began with a visit to the Liberty Bell. We were joined by a grade level full of children from a local school, all of whom were evidently very excited to see the bell, and made their excitement known by loud exlamations and teeming about like ants at an abandoned picnic. We managed to squeeze in a pic, of not just the bell and our fam, but the crowd as well. We should have gone later in the day; when we walked by at 3:30, there was virtually no one there. Oh, well...live and learn.
I must confess here to a theme that permeated our day as we toured historic Philadelphia: Rich is forgetful. At the visitor center we picked up a map. By the time we left the Liberty Bell, I had already lost the map. We picked up another one at the visitor center, this time with some key directions from one of the locals (dressed in period costume, no less. She had never "heard" of Utah, but was familiar with the Indian and Mexican territories of the West where we had come from). Armed with this new, direction-filled,map, we headed out to see the Quaker Friends meeting house, Ben Franklin's grave and Betsy Ross' house.

Betsy's home was very small, as you can imagine, at least from our standards, but was supposedly average or better for her day. It felt a bit too close-quartered for Karen and Em (especially since there were hordes of others going through at the same time). While there, we met "Betsy" who told us that she was actually married three times (the first two husbands died) and that while her first married name was Ross, that wasn't her last name when she sewed the first flag (can't remember what it was then...I know, I'm a useless historian). However, her son from her first marriage was the one who passed on the story, and since he was a Ross, that's how everyone remembers her. She outlived her third husband as well, and died well into her 80's.

The oldest residential street that's still a residential street was our next stop. Here we are outside the homes.

Each is only 10-12 feet wide, but very deep and 3 stories high, usually with cellar as well. All are well maintained, and one even had a realtor's sign in front of it. Was a bit head scratching to see a historic home up for sale, because it felt like they should all be museum locations.

After a quick look at the church that Ben Franklin and many others attended, and is still holding services, we grabbed some lunch (Philly cheesesteaks, of course!), and saw the ruins and excavated remains of Ben Franklin's property, we stopped at the Living History Center. Here, archeologists were pieceing together remains from a dig in the city. They found pottery, china and other household goods from the 1700's, and we could watch as they put the pieces back together trying to reform the original items. There were some already reassembled, and many others that they were still working on right in front of us. We were all fascinated, and thought that Grandma, with her love of and skill at jigsaw puzzles would be really good at this job.

At some point during all this, I lost our second map, but we found a replacement, so we weren't wandering aimlessly.

We headed out to get some Water Ice (a unique Philly treat...kind of a high end slushee), and on the way realized that I hadn't lost our third map yet, but I had left our camera back at the History Center. So after our trek to the Water Ice, we trekked back to retrieve the camera. Fortunately, my 4 women did not deride me, but merely shook their heads and told me I could no longer carry anything.

Our next stop was our 2:45 appointment at Independence Hall! We toured the first supreme court room, and the room where the Declaration was signed, and was later the sight of the Constitutional convention.
That chair you see in the background is the actual chair George Washington sat in for the Constitutional Convention. I know, it sounds geeky, but being in this room was surprisingly moving for both Karen and I. It was humbling to be in this place, having spent the day thinking about all that happened in Philadelphia during the 1770's and 1780's, and realizing that these men and women poured so much energy, thought and commitment into forming a country, one that still stands today. I know they couldn't forsee where it would all lead, but we both just got a great sense, a perspective, of not only the importance and weight they felt, but the great significance of what and how they began our democracy. We both felt very sentimental being in that room where our nation was formed, at least on paper.

That's enough for this time. Next time, I'll finish with a brief visit to DC and our trip to Williamsburg with the cousins!