Fourth of July Fun

 Since my parents were out visiting us on the 4th of July, I convinced my mom to do a run with me. Alas, I don't yet have a picture with both of us, but we had a great time together. We got up WAY too early to make the 40 minute drive to Cameron, Missouri to check in at 6:30.

I did the 4-mile run and my mom did the 2-mile walk. Her goal was to not be the last one in, and my goal was to run faster than an average pace of 9-minute miles (so a time of 36 minutes or better).

My mom was FAR from being the last one in. And despite the mistake of drinking a 64-oz soda the day before (for anyone planning to run in a race . . . , just sayin', that's a bad idea), I managed to run it in 35 minutes and 2 seconds. I even got 2nd place in my age group (2/5), so I got a nifty medal to take home.

After our race, they held a kids fun run. At first, none of the kids wanted to do it. But when they learned that all finishers got a popsicle AND a bag of treats, well, they changed their minds. Brandt didn't quite have the idea of a race down. They said "GO!" and he just stood there.

We all shooed him forward, and he finally took off running. Rick cheered him on the whole way, but apparently Brandt couldn't hear what he was saying so he stopped and turned around. "What?!"

When we all shouted "Run, Brandt, run!" he got the idea and started again. Despite his stops and starts, he managed to pick up the pace and actually WON the thing. Yup, 1st place. Crazy kid.

Khyah wasn't really tempted by the popsicle, and she was going to sit it out on the playground with grandpa until she found out she got to wear a number just like mommy if she ran. She was still quite hesitant, so I had to run the whole thing with her. But she finished it and was more than content to get blue splots all over her white shirt with her popsicle.

London was in the upper age range, so he ran in the second race about the twice the distance. He ran hard and came in 2nd! The kid who won was older, so he felt pretty good about that. We were really proud of him!

After lounging around the park for a bit, we headed to Wendy's to get the free Frosties with the coupon that came in their bag of treats, then drove the 40 minutes back home. It wasn't our traditional 4th of July big breakfast, but it was so much fun. I especially appreciated doing it with my mom, and having Rick, the kids, and my dad there to cheer us on. Hopefully we'll do another one together next time we meet up.

Family Pictures 2011

While we were in Utah over Thanksgiving, my sister kindly took some family pictures for us. Not an easy task with 3 grumpy kids and 2 grumpy adults (from dealing with 3 grumpy kids), but she put up with us and even managed to catch a few good moments (and there weren't many!).

First, please note that these pictures aren't edited. This is not a photography site and if I wait for that, they will never get posted. Ever. So here we go.

How she managed to catch us all smiling, I'll never know.

I couldn't choose just one of Khyah. Her cuteness just has to be shared.

Brandt, Mr. GQ himself. Thank goodness we got one last picture before he decided to chop his hair!

London had school pictures done, but I liked the tie theme, so he had to endure a few shots, too. He was not happy. Man, if you could see all the moments around the pictures. These things are deceiving!

And finally the two of us. I made Becca take about a million pictures before I was satisfied. Good thing she loves me. :)

So voila! There's a family.

Thanks, Becca!

Switzerland

A day late, and a dollar short on this post, but the pictures are too gorgeous not to share.

After my mission companion's civil wedding in France, we drove in a 3-car caravan to the Bern (Zollikofen) Switzerland Temple for the sealing. Kim and I were in separate cars when we crossed the border, but both of us felt it. It was a rush. An overwhelming feeling of coming home. And it was all I could do to keep my eyes on the road and off the beautiful scenery that surrounded us. (For anyone who may not know, my siblings and I are a quarter Swiss German.)

Okay, one last commentary before the pictures . . .  having grown up in Utah, I have always loved the mountains. I have missed them terribly since moving away. So I thought I knew mountains. But wow. Utah mountains don't compare in the least to Switzerland's mountains. Breathtaking. Powerful. Beautiful. Mysterious. Commanding. And none of those words really captures it. I hope you all get a chance to go to Switzerland one day.

Here I am at the temple:

Kim is next to a lake we passed. This picture doesn't capture the amazing green-blue of the water, or the brilliant green of the hills.

Here is Kim, sitting on our hotel balcony. What a view, eh?

Okay, we might have had a little fun . . .

Maybe just a little.

And here's the view looking back down of the city of Lauterbrunen.

The Church you see behind us was featured in countless post cards, so we thought we should get a picture. This is actually where we parked our car before taking the tram.

And here it is again. I can't express enough how GREEN everything was. Just gorgeous.

This is the view we had as we walked down the mountain. I seriously wished I could live there.

And the view looking upwards. Seriously, the mountain had a soul, and you could feel it seeping out of everything.

Another view from further up.

I have so many more pictures I would love to share with you all, but I'll save it for another post. This time, I just wanted you to feel the grandeur of it all. But I'll work on culture next time (assuming I get that far). :)

Johnson Family Reunion: Part 2

While the pool was definitely rockin', what would be a trip to the beach without the beach? We attempted some boogie boarding, built sand castles, went for walks to the pier, relaxed to the sound of ocean waves, and in short had a very good time. We loved being right on the beach . . . all we had to do was walk out the back door and there we were.

Unfortunately, I took so many pictures, I'll have to split it up into two posts.

Khyah girl.

Mic testing out the water.

The boys working the sand.

Brandt debating if he wants to get his feet wet.

Khyah deliberating how long it would take to dig a hole to China.

Uncle Greg making the trek from the house.

Rick being embarrassed that I made him make a hang-ten sign.

Rick ready to take on the wave.

Rick, riding the wave.

Me, sporting London's goggles and the cool shark boogie board.

Me, again. Boogie boarding is WAY fun. Just sayin'.

Cousin Mic taking on the waves . . . because London and Brandt refused.

Uncle Rob and Cousin Zach. Cool dudes.

The guys. Out to conquer the world. Or at least a couple of waves.

I really love the ocean. I just can't express how I feel in words. Just something that fills my soul and brings me peace.

And more beach next time. :)

French Weddings, part 1

I've been horrible at posting about all my travels lately, so today, I'm going to take the first steps to overcoming my blog neglect.

On July 2, one of my mission companions who is from France got married. My amazing in-laws offered to come take care of my family so I could be at the wedding . . .

in FRANCE!


My sister, Kim, went with me, and we had a blast participating in a beautiful French wedding for a deserving couple who looked so happy together.

So here I am, in front of the Mairie (Town Hall) where the required civil wedding takes place first.

No, town hall is not the cathedral you see. It's the little house-like building behind me.

And here they stand, with the civil authority to the right, and their required two-witnesses-each on either side of them.

Most of the ceremony went something like "according to law number this, and civil code number that, blah, blah, blah . . ." But towards the end, they spoke about the importance of children, and their duty as a married couple to raise their children with love and with respect to the laws of the land. Not an exact quote, but we thought it was very cool that they included that in a civil ceremony (the same ceremony that is used for all weddings).

Then, of course, everyone has to sign the papers right there.

When it was over, they came out to a bustle of bubbles that attacked any innocent bystanders who may have wanted to congratulate the newly married couple. (It was quite windy, and Kim, who joined the bubble-blowing children, may or may not have run off several guests with her bubble blowing skills).

And here I am, with the happy couple.

Not to let this post get too long, I'll work on adding more in the near future.

Santa's Workshop

Okay, I started this post forever ago, and never got past the draft stage because I was waiting for some other pictures, but I think now that Christmas is two months past, I'll go ahead and just post it. :)

On Saturday (Dec. 18th), we took a trip to the national tree, and visited Santa's Workshop (after waiting an HOUR in line). London and Brandt got to meet the big guy himself and tell him what they wanted for Christmas.


Brandt wanted a red choo-choo train, and London wanted a Star Wars Lego Ship. Santa delivered the goods and both boys were thrilled.

Here are the kids with the National Christmas Tree (and some random guy) in the background.

We got all decked out for the cold and it took forever to find a parking spot. And even then, it was metered parking and we had very little change. But we put in what we had and crossed our fingers that Christmas would put the metermaids in a forgiving mood.

And the tree from a distance. I'm definitely glad we went at night. It was beautiful!

So we waited in line forever and finally got into Santa's Workshop. Our new friends in line offered to take our picture for us. Umm, yeah, the expressions on the kids faces about captures how excited they were by then.

Santa gets a lot of mail.

In case you didn't know, he has a naughty and nice alarm (it turned red SEVERAL times while we were in the shop. Not that we could see the name that popped out of the machine just then, but I have an inkling whose it might have been). ;)

And since I think this is pretty important, I wanted to share the pictures from Santa's "Most Wanted" list. Please keep an eye out for them and call the appropriate officials if you spot them. And don't try to apprehend them on your own.

Belated Merry Christmas to you all!

We're Alive!

Realizing I've been slacking in my duty by up-dating THIS blog, and waiting anxiously for my cute husband to get home through the terrible traffic in this snow storm (that would be 5 hours on the road now and counting . . . last we spoke he was almost halfway home), I thought I would take advantage of our new laptop (yup, Rick couldn't stand it anymore), and update ya'll on our little lives.

I apologize in advance . . . all our pictures are on the other computer, so this will be pictureless, but you get to read about US! So of course you're all happy. Right?

So first, if you did not see my latest post on the other blog, it was funny, so you should go take a look, just click here.

And second, I will give you one story about each of us:

Brandt story: I made pancakes and sausage for dinner tonight. When Brandt finished eating, he held out his plate and said, "You know, we usually eat eggs with our pancakes, Mommy."

It's a good thing I have Brandt to keep me clear on these things. And yes, I made him an egg. :)

London Story: We have spent the past month or so trying to figure out the cause of London's chronic sinusitus. We have visited all kinds of doctors and labs for him to get poked and prodded and have a CT scan done. He has been very brave (with our clever use of bribery) as he's given samples of blood, gotten extra vaccinations, held perfectly still in a big machine for the scan, and endured the 30 pokes on his back for the allergy test.

So, the results: He's mildly allergic to Bermuda grass. His immune system is in good shape. But apparently his sinus passages are rather narrow. Surgery is an option (though London gave his vote for 'no'), but we still hope to have Rick talk to the surgeon before we make any decisions.

Khyah Story: The other day, Brandt and London we having a light-saber battle. Khyah made her displeasure known at not being included. London is a sucker for Khyah-demands, and promptly gave her one of his.

Next thing I know, she's battling away, making the sound-effects and everything! She even used the force to throw London across the room (hand movements just like in the movie). Both London and Khyah thought it was great fun. But I'm wondering if maybe we watch too much Star Wars in our house. ;)

Rick Story: He might not be happy with me sharing this, but he has an interview in Iowa he's drooling over. They have a doctor who specialize in coagulopathies (a rare find) which is just what he hopes to focus on. Plus we could live a mere two miles from his work in a large house for less than we're paying now (he's been researching). Oh yeah, he's drooling.

Me Story: I went to the dentist today, and had no cavities. ;)

Okay, I can do better than that . . . maybe . . . ummm, okay. As I headed out to the dentist, I went out early to clean off the car (it had snowed then rained). The ground was a little slick, but mostly just slushy. So I got the car clean, and had the engine running to warm it up, but when I went to go back inside, the door was locked. And being the lazy person that I am, I didn't want to go back to the car to get the keys, so I pounded on the door. Unfortunately, the boys were in the basement. And I have to give her kudos, Khyah tried to open the door, but mostly she just pounded back at me.

Realizing the futility of it all, I rushed back to the van. Leap, bound, quick and smooth, until it wasn't. Swoosh! My feet were in the air, and my bum was in a pile of slushy mud. Yeah, I had to change.

No worries, my body was perfectly fine. Only my pride was wounded. I'm just still hoping no one saw it. But the kicker was that when I unlocked the door, the boys were standing right there waiting for me.

Thirty seconds! Could they not have come up thirty seconds sooner?

And these are our stories. The End.