July Stuff

Jason and I just returned from our first vacation by ourselves for a few years. It was wonderful! Who knew traveling was so fun and relaxing? I think I did know pre-children and had just forgotten. On our drive up to Washington DC we stopped a few times, each time was much less then 20 minutes. It was amazing!

My parents were so nice and flew out from CA to watch our kiddos. Once I was actually out the door, it was a lot of fun. I have so much anxiety leaving my kids. I know some of you don't, you should be glad! We don't get to pick what we worry about in life it seems.

We stopped at Monticello on the way up. I had never been before and it was really different then I expected. The home is beautiful, but not ornate at all. The floors and all the decorative work are all wood, no stone, marble or anything like that. It has working clocks that Thomas Jefferson designed and built. He was obsessed with time. The design of the entire estate is pretty amazing. The one thing that he did splurge on was glass. It had to be imported and he had floor to ceiling doors and windows. The whole house if full of light and air, definitely not what you see in other homes of the period. I am now pretty interested in Jefferson, especially his views on slavery. He was the largest slave owner in Virginia, mostly inherited slaves. He did allow his slaves to earn money when their "hours" to him were completed. I'm wondering how he was able to believe and write so eloquently of the freedom and rights of all men, yet own slaves. So, if you know a good biography of Thomas Jefferson that does not mythologize him, let me know.



Jason and I have both been to DC several times, so this trip we just went to the places we like best. We had to save time for the luxury of sleeping in!!!!! We spent most of our time at the the Air & Space museum and several art museums. There is an enormous new annex to the A&S museum out by Dulles airport. It was amazing, even had one of the space shuttles. When we were there we met a former astronaut who was doing a book signing. He is the one in the blue shirt.

I was impressed with the memorials more this trip then ever before. This sounds a little dorky, I even chocked up in the Lincoln. We went to all the memorials at night. They are beautiful all lit up and it was much cooler. My favorite quote of the trip is from Franklin D. Roosevelt inscribed in his memorial: "The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.Let us move forward with strong and active faith."

All in all, a great trip. My mom mentioned that maybe they should make a summer tradition of this. I'm all for it!

 First trip to the NC Zoo

 Lindsey and Dan came to visit! We went mining for gem stones. Girls had tons of fun. Boys not as much although there was a lot of dirt to play with!

Happy Fourth

Luke, Noah, Grace (she really is having fun, honest), Sophie and I parading

I love Fourth of July! To be honest, I really love holidays in general, but the Fourth is fun, fun, fun. We went to a parade and festival in downtown Greensboro. The parade was fun, much smaller then I am used to.

There were some striking differences to a Utah parade. Interestingly there was not a single horse and only 1 beauty queen. There were several entries of Revolutionary War Soldiers and colonial reaenactors that gave the celebration great historical flavor. The campaigning politicians were there but also people protesting/politicking for local social issues. No better way to celebrate the freedom of our country then by letting your voice be heard.

This was my favorite part of the parade.





If you are wondering what this is, so was I! At first we thought maybe these cars were advertising for a demolition derby. But the kind people next to us told us they are dirt track race cars. The people in them were hilarious, no waves, smiles or Happy Fourth of July. Just driving down the parade route. The red shirt one guy has one says, "Purpose?" hand painted. I laughed so hard I could take pictures of most of them.

By the way, one of Jason's colleagues told him that her pastor had preached the previous Sunday about how great Utah's Fourth of July celebrations were, that they were the most patriotic she had ever been too, etc.

Happy Fourth of July!