A Return to Normalcy.

We have been thoroughly enjoying the rest of our summer and it has been great hearing children playing happily in the background (for the most part), saying things like, "I'm Ariel, I protect the galaxy!" or Braden, "I'm buzzlight year to the rescue!"

I have my children back, back to normal.

...and normal doesn't mean perfect...but routines are good for human beings. There's something about it that makes us feel safe...and it makes me feel in control.

One morning, this is what I found after getting out of the shower. They had set this up all by themselves.

Braden was the prince and Brielle was the princess and they had a few guests over.

Pony and Barbie having tea.

A few Sundays ago, we headed to the National Cathedral to meet up an old friend of mine from Miami. She was my seminary teacher for 2 years. She came to Miami to play her french horn for the New World Symphony. She was wonderful and such a great example to me during those years. It was so much fun to meet up with her and catch up! and I loved that Scott was able to come too...I'm always telling him about all the people that influenced my life when I was a teenager and half the time he has no idea who I'm talking about so it's nice that now he can put a face when I talk about my seminary teacher Kim who plays the french horn!:)

I can 't get enough of this breath-taking building.

Last time I saw Kim was the summer of 1999, right before I headed to Rexburg. You do the math, it had been way too long...and it was almost as if time hadn't passed...except, we have multiplied!:)

Kim has 4 children, 2 of them are twins. Our kids got along so well and played and ran around. It was such a HOT day though and we didn't even think to bring water. Kim had brought one bottle of Gatorade and all of them were partaking from it!

Before we came to this little area, we were at the Cathedral's Gardens. It was beautiful, but we we were all melting...it was much cooler in this area.

Here are the boys, the twins were a hoot! I loved them! They were hilarious! Definite entertainers.

Pretending to be gargoyles.

There is so much detail all around the Cathedral...every where you turn you find detail.

I'm amazed.

Right before we left the kids found that green bug, I don't even know what it is...a grasshopper?

We had such an enjoyable visit with Kim and her kids!

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I have yet to mention in this blog that we have a new addition to our family...a hamster named Squeaky. This was my husband's doing while the kids and I were gone on our trip. Scott has been trying to convince me to get one of these little rodents for the kids for a while...and I of course had been VERY against it, the whole time. Well, a few days before we came home, he sent me a picture on my phone with this little hamster on his hand! My response:

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's what happens, when husbands are left alone for too long, they become a little nutty.

The kids, however, LOVE it! and I have to say that he's pretty cute...he's growing on me.

But the moment my house starts smelling like hamster, the moment it's gone...and I'm not cleaning anything!

That is word for word what I told Scott.

It was the main attraction when our summer joy school little friends came over last week. It was perfect though, because our lesson was about the animals of the earth.

Lilly and Brielle...and Squeaky.

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The Heaton's came to stay with us last week. Justin's parents, Bob and Denise stayed with us too and a day later Ryan (Justin's brother) came to surprise everyone! Stacey, Scott and I were the only ones that knew he was coming, well and his wife Stephanie, of course. It was such a fun surprise for Bob, Denise and Justin! It was awesome!:) We had full-house and I loved every second of it!

It was Bob and Ryan's first time in D.C., Denise had been here when she young. It so happened though that, that week was the hottest week D.C. has had in long, long time...it felt like 110 degrees outside...I volunteered to watch Anderson and Jack while they went to the city, since we've seen pretty much everything and going to D.C. with kiddos plus the heat can be crazy sometimes.

It was so much fun to watch those little munchkins and so easy because Brielle, Braden and Jack get along so well and I didn't even have to worry about them that much...and little Anderson just followed me around the house all day while I was doing stuff...he gave me lots of cuddles and I got to squeeze him a lot! He is so cute!

On Sunday, we all headed to the National Cathedral, it's the perfect place to go on a Sunday. It was another hot day. But this time, we spent most of the time inside, which was perfect!

We all did the tour and all the kids were so good for the whole thing.

I loved doing the tour, Scott and I had never done it before. We learned a lot of cool things about the Cathedral.

The outside is amazing, but the inside is just unbelievable!

Amazing architecture.

Brielle walked by that door and said, "look at that cute little door, take a picture, mom, take a picture!"

Jack, Brielle and Braden had the most interesting conversation in front of that mural:

Braden: That's Jesus.

Brielle: He's resurrected!

Jack: He's not dead anymore.

Children are so perceptive.

On Monday, my friend Holly, who is in my ward, who is Stacey's first cousin (I know, such a small world!):) watched Anderson and I took the three older kids to the pool.

They had such a fun time!

Braden is a fish and if it were up to him he'd spend the whole time under the water...Jack was so concerned though, and any time Braden would go under water Jack would come to his rescue and pull him out of the water!!!:)

There were lots of hugs given...those three really do love each other.

I'm so glad these three get along so well...and they were kind to each other, for the most part, and shared some fun times.

Here we are with the Heaton Crew! We love those guys! Too bad Ryan is not in here, but it was so much fun to have them all here for a few days...Scott started the night-shift for his rotation a couple of days after they got here, so he missed some of the fun...but we seriously had so much fun staying up late, talking politics, eating, playing games and laughing so hard!

Thanks for the fun times Heaton's!

You are welcome to our home ANY time, ANY day!

Oh! and I think it's substraction not subtraction!!!:) ha ha!:)