Camping.

Over the Pioneer weekend and Willie's birthday we headed up to Lake Lanier to try out the summer camping. I've been wanting to camp for awhile now, but perhaps we should have been wiser. We picked a very hot and humid Georgia summer day to go. We picked up Wendy's along the way because we realized that we really didn't want to start a fire. In the end we made a little fire to roast some marshmallows to eat with our "crackers" or cookies. Before our trip Parker saw a picture on the Friend magazine with a family roasting marshmallows. He thought they had crackers so that's what we had. After setting up the tent we went swimming in the lake. We were having a great time. Lincoln would get tired every so often, a late night for the boy. Parker had a lot of fun until. . . yes we mentioned the fish in the water. They had been nibbling at our feet on occasion. We thought he would love to see the fish in the water. Oh my are we insane!! Yes! Our little Parker wanted OUT of the water and FAST! Poor kid was so scared to get back in the water. Well our swimming adventures were pretty much done. We told him there wouldn't be fish in the morning. He tried it a little bit in the morning but still no joy.
The boys opened up some presents from my parents. They received new sleeping bags (which were way cute but too hot to sleep in), a tent (which we didn't get to use), and new camping chairs (which they loved). They had so much fun opening presents. Happy Birthday to Parker and Happy Camping to Lincoln. Thanks mom and dad. We baked a cake before hand for Willie's birthday. We enjoyed singing to him and the boys had fun blowing out the candles. We didn't take too many pictures and only one short video.

Hide and Seek.

This can really only be expressed in a video. Willie decided to teach P-man how to play. Lincoln was observing and trying this game out as well.

Temple Trip.

Our first sacrificial temple trip since the Atlanta Temple has been closed for remodeling. Willie says that our temple trip to London was a sacrifice but I think it's just that we planned to attend the temple while we were on vacation. This trip was different though. We planned to leave Friday night and return Saturday. On this trip we made a few discoveries. First, we are grateful that we have always been blessed to have a temple within 20 minutes of our home. Second, the pioneers sacrificed a lot when traveling across the plains; it shouldn't be too big of a problem to travel three hours to attend a temple session.
When we arrived at the hotel I was going through our things and realized that we had left our temple clothing (no rentals at this temple), and my temple recommend (in my temple bag). We had become so worried about other things that we forgot the MAIN thing. We thought that maybe we could see if there was some way we could borrow some clothes and maybe do a phone interview or something to make it all work out, but we couldn't call because they didn't open their doors until 5 pm. Small temple means that you have limited operating hours. Willie left us around 3:30 to head back to Atlanta for our things. He drove six hours total and ate lots of pretzels to keep him awake, as well as listened to sports radio. I took the boys swimming. Kind of scary doing it all by myself. I bought a pizza, which I had troubles in doing. The weather turned dark when we were getting out of the pool and luckily we were inside when the thunder started, Parker doesn't like thunder. The pizza guy came early and the ATM at the hotel was out of money. In the end it all worked out and the boys got a bath and were in bed by 7:45.The next morning we were off to the temple. Willie went in first and I took pictures of the boys. The weather was a bit warm and the humidity was pretty high. I was excited that the boys posed for this picture. I love how happy they are.The boys found a few sprinklers to play in. It was pretty funny. Parker would watch for the sprinkler and move just in time not to get wet. Lincoln wouldn't be watching and he would get hit right in the chest and face. Poor kid was soaking. They had fun together.

The temple was really nice. I always enjoy going to the temple, it's a nice recharge to my life. We didn't realize that we had to go European to get to Birmingham, Alabama. The sign below shows Oporto (the place we lived in Portugal) and Madrid (Spain). The sign brought back some interesting memories.

Lincoln's first.

Each night we rotate who says the prayer. Parker's turn was last night but he refused, like most times. I saw Lincoln ready for prayers with his head on the table so we let him say the prayer. Parker helped at first with "Dear Heavenly Fadder..." Then we said "thank you for..." and this is where Lincoln helped out "daddy, mommy, parker and (very well pronounced) baby." He didn't say his own name in the prayers but he did great. Then we thanked Heavenly Father for "Jesus," I can't spell how he says it, but he's working on it. Parker helped to end the prayer as well.

Willie and I are so proud of our boys for learning how to pray so that hopefully one day they will know where to turn when we aren't around.

Happy Independance Day.

What better way to celebrate our country's birthday than by going to a good old traditional Major League Baseball game. We dressed as best we could for the holiday is the most red white and blue that we could find. We took our friend, John with us. The Braves played the Marlins. The final score was 4-1 for the Braves. All of the runs were in one inning. There was some fun excitement. I took tons of food because the game was during dinner time and we didn't want to spend the money for an expensive burger at the stadium. If we had been in our original seats we would have roasted, but we found something nice and high in the shade. It was a really nice day.The boys did really well for awhile and they stayed in their seats and watched parts of the game.

Lincoln and Parker eventually made their way into the stands and ran from one end to the other. This was partly another reason for sitting so high, room to run. Lincoln was the only one to sport Braves gear, maybe before we leave Atlanta we will have collected a few more items.We made sure to bring Parker's glove. He was really excited to bring it along, you know in case we would catch a ball. This reminded us of a classic movie, The Sandlot. In the movie 'Smalls' has a plastic mitt that breaks when he's playing catch with his step-dad. Luckily this mitt hasn't broken yet. We are ready for Parker when he really wants to play catch though.
This is the bit of proof that Willie got of me actually at the game. I guess I'm not really keeping an eye on Parker but that's okay. He didn't get hurt. Only Lincoln when he tripped from running too fast down the isles. On the actual 4th of July we heard wonderful testimonies born at church. One Sister stood and said that she had it "click" during conference why she was okay with her sons serving in the military. She bore a strong testimony on the Plan of Salvation. She had come to understand that if anything did happen to her sons while either on their missions or serving the country that they would get to see them again one day. Many members from our ward also spoke about how grateful they are to be living in America, but they have lived in very poor places throughout the world. Some people spoke of all the freedoms we have in this country and that we don't think is a luxury. We forget sometimes to thank Heavenly Father for these blessings. I am grateful to live in America. I'm grateful for the many blessings Willie and I have had in the last few years.
On the 5th of July we attended the Dunwoody Parade. There were some highlights and there were some low-lights. We did enjoy our time as a family though. At this parade they weren't allowed to throw candy. Which turned out to be good for us, we didn't want to be taking home too much. This was the coolest float. We never saw any horses. I think there was a firetruck. A couple of boats and a whole load of campaigners. Parker was a walking billboard by the time the parade was over, elections are at the end of the month. I thought this turned out to be a pretty cool picture with the flag. Parker and Lincoln enjoyed their American flags.