The September Update

I thought I would fill in anyone I haven’t talked to lately. I’ll start with the end of August… we went on the ward campout. It was Luke’s first campout and he loved being outside. He went to bed just fine, but woke up repeatedly between 2-6 am. To make matters worse, Darin did something to his back the day before and and it only got worse from sleeping on the air mattress in the tent. We didn’t stick around very long after breakfast, so Darin could get home to drugs and a real mattress.

Here’s our sweet setup, and Luke playing on the table… He loved being outdoors!

Check out Darin’s beard. When he shaved it off, he looked so young!

We had the whole gang together for labor day… good food, games, car races in the backyard…

…and lots of laughs…

Grandpa and Grandma Payne came to visit Tennessee, and we tried to find some new things for them to do. Luke loved all the extra attention… he definitely gets a lot of attention, and loves it. Here we are at the Grand Ole Opry… we got to hear and see some great performances, including Dierks Bentley!!! (I loved that, but the old couple seeing next to us didn’t and they left right in the middle of one of his songs!)

Another first for Luke included going to the Nashville Zoo at Grassmere! He was interested in all the things to look at and the people there (it was 5-dollar day, so very busy).

He got scared by several things inside the creature house, and didn’t quite know what to think of the petting zoo. I think he petted a goat just to make his dad happy. After an hour in the sun, he was wiped out.

Other exciting firsts for Luke include getting his hair trimmed, and styled…

…and his first tooth broke through! (No pictures yet, he doesn’t like to show it off.)

A little update on the parents of this beautiful boy:

Darin is doing quite well in his classes, loves palpating everyone, and was elected president of his class.
and me, well, not much is happening with me.

Hopefully it won’t take me another month to blog, but it might. I never think to blog myself, just to read everyone else’s!

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Ice Cream, Summer Rain, and Saturdays

(Written almost a month ago, but never published because I didn’t have pictures, oh well, here were my thoughts…)

Well, we are settling into a routine around here. For those of you who might not know, my family likes to eat ice cream, a lot. In fact, we tend to eat it most nights, in large quantities. Darin never realized how much ice cream that was until we moved in. The first month was great, ice cream all the time. Now though, Darin has decided it’s not good for the waist line, even though my taste buds beg to differ. He’s got me somewhat motivated to do a better job of watching my portions, and the crap I munch on between meals. And yeah, I’ve cut back on my ice cream intake. a little…
Today it drizzled all day. Like the clouds were being gently wrung out over and over and over. It was beautiful, refreshing, relaxing. The land really needed it. I did too. I love summer rain here, LOVE IT.
Watching TV/movies, and talking politics (or any topic with varying opinions) have always been successful ways to spend time with my Dad, but I discovered another… Saturdays…My Dad likes projects, and Saturday projects allow for quality time (well mostly). We spent several Saturdays remodeling the bathrooms, and he loves it. Absolutely loves it. Such a hard worker. Just figures everything out, and after my mom and I made a dozen trips to Home Depot or Lowe’s… they look pretty fabulous. Of course, we’re not quite done, but that’s the fun of a project with my Dad, it takes WAY longer than you think to make it perfect!