4th of July weekend

Adam's dad has been working away from home for quite a little while and so we thought we'd take the opportunity of a holiday weekend to go and see him. We packed it up and headed off to Kansas City to meet the Illinois Brauns and have some fun.

With Grandpa's hotel as home base, we had the unusual and wonderful opportunity to go visit all kinds of church history sites. First we went to liberty jail. You can't tell but that's what we are sitting in front of. It's so neat to see part of the original property and to really see in person what that it was like for them while they were in there.


Then off to Far West and the temple site there. It was such a pretty day and it was so nice to get to be out doors for this kind of day. Elizabeth got spoiled all weekend by her grandma, grandpa, aunt and uncle. She was just loving it!


Next we went to Adam Ondi Ahman. If you have never been there, you really have to go. I had always heard that it was a beautiful place but honestly, it was like nothing I've ever seen before. And I know what you're thinking. "It's Missouri." Trust me, it's beautiful. See?


Grandma took such good care of Elizabeth. Elizabeth just cracked up with her and loved to play all the games Grandma taught her.

She also managed to melt her Grandpa. It was such fun to see her get to play with the Illinois members of her fan club!

I have to say, the coolest thing about Adam Ondi Ahman was that it was so peaceful. Elizabeth was sick of being in the car by the time we got there and she was pretty much just screaming. But, when we crossed into Adam Ondi Ahman the crying immediately stopped. Literally. We drove a little further into the valley and got out to hike around and it completely took my breath away. I never wanted to leave. It had just rained and it was so fresh, pure and clean there. Sadly, as we crossed out of the Adam-Ondi-Ahman the crying resumed.

Stay tuned for what we did on the 4th!

Block Party

The park by our house has this TREMENDOUS party the weekend before 4th of July every year and this year was no exception. It's so much fun. A full county fair type array of horrible for you but delicious tasting foods...


bounce houses a go-go which, as you can see, had Elizabeth completely mezmerized and giddy...




and a live band. Not just any band, mind you. Smashmouth came. That's right. We saw Smashmouth live at the park across the street from our house.

And since we were being groupies at an outdoor concert, we had to go ahead and snap a groupie picture (you know, one that you take holding out your own camera and shooting the photo).

We then walked back to our neighbors house where we watched the incredible, 45 minute long fireworks display which is all set to music. It's so impressive.

I seriously love this little town we live in. It's so much fun to walk over to the park with your family, see your neighbors, ward members and other friends and just chill in the open air. Isn't summer like the greatest thing that ever happened to life?

Elizabeth vs. the Avocado

At this point, I'm not convinced I can decide who won.

The 7th inning stretch

On a whim, Adam and I decided we'd try our luck with taking Elizabeth to a baseball game. There's a minor league team that plays not far from our house so we packed her up and went out to the ball park. The only seats left were out in the pavillion and that was just perfect for us. Lots of grass, plenty of room for her to roam around and a nice shady spot to escape (some of) the summer heat.

She particularly enjoyed perusing (read: eating) the program.

You can see behind us that it's a really pretty park. There were tons of other kids in the area we were sitting in so it made for a really relaxed, really fun evening.

Have I mentioned how I absolutely adore summer?

The world's best babysitters

No, not for Elizabeth. For me. Picture it. Adam is gone on high adventure. Teri's husband is also gone on high adventure. Elizabeth and I were going to go across the street to watch the coolest show ever with Teri and the kids on Wednesday night. I knew a storm was coming but I wasn't paying much attention to it. I saw something on the news that said there were tornadoes touching down outside of my immediate area and that the storm was headed our way but I've seen those warnings millions of times and nothing's happened.

I called my brothers and told them just to get out their candles and stuff so they could be ready in case the power went out and I got my candles out and ready but I didn't do much else to get ready. All the sudden the phone rang. It was Teri.

"Tamara, can you hear the tornado sirens?"

"Uh, no."

"Well, they're going off right now. So, I totally understand if you would rather stay home but you're welcome to ride out the storm at our house if you want some company."

Short pause. "Uh...I guess I'll come over. Why not." (You can see I'm not feeling very perturbed about the storm at this point.)

I start getting Elizabeth's stuff together to go across the street (e.g. pack up her food/ diapers/ etc.) and I have this feeling I should pack a flashligh. Who puts a flashlight in their diaper bag?!? So, I ran to the back of the house to get Elizabeth's blanket and from the back of the house, I hear Elizabeth crying. Not a regular cry. A very unusual cry. So I ran to the front of the house to see what was going on.

I will never, as long as I live, forget what I saw. There, in my entry way, was my little baby crawling toward the front door. Here's where it gets weird. The front door which was closed and locked when I went to get her blanket had blown open and when i looked beyond my baby and out the open door, I saw the sky which was the most erie shade of yellow (yes, the sky was yellow) I have ever seen. In one fell swoop, I looked at her, said "we're out of here", slung on my diaper bag, picked up the baby, closed and locked the door, and sprinted across the street to Teri's house.

By the time I got there, I was pretty well soaked and so was Elizabeth. I knocked on the door and poor Jenna screamed at the sound of the door knocking. Sam opened the door almost before I could finish knocking and before I knew it, Teri, Jenna, Sam, Elizabeth, Cupcake (Jenna's hamster) and I were all cozy in the laundry room which was lit (once the power went out) by the coolest candle I've ever seen. Sam and Jenna told us stories and kept us entertained until the storm passed.

The power was out so we got to hang out at Teri's until the rain, thunder and lightening subsided a bit and we could cross the street and, thanks to my trusty flashlight, see where I was going once I found my way back inside. I'm telling you, Sam and Jenna were the greatest entertainment during the storm. They played games with her, sang her songs, got out toys for her and generally just kept her happy. They even insisted on walking Elizabeth and I home after the fiasco. So thanks to Teri, Jenna and Sam for being such good baby sitters. I would have completely freaked out if it weren't for them. I'm so lucky to have such great neighbors and Elizabeth just adores them too. Our awesome home teacher, Brother Causey, promptly checked in on us as did my brothers so we were well taken care of, but it sure was nice to not have to sit by myself with Elizabeth in our own laundry room. How boring would that have been?

Thank goodness for good friends

And for indoor play places during Texas summers. So while Elizabeth and I were home alone while Adam was gone on high adventure, Sara had a great idea to go to the mall and let the kids roam around and the indoor playground. Since Elizabeth was crawling and pulling up much faster, I thought she'd have a great time. And she did!


Here she is with Camden. She's so excited to be bigger than somebody and Camden is such a good sport about her trying to poke and paw him to figure him out.

This picture just cracks me up. We were trying SO HARD to get a cute shot of the kids playing together and this one little girl (bless her heart) just kept insisting on being in the shot. We even tryied to distract her and she just would not budge. Anyway, after a million failed attempts, I was just so amused I kind of wanted her in the picture to remind me.

So thanks Blackers for busting us out of our solitary state. We had a blast!

June 10, 2009 will go down in history. It was Elizabeth's first time in the pool and boy did she love it. Nevermind that I could not get over how cute she looked in her swimsuit. She just loved the water! Here she is just hanging out with her good friend Chandler.

I love how he keeps her so entertained and how much she laughs whenever he's around.

Sara let her borrow this little raft and she just thinks it's the greatest thing ever.


Teri was kind enough to hold her so I could video the moment. I'll spare you all the video but I can promise you that it's pretty hilarious. You should she have seen how she pointed her toes and then ever so gingerly dipped her cute tippy toes in it. She looked skeptical at first but that was only momentary. The minute she got her bearings, she was splashing, giggling and doing her best to completely submerge herself in the water, including trying to wriggle out of my hands to get off the step where she was sitting. We know what this means. Despite the fact that there are no physical similarities of any kind between her and I, I now have proof that she is in fact my child. Woo hoo!