Dulaneys Do Utah Day 3: Tuesday July 10, 2012

We left the house early on Tuesday morning and headed to the Trax station.  We rode the train into downtown and spent the whole day there seeing the sights.  Steve had to work that morning and met us downtown that afternoon.  Our first stop: The Church History Museum.  Here are the kids trying out bunks that are like the bunks on ships that LDS Converts came to America on.

Lunch Break!

Next we headed over to Temple Square.  In the South Visitors Center Addy made some friends from Australia.  She showed them around the visitors center and told them all about everything they saw.  Her tour with them lasted a good 30 minutes or so.

The Tabernacle

The Christus at the North Visitors Center

Looking at the Capitol Building from the top of The Church Office Building

Meagan, Lisa, Ed and Josh

Emily, Aubrey, Addy, Allyson, Zac (yes he is that much taller than I am) and Steve

The Joseph Smith Memorial Building

In the Legacy Theater watching Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration.  It is an awesome movie and if you click on it it will take you to a link where you can watch the movie.  I highly recommend it.  If you aren't a member of our church and want to know more about our history, this is a great place to start.

Taking a tour of the Beehive House

Last Stop: The Conference Center.  Steve is talking to Addy about this picture of Ammon.  We had just read this story in the Book of Mormon a few weeks ago.

It had been a very long and very hot day and the kids were exhausted.

The whole gang atop the Conference Center

Aubrey trying on Zac's glasses on the train ride home.  The train was pretty full on the way home and Zac and Josh had to share seats with this sleeping guy in the background.  He was sound asleep when we got on the train.  He was asleep for most of our ride with him.  When he woke up it was pretty funny to watch him.  All of the sudden he was surrounded by kids and he had no idea how they got there. 

BFC's (Best Friend Cousins) Meagan and Emily

Zac and Josh.  Too bad I didn't get sleepy head in this picture.

Just checkin' a little e-mail on the ride home.

All of our good snacks were depleted and we were down to carrots.  The kids finished off the whole bag on the train ride home and Addy didn't even complain that there was no ranch.

Mormons are all over the news these days.  To learn more about us and what we believe, or to request a free copy of The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ, click here.  To take your own at home tour of Famous and Historic Temple Square, click on the links I included above of each of our stops.

Click here for Day 1

Click here for Day 2

(This is one clickity post)

Dulaneys Do Utah Day 2: Monday, July 9, 2012

We started out the morning with a Spa.  Lisa sells Beauti Control and I had a little spa for her at the park by our house.  I had a few friends and neighbors come by and we all got our Beauti on.  

Addy did her own makeup.

After the Spa, we went to Hill Aerospace Museum.

Zac's Favorite

Josh's Favorite

Emily.  I think.  I can't quite tell since she's in disguise.

That night Steve's Uncle Harold and Aunt Connie and their kids and grand kids came over for dinner.  It was fun to get everyone together.  I think the last time these cousins were together was 16 years ago, the last time  Ed and Lisa came to Utah.

The kids were totally entertained by the chickens.  And the adults were totally entertained by watching the kids be entertained by the chickens.  None of the girls had a problem catching chickens, but the boys on the other hand couldn't catch one for anything.

Yes, that is what you think it is.  A big blob of chicken poo.

Uncle Harold, Aunt Connie, Susan, Amy, Julie, Lisa, Steve

1. Click Here for Day 1

Dulaneys Do Utah Day One: Sunday, July 8, 2012

Finally!  The day we had been waiting for all summer!  Steve's sister Lisa and her husband Ed and their two youngest kids, Josh and Meg, arrived in Utah!  It has been about 16 years since Ed and Lisa last made the journey to the Promised Land from Missouri.  We were so happy to have them here with us.  My kids must have asked me about a thousand times on Sunday how much longer it would be until the Dulaneys got here. And finally, around 4 PM, they were here!  Above, Steve and Ed are cutting up the chicken for dinner while the salivating onlookers gather round.

The girls wasted no time before they turned on Just Dance 3 and got the Floobie Song going.

That night we decided to go for a walk on one of the trails close to our house.  They are clearing out a lot of trees that fell during the storm we had in December and someone cut an awesome chair into this tree stump and made seats in the big tree trunk.

Meagan, Aubrey, Emily, Zac, Addison and Josh

Feeding the ducks

There is a new strip mall that is going in near our neighborhood.  They just opened the fountains not that long ago.  We hadn't been to see it yet, but had heard it was awesome.  They do a show every hour on the hour.  We happened to be on our way home from our walk just a little before 10:00, so we stopped to catch the show. It was fabulous.

A video of the show.  The Beatles only helped with my enjoyment of the whole experience!

900 And Counting

IT'S TRUE!  This very post right here in front you you is....drum roll please....My 900th post!  Get outta town Charlie Brown!!!  I started this humble blog on December 10th, 2006 as a way to show all of our out of state family pictures of Addison after she was born.  At the time, I had no idea what a blog was.  And here we sit, 900 posts later.  I think I pretty much have the whole blog thing figured out now.

The following are just a few ways my blog has change my life and the lives of those around me.  First, it has become a huge part of our family history.  There have been so many times I have had a question about something or needed to know the date of a certain event or details that I had long ago forgotten.  This blog has come in handy many many times for this.  Like that one time when I celebrated Addy's birthday on the wrong date and couldn't remember the correct one.  A fact my children still like to bring up.  On a regular basis.  If it wasn't for this dang blog, they probably would have forgotten that by now.

I hear this on a regular basis, "MOM!  Take a picture of me doing this and then do a blog post about it.  You can call it...."

My family hears this on a regular basis, "WAIT!  No one move.  I have to get my camera so I can do a blog post!"

My friends regularly say this, "This better NOT end up on your blog!"

This blog is a fact checker.  Just the other day Zac and I were having an argument about the way something happened.  I very smartly said to him, "You are wrong and I can prove it because I did a blog post about it!"  Turns out..I was the one who was wrong.  But that is totally beside the point.

Small day to day pieces of our lives that would totally have been forgotten are now recorded.  In black and white.  For all the world to see.  And just how many of you have seen it?  Since I started keeping stats on my blog, which was about 4 months after my first post, I have had 39,544 visits.  And 4,418 of those have been unique visitors.  I don't even think I know close to 4,418 people!  So that would leave me to wonder...WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE???

A while back, Blogger started keeping track of how many views each post gets.  You wanna know which post of mine has received the most views, by a long shot?  "The Night I Went Belly Dancing".  Really people?  Really.  That post wasn't as exciting as you thought it would be, now was it?

To celebrate this great feat of 900 posts, here are some links to some memorable posts over the years:

The one where I went to Walgreens: The Walgreens Chronicles 

The one where I swore a lot: Mind Your Own D*** Business

The one with the mouse in the house: Warning: Don't Pee In The Dark

The one with the best vacation ever: What I Did On My Summer Vacation

The one with the grumpy old man: The Psychological Effects of the Duck Hunt on a Slightly Crazy Lady

900 posts and counting!  900 posts and counting...

End Of School Festivities

In May I had the opportunity to go with Emily on one of her last field trips in Elementary School.  We went to This Is The Place Heritage Park to do a service project.  It was a lovely experience.  We woke up that morning to a day that looked like it was sure to bring rain.  I wondered if they would cancel the trip since we were going to be outside staining fences.  They did not cancel the field trip.  When it started raining, I thought for sure they would come up with something else for us to do rather than stand out in the pouring rain and stain fences.  They did not.  When I say pouring rain, it really was pouring.  Usually when it rains in Utah, it just drizzles and it doesn't last long at all.  This was a full on rain.  And it lasted a long time.  The whole time we were there in fact.  I was so thankful when they called it quits about an hour before we were supposed to be done.  I really don't think I could have stood out in that freezing rain for one more minute.  It was a wonderful growing experience. 

Aubrey had an end of the year performance for 2nd Grade.  She had a big dance part for which she had to go to school early one day every week for several weeks to practice.  She had so much fun practicing this dance.  She did a fantastic job.

The 6th graders had their annual Softball game against the teachers.  Although because we live in a most ridiculous society, this year they changed it from softball to kickball so no one would get hurt.  Addy and I went to watch Emily play in the game.  She did a great job and got two teachers out and ran home twice.

That same day was Aubrey's field day.

Aubrey and her friends doing synchronized hand stands.

 June 1st, The Last Day of School!  Zac skipped his last day and stayed home and slept in.

 Emily graduated from 6th grade!

Emily and her BFFs.  This is such a cute group of girls.

Emily left school early after graduation so Aubrey was my only child at the School Closing Flag Ceremony.  Here she is with her teacher Mrs. Jessen.

After school our neighbors had a fun School's Out party.  We all went and had a blast.  

That night all the kids went to various other School's Out parties.  We are excited for summer! 

(which I cannot believe is almost 1/3 of the way over now!)