Sweet Tomato Pie

It's been such a busy week... and you all just finished reading about the whole Maryland adventure, so I'll keep it brief and detail free.
For FHE on Monday we went down to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building so that pmc could finally see the new Joseph Smith movie. It was fantastic. We had a wonderful time and enjoyed sharing our feelings about the Prophet as we walked back to the car.
Wednesday we had the privilege of doing an overnighter for the twins that atec nannies. I went out and met up with them at Sweet Tomatoes for dinner (really good, don't know why I've never been there before!), then we went and visited the Cannon's (our Mission President[s]). After spending the night out at Daybreak, I headed back in to work and atec kept right on going until about 6PM Thursday. When she got home, she was really tired.
Friday was the beginning of a new adventure as well. We had a handful of things to get to, and had to stay right on schedule. I got off work early so that we could get to a matinee of The Secret Garden at HCT. (atec's favorite show!) It was really good... we had lots of good things to say and very few bad. Immediately following the show, we rushed to get "Spag" to go and make it to the Highland homecoming game (vs. Olympus), so that we could see Aubrey perform the Highland Fling with Pep Club at halftime. She did a great job. As if that wasn't enough, Friday night was our only chance this year to become True Aggies. (Don't worry, a Utah Man am I... this was for atec. However, I don't mind declaring that USU is certainly #2 in my book.) We managed to make it to Logan by about quarter after 11 and up to Old Main easily by midnight. We are now certified True Aggies. And we had more fun in Logan on Saturday visiting with Grandma Ruthie and some of atec's good friends. (Actually, they're my friends now too.) We had planned to go to the football game, but the weather wasn't cooperating, so we headed home early and instead got to see the Utes get spanked in Las Vegas. (FYI, the Aggies lost a heartbreaker too.)
We spent Saturday night at my parents house so that we could be there to take care of t & j's kids when my parents left for MoTab in the morning. All in all, it wasn't so bad taking care of them, but we're pretty worn out now and happy to be getting a few consecutive nights in our own bed.

We got Tagged

So really, atec is not trying to take the blog over.....we just haven't been getting to this on Sunday evenings anymore, as you might have been able to tell.....which leaves atec with the job during the week since pmc is in school and at work all the time! But we've now switched our blogging time to Sunday mornings, so maybe we'll be better off!

Apparently we got tagged to tell 8 things about ourselves that not many people know....and since we don't have any pictures this week, we'll stick with that!

1- Actually most people know this, however we still get questions. We met as missionaries in the Maryland Baltimore Mission. We didn't think that we would be anything besides friends when we returned home, but then we met up, went out, dated, enjoyed, got engaged, and then married on 3 January 2007. I recognize that's a quick summary, but at least you know the basics!

2- Most know atec plays and teaches the violin, but the news is, she's also working on putting together a studio of quartets to coach!

3- Pmc is currently working on a degree in Human Development and Family Studies so that he can become a Child Life Specialist!

4- We both love woodwork and household projects. Pmc recently made a DVD rack from wood, and installed our dishwasher without help other than online. We would love to make our own bunk beds for our kids and stuff!

5- Atec hates scrapbooking, so she's decided to get into digital scrapbooking.........she's putting together slide-shows of pictures and stuff, burning them to DVD and now we can just watch them!

6- Pmc loves children almost as much as atec! He is almost more excited to have some our own than atec is!

7- One of pmc and atec's favorite dates is going to watch musicals. This week they will be going to see The Secret Garden at Hale Centre Theatre.

8- We actually hope we get to have twins at some point. We had twin boys in our sunbeams class, and atec is nannying 1-year-old twin girls....we think it's rather delightful!

Alright, we hope you enjoyed, thanks for reading and have a stellar week! Sorry I'm not passing on the tag......

In Tandem

Two weeks, one spent planning and the next spent playing. So frankly we're going to try to let the pictures do most of the talking......

WEEK ONE:

Monday we got to have F.H.E. with atec's family this week. Her sister Aubrey was distracted by the book she was reading, so we decided to sit on her for the picture. Here's how she felt about that....

On Thursday, pmc's sister finally had her baby.....Jacob Davis Olsen.

The rest of the week was spent planning, you know, trying to work out the details of covering the entire State of Maryland and the District of Columbia in one week.

WEEK TWO: Back to the Mission-Field

Saturday: We started by flying into BWI, and were supposed to be picked up by the Seger's . However, Melissa Seger got appendicitis :( and was at the hospital, so we were picked up by the Sperry's. We went to dinner in Severn at our favorite Baja Fresh and enjoyed some time with their cute 8-month-old twin girls. Then we met up with the Olson's who took us to their home in Frederick.

Sunday: We attended church at the Frederick Ward and got to visit with nearly everyone we wished there. However, some people were missed, so we dropped by some other homes during the afternoon and evening. But we also got a chance to jet up to Gettysburg for a few hours.

Monday: We spent the morning recovering from missionary work, and played on the Olson's sweet rope-swing. We went to lunch with Brother Kippen and then enjoyed some time in his shoe store, where he gave atec some advice on her shin-splints (ugh!). Then we had to get into the Catoctin "Mountains" for a picture by the caboose.....which is right near Camp David. We also stopped off at Cunningham Lake to dip our feet in the cool water. However, our toes were nearly attacked by minnows. We attended the Frederick Ward Annual Ice Cream Social before meeting up with the Castle's who took us to Hagerstown. We went directly to a BBQ at the Harne's where the Antietam Ward families pmc knew got together just for us. We were amazed to see there were still Fireflies out this late in the season.

Tuesday: We cruised up to Pennsylvania to have breakfast and visit before everyone left for work and school.....aka EARLY (enough to see the morning Maryland Mist and sunrise)! Then we went to West Virginia for some visiting, then ate lunch in Maryland at Weaver's. We then went to the Antietam Battlefield, where they talk about the Bloodiest Battle in U.S. History. Then we spent the afternoon at Harper's Ferry, where the Shenandoah and Potamac rivers merge and the whole deal with John Brown, before cruising to Virginia for dinner and some more visiting.

Wednesday: We stopped back into Frederick to visit Sister Smart....the most amazing Relief Society President on the planet.....literally! But then we headed down to Kensington to go to the Temple. It was so nice to take a break and just sit in the temple, we reminisced about what a refuge from the schedule of missionary work it had been for us. Then we headed to Olney to stay with pmc's cousin Joel and his wife Kristin and their kids. We took a nap, had dinner, and then drove down to D.C. to see the sites in the night lighting! It was so beautiful. On our way home we couldn't help stopping in at Rita's for a gelati.

Thursday: Joel took us to work with him where we caught the Metro to head back into D.C. We rented a tandem bike right near the Washington Monument, then covered the Capitol, Jefferson Monument, Arlington National Cemetery, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Memorial Bridge, Lincoln Memorial, WWII Memorial, and the White House before returning the bike. We highly recommend doing the bike thing! We also decided that all Americans should be required to visit Washington before they can register to vote. It's amazing how visiting these sites can remind us of the foundations our country is established on. Anyway, we spent the afternoon at the Smithsonian museums, where the highlights for us were the Sunstone, U.S. History in general, paintings by Renoir, Monet, Manet, and a Stradivarius violin. When we headed back on the Metro, there were some emergencies in a few stations on our line, so we ended up spending about 30 minutes in the tunnel.......ugh! When we finally got out, Joel had figured we would be at a different station because of the emergencies and had driven there. Nevertheless, we did finally meet up with him again. We spent the night playing the famous Cundick Marble Game before trying to meet up with the Rich's. We had a hard time getting hold of them, but found the reason to be that John Rich's brother had a heart attack that morning. At this point we decided we were bringing curses upon people we were staying with! Anyway we did finally meet up with them to get back to Severn.

Friday: Amidst the family emergency John had to fly to Utah, so we ended up not needing to rent a car! However, as we were leaving for Baltimore, atec could not find the camera. She searched her bag at least 8 times, got on her knees and prayed, and after looking through the rest of the bags hopelessly, we called Joel and Kristin and left a message. We ended up heading for Baltimore without it, and took the missionaries (including pmc's last companion) out to lunch, before doing a little shopping. However, the shopping was not going very well on account of atec's concern over the camera. We got in the car and found a message on pmc's phone from Joel and Kristin saying they had searched everywhere and couldn't find it. At this point atec blurted out how frustrated she was that she knows so many people who can't find something, then they pray and it suddenly appears......why doesn't it ever work for her? Then, out of frustration she grabbed her bag, pulled it open, and there was the camera! We decided Heavenly Father was testing us! But we sure were grateful for the answer anyway. So we headed to Camden Yards for the Boston Red Sox and Baltimore Orioles game. We couldn't help keeping our eyes out for the typical BELIEVE signs of Baltimore. This one was found on the side of a fire engine. You'd think that having lived in Baltimore we would be Orioles fans........however, we both wore Red Sox hats and were pleased with the final score. It does look like we have nosebleed seats, but we actually moved around a bit for the fun of it. Being lacrosse players ourselves, we enjoyed the Johns Hopkins lacrosse team pitching the first pitch. We also enjoyed watching a funny fight on the field when the entire Bullpen came onto the field.

Saturday: We spent a little time trying to visit a few families, to no avail, before we had a late lunch with Sister Rich and the Seger's (as Melissa was feeling a bit better!). Then we went to the airport so we could come home. We almost forgot our tradition before boarding our flight. Since we both love children so much and are excited for the time we get to have our own, we decided that our souvenir from each trip will be a stuffed animal. So in the airport we grabbed a little stuffed red crab! This otter is our souvenir from our San Francisco trip! Finally, although our final flight from Chicago to SLC was delayed by an hour, we got home safe and sound!