For Sale!

Our old house in North Orem that we lived in for 13 years, from 2000-2013, is for sale again! I would be tempted to buy it and move back there, but $299,000 is the asking price. Well, I guess I could afford that...what do you think? They have made it look all fancy, but I miss the white brick with the red tile roof.

Standing at the top of the stairs looking into the living area. Quite a change. Lots of space.

The kitchen, all light and airy and with windows that open.

Looking from the kitchen into the living area

Our tiny master bathroom reconfigured into a long and narrow but spacious room.

Looking from the remodeled masterbathroom through the huge walk-in closets into the master bedroom

Bathroom #4 is gone, and in its place is a laundry room.The old laundry room is kitchen pantry or storage.

The basement family room.

Exterior. The landscaping has been very much simplified. There is now a garage. It doesn't really look like the same place.  But I really liked that area--the park and church close by. It is a temptation.

Comical Choir Practice

I have not been going to choir practice much lately; too busy gallivanting around here and there. So, since I was back in town, and since my friend Angelynn is the choir director and I want to support her efforts, I went to choir practice yesterday, although I was a bit late.

I had already received a text from Angelynn asking me to sub on the piano, and then another text saying no, it was taken care of. (Which I was happy about since I was late!) When I walked into the room, I was person number five.

There was Angelynn, and a person at the piano, and one soprano and one tenor. So I was the only alto.  Fortunately, the anthem they were working on is one that I have sung before, so I knew my alto line very well. However, the other singers had not heard the song before.

The pianist, bless her heart, was doing her best, sight-reading a piece with lots of key changes, and they weren't easy keys. So that was interesting.  The soprano, bless her heart, has a lovely dramatic soprano voice, but has a tendency to go flat. So carrying her part while the piano was not necessarily playing the right notes was interesting. And the tenor can't read music, so he was relying 100% on the piano, which was probably not the best idea under the circumstances.

Angelynn just kept forging ahead, trying to help us all to learn this piece.

It was a hot day, and I knew that Angelynn had walked, so I asked her if she wanted to escape the heat and have a ride home. She said she did. As soon as we got inside the car and the doors were closed, she said, "Well, THAT was a comical choir practice!"  And we both laughed and laughed! Because it so totally was!

All Good Things Must Come to an End...

...and so our North Carolina vacation had its last day on Tuesday.

In the morning, breakfast and loading the cars, and off to the aquarium.

My first picture of the day was a note that Miriam wrote for Josie:

 Clearly, all the watching of Doctor Who episodes while riding so quietly in our car had an effect on Miriam's choice of subject matter for her note! (Rachel and Miriam made the MOST EXCELLENT traveling companions ever. Also roommates, since they shared a hotel room with Bruce and I.)

Ben rides a fake turtle

Oh no! The alligator had Bruce's arm! Watch out, Ben!

Sorry his solo shot is fuzzy. Who took this picture, anyway?!

I tried to take pictures of the kids trying on the sea creature costumes, but they were way too fast for my camera! By the time the shutter clicked, the scene was ruined, or blurry, or just not what I thought it would be. But at least, they are having fun!

She needs to be a wardrobe mistress on a set. She has it DOWN.

 

 When we got in the cars after the aquarium, Andrew urged Miriam to drink a whole bottle of water because she is not drinking enough and is getting dehydrated. So she guzzled all 500 ML (I am sure the bottle did not say that...) lickety split.

About an hour later, we stopped at Camp Lejeune-ish. (Which you totally mispronounce, just saying, you French-slaughtering 'Mericans.) Bruce wanted to ask permission to stop for a photo because, actually, there is no real place to stop. We drove into the Civilian Human Resource Center because that parking lot you could get into without being stopped by a sentry.  Miriam came along with Bruce and I because she needed the bathroom in a major way.  We had to ring a bell (ONLY ONCE AND THEN WAIT, the sign demanded) and then a man buzzed us in.  He asked us to state our business. Bruce said, "Well, first of all, my granddaughter really needs the bathroom..."

And that dear sweet, tough-looking uniformed man jumped up and quickly led Miriam and I into the back and pointed out the ladies room. Where Miriam turned into a fountain of many waters, and "Holy cow, Miriam!" I said. And she said, "I know! That's that whole bottle of water I just drank!" 

I wonder how long she was suffering in silence. When we came out, I thanked the man and told him we REALLY REALLY needed that bathroom!  (Bruce said that the man said, "I've got kids!") The man called over to make sure nobody would shoot us, and Nancy and I went with Bruce to take pictures. Hers are likely to be better, but here are mine:

 

And then...the mad dash (in cars) to the rental car return, the shuttle to the airport, the half hour delay, the flight, the next half hour or longer delay, the flight, Patrick and Josie at the SLC airport, the drive home. End of that good thing that was our North Carolina visit.

Monday, Monday, so good to me...

 Monday we began the morning at the Fort Macon State Park.  I only took two pictures, apparently. The one above, of Benjamin doing some whaling, and the one below, of Andrew and Rachel making some sort of discovery with a skull.  Nancy, however, took many pictures. So go to her blog to see more of what Fort Macon is all about.

 After a picnic lunch in the shade of the fort's visitor's center, we headed this time to a different beach: Emerald Isle. That was where Bruce used to hit the waves when he had the opportunity to leave Camp Lejeune when he was stationed there in the marine corps in the early seventies. He remembered it as a great place to find shark's teeth. And while we may not have really internalized how to find those, I will say this: it is a great beach. Much nicer than Atlantic Beach--no offense to Atlantic Beach. But, Emerald Isle = clean beaches with lots and lots of seashells (and finding seashells is totally fun, I think); free parking except for on weekends and holidays, and even then only $10 per DAY, not some exhorbitant fee); and the cleanest beach bathroom I have EVER seen, anywhere, hands down. With soap and paper towels and all the nice bathroom accoutrements that beach bathrooms often lack. So...go to Emerald Isle! But don't tell TOO many people; let them crowd up other beaches.

No more worry for this baby! She licks up the sand and drinks up the water.

See what I mean?

This man-made sea wall is facing the force of water erosion, and also the attack of a giant baby sea monster!

I kind of like this shot of a family working together.

In the evening, we went to the hotel pool for a freshwater swim before bed, to finish wearing out the little kids. It totally did not work. They did not sleep any better than usual.

Beach Baby, Beach Baby, Here on the Sand

On Saturday, we got ready for Sunday. Which meant, we got ready to be able to leave to drive to the coast.  I only took a couple of pictures on Saturday, and they were for Josie. You see, Rachel wrote a book at school, and I took pictures of the Josie pages to send to Josie.

Rachel said that she could not remember the word MIRROR when she was writing this--and she had already asked the teacher her quota of questions, hence her description of "that thing" in the bathroom. I found that so funny! (I am a champion word forgetter myself!)

Good medicine for bad days, reading how much your niece loves you!

We drove to the coast on Sunday afternoon. The closest Marriott Hotel we could get was in New Bern, about an hour from the beach, but closer than Durham! So that is where we went, to take advantage of Bruce's work discount. It was a good hotel.

We went to the Waffle House for dinner, and then decided to drive to the beach and put our toesies in the water. Apparently, I only took pictures of Bruce and the baby. Probably because the others were moving too fast to focus on.

Mr. Happy and Miss Worried

Still a bit worried

Durham Picture Dump June 16 - 17

Starting the day with swim lessons, and this picture kind of expresses Miriam's opinion about that for the day on June 16.

Bumpa and baby chillaxing by the pool.

In closeup...

And Benny boy.

Sometimes I take a pretty decent picture of the baby. Not often. But it does happen!

June 17 at the Museum of Life and Science which is pretty much the best museum ever!

Bumpa, Ben and Miriam having fun at the museum

Climate lab -- the kids can earn prizes doing labs this summer, so I think that Nancy's kids will be back for more!

She is going to get me and take the camera away! Ahaha!

Rachel and I climbed to the top of the tallest structure in Hideaway Woods. You can see Nancy and Miriam on the ground looking up at us...Nancy took a picture from her angle, which I am sure will appear on her blog, and this is one that I took from our angle. That climb was a bit scarier and a bit more work than I thought it would be...I am not a fan of suspension bridges. Especially suspension bridges that are also suspension ladders. But...I did it!

Assembling a butterfly.

And disassembling...

Bruce and Rachel opted to wait it out in the Butterfly House, while the rest of us went down Dinosaur Trail. Here is Miriam.

Miriam plus more...

Benjamin doing some digging for dinosaur bones.