Summer!

 This week was the start of summer for our kids--Wednesday was the last day of school. (I missed most of it, though, because my publicist asked if I'd come to a librarian meeting in SLC with one of the sales reps for Random House. It was fun to meet a bunch of librarians and sign some books, but since I drove up and back the same day it also made for a long day!)

We've been trying to take advantage of summer: we put in a garden on Thursday. Oliver desperately wants watermelon, so we'll see how the one we planted grows.

The kids got to play at the park with friends on Thursday, and on Friday, Evelyn and Oliver really wanted to take their new birthday scooters on the trail in Canyon Park. (Of course, as you can see from the picture, that means the scooters got carried most of the time).

The family hike turned out unexpectedly dramatic. Andrew really didn't want to go, so we finally said, "Fine, stay home," but no one was really happy about that. When we got home, we found a note on the door that said, "I need some alone time. Please don't come look for me." When a cursory search of the house failed to turn him up, his mother (uh, me) started to worry. I'd driven around for 5-10 minutes when Dan called to tell me he'd been here the whole time (hiding in a closet). Not something I hope to experience again soon!

Saturday we helped clean the church, then went to St. George to swim at Sand Hollow, which has a fantastic pool. The kids had a great time and Dan and I didn't hate it, which is always a win when it comes to swimming. We met up with Bubby and Poppy for "linner" at Black Bear diner then took the scenic way home, up through Dammeron Valley and Escalante.

After we got home, we had another hour before bedtime and decided to try frisbee golf on campus--the weather was glorious. But I'm not sure we'll be doing that again any time soon because Oliver doesn't like taking directions, and kept throwing his frisbee into the street/parking lot/you name it. When his frisbee landed in the parking lot, I told him and Dan told him to let Dan get it for him. He refused--and he and Andrew nearly got hit by a car! That was enough excitement for one evening.

A few pictures to catch up for the month:

Evelyn, after the color run. (Andrew, to his everlasting disappointment, had strep that day and couldn't go).

 My almost successful attempts to make macarons. They are so hard to get right! Some day.

 The only picture I took of Evelyn at her birthday celebration.

 Catching up with Jared's family while Jeni was in town. (Not the best picture, but it was fun to be with everyone!)

Aunt Nellie and Aunt Verona at my signing last week. It took us a while to figure out the selfie. :P

May Day, May Day

We've been enjoying a little bit of a lull this week, between book events and the kids getting out of school for the summer next week.

In the two weeks since I've posted, we've had a couple of big events:

Evelyn turned 9! Our kids get big birthdays on their even years, so Evelyn got to have some friends over for a low-key celebration instead. She kind of worked around the system by inviting triplets--they made jewelry, had lunch and ice cream, drew pictures, and generally enjoyed themselves like pre-teen girls do. I (of course) did not manage to get any good pictures of them, but we sure love our Ev and her joy.

I went to the Storymakers conference for the (5th?) year in a row--this year I was even on the conference committee, one of the people in charge of arranging for visiting agents and editors to come to the writing conference. I also taught two classes and the new attendee orientation, so I was pretty busy.


Not too busy to go shopping one night (something I usually do with my mom and which made me miss her terribly)--but I'd packed two maxi dresses without packing a shirt to wear underneath, so additional clothing was necessary. And then, of course, I fell in love with this dress:

Here's a shot of my class--they look enthralled, don't they? ;) (Actually, I think both classes went pretty well--the new conference chair has been threatening me with teaching a two-hour intensive in the next year or two.) I'm not always sure how competent I am at writing, but I do enjoy teaching and think I'm reasonably good at it.

I did get to hang out with Jeni a little bit at the conference, which was fun, and I got to drive her to Jared's house and hang out with Jared's family for a little while Saturday night. Joshua is basically as tall as I am now. 

Both Evelyn and Andrew competed in the local Battle of the Books--for 3rd grade, this means reading books from a 15 book list as part of a team and being able to answer questions about each book (identifying the correct title and author name for each question). The 4th and 5th graders had 25 books on their list. As usual, Andrew insisted on getting all the books from the library (he didn't finish all of them, but he clearly read more than the rest of his team combined). Even Evelyn had us quiz her on the books. Both kids did pretty well--Evelyn's team came in 4th (though I was more pleased when one of the other parent volunteers told me about the "dark-haired girl with a tiara" who knew all the authors and titles on one of her teams. That would be Evelyn, who wanted to wear the tiara for her birthday).

Andrew's team came in first, which meant they got to take the morning off school last week to go to another elementary school for a final battle. They lost, but I was proud of him for working hard. (Though we might need to work on teamwork--it was clear that his team expected him to answer all the questions!)

Monday, we took the kids bowling, something we'd promised Andrew months ago for getting his arrow of light, but this was the first time we could make it work on a day that  wouldn't cost us a small fortune. Evelyn, it turns out, is a spectacular bowler with bumpers. Andrew didn't like the bumpers (even though  he used them 8/10 times), and Oliver tended to drop the ball onto the lane where it rolled so slowly that one of the workers had to come rescue it. (Check out my Instagram boomerang of Oliver at his finest: https://www.instagram.com/p/BUIRn8ulSSe/?taken-by=rosalyn.eves)

Andrew also did an excellent job at the 5th grade Important Americans Day, performing Andrew Johnson and talking about reconstruction. Actually, all the kids were well prepared and some of the costumes were really ingenious, though there were a few people on the list that I wasn't so sure about. Both Dan and I rolled our eyes a little at the Pocahontas who quoted her namesake Disney movie about "the colors of the wind". (Each kid wrote a script about their character and were supposed to include a quote--I guess she couldn't find anything from the actual Pocahontas?) Overall, though, it was well done.

Both Dan and Andrew were happy to have the scene over as it meant we could finally cut Andrew's hair (Andrew Johnson had chin-length hair, which we didn't quite achieve).

This weekend, we went down to St. George. I had a 3 hour book signing at Barnes & Noble, and Dan and the kids went to lunch and then to the All Abilities park. The book signing was definitely uncomfortable for my introvert self. I don't love selling my book to people who are only marginally interested, so I offered chocolate to people instead. I did have fun talking to some cute teenage sisters who both got a copy of the book, and a nice older gentleman came and talked to me about his interest in geology. The highlight was definitely seeing Aunt Nellie and Aunt Verona (and I have a selfie on my phone that I'll try to post later).

Pictures

There isn't much to say about this week, other than  that 3/5 of us were sick (I've got a cold; O and A had strep). So I'm catching up on long overdue photos.

First time seeing my book in a real store (SG B&N--they even let me autograph it. It was funny, because I showed up before the store opened the day my book came out, and when I got in, they didn't have it on the shelves yet! But  kind employee went and found them for me and even had me sign them.)

 Some pictures from my cedar City launch party at Main Street Books.

Picture of *my* bulldog at Provo High--only  now it's on the wall in a glass case rather than on the floor of the gym. (From a class visit to PHS).

I tried hard to get a picture of the dress my mom made me (which I wore to the Provo Library launch, but was only semi-successful).

 At the Orem B&N.

 Book talk at the King's English.

Book talk and signing at Vroman's books, Pasadena, CA, with Jessica Cluess.

Oliver at an SUU Artsfusion workshop, making super-hero capes.

 With friends at their pirate book signing at Changing Hands, Phoenix, AZ. (I learned the hard way that there are TWO Changing hands stores--I'd gone to the one my signing was scheduled for the next night, and found that they were all the way across town. I still made it, though the light rail was a little sketchy.)

 

 Book signing at Changing Hands (Tempe, AZ) with Aprilynne Pike. My cousin Rachel Tolman came, along with my old roommate Carey Hord!

I spent some time that morning in the gorgeous arboretum in Tempe.

Back in UT, at an amazing new park in St George designed for all abilities of kids.

 Oliver REALLY liked the splash pad. We probably should have brought swim suits.

Back to CA--Universal Studios!

 Hogsmeade!

 Hogwarts!

 Minions!

 The kids' favorite part was using their fancy wands to "cast" spells around Hogsmeade.

Disneyland!

We splurged our last morning for a character breakfast.

 

Back home for a day, then off to Boston for a book signing with Heidi Heilig.

 I had a late flight the next day and wandered around Boston, including Little Italy where I had lunch at this little Sicilian sea food restaurant. I wasn't quite brave enough to order the black pasta (calamari ink!), but I did get haddock, so I'm learning to branch out.