August and September

Well! Although it may seem like it, we have NOT fallen off the face of the planet! We're actually loving it here in Maryland! It was difficult to update, however, because we don't currently have the internet. I know: wierd. I just haven't missed it enough to want to pay for it yet... I'm sure we will soon...

Anyway, here's a little of what we did in August and September:

-We packed up and loaded our trailer:

We literally had that trailer loaded from floor to ceiling! We got all our stuff crammed into only 7 feet!

Jenna had a great time helping!

- We said our goodbyes to BYU

future cougar!

- And DROVE! First to St. Louis. We stayed for three days; went to the temple and the zoo. Then on to Laurel, Maryland. Paul drove the entire trip! That was pretty much my fault. Our car was soo packed that I had to sit in the back with my feet up on the seat that whole way. You see, while we were packing the trailer, I put aside way too many things to take in the car with us. Oops! Paul's a stud, though, and got us here in no time!

Jenna did surprisingly well in the car! She had trouble sleeping at night and threw up a couple times (my dad thinks she gets travel-stress), but she was great the rest of the time – she loved to color! A pleasant surprise for a kid that’s hated her car seat from day one!

sleeping...

-My mom, Daniel, and Becca visited for a few days. We went to see the temple, White House, Washington Memorial, and National Zoo.

Unfortunately, both the animals and Jenna weren't having their best day...

-Paul’s been working a TON! There’s a lot of work to do, but I think he’s enjoying it. We haven't gotten to get out to see a lot of D.C. with him yet, but when football season ends we're gonna see it all!

-Potty Training. Well, at first, it went better than expected. We decided to just make the switch to underwear all at once. She had a couple accidents, but pretty much didn’t have a problem after that! She was potty trained! And it seemed all too easy...

Three weeks later, though, she quit. I don’t know what happened! We had a bad couple of days and then she was back in diapers. I know, that's supposed to be the worst thing you can do, but trust me, we tried everything we could think of...

I'm sad because she was doing so well! And then it was like one day she decided she didn’t want to do it anymore. I guess that's what we get for making her potty train before she was really interested...

-Paul and I got called as Nursery leaders! Haha! That’s really funny because I had just recently told Paul how I would love to be in nursery, but not until Jenna got out, because I’d like for her to get to be around other adults at least one day a week! So, of course we got called to nursery!

Oh well, at least Paul and I get to be together! That was definitely the best part about teaching in the primary last year. And there are so many nursery-aged kids in the ward that they split the nursery in two, so we just put Jenna with the other group, and she doesn’t seem to mind at all.

-Our apartment has a pool, and Jenna absolutely loves it! Her blow-up ring actually holds her up, so she won’t let me touch her. She said “I do it all myself!” She kicks her feet and thinks she’s really swimming! Hopefully next summer she’ll actually learn to swim.

-Paul's mom and Hilary came to visit for Labor Day weekend, which Paul was working through! We had a fun girl weekend and walked around D.C. a bit. While we were there, Grandma took Jenna on a carousel. Jenna loves them and was sooo excited! When it started, Hilary and I thought it was the fastest carousel we'd ever seen! Poor Grandma was getting motion-sick and Jenna was holding on for her dear little life! I started to get nervous when her bum was inching farther and farther to the right, but one of the workers rescued her and put her on Grandma's horse. Afterwards, Jenna was just staring into space. I asked her if she had fun and she said "yes". Then I asked her if she wanted to ride again and she said "no".

Jenna and Aunt Hil

That's the Lincoln Memorial in the background!

-I love our neighborhood! Which is really lucky because we just found a random place online! It's quiet, next to a library and playground, shady, has walking trails, and is close to almost everything I need!

-Jenna's favorite thing to do right now is color and draw. She tries really hard to stay in the lines, and she always just uses one color...

*update: a couple days later, Jenna decided to start using EVERY color she could!*

-Jenna has learned the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Articles of Faith. I can't get the videos up right now, but will do soon.

-We've been so spoiled the last couple of years in Provo, that I was shocked to realize that we don't get General Conference on TV! And with the lack of internet, we had to listen to Conference on my phone! I was actually surprised at how many voices I could recognize! It was wonderful, and I'm glad we could at least hear the messages!