FYI

We finalized our summer travel plans this week, so I thought I'd let everyone know, in case you're making plans of your own.

Wed., June 10 - Fly from Baltimore to Portland
Wed., June 17 - Fly from Portland to SLC
June 18 - 23 - Walton Family Reunion (Eden, UT)
Fri., July 03 - Anne & Girls Fly HOME (Russ will return home a week or so earlier)

We're excited! :)

GOOD Times

Well, I have definitely been using my time to do way fun things. I thought I would share a bit of it all with you.

On Saturday, 14 February 2009, I went indoor rock climbing. As a member of the Outdoor club we get a free membership to this place in Orem. I thought I would make use of it. Actually, I wanted to practice more so that I don't look so lame next weekend when we go rock climbing for real. So, this is me rock climbing; this was a way hard run. The only one I didn't finish...

Then, my friend Sarah and I decided that we would not be found alone on a Saturday night, it being Valentine's Day. So, we called our friends and set each other up on blind dates. We made pizza and went sledding. It was an incredible amount of fun; the sledding was amazing.

On Monday I went caving with three other people up to Nutty Putty caves. I felt especially cool because usually these caves are closed but I just became friends with someone who has got sweet connections and we got in. It was a really awesome trip! We walked for about 3 miles in deep mud (some of it being uphill), went cave exploring for 2 hours plus, got entirely soaked, caked in dust, which turned to mud as we slithered through small holes with puddle-covered floors, exerted all of our efforts to get our muscles to pull us through tight squeezes and slippery slopes, then walked another 3 miles back to the car...in the mud...and rain. I stepped in several puddles on the way home. Needless to say, we were all very exhausted and in the morning Sarah and I were COVERED in bruises. It was great. One of the most fun things I have ever done. :) Go figure.

Our most recent club activity was tonight, Wednesday. In order to get funding from BYU, we have to write a ton of letters to donors saying thank you. It is clearly not the most fun thing to do, so we thought we would entice the club members by reserving the tumbling gym to play in after writing letters. If all of you who don't know, it is a big warehouse with lots of trampolines, pads, sumo suits and a huge pit full of foam blocks. It was good times. Hard work, too. Here is Sarah and I right before our Sumo Wrestling of Death! Actually, we just pushed and shoved and fell on top of each other and decided we never wanted to gain enough weight to be like that. It's hard work!

This last video was Alan, me and Sarah jumping into the foam pit. It was good times. Huzzah!

Liken the Scriptures

One of the scriptures Kaylee can recite is Amos 3:7. The other night she quoted it as follows:

"Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servant . . . the Monson."

Pretty good, huh?

Groundhog's Day

For those of you who can't get enough of silly Bill Murray movies we found your new favorite spot. Groundhog's Day was filmed in Woodstock, IL (about 10 minutes from here) so we went to check it out last weekend. This town really gets into it! They even have a Woodstock Willie instead of Punx. Phil. Not only does the town have permanent plaques like "Ned's Corner" and "Bill Murray stepped here" (for stepping in the puddle), during Groundhog Days they place markers all over showing where things happened in the movie and blast polka music from the town gazebo! Too bad the groundhog saw it's shadow and there will be six more weeks of winter.

On that note, we hear from people around here that this has been a really, really bad winter...worse than many can remember. We are encouraged by that since we didn't know what to expect and feel like we've done okay so far. We're about half-way done with the winter so we'll see how it goes. Angie thought it was cold when she came to visit (on a -15 or so wind chill day)...all schools in the area were cancelled a couple weeks ago for two days for -30 to -40 wind chill with highs at -1 to -5. I guess the news said at that time it was colder here than at the north pole!

If there are misspellings in my post, forgive me. James has started waking in the middle of the night again so lack of sleep is affecting me once again. We trying to get him to eat more solid foods during the day so we can get back to sleeping through the night. He started eating Cheerios last night and ate applesauce (his first fruit) two days ago. He likes his vegetables and rice/oat cereals, too. Hopefully this will help him gain weight since a week and a half ago at his 6-month check up (can you believe it?) he hadn't grown any longer since his 4-month check and was only 12 lbs 15 ounces. At this rate he could be rear-facing in his car seat for a LONG time. He's fallen below 0% on the weight chart so we're supposed to supplement with bottles, but he doesn't like them or the formula. At least he's usually a happy baby (except when feeling pain from growing teeth...he has two!) and doing very well on rolling over and saying "da, da, da" and "ba, ba, ba". Here is a recent picture. He is such a joy!

We love you all!

Fire Blowing

Finally, I have some pictures of recent good times. My ward holds what we call "Big Kid Mutual" every Wednesday. A couple of weeks ago we had "Y Chromosome Appreciation Night" and for one the activities we blew fire! It was really cool and fun. The process is as follows: Fill your mouth with cornstarch. DON'T INHALE (or get it in your eye, since any place that holds any moisture the cornstarch will absorb and clump up in a split second). Light a match. Blow. So, the first image is of me blowing fire (it once was a video but I don't know how to get it) and then the other is a group shot, obviously. Good times...

Update

We haven't done much posting lately, so I thought I'd just give a brief update on life in Delaware.

RUSS is still working diligently on his research and will be taking his final class Spring term (which begins next week). He's not overly excited about doing student work again (i.e. homework, tests, etc.) He was excited last weekend, however, when the winter campout he was supposed to be a part of was canceled. In January he saw a doctor about an unusual lump in his abdomen, which was diagnosed as a hernia. So, he will be having surgery on the 13th of this month.

ANNE is already busy making summer plans for the family. We will definitely be in Utah the latter part of June for a Walton family reunion, and may spend some time in Oregon (if Mom and Dad are still there) before that. Yesterday Anne was able to reserve a room at the Palmyra Inn for July 15th, which means we'll be heading up to New York for the Hill Cumorah Pageant this summer!

KAYLEE was just registered for preschool next fall. The school is associated with a nearby Catholic church and was highly recommended by some ward friends. She can't believe she still has to wait such a long time before school begins. In other news, the princess revolution is in full swing. Nearly every day Kaylee asks to wear a dress so she can be a princess. She has also developed an affinity for Barbie after watching one movie from the library (Barbie has been added to the top of her 2009 Christmas list). Kaylee loves being a Sunbeam at church and tells us her favorite thing about being in primary is playing with Play-doh. :) (She also just informed me that she likes having cake and ice cream at her birthday.)

ASHLYN is finally beginning to add some real words to her vocabulary. Her most recent addition was "wawa" (water). She also loves nursery, and cries when we pick her up, rather than when we drop her off. As with Kaylee, Ashlyn is already showing a love of music. Her favorite song right now is "Popcorn Popping"; she can expertly (and adorably) execute each action.

We are thankful for a happy and healthy little family!

Emily and I are happy to announce that yesterday we submitted the last of our seven grad school applications. The little video clip here is a montage of photos of the portfolio package I took just with my cell phone. Each application package took about 3 hours just to put all together, not to mention the time it took to write the essays and get the kind help from Emily and Mom and Dad to revise them. I got to know the employees at Kinkos pretty well. They all celebrated as I sent out my last application.

It has been quite the burden to know that every spare minute we have had for the last six months could be spent improving my portfolio. But now, we have done all that we can and we get to anxiously await letters in our mailbox. We'll find out in about two weeks whether or not we made it into the second round of at Yale (which is incredibly unlikely!). A few other schools will be calling over the next month for phone interviews. The final answers will arrive for all the schools between the first week of March and the middle of April. We are hoping to be in the predicament of having to choose between many schools but basically, we are feeling right now if Rhode Island School of Design (Providence, RI) offers, we will accept. After that, it's probably Virginia Commonwealth (Richmond, VA). We have faith that we can make it, BUT IF NOT, we'll just party for another year before trying again!

Thank you again Mom and Dad for all the reviewing and for your eagle eyes!

We love you all!

Emily and Doug