Museum of Miniatures

There is a doll house museum up in Carmel I've been wanting to go to for at least a year now, I just never wanted to go by myself, and it takes a special kind of person to stare at tiny knitting baskets and umbrella stands for over an hour. My husband is not that person. I love him too much to subject him to what he would undoubtedly see as torture.

Luckily, Meghan came to town.

After a delicious stop at Red Robin we arrived.

I know the pictures aren't great, but this place was amazing.

And I just love this picture of my tiny friend standing on the stool put out for children, so she can see the tiny things.
Look at how perfect all this stuff is. It was so fun. I recommend this place to any girl who loved doll houses as a kid or has little girls of her own.

Meghan's visit was too short, and It's devastating not knowing how long it will be before I see her again. Our other adventures on this trip included the Children's Museum, the Drive-In and lots of lounging around talking. I miss you girlie! Have fun in Dallas!

9 months

It's hard to believe this little stinker has been alive for ONLY nine months. It almost feels like time started when she came into being.

She is 19 lbs, 2 oz.
Still no teeth.
She can crawl, but prefers to army crawl.
She waves and claps and gives kisses.
She climbs the stairs (Yikes!)
She's bound to start getting hair any time now, right?
She can pull herself to a standing position and walk along furniture.
She can climb out of the bathtub, (oops)
Loves dogs
She is a major Mamma's girl!
She sleeps from 7-7 every night.
Takes two good long naps a day
She's always happier when there are kids around.
She hates being read to.
She doesn't like to cuddle.
I think she has a good sense of humor.
And I just can't help it, I think she's amazing.

Strawberry picking

My best friend Meghan came to see us. I haven't seen her since last summer and once a year is definitely not enough. We had lots of fun things planned to do with her and the first was strawberry picking.

It was a Beautiful day

I wanted to get lots of cute pictures of Daphne crawling through the plants, stuffing berries in her mouth. However, I have a strict no-crawling-through-poison-ivy policy. Unfortunately the patch was really overgrown with weeds, (including poison ivy and stinging nettles) and the berries were super tiny, so we just had to pick them for her.
She still had a good time playing with and eating them.

And of course, we made yummy jam when we got home.

Fruits of Summer

There are so many things to love about this time of year; longer days, warm weather, picnics. And of course, FRESH seasonal produce. This week I'm especially excited about:

Strawberry & Rhubarb

They're pretty delicious all on their own, but together...

Amazing.

Today's goal was to make a pie. Not just any pie, a strawberry rhubarb pie. One of my ultimate favorite foods. I used this recipe.

And I have to toot my own horn just a little. It's the best thing I've ever made. That's not saying a lot because baking is not my strong suit. But let me repeat, It is the best thing I have ever made.

I added a teaspoon of dried Valencia orange peel. It was too delicious to just have one piece.

Try it!

(and if the pie wasn't enough to make it an amazing day, I only have to
wait 2 more days until my Meghan comes to see me!)

Nauvoo

When I was 14 my family went to Nauvoo. They decided to go during the week of Girl's Camp... my 4th year of Girl's Camp, which as everyone knows is the very best year. So I never went to Nauvoo until this weekend.

We started our adventures with a horse-drawn carriage ride.

We visited Carthage Jail. This was definietly the most moving part of the trip.

We planned the trip with our friends the Farnsworths. We got to have lots of fun with them, but due to overlapping nap times we didn't see them as much as we would have liked.
We saw the "Rendevous" Program

We enjoyed talking to all the cute senior and sweet sister missionaries.

We went to the Print Shop, the Tin Smith, The Black Smith, The Wainwright, the Brick Yard and all the fun places where they show you how things were done back in the Pioneer days.

Daphne liked to get really hands on.
We walked down the "Trail of Hope" It was especially neat to see the journal entries (as well as the homes) of a couple of my ancestors.
We crossed the great Mississippi several times
Bryce kept Daphne entertained while I did a temple session

We loved just getting to be with Bryce for 3 whole days!
We did the Community Of Christ tour of sites. It was really interesting to get a glimpse of their beliefs. There was a distinctly different feel between the LDS sites and theirs. This is at the grave site of Joseph, Hyrum and Emma.


The whole weekend was wonderful. We had great whether, good company and our testimonies were sure fed. Learning more about the sacrifice all the Saints made back then makes me grateful for their examples in perfect faith, and inspires me to be more willing to sacrifice for truth.

(I'm also reallygrateful we decided to stay in a hotel instead of camping.)

Turkey Run

We have exactly one year left in Indiana, and there are so many neat places we still need to see before we go. This weekend we spent a few gorgeous hours at Turkey Run State Park.
Lots of beautiful scenery and some good hiking trails.
There was this delicious little gully trail called the "ice box." As soon as you take a few steps down a bridge, the temperature immediately drops 20 degrees. It was misty and quiet and felt amazing on the humid day.
Daphne was such a trooper for the first hour and a half, but she decided she needed to be held for the last mile or so.
It was so humid the camera lens fogged up every time we tried to take a picture, and it looks like my hair is wet. Nope, just moist and frizzy.

Having fun as a family
We encountered some wildlife...

And really enjoyed the day. One more Indiana adventure checked off the list!

Things my brother told me...

Which turned out not to be true

This is my big brother Daniel

He's three years older than me and as a little girl I worshiped him as little sisters tend to do.
I followed him around, I tried to play with him and his toys. I thought he knew everything and believed every word he said.I was always amazed at how smart he was and how he knew sooooo much.

As I've grown up I have realized that some of the things Daniel said that I took for fact weren't true, not by a long shot.

Examples:

Don't ever drink a glass of water that you left out over night, because a daddy
long legs might have dropped some venom in it, and if you drink it, it could kill you.

If you drink a Squeeze-It while lying down, you will choke on it and drown and die.

If a praying mantis gets on you, it will run around really fast and tickle you to death

While babysitting me one night, "Jen, I hear burglars breaking in. Hide here and I'll go check."
This was actually just a good tactic to keep me frozen with fear and out of his way so he could play video games until my parents got home.

(These are just a few examples. There are many more that run in a similar vein.)

Throughout my adult life I have realized that a lot of the things I knew to be true were totally false, whether he made them up or really believed them himself, I sure believed him. He was also full of useful facts about dinosaurs, space and square roots. But most of the things that stuck were the various tips that would help me avoid an early demise.

Hey, I've lived this long, so I guess I'm pretty lucky to have a big brother.