LOOK

Nathan took a couple of LOOK classes last week and he's taking two more this week. This is the first year that he's taking two classes both weeks. Last week he had "Wonderful Watercolors" and "We Love Worms." He enjoyed both of them and was delighted to go home on Friday with his paintings, his nice set of watercolor paints, and his container of Red Wiggler Worms! This week, he is taking "Lego Technics" and "Superheroes." He's enjoying both of them a lot, although he was disappointed to find out that he can't bring any of the Lego's home with him at the end of the week. He is designing his own Superhero and is really excited about the costume he is making.

Megan loved Girls Camp! I had a feeling she would. She was so excited about it before she left, and she talked a lot about it when she came back. She took lots of pictures with a couple of disposable cameras I bought her, and then we had them developed when she got back. It was really fun to hear her describe the fun things they did and the friends she made. She is really well liked by kids her age, so she was quite popular. She said everyone wanted to sit by her at lunch.

We've been swimming a lot this summer. I finally convinced Mom and Dad to use the solar blanket, which makes it so much warmer. It's been heavenly, almost too warm. The kids have been having a great time swimming a lot. Now, I just need to get another set of goggles, so they won't have to fight over the one pair we have.

I've been doing lots of reading this summer. Right now, I'm reading Prairie Tale by Melissa Gilbert. I'm a little bit over half way through it. It was interesting to hear about her real life, but it's also been kind of disappointing to me. Little House on the Prairie was one of my favorite shows when I was little and I've been watching lots of the old episodes through Netflix recently, and I guess I kind of thought of Michael Landon as the character he portrayed, Charles Ingalls (good, honest, high moral standards, etc.) so I was really disappointed to hear that he had quite a temper, he drank and smoked, and he cheated on his wife! I was less disappointed to hear about Melissa's simply because I had seen previews for movies over the years, where she wasn't portraying the "Laura Ingalls" look, so I guess I was more prepared to hear about her shortcoming. But Michael Landon?

I just read a book called The Boy From Baby House 10, which was about a little boy in Russia, who had cerebral palsy and spent most of his first 8 years in a baby house and mental institutions. It was really heartbreaking to read his story, and to think that this happened in the 1990's. The conditions of the baby house were bad enough, but the description of the mental institution was almost too hard to read. The book was about several people who intervened in his life and tried to save him from a life in these horrible places. Finally, they succeeded, and he was eventually adopted to America. It ends well, but it brought it to my attention how bad things are in some orphanages, especially when the children have any special needs.

I've always wanted to do something big, like start a foster care program for orphans like these, or hire nannies to take care of a certain number of children, so that they can bond and have lots of interaction with loving people. This is what they don't get in the orphanages. So last night, after thinking more about this book, I did a search of orphanages run by LDS women. I just wanted to see what was out there. I found a program started by two sister missionaries who had served in Bulgaria. They were back home, married, with children, when they started One Heart Bulgaria. Among other programs, they hire elderly women to go to the orphanage and provide the nurturing interaction and love that these children need. I was so excited to find this. I really want to give to this organization. I found another organization that funds foster care for children, to keep them out of orphanages, called Bridge of Love, also run by an LDS family. It sounds like just the thing I've been wanted to do. I already knew about an orphange in China that is run by an LDS woman. I want to go volunteer there some day, too. Aaaahhh, so many worthy things to do, so little time (and money). I AM determined to help some of these children, though.

Olivia and Felicia's birthday

I am totally enjoying my summer vacation. It's so nice to sleep in in the mornings and just not have major plans every day. We've been spending lots of time with the Cooper side of the family lately. We had Steve and Lil over to play cards a few nights ago. I've gotten together a couple times with Kristen and Shelli, Josh and Allyson to go swimming. Kristen's girls are so adorable and Nathan has so much fun helping Maddi and playing with Josh. Yesterday, while we were all at the pool, while Allyson was watching all the little ones, we helped Mom assemble her new gazebo. It actually came out really cute and she was thrilled.

Last night we celebrated Olivia and Felicia's 19th birthday. We had taco salad, three bean salad, and cake and ice cream for them. Yum! Nathan and I gave them homemade coupon books. Nathan gave them coupons for a hug and a kiss, spending time with him, playing trains, having fun at Funtown, and watching a movie with him (they both got a kick out of the playing trains coupon). I gave them coupons for a Niece Night, dinner at Auntie's, a dessert of their choice, frozen custard, and a movie at Flagship. They seemed happy with them.

After the girls' party, we all had facials with a Mary Kay consultant (meaning Olivia, Felicia, mom, Gram and I). Felicia just signed up to become a consultant, so she was trying out the products and learning how to give parties. It was really fun, and it felt nice to pamper myself a little. I haven't done much with makeup and all that recently.

Strawbery Banke

On Monday, to celebrate the Fourth, Mom, Dad, Gram, Nathan, Emily and I went to Strawbery Banke in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It's kind of like Old Sturbridge Village, but it represents several different time periods. They were having their tenth annual "An American Celebration." It was really neat. I just love these kind of places anyway, plus they had a lot of extra stuff going on since it was the Fourth.

Mom, trying on a new hat

Dad and Gram

We got to meet Abraham Lincoln and hear all about the Emancipation Proclamation.

They had a lot for children to do, like gunny sack races, a cake walk, and a treasure hunt. For the treasure hunt, they had to find answers to questions at certain historical houses. Nathan came home with lots of prizes.

They sold these delicious lemonades with half a lemon and a lemon stick candy in it. They were so delicious, especially since it was a hot day.

Happy Independence Day!

I made this cute patriotic bow tie for Nathan on Saturday night. He looked so cute!

More pics of vacation

This was the indoor pool at our resort. This is the one we used all t

he time because the outdoor one was too cold. Anyway, this one was huge.

Megan and Nathan enjoying the pool


We played mini golf near the resort. Of course, Dan won, but Ashley and I came in second. Nathan didn't do too bad for his first time. Megan was not happy at all with her score. She got so frustrated. She kept saying, "I usually do a lot better than this!" Luckily, she could laugh about it.

We went to a pretzel factory and a candy factory. We didn't get to see any candy being made, but we did see pretzels being made. They had some delicious looking pretzels and candy to buy in the store. Yum!

Above the Crayola factory was a Canal museum. Nathan and I thought it might be boring, but we decided to go check it out. I'm so glad we did because it was awesome! He enjoyed it as much or even more than the Crayola Factory. Here he is at one of the activities. He brought a boat through a waterway full of lockes and all sorts of stuff. They also had a lot of other activities to learn about canals and the history of them. He loved it.

Vacation!

These are some of my favorite pictures from vacation. They are not in order of how they happened. I just chose some random favorite photos.

I LOVE this picture of all three of the kids. I took it before church started. We went to the Scranton ward that day. I love visiting other wards because it reminds me of how the church is so similar everywhere. Plus, it's nice to not have any responsibilities for a week:-)

Nathan and I went to the Crayola factory in Easton. It was so fun! I love that place. You can see a demonstration of how crayons and markers are made and there are lots of different art projects for kids to do. A funny story about this crayon: After we had this picture taken the crayon must have noticed my BYU shirt, because she leaned over to one of the other workers and said something. Then the worker came up to us and said, "The crayon says she goes to BYU." I thought that was so cool. What are the chances of that?

We spent two days at Hershey Park. That place is so fun. Nathan was super brave and went on everything he was big enough to go on.

We also went to Chocolate World, which is right next to Hershey Park. You can go on a ride that shows you the process of making chocolate. They also have a huge store at the of the ride. It has everything you can imagine!

This is one of my favorite pics of the store at Chocolate World. Yum!