Summertime!

It's here!! Summer officially started for me at 5:15 pm on Friday as I clocked out of Keystone for the last time of the 08/09 school year. My one month of summer school was great--I got to work with extremely talented individuals that taught me a lot & became friends. I even got paid to take tap dance lessons (I was actually being paid to be an assistant in the class, but the teacher was so talented, & he would give me extra steps to work on--just a fantastic experience!). So though it was a great way to earn an extra month's worth of pay, I am READY for summer vacation! :)

I think I kicked it off a little early last weekend with some really fun activities--hiking (in which I had flashbacks to my childhood as I "gracefully" fell 3 times. As my date so kindly put it, "The last time, we weren't even walking down a hill!" :) Though an awesome view, I did come off the mountain feeling like a 5 year old with my scraped-up knee and blood running down my hands.), some paddle-boating at Sunset (does anyone call it Peddle-boating? Apparently this is the more correct term), re-seeing the Joseph Smith movie at the visitor's center, and just enjoying some good company! It was an awesome weekend :)

I also had the chance to watch Rachael's kids yestreday so her and her hubby could do a temple session together. I have to say, I was a little nervous about having 3 kids under the age of 4 in my house...it's not exactly childproof. I was envisioning the 10 month old trying to pull himself up on our flimsy DVD shelves, and the potted plants on top coming crashing down on him. It ended up being a great experience for my roommate and I though--just such well behaved kids! And SO cute! They played nicely, watched a movie, looked out for each other, enjoyed our walk to the "park" (*cough*cough*--it was just a grassy hill in our apt complex, but we had to cross a bridge & fountain to get there. Very exciting for toddlers! :) We were having such a nice time with them, I was actually really surprised when Rachael called to say they were on their way to pick them up!

My favorite part of the day? Being outside with the kids....there's something magical about laying in the grass, tossing this laughing kid into the air, and seeing their blond hair framed by the blue sky. My 2nd fave was helping baby Will fall asleep--I forgot how much I love rocking baby's to sleep until I was bouncing/swinging him around, softly singing I am a Child of God, and watching his little eyes get droopier and droopier. Holding a sleeping baby in your arms is probably one of the best experiences in life :)

I also jumped into summer by buying a few plane tickets! I'll be spending my month of July in both Utah & the East Coast (D.C. & Delaware). I am SO excited to get my vaciation started. I was telling a good friend today (Ms. Wendy Woodfield, some of you will know her & may get an extra kick out of picturing her say this :), but I was telling her abt my vacation plans & how excited I am to not only get to visit with friends/family BUT also have so much time to do genealogy work (Both SLC & DC are record hotspots for genealogists). She just laughed and said, "Y'now Beth, most people go to the beach for summer vacation...." :) haha! So true! So in honor of Ms. Woodfield's reminder, I am going to make a point to throw in at least 2 days at the beach during my month of freedom :)

So, in case I am having just way too much fun to jump on here with an udpate, Happy Summer everyone!! (Pictures below of the last month):