Fishing for Family Time

Happy Monday everyone! I enjoy Mondays. I haven't always, but recently I've really appreciated each new week. It's like a new start. One of my goals for today was to do something fun with Emma, so I took her to a new squirt park I discovered that's relatively close to the house (about 10-15 minutes away). It was great! It was small, but new, nice, and fun. Emma enjoyed herself. She always likes to get wet. I haven't taken any Emma pictures for a while, so I've posted a couple from our squirt park experience.


My other goal for today is to have a decent Family Home Evening. I started to prepare some things last night (which is great, especially considering if we even do an FHE at all, I usually won't pull something together until 5 mintues before). Yesterday, Emma had done some coloring in nursery of some "Obedience fish". Each fish has a simple statement that needs to be followed, such as "Sing 'I Am a Child of God'", or "Put your hand on your head". So, I cut each fish out and put some magnets on each of them. I just need to fashion myself a small fishing pole. Hopefully Emma will have fun with it. Anyway, our Family Home Evening will be on Obedience, so I also found a good Conference article on Obedience, in which I'll pull out a few thoughts for Ben and my sake. This is the first time I've ever even tried to really include Emma in our Family Home Evening. We usually do something in the late evening, after she's gone to sleep. But, especially now that she is starting nursery, I really think she'd enjoy some FHE activities we can do as a family... such as fishing for obedience fish. I'll let you know if we are successful. I welcome any suggestions for fun lesson ideas or activities to do with young children in a Family Home Evening.

Pioneer Day?

I really don't have time to be doing this right now... but here I am anyway. What does that tell you about me? Well, to begin, I am often a procrastinator. I know others that are worse procrastinators than me, however, because they never seem to get worried about stuff until the very last possible second, or even until it's too late. I start to get a sense of looming doom as due dates come near, so I start dealing with stuff soon enough that I can take care of it, but still not as soon as I would like. Maybe good advice would be that if I'm feeling a sense of doom upon me, I've already procrastinated longer than I should have. I would prefer to be so on top of things, that sense of "doom" would never arise. Anyway, second of all, I am not great at prioritizing. Otherwise, I would be planning my tutoring for this afternoon, or paying bills, or cleaning my house... instead of blogging.

So, now that I've given you a peak into my inner flaws, let me continue with other more cheery issues. Yesterday was Pioneer Day! I had several interesting convesations yesterday regarding this most obscure of holidays. First of all, I would never have thought of it as "obscure" until I moved out of Utah. In Utah, Pioneer Day is a state event. Businesses close, people have barbeques, and parades and fireworks ensue. I even called a bank in Utah, whom we still have an account through, to pay a bill and they were closed in honor of treasured Pioneer Day! It is a lovely holiday. In fact, it has always been like a second 4th of July for me. But now that I am in Arizona, I have learned that Pioneer Day is obscure indeed. Even most the church members don't even give it a second thought. It's quite a change in perspective. However, I had my own "inner" Pioneer Day celebration yesterday. I wished many people, "Happy Pioneer Day!" and reminisced of my Pioneer Day childhood memories. So, yesterday was a lovely "private" holiday for me, despite the lack of fireworks, parades, or barbeques.

Well, I will now go back to dealing with my errands, tasks, and chores. In parting, I wish you all a lovely belated Pioneer Day!

Living like a Queen....

So, this past week (since Sunday night) I've been down in Tucson, AZ, working and playing. I had to visit several school districts to do inspections in the area, and there was also an AASBO (Arizona Association of School Business Officials) Conference going on in Tucson as well. Because of the Conference, we were able to stay at a great resort during the week! We stayed at the Marriot Starr Pass Resort. It was a lovely place, with a great pool! We all spent a lot of time swimming. Above is a picture of me looking lovely in my white swimsuit. ;) Also, Emma really showed off her daredevil acts, jumping off ledges and dunking herself repeatedly, giggling all the while. Anyway, our only real parking option was valet, so I got really used to driving up to the front and giving up the car to someone else to park for me. I felt rather spoiled, always having someone at the front to open the door, welcome me back, and help me with my luggage. I also reaped the benefits of room service, something I wouldn't mind having at home as well. What a joy to call for a variety of meals, from breakfast to dessert, and have someone deliver it to your very room! Anyway, now I have to figure out how to find food for myself as a lowly commoner. Oh, if only I were the Queen of France, with people serving me at every call! I wonder if I would tire of such a life. I may never know. :)

My brother is home!

So, I feel like I've died and now come back to life. It's been quite a while since I've posted anything, or checked the computer at all; now I feel like I have at least 10 posts worth of material to share. So much has gone on in the last few weeks. First of all, my brother came home! Elder Szymanski is now Aaron and we are so glad to have him back with the family. Emma and I flew up to Utah on June 28th to get ready for Aaron's return. We made silly banners and signs throughout the neighborhood and decorated the house up real nice and tacky like. :) We even made him a cake shaped like Wisconsin with little flags marking all of his areas. So, on June 30th we went to the airport and picked up our lovely brother. He was smiling, but quiet. After a couple of days though, he was rather normalized and seemed to be happy in familiar surroundings. We had a great couple of weeks together as a family. We visited grandparents, did fireworks in the driveway, played some disc golf (Aaron's new passion that he picked up on his mission), geocached, watched movies, played games, and went to Disneyland!! Disneyland was wonderful... it is my absolute favorite place! Ben drove up from Arizona to meet us in Anaheim. Sadly I wasn't the greatest at taking pictures while we were there. I was too excited and busy to bother. ;) But I did take a couple...

To the left is Aaron, Mom, and Dad in line for the newly remodled Pirates of the Carribean. The classic ride is now sporting several appearances of the infamous Captain Jack Sparrow. There were also a couple other special effects changes. I found the differences to be subtle but quite pleasing.
Below is the family taking a break while at California Adventure. This was taken on the second Disneyland day; as you can see, we look pretty worn out. ;)

So, we had two days at Disneyland and then on the third day we spent the morning at Newport Beach. It was busy but beautiful. It was nice to be able to sit and and enjoy the ocean breeze. Emma really appreciated the big waves as well. Aaron also dug a hole for Emma. We put her in it, but she didn't like that very much.
After the beach we started our long drive home. Luckily we opted to stop about halfway to spend the night in Prim, Nevada... about 30 minutes outside of Las Vegas. We stayed at the Buffalo Bills Hotel and rode on the scariest roller coaster ever! Good grief... it was an experience of a lifetime I tell you. Apparently in 1996, "the Desperado" was listed in the Guiness Book of World Records as the tallest and fastest roller coaster in the world. Well, I believe them, because it was the craziest ride I've ever been on. I was giggling, and crying, and screaming all at the same time, if you can imagine. So, the next day, we drove the rest of the way home and I was then able to spend a couple more days with the family before flying home on July 12th. My birthday was on the 11th. I turned 24! I had a nice day... Mom took Emma and I to a new aquarium that opened up nearby. We saw sharks, and stingrays, and octopus, and jellyfish! It was very educational and entertaining. I also did a little birthday shopping, and went geocaching and disc golfing with Aaron, Dad, and Sarah. Mom was so nice as to babysit Emma for me while I got to get out for a while.

On Wednesday morning I flew home with Emma and Ben had a few birthday surprises as well. He had cleaned the apartment top to bottom (even dusted!), and made me a romantic gormet dinner. I feel like I have a chef for a husband. I thought the meal looked so nice, I took a picture of it. Yes, I don't take any great Disneyland pictures, but I was sure to take one of my dinner. :) He also got me some beautiful flowers and a cute trifle bowl from Crate and Barrel.

Today, I'm trying to get back into my responsiblities... figuring out our finances, putting away Emma's vacation stuff, tutoring, and visit teaching. Next week, Emily and I will be traveling to Tucson to inspect schools for the week. Oh, if only we could be on vacation every week.... but then, I guess they would no longer be vacations.