A Special Delivery for Jeremy

When I got up this morning, there was a box on the table with glitter all over it and the table! It was sparkly and pretty, but also a very big mess. The package was addressed to Jeremy from Santa so I had to wait for Jeremy to get up to see what was inside. It is Saturday so he got to sleep in. It seemed like forever before he woke up! He slept three hours later than I did so I had a long time to wait.

 

Jeremy finally got up just before eight. He was so excited to see the box because he got one like it last year. 

As he was opening it, he said, "I hope it is a magic mailbox again!" 

Santa taped it shut with peppermint duct tape so it was a little difficult to open. After he got one side cut, we discovered that the tape on top wasn't stuck tight so he was able to pull it off. 

Inside the box was letter explaining that it was indeed one of Santa's magic mailboxes. The letter explained that the mailbox has a direct connection to the North Pole. Whenever Jeremy puts a letter in the mailbox, it will be magically sent to the North Pole that night while everyone is sleeping. Then Santa can write him back using the mailbox to deliver it. Santa will pick the mailbox up on Christmas Eve to take back to the North Pole, but Jeremy can write to him as often as he wants until then.

Here are some more pictures of Jeremy with Santa's mailbox...

 

After we put the mailbox on the entertainment center, Jeremy and I went to the dining room to clean up the glitter. It was everywhere! Most of it was on the table, and we were able to brush most of that into the garbage, but there was some on the chairs and floor, including a path of glitter from Jeremy taking the box into the living room. Jeremy is writing to Santa right now. He said he is going to ask him to use his magic to make the rest of the glitter dissolve. He is such a fun kid, and I'm very lucky to have him as my little brother!

More pictures, as promised

Hello again! I was rereading some of my old blogs when I realized I promised you more pictures from my vacation. Well, late is better than never, right? So, here are a bunch of pictures from my trip to Virginia and DC.

Me in front of the Tidal Basin and Jefferson Memorial

Cool flag inside the Smithsonian Castle

Me at the Orchids of Latin American Exhibit at the Natural History Museum

Me in the Air and Space Museum

Amelia Earhart's plane at the Air and Space Museum

 This next pic is my favorite. My beautiful friend, Sarah, took it. :)

Me and Jake outside the Life is Good store in National Harbor

Me at Great Falls

Cherry Blossoms...for real this time. LOL!

I thought this was really cool!

Cherry Blossoms

Cherry Blossoms with Jefferson Memorial in the background

Me and Sinde in the Blue Room at the White House!

Actually, we are in front of a Blue Room mural in the White House gift shop, but that is beside the point. :P

So, now you've seen more pictures of my vacation, some of which didn't even make it to Facebook because I've been slacking off there too. I really enjoyed my trip, and I'm already saving up to go there again!

I'm still living!/Summer Fun

Hi all! I just wanted to post a quick entry to let you know I'm still alive and well. I've been blessed to have quite a bit going on lately. We've been having a busy, but fun summer. This year, in addition to our yearly zoo membership, we also have family memberships to Clark Planetarium and the Living Planet Aquarium as well as season passes to Lagoon. In addition to all of the fun busyness, I'm also preparing to be in the Main Street Arts Festival in Magna on August 24th. We haven't yet heard if we've been accepted as a vendor, but I'm getting ready anyway. Here are some fun pictures of what we've been doing lately...

At Clark Planetarium...

Some of the Lego exhibits at Hogle Zoo...

Picture of Jeremy in the eagle's nest at Hogle Zoo...

 At Lagoon...

By the way, I also cut my hair. This Before/After was made the first time I cut it in May, but it is actually a little shorter than that now...

I hope you are all having a great summer too!

The Finished Wreath AKA More Proof My Mom is Awesome!

Apparently the Happy Spring wreath that Mom made for my Welcome Home surprise wasn't quite finished yet. We finished it yesterday, and it is even more awesome now!

 

By the way, my Welcome Home decorations are still up for the most part. Shaylee seems determined to take them down. She doesn't seem able to pull them down, but a few have gotten caught on things and pulled from the ceiling so I've had to put them back up. Here is Shaylee trying to get them down...

 

I promise to post more pictures from my vacation soon. I just need to get them better organized first. Have a fabulously fun day!

You know you've been gone too long when...

Hi all! I will be posting more blog entries/pictures about my vacation, but I wanted you to know that I had a great time and have made it home safely. It is good to be home after over two weeks, but a little strange too. You know you've been gone too long when...

...it takes you five minutes to find the nail clippers that are in the same place they've been kept in for the last couple years.
...you can't remember where the spatulas are.
...you get lost/forgetful when doing your typical morning routine.
...you come home and there is a "couch" in the living room where Dad's desk used to be.
...it is very obvious that your family missed you very much. Pictures to prove it:

They decorated my room! ...I'm not taking these down unless I have to!

This balloon was positioned so it would pop out at me when I opened my door.

Daffies plus a pinwheel equals AWESOME!

This one also serves to prove my mom is AWESOME!...plus the friends and family that helped her with it.

More "Welcome Home" surprises

 

Cherry Blossoms...not really

EDIT 4/9/13: Umm...My friend and I made a huge and stupid mistake. She said they were cherry trees so I believed her. What I couldn't believer were how big the cherry blossoms in DC were. Well, that is because these are not cherry blossoms. They are magnolia trees! I got to see the real cherry blossom trees today. While they were absolutely gorgeous, I liked the magnolia trees better. They smelled good. :) I'll post pictures of the real cherry blossoms soon.

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We went to the Smithsonian Castle on Tuesday. In the courtyard behind the castle, the cherry blossoms were blooming!!! It was so pretty! Here are some pictures...

  

 

Pictures from my trip to DC-Part 1

I've already posted A LOT of pictures on Facebook so I thought it would be a good idea to post some pictures for my friends and family that don't have Facebook. In case you didn't know, I'm currently on vacation near Washington, DC so I'm getting to see some of the sights there. The pictures aren't in order of when I saw them, but I tried to group them by location, putting all of the Natural History Museum pictures together, etc. Anyway, on to the pictures!

This is the best picture I got from the butterfly exhibit at the Natural History Museum. They have a live butterfly exhibit, but you have to pay to get into that one.

The had an Egyptian Mummy Exhibit at the Natural History Museum. It was really cool, and I'm glad I got to see it. I kind of ended up there by accident.

I also touched a piece of Mars at the Natural History Museum. That was a little lame and pretty cool at the same time.

This is the Hope Diamond. I wish my camera was capable of capturing it's beauty. It was a little hard taking the picture because it is in a glass case. I tried taking a video of it rotating, but my camera didn't want to focus.

 

This is me and my friend, Sinde, under the Chinatown arch. We got lost of the Metro and ended up here...It was our third time getting lost of the Metro. Most of the time, we correct ourselves before leaving the Metro, but this time we decided we might as well see Chinatown since we are headed that way anyway.

We went to the Tidal Basin to see the cherry blossoms on Monday, but they were still in the bud.

One of the first things I saw in DC was the American History Museum. My favorite exhibit that we saw was the First Ladies exhibit showing dresses from all of the First Ladies, but I also think it was cool (and weird) that we saw Kermit the Frog in the American History Museum! They had an exhibit called, "American Stories" or something like that, and it had a lot of things you wouldn't think of as being part of American History including the ruby slippers from the Wizard of Oz movie!

This is me in front of the Washington Monument. See all the beautiful scaffolding? The whole area around it is roped off because they are repairing the damage caused by the big earthquake they had here a while back.

 This is me in front of the Smithsonian Castle. I love this building. It is one of the most gorgeous in DC, which is saying a lot because there are a lot of gorgeous buildings here.

 My friends, Sinde and Sarah, by the Jefferson Memorial

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial. I had wanted to see this wall since I read about it in elementary school! It is very beautiful and very sad.

 

This is the "guy in the chair" as my friend, Sinde, calls it. She has some funny names for the monuments around DC. For example: The Washington Monument is "the pencil". LOL! In case you didn't know, this is actually the Lincoln Memorial.

  

We haven't just been to DC though. This is me standing by a sign in Old Town Alexandria in Virginia. 

  

Me standing outside the Life is Good store in Old Town. I actually got to go to two Life is Good stores in one day because there is also one in National Harbor, and we went there right after Old Town.

 

Me by the Peepsmobile in National Harbor in Maryland. This is parked outside of a Peeps store. We didn't go in, but it was still fun to see. If you count DC as a state, I've been to three states in two days!

 

Okay, so a golden egg sitting on a bed doesn't seem exciting, but to me it was very important. Sinde hid it in her backyard so I could have an egg to hunt for on Easter. I found it in one of her bushes. Inside was a keyring from Old Town Alexandria with my name on it. Easter morning was a lot of fun because I also got to video tape her kids hunting for their eggs. Her kids are 13 and 19, but Sarah and I agree that you never outgrow egg hunts!

That's all for now!