Monday, June 27, 2022

Last day at the temple

We went to a picnic for Matt’s work. It was at the Solomon’s Rec Center. 

We ate and the girls bounced. 

Then, even though it was in the low 70°’s, we went over to the pool. 

These crazies all swam while I read. 

I can handle a cold ocean, but not a pool. 

They all swam a few hours and no one complained. 

The crew showered and we headed to the temple for the last day of the open house. We had promised Delaney we’d take her back another day and it took us till the last day to make that happen. 

I told the girls it was Delaney’s day. The first time I took her, I also took Cyndi and all the Dorns were with us. I was probably a little more focused on Cyndi than Delaney. So this day we went at Delaney’s pace and shower her all our favorite parts. She was the only Ray that didn’t get to volunteer and she took that disappointment like a champ. Sometimes it’s hard to be the baby.  

Perfect day. 💕

While I was taking the picture with Delaney and Adi I saw a man waving in my direction, but I figured he was waving at someone behind me. A few minutes later he walked up and introduced himself and it was our friends the Forsgren’s! They lived here when we first moved here and Gina and I had many a visiting teaching adventure together as companions, and then got pregnant together and we took our Bradley childbirth class just a few weeks after they did. It was so fun to see him and their daughter that’s a little older than Adi. And in my defense for not recognizing him, he had to call Gina and describe us because he couldn’t remember our names. It was a long time ago! Anyway, he took some nice pictures of us. 🤗

They also told us that Gina was one of the painters of al the gold borders in the temple, so they got a special tour and got to go on the roof, and then we saw this photograph on the roof. 

It got v busy after our tour, that line of people along the trees were all waiting to go in. 

I talked to a security guard and he said around 350,000 people visited the temple during the open house. Such a blessing to be able to be part of it!

The next day I went to the Bowie Ward and then Sharon and I went on the most beautiful ministering visit. They just lost a woman in their ward to suicide, and the woman we visited had lost her son to suicide in January. To sit with her in her grief was sanctifying and edifying in a sacred and powerful way. We all cried together and truly had our hearts knit together in love. I have the best calling. 

I logged on to a missionary meeting while I drove home, and then arrived home to potato soup on the table surrounded by family and old friends. Brenda and Tony came to visit and it was so fun to catch up with them.

Brenda and I sat on the porch and had to laugh as Tony showed off his truck. 

And some Internet treasures. I really like this description of grief. Growing around grief. 

This is 100% Adi. 😂 Oh the words she mispronounces! 

My mom had a ton of Panamanian chotchkies like these table cloths. Sara gave them, and a mystery Panamanian wagon none of us kids had ever seen, to a friend that decorates in this cute Santa Fe style, and she loves them! They look so good at her house, and we love that they are being loved. 

I follow the Auschwitz Memorial on Twitter, (which I’m only on to keep up with political news) and I always take the time to read their little spotlights. I make a point to say their names and look at their pictures. It had been a long time since they had spotlighted someone who survived, and so of course I cried.

I’m still Wordle’ing, even though a glitch in the system messed up my stats. That’s not what it’s about, but it’s still annoying. Anyway, I’m always surprised when I figure it out in 2. 4 guesses is, by far, my most common score. 



Catch up

On a dental day a few weeks ago we stopped for lunch at Panera. These girls love the broccoli soup! That is a request from D to learn to make for this summer. 

One night during scriptures we had a tornado warning, so we moved our party downstairs. I love that these girls are still little. 💕

Delaney loves all animals. Ginger is our neighbors cat and she roams the neighborhood always. I was coming down the stairs and saw her loving on Ginger and snapped a pic. 

Delaney’s class did a Pandora class play and she was Pain? Chaos? Something like that. She wore Frankie’s Greek dress and was so excited about it. 

They also dissected owl pellets which she loved. 

Frankie and Delaney both got another stripe on their ju jitsu belts. 

Pretty proud of herself. 

😂😂😂



Sunday, June 26, 2022

Mini vacay wrap up

Thursday morning we walked around the Norfolk waterfront waiting for Matt to get off work. We saw the most touching Letters to Loved Ones Armed Forces Memorial. They had every war represented, and all the sculpted letters were from people who lost their lives in their conflict. Frankie and I walked around and read them together and cried. Oh my momma heart. 

We walked past this amazingly huge destroyer - the Wisconsin. 

What does that little silver thing in the water look like? Well it’s a scuba diver. A human being. I 100% thought it was a robot. 🤷‍♀️ The girls called it. 

D got this shot. It’s amazing to me that this thing can float!

We walked all around the Chinese pagoda. 

It was so pretty!

It was finally time for the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-tunnel! We were so excited! And then were a little underwhelmed. They’re doing work on it and the places to stop for pictures were closed, and it was raining when we drove over, even though we waited for Thursday to have better weather. 

It was still neat and I’m glad we did it. And random kid pics are the best. 

We stopped at the welcome center and came up with a plan. 

Cape Charles! It has a lot of potential as a cute beach town,   and there were very cute parts like this ice cream place, and of course adi checked out the library. 

It’s a little Bay beach town with lots of rental houses. The ocean side has tons of little islands and we didn’t want to drive too far up the eastern shore, so Cape Charles it was. 

We sat on the beach and watched the girls play. 

😍

The dark clouds rolled in, but thankfully we never got rained on!

They love to bury each other. 

16 years minus 1 day. 

I love giant words. I can’t resist them. And unbenounced to me, D was dancing up there the whole time. I guess the E kind of looks like a pole. 😂

We stayed for several hours until the traffic was sure to have died down and then made our way back. When we came upon this cute water tower, I thought it was a sign and Matt thought it was an actual lighthouse. The girls called it a “fools lighthouse.” Whatever it is, it’s one of the cutest water towers I’ve ever seen. 

Then we went out to the animal preserve to get as close to the real lighthouse as possible. Our Google map took us down a road that then had “private, no trespassing” signs. We didn’t turn around till the one that said “your gps is wrong, turn around!” That one seemed pretty legit, so we followed the directions. And then we found this, so all’s well that ends well.  She’s all the way out past the first closest island. 

This crazy crew!

And then we drove back. 17.5 miles each way. I wish we could get a bridge like this in SMC or Calvert! We could be at the beach all the time!

Friday was our last day in Norfolk. Matt wanted to head to Charlottesville early to beat traffic, but I really wanted more beach time. We compromised and the girls and I stayed at the beach till noon, showered there, then met him by the new temple in Richmond. This is the only picture I took, when I went for a little walk as the girls buried each other. Just pure happiness. 

We parked a car in richmond and headed to C-ville. We ate pizza with the Virginia Rays and it was fun to see Evan while he was home for a few days. This picture cracked me up! They surrounded him like he was a king or something. 😂

I made them do a normal pic. 

And then we laughed because Dan and Matt were dressed alike. We always have a good time together and I love talking deep gospel, politics, and life with this crew. 

We hung out till early Saturday afternoon and then headed out. It was an easy drive home. We started listening to a new book series - The Shadow Children. We’re on book 3 and it’s interesting and makes you think, so that made the drive pretty sweet. 

Christian was  so close to 100,000 and I was so nervous I’d miss the shot, but I got it! It happened right before home, in Leonardtown. I put my phone on the odometer and clicked like 30 pictures so I didn’t miss it. 🙌🏼

We got home, unpacked, started laundry, and cleaned the car out within an hour. I used to see neighbors do that and think they were crazy, but this is who we are now and I kind of love it. 

Today we had virtual stake council and then I went to the White Plains ward. All but one of their presidency was out of town, so I was glad I could be there to support her. Every time I visit a ward I get to know more people and I love getting the different feel in each unit. Our girls went to church with the Aina’s and I’m so proud of them for getting themselves ready and to the Ainas on time. 

Then Frankie taught her first ever YW lesson today too! It was on chastity, which this 12-year-old thought was a “super weird” thing to talk about, but we assured her she’d have adults all around her that love her and that are there to help explain or help her if she got stuck. She started working on her lesson a few weeks ago, so she was ready, but her first response was that it went terrible. After getting more details she said it went fine. And adi said that too, so I’m sure it was ok. I managed to make it in time for our wards RS, so that was nice. After, we popped over to Charlene’s for a bit, and then spent a quiet Sunday afternoon. 

Just some adorableness as we watched a conference talk. These two have been super silly together lately. 🙄

All 3 girls are ready for camp tomorrow- A and F to YW camp, D to Camp Hoot Owl. We’re ready!