The Best of Times, The Worst of Times

Summer finally arrived in Kansas City. We made it though that silly crutch of having swim team schedules dictate our days. We made it through the mild June temperatures. We made it through our first summer vacay and are back home wondering what in the world we are supposed to do now.  Like everything in the world, we are finding it is a mix of the best and the worst.

The Best:

-New friends!  Sisters Addie and Emma moved here and they are the PERFECT friends for Eve. Addie is in her primary class, Emma is in her grade, AND they have a newborn baby brother to play with!  They became immediate friends upon meeting. When Addie was concerned about moving here, her mom told her  that there was probably a red headed little girl with freckles in Kansas just waiting to play with her.  And it was true! And they were exactly what Evie needed!

- I felt like I should bring cookies to the editor of a small newspaper on a very specific day and time, and she LOVED them, and I happened to bring them at the perfect time, and she also is interested in doing an article on the church!

-I swapped babysitting with my friend Alex this week so we could both go to the temple alone. Both days were wonderful--the day I got to do initiatories ALL BY MYSELF and the day Griff and Eve and I got to play with her girlies and do her dishes and love on her adorably chubby baby son.

-Two days of plays. Alan and I saw Beautiful at the Starlight Theater and we all went to Lion King Jr. which featured Nellie Sheldon as young Nala and Sharon Sheldon's amazing costume design.

-The terrible smell emanating from our basement sump pump is GONE!  It is fixed.

The worst:

This is Eve weeping on the driveway when I suggested she help pick up sticks in the yard. For pay.

-Having all the friends over was a bit much. Griffin ended up crying about the play date we arranged for him while Evie disappeared with her friends.
- The basement fix involved breaking out our basement floor again, paying a plumber a pile of pesos to replace the pipes, and cleaning up so very much cement and dirt dust that went all over our house.
-Long summer days involve a LOT of work running places, cleaning things, fixing things, working in the yard, planning the food, buying the food, making the food, cleaning up from the food...and lots of late nights because of all the fun things we are doing. It's exhausting and doesn't feel much like vacation at all.
-98 degrees with humidity, diaper blowouts, and screaming.

And now, here are three bonus pictures:

Living room is coming together. The stair rails will be replaced next month.

Primary teacher from the Matrix. And you can't even see the awesome golden tie-up knee high boots she is wearing or tell that her baby would be born five days after this picture was taken.

Alan and I went to Extra Virgin, which is an awesome tapas bar that features what we think is a stencil and autograph of Guy Fieri of Food Network fame on the wall.