Back to School: No Substitute for a Good Education

(Rob) The girls hit the buses, books, and brownbags again this last week. We realized, very quickly, how nice our low key summer schedule has been . But the girls are excited. They've met their new teachers and I think we're poised for another great year of learnin'.

I started this week too: minus one student. One of the students enrolled in my in my masters class dropped this last week. Between the time he registered and the time he dropped he had won the NC Powerball lottery -- a cool $28 million (post taxes). Here's the story. Hopefully he'll come back to school after the shell shock wears off. There is no substitute for a good education.

A Few Thoughts from Flori

Hey friends, for the last year, I've been sending a weekly email to my family. I've decided to move to blog format, so if you're interested, check it out here or on my sidebar under "pretty bird".

Back to school news coming soon.

Happy Birthday, President Monson!

Did you know that President Monson's birthday is Friday, August 21st? Last year (2008) on the occasion of his 81st birthday, President Thomas S. Monson was asked to describe his ideal birthday gift. Without hesitating he said "Do something for someone else on that day to make his or her life better. Find someone who is having a hard time or is ill or lonely and do something for them. That's all I would ask."

This week we had a really fun FHE from this site. Even though Monday has passed, Friday is not here yet! There is plenty of time to share this short message and encourage your friends and family to think of someone else on Friday as a small gift to the prophet. This same idea is featured in the August issue of "The Friend".

Utah trip 2009

We spent the second half of our vacation with the LeBarons in Utah. We rented an enormous, sweet cabin in Park City and had more of the good cousin time, staying up late, etc. We got to meet 4 new cousins--Olivia, Gunner, Isabel and Finch--so there was lots of baby loving too.


Other highlights of our Utah visit: seeing "Hello Dolly" at Hale Center Theater, going to the Oquirrh Mountain temple open house, fabric shopping with my mom and sister, and taking Maddie to the SL temple to do baptisms for the dead for the first time.



While in Park City, we had a photographer come take some family pictures (and we snapped some too).



We even found time to meet up with all of our Bloomington Friends (but we were having too much fun to get many pictures!) and also spent a wonderful evening at the Sundance cabin (one of my favorite happy places in this world).



Here's the requisite slideshow with the rest of the fun:

Idaho Vacation 2009

We've been home for exactly 1 month. School starts again in exactly 1 week, so I suppose it's high time to post our vacation photos. I don't know what happened to our summer, but it's about to come to a screeching halt. I think we're all ready to get back to a set schedule, even though I personally dread making sack lunches every morning.

Our trip "Out West" started with a week in Idaho, most of which we spent at Grandma Baker's cabin on Henry's Lake (in Island Park, near Yellowstone). There was a lot of hanging out on the dock, boating, playing with cousins,riding the 4-wheeler, long walks, and staying up late. We had WAY much fun and loved the cooler summer weather (than we're used to) and the freezing mountain lake. Highlights included playing 'Spoons' and 'Pounce' almost every night and participating in the creative and patriotic 4th of July skits! Thanks everyone for such great memories!







Once back in Idaho Falls, we enjoyed a visit with Grandma Baker, helped milk Grandma and Grandpa's goat, helped in the garden, and visited some more.



A slideshow of the full week, if you care to see more. Also, you may notice that something is different about Rob. He surprised his mom and shaved his beard. It's been 7 years since we've seen his face! Sorry Grandma, but it's grown back now for school. He must keep the professorial look about him!

Two fun dates

Rob and I went on a double date with one of his former seminary students (I know, crazy. Maddie was mortified that we would be an embarassment. She does not believe that some kids actually think her parents are cool.) We planned a photo scavenger hunt at the mall where we had to take pictures of 30 different things (someone eating pizza, someone pushing a stroller, someone smelling lotion or perfume, a travel book about North Carolina, etc.) It was a typical cheesy high school date but we really had a lot of fun--since we don't do those kind of dates anymore! We got some funny reactions from people when requesting pictures, so Rob just started taking pictures of "me" with the subect in the background. I think this would also make a fun family home evening activity!


We also had a fun hiking date last month. We had to drive to the mountains to take Maddie and 2 other Beehives to Girls Camp, so we decided to make a day of it. I got a friend to watch the other girls, and Rob and I went to the North Carolina Arboretum and Gardens near Asheville. It was a beautiful place and Rob got to practice using his fancy new camera.

Eloise's birthday in Knoxville

Our trip home from Indiana took us to Knoxville, TN to visit Rob's other sister Susan, her husband Andrew, and their adorable son, Grayer. Eloise's birthday fell on that Sunday, so Susan graciously cooked up a delicious birthday dinner and a beautiful cake for our arrival. We had a great visit with them and took a little side trip the next day to the Knoxville World's Fair Park. Rob got lots of great pictures at the fun splash park and it was a wonderful way to end our trip before we drove home.

Back Home Again to Indiana

Rob had a conference in Bloomington in June, so we drove with him and spent a great 5 days visiting our favorite people and places. Rob's sister Megan now lives there with her family (Justin and Maggie), so we stayed with her for a few days and then spent a couple of days with our good friends, Steve and Tami Whiting. Highlights included several stops for ice cream at 'The Chocolate Moose', dropping by a ward member's wedding reception and visiting with everyone, hearing Sister Portzline play the organ in church and singing LOUD, visiting our two favorite children's museums, catching up with everyone, and eating out at our favorite restaurants.

One really bad moment of the trip came when we took our friend Jackie to our other friend's farm and one of the farm dogs bit Jackie in the face. So that really stunk to call Steve and Tami and ask them to meet us at the emergency room, where Jackie had stitches under her eye. Yes, that was a bad day. But all the other days were so, so good!