St. Louis = Ringlets

So we spent almost two and a half weeks in St. Louis this summer.

The first week was all my brothers and sisters and their spouses and was an official Family Reunion week. We started our week off on Sunday with all five of us and our families at the Waterloo branch for church. It was fun to see all the pews we filled up. And we hung out together at mom's afterwards.

The fourth of July was on Monday and mom had organized a barbecue with all of us and her side of the family at Konarcik Park. (Above: Portia and Preston played on the see-saw.) The kids mostly loved the merry-go-round and only three or four kids flew off it. We went to Columbia to watch the fireworks at The Legion afterward.

On Tuesday, we went to the zoo. The amazing St. Louis zoo. Of course we all got up early to do the free things. Here's my family riding the carousel free. Everyone else went to the Magic House but we stayed at the zoo because we hadn't been home in two years and I wanted to cover almost everything. We met at Micah and Karma's house afterward, where we ate Butter Burgers and Frozen Custard at Culver's and then did a whole night of fireworks in Micah's driveway.

On Wednesday, we drove to Meramec River to go floating. It really was fun. My little family had a raft (really a blow-up boat) and we spent most of our time just floating down the river with our lifejackets keeping us afloat. It started storming a little and we had to paddle a while to get us back in time. We spent the night at the luxurious (yes, I'm kidding) hotel near the river. The next morning, we zip-lined over the Meramec River. This was definitely more fun than I expected and exhilarating! We then toured the caverns and drove home.

On Friday, we drove up past Grafton, Illinois to an island on the Mississippi. We stopped on the way in front of this piasa bird. I think it's the only photo of the entire family we got (a couple of the small children are hiding, including my very own Portia).

After we took the ferry to the island, we ate at the buffet at the Hotel. The food really was good--and there was so much of it!

Saturday we had my book signing at the Waterloo Library. I had never done a signing before but it turned out really well. In fact, it was more of Q&A. I sold all the books I brought plus nine more. Thanks to my sister-in-law Karma for being the official book-signing photographer.

We went to Imo's Pizza for lunch, saw a movie (Zookeeper) at the Waterloo theater, and then went up to Collinsville for the Dash 'N' Splash (a 5K race). There was a lot of trash talking before the race about who was going to beat whom. Bianca ran it with me and it was so freaking hot. The race started at 6pm, which is truly unbearable in the St. Louis humidity. Fortunately, I had Bianca begging me to walk with her. I admit I was glad she held me back because there was no way I was going to beat my sister's 26-minute 5K. Afterward, they cleared out the entire water park, fed us dinner catered by Qdoba, and had a DJ there while we (and our families) ran around the splash park until ten. This was the end of the official family reunion. My brother and Eric left on Sunday.

The rest of us went to our great aunt Grace's funeral in Highland. Since I was staying on, I took my girls to do some other fun stuff. We did go to The Magic House. (Check out that hair!) This is the picture that the face recognition on Facebook asked if Bianca was Susannah Harper and Portia was Jeana. Funny, really!

We went to the Scott Joplin house, which we've never done before but it turned out pretty fun.

Science Center, shopping, Cahokia Mounds. Unfortunately, you have to throw getting sick in there. All three of us got that strange sickness of sleeping, high temp, headaches and sore throat into the mix. I got together with several of my friends as well--Hilary, Jamie, Scott, Sara and Christa.

Mom drove home with me and stayed a week, and then flew home.

I'll end this ridiculously long blog by saying that besides my family, I'm going to miss most the way the humidity curled Portia's hair into beautiful ringlets. It's curly in Utah, but it's amazing in St. Louis. The humidity was awful (running in the morning was like a sweat bath) and the air was constantly pressing in on me every time I walked outside.

So long, St. Louis! So long, humidity! So long, ringlets!

Last days and first days

This is Mrs. Lloyd. Bianca had to say goodbye to her fourth grade teacher on July 1. Bianca was tearful and it was amazing to me how attached she became to this teacher. I think one reason is because every week Bianca had to write Mrs. Lloyd a letter about what was going on with her life and the things that are important to her. The teacher would respond, and I feel like this really gave Bianca a personal relationship with her teacher. Sometimes Bianca would ask me not to look at the letter after she printed it off. I tried to not let it hurt my feelings. Sometimes she wanted things to herself and I had to respect that. On the last week, Mrs. Lloyd bound all Bianca's letters together into a book and let her take them home to keep as a journal. On the last day of school, Bianca wrote Mrs. Lloyd one last letter to tell her how much she would miss her (that she didn't have to give back). Bianca told me I could read this one and it seriously brought me to tears. It reminded me of a quote I had put aside after reading Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: "The classics tell us that, in relationships, the one between teacher and student comes second only to the one between parent and child."

Bianca also came home on the last day of school saying she had won the gold award. She'd been talking about this award for weeks now about how much she wanted it. Well, she got it. I didn't know if this was a big deal or not. But I guess only one other student in the class got a gold award. It was called the President's Education Award and is signed by Mr. Barack Obama himself (okay, yeah, I know it's most certainly stamped but still, maybe this gold award was more important than I realized). What a productive year Bianca has had. I'm so proud of her!

Today, on July 26, was Bianca's first day of fifth grade. Her new teacher is Mrs. Jensen. I hope this year will be as wonderful as the last one. Time will tell.

Fourth Grade Statehood Program

Last Friday was the fourth grade program for Bianca's school (Riverton Elementary). I was really impressed this year. They told the history of the state of Utah, sang a ton of songs that went with it, and even did some square dancing (haha--this is totally a rite of passage; I remember doing it in grade school and it was funny to see Bianca promenading with the boys, holding their hands).

Bianca really wanted to dress up as a pioneer. She had been Laura Ingalls from Little House on the Prairie for Halloween a couple years ago so it was nice we could just pull out the costume that grandma Watters had made for her and it still fit (mostly). Here she is saying her part in the program.

My children's teachers

I have high expectations for my children's teachers: I expect them to love my children. And I've been pretty lucky. Bianca's in fourth grade, and there's only been one year that I felt that her teacher(s) didn't really love her and that was by far her most difficult year (my guess is our kids can tell if their teachers love them or not). Fourth grade is dwindling down to the last two weeks for the year, and Bianca is already worried about losing Mrs. Lloyd.

Portia has a cute pre-school teacher who I can tell adores her (really, I'm pretty sure she loves all the kids) but I know she loves Portia because most days when I go to pick her up, the teacher rattles off something funny or cute that Portia did that day. One of my favorites was the day Miss Melissa gave Portia grapefruit for the first time. Portia tried it and said to Miss Melissa, "It's kind of gross." To which Miss Melissa responded, "Well, I really like it."  Portia then said, "You like the gross?" I still smile when I tell this story to somebody and it's since become a joke at our house that sometimes one of us will "like the gross."

In June, preschool was optional. I opted for it since Bianca's in school until July 1 with her year-round schedule. We also signed Portia up for the "paper art" class that takes place after preschool so Portia gets to take a sack lunch. Portia LOVES this because it makes her feel big like Bianca. Here is a picture of Portia feeling big, holding her lunch box, and wearing her grapefruit dress, in honor of "the gross."

Bianca's Piano Recital 2011

Bianca's piano recital was Sunday. She'd been working hard and practicing (we even took files of each song she was playing [and put them on her MP3 player] and her sheet music, and she had to "pretend" she was playing while we were on our vacation). She'd been working on eight pieces--Bourree by Telemann, Turkish March by Mozart, La'dieu by Burgmuller, Dr. Gradus an Parnussum from the Children's Corner by Debussy, Maple Leaf Rag by Joplin, Rhapsody in Blue by Gershwin, Rhapsody by Jon George that was a duet with her teacher, and an original composition called Moonlit Night.

They turned out great. I'm always so proud of her when she performs. Eric's Aunt Joan and cousin Sean and his wife Rachel and baby Charlie came too. I'm glad they were able to come and make Bianca feel loved as our "cheering section" usually is bare since neither of our immediate family lives in Utah.

Rock Step Run 2011

I love that Bianca motivates me to start running in the spring. Each year, she wants to get started training for the Rock Step Run in Herriman. She said she doesn't want to move up to the 5K from the 1 mile until she gets first place (the last two years, she's gotten 2nd, even though she's improved her time each year).

Saturday was the big day. I am always so worried that Bianca won't know where to turn back for the mile and get stuck running the 5K or 10K. I just wait to see her turn the corner. This year, she and a friend of hers were right there. They were both running so hard. When it's a friend (and her mom is my good friend), I feel bad wanting my daughter to win.

She was able to stay ahead at the end. She improved her time 23 seconds from last year and finished her mile in 8 minutes and 20 seconds.

Bianca ended up not only with 1st place in the 1-11 category, but also the overall women category. She finally got her 1st place. Now we can move on and start training for the 5K.
I even invested in Bianca's "running" and bought her a pair of Asics for her 5K training after the race on Saturday. This morning, we woke up at 6 am and ran two miles. This girl is a hard worker. She doesn't complain. I know she'll be ready for the 5K we're planning to run in July in St. Louis.

Our Trip to England PART EIGHT (Goodbye London)

We spent our last day here in London. In the morning, Portia and Bianca were watching cartoons. Their favorite was called Billy and was a British Charlie Brown (who was much less depressed than our Charlie Brown). During every commercial break, there was Lelli Kelly advertising their sparkly gem-clad shoes with make-up cell phone gift. So, Portia really wanted a pair of Lelli Kelly's. We spent our morning in London shopping at Piccadilly Circus, searching for Lelli Kelly's. I swear we walked for two hours looking for a pair and no one sold them. What's the point of all that advertising if I can't even find a pair. Eric was definitely in on the hunt and I tried not to mention too much that last year I had bought Portia a pair of Lelli Kelly's from Nordstrom's Rack but Eric made me return them because they were "hideous." Whatever--I guess Portia has him wrapped around her little finger after all.

The best part of the shopping was the book store, called WaterStones, where we lounged for an hour, looking a books (I love that all the covers in the UK are different from ours). We all bought some books. My pick was a UK edition of The Sky is Everywhere that was done so beautifully (colored plates with the poems in the book) I bought it even though I already have that book at home. [I ended up reading it on the long plane ride home the next day. I still love it!]

Long story short, we walked past Gucci, Prada, Anthropologie, Gap and could not find one store in Piccadilly Circus that sold Lelli Kelly's (and believe me, we asked). We finally gave up our efforts (I promised Portia I'd take her to Nordstrom's Rack when we got home and get her some) and jumped on a double-decker bus and then headed back to the underground and went to Buckingham Palace. This was something my mom really wanted to do. I wasn’t all that impressed. You can’t even go in. I did see the marching guards through the gate.

We ate in the late afternoon (nothing remarkable). The last thing we did for the day was visit The London Eye, the big ferris wheel where you can see most of London.

Instead of writing about the LONG plane ride home (9 hours from London to Atlanta; then another 3 to get to SLC), I'll mention the five things I wish I'd known before we went "on holiday" to England:

1. You don't have to tip at restaurants in England. The only place we needed to was in London (because they let you know you're supposed to).
2. Our plugs don't work there, so there's no reason to pack my flat iron. In fact, we spent three days searching for a plug adapter that had three prongs to recharge our laptops. I shouldn't have brought that either. Even with that one, my flat iron wouldn't work.
3. Flat sheets aren't done in England. They wash their comforters. That made me very uncomfortable at first, wondering if they did in fact wash the comforter.
4. I wish we'd looked at some British street signs before we started driving.
5. I wish we'd learned what the word "queue" meant before we left. That word still leaves me a little baffled.

I'll leave on the side-note that when I returned to Salt Lake City, Portia still wouldn't stop talking about Lelli Kelly's so I took her to Nordstrom's Rack. No Lelli Kelly's. Really, should I be surprised? Isn't that the way life works. Turned out, I ordered a pair off ebay--they're on their way from Hong Kong now. I know there's some irony there.