Visiting My Kids

I went to visit the kids this month. I flew to Utah on a Thursday evening, and spent Friday volunteering in my daughter Adri's first grade class. It was so much fun! I mostly did projects that Adri wanted me to do, but I did read the children a story after lunch.

It's pretty amazing to see my youngest daughter as a school teacher. Adri is a wonderful teacher and I'm very proud of her.

While I was there we all went to the Provo temple together. Garrett and Tyler had study groups to attend on Saturday, so we weren't able to go to the temple until later in the afternoon. After the temple I made dinner for the family at Russ and Adri's apartment.

I went to church with Adri and Russ, and on Sunday evening the boys came over and we all played games. The only way my visit could have been better was if Kent could have been there with us.

After four days in Utah I flew to Houston to visit Lissa, Jason and Kiera. Kiera is 15 months old and has lots of personality. She found numerous ways to entertain her parents and me, including licking the water off the door of the dishwasher.

Relaxing against her mom while watching her favorite show, "Meet the Robinsons."

Lissa and I took Kiera shopping for a dress. We forgot to take the stroller, so Kiera had a great time walking throughout the store. I mostly followed her around while her mom looked at dresses. When we got out to the parking lot, Kiera kept walking right past the car. The parking lot was pretty empty, and she walked the length of the lot. The white car backing out is Lissa coming to pick us up.

Here's a family picture. Kiera likes to go outside, so every day I was there I took her for a walk in the stroller, though the weather was still pretty hot and humid. We always went in the morning after breakfast.

When Kiera was born her hair was dark, but every time I see her it seems to be lighter. A year ago our hair was the same color.

While in Houston I spent a day at the International Quilt Festival, which advertises itself as the largest quilt show in the world. I LOVED it. The quilts were amazing, and made me feel like such an amateur.

Here's the video of Kiera walking away from the car (I don't know why the blog put it at the end of the post.) There wasn't anything interesting in the direction she was going, so I don't know why she was so determined to keep walking.

I had a wonderful time visiting the kids and going to the quilt festival, but Kent was lonely at home and happy to have someone home to talk to!

Court is Now in Session!

I found out that anyone can attend a session of the Supreme Court, as long as they're willing to stand in line to get in. So on Monday, October 5th, I went to give it a shot. I went with three friends, and we were in line by about 7:20am, to hear the 10am case. At 7:30 everyone in line was given a red card with a number showing our place in line. I was #46. Once we had a number we could get out of line and go to the cafeteria or find a place to sit down. It was a lovely autumn day, which was nice, since we waited in line for almost four hours. At about 9:30am the first 40 people in line were taken in to attend the 10am hearing. We didn't get in, so we waited another hour and were able to attend the 11am hearing. I didn't understand most of the legalese that the lawyers presented to the judges, but it was interesting to see the Supreme Court judges in person. The female justices asked the most questions of the lawyers, in case you were wondering. Though Chief Justice John Roberts talked quite a bit, too.

The media was set up outside the supreme court building. It was Justice Sotomayor's first day on the bench to hear cases.

Some protesters came to entertain those of us standing in line. They were protesting Gitmo.

After the session we went had lunch in the cafeteria in the basement of the Supreme Court building, and looked around the building a bit. This is the spiral staircase inside the Supreme Court building. All in all a very interesting day to see our court system at work!

Kent's Family Reunion July 2009

The Family all together again.

Linda's "interpertive" cake

At the beach to stay cool - 107 degrees inland and no Air Conditioning.

Camp Reliea? where we stayed