Recap of our Time with Steve

Be advised… this is an extremely long post!

Well, where do I begin? It seems like it was all a dream. Steve was here for 18 glorious days… but now he’s gone again and we’re right back where we started. With the exception of some great memories and fun pictures, of course.

I really don’t even know how to tell about the break. I guess I can start by saying that it felt like a perfect vacation. Steve had no work ties to worry about (we were nowhere near Ft. Riley or Iraq), none of the girls are in school (of course), I don’t have a job, and we had built-in babysitters if we needed them. All of the time was ours to spend however we wanted. It was great!

Like I said before, Ellie and Katie pretty much latched right on to Steve. Once they were comfortable around them, you couldn’t pry them off his arms or legs or back or wherever they happened to be hanging. I think he enjoyed it just as much as they did. I must say that one of the things that makes me happiest is watching them all play together. I love the giggling and the excitement from everyone. It makes me smile just to think about it.

We decided to celebrate Steve’s birthday early so that he could enjoy it with us while here. The theme for his party was “A Few of My F

avorite Things.” I had a lot of fun with this one. After a supper of Papa John’s pizza and wings (yummm) we celebrated with a turtle cake (in remembrance of his first pet, Swimmy the turtle- whom he loved). As gifts he received a camera case for the camera lens I am letting him pick out. [side note- I had a couple different people ask Steve what lens he would recommend for them to buy… my way of being sneaky and finding out what he wanted. Well- he kept writing everyone back with “options” for lenses. Needless to say- not helpful!!! Haha…] He got a nice temple bag to replace the beat-up gym bag he’s been taking to the temple. I also found some super-soft, 6-foot bath towels (they call them bath sheets) which I thought were awesome. Hooray for bath towels that fit Steve! I bought him the game “Ticket to Ride” (Germany version, of course) and we had a ton of fun playing that while he was here. Geoff got me hooked and thankfully the same thing happened to Steve. My favorite gift of all was a picture. A few days prior we dressed up the girls and made a trip to the Sear’s Picture Studio. We had a picture taken with all of Steve’s girls (including me) and it turned out great. I’ll get it scanned and post it on here soon. Steve appreciated that as well. We had invited the Smith’s over and they brought him pink M&M’s,

Twinkies and truffles. They nailed that one! It was a really fun night and it was a great way to start our vacation.

We were blessed with incredible weather while Steve was here, so we spent many days at Anderson (Ash) Park. Katie is a fearless climber and it makes me incredibly nervous to watch her climb. Steve just egged her on. Sarah loves the swings, which is fun.

A few fun things we did...

Libby’s pumpkin factory makes something like 80% of the country’s canned pumpkin. So eve

ry year they have a pumpkin parade. Dad used

to judge this parade, and I always remember getting lots of good candy. I thought it would be fun to head up and enjoy the pumpkin festival and it just happened to be going on while Steve was here. The girls enjoyed the parade and got lots of candy. There were tons of marching bands, which Ellie likes. Plus lots of candy, of course. Afterward we went and had a quick ride on the carousel. Since the weather was so nice, it was packed with people… I could barely maneuver the stroller around the people and extension cords strung all

across the ground. One ride was plenty for us all. Steve and I don’t like big crowds.

On Sunday we were privileged to have Sarah blessed before the congregation. It was a beautiful blessing and I had lots of comments about how nice it was and how handsome Steve is. :-D Yes, I had to agree! Steve got to party with Katie in nursery since she is still terrified to be in there alone. We were able to take some fun family pictures after church, which turned out fun. Sarah just barely fit in that dress. It’s a newborn size… I had to keep the top button undone so it didn’t choke her!

There is an apple orchard about an hour north of us called Tanner’s Orchard. I had read about it months ago in the newspaper and we decided to try it out. I was thoroughly impressed! What a fun place to visit. There were goats to feed (which amazingly Ellie and Katie loved to do) and a huge play area for kids. Once we were sufficiently tired we grabbed a few bags of apples, fresh apple donuts and cider and made our way home. The donuts and cider alone were worth the trip up there!

Ellie picked her pumpkin out of the patch at church and it’s huge! It’s an actual jack-o-lantern brand pumpkin. She’s pretty proud of that pumpkin. We carved it at the Smith’s house a couple nights before Steve left.

One highlight was going through the St. Louis Temple with Steve. I hadn’t been in there since the open house. Troy and Rachel were married there in 2000, but I wasn’t able to go in at the time. What a gorgeous temple! I love the serenity found in those sacred buildings. Especially being there with Steve. It was wonderful of Mom and Dad to keep the girls while we went through. After the temple we went to the St. Louis Zoo, which is a very impressive zoo. It was horribly hot, so we lasted only a couple hours, but we saw all the important animals (monkeys and seals especially) then made our way back home. I think the girls enjoyed it. Katie kept ooh-ing and aah-ing at the animals. Very cute. Sarah cried most of the way down and back. That’s 3 hours of misery, let me tell you. We are seriously contemplating a cancelation of our trip back East just because of that. Sarah wants to be up and running… not stuck in that car seat!

Steve and I were able to take the time to go on many dates. We bought him a much-needed new wardrobe one day and then the same for me another day. We went out to eat a lot as well. It was just wonderful to spend time with him. Having him gone makes me appreciate the time we have together so much more.

The girls love the trampoline, so we of course spent many evenings out there jumping with Steve. Ellie has gotten really good at it and Katie can actually jump pretty well now, too. We also managed to get a family portrait taken. I need to go pick those up. It turned out well. It’s the first time we’ve ever had one taken professionally and I think we did alright.

Our last big hoorah was a trip up to Chicago. We signed up with the USO up in Chicago to get emails about any free tickets they get to events in the city. Steve gets emails about baseball games, broodway shows, all sorts of neat things. Well, this time it was for free tickets to the aquarium and to see “Finding Nemo” on Ice. We thought we’d try for the tickets and after much consideration (since it was Steve’s last day here) we decided to go for it. In the end we’re very happy we did it. The timing probably wasn’t the best, but it was a great family adventure together. The aquarium is enormous. We loved watching the dolphins and the penguins. Katie and Sarah weren’t too thrilled about the whole adventure but Ellie had a great time. Same with the Nemo show. Ellie loved it. Katie and Sarah were bored and just wanted to go home to bed. Katie climbed the stairs and the railings and tried her best to be happy. I would guess she watched about 10 minutes of the show. Needless to say, Steve and I juggled girls the whole time. Our hotel was an hour away from there and we were completely exhausted by the time we got everyone settled in and to bed. Ellie was extremely distressed when we got there. I just assumed she was overtired and was acting out. So I tried to calm her down and she told me she didn’t want to move into that hotel. Grandma and Grandpa would be worried! Poor Ellie! She thought we were moving away and this was our new home!

We were up bright and early the next morning to pack up and take Steve to the airport. I don’t like goodbyes. Especially when it’s for another 7 months! We had such an awesome time with Steve, though. Lots of fun memories. The girls now have a better remembrance of their dad and they have something new to look forward to.

The girls have already changed in the week Steve’s been gone. Steve convinced Sarah that moving is a good thing, so she’s rolling and likes to walk around and loves the exersaucer. Katie is finally communicating in something other than grunts and screams- we actually have words… glorious! She talked on the phone with him today and thought that was pretty neat. Steve started saying personal prayers with the girls and Katie loves to say hers. She gets excited and starts calling out “amen” about half-way through. I love it! Ellie has become a great big sister and plays with Sarah and Katie very well. It gives me a couple minutes here and there for a break, which is nice. Never a dull moment around this house, that’s for sure!

Pictures will be on the way soon. I have lots to sort through!