Summer Half Over!!

We've been enjoying every minute of summer, especially now that my brother Bryan and his wife Sarah are living with us.  Fun!

Our patio is done in the backyard, and we've had several bar-b-ques to initiate it.  It looks great!  There are three zucchini in the garden as of this morning, and the tomatoes are really taking off.  We have 6 in rows that are doing great, and five extra tomato plants have sprouted up randomly all through the garden, so we're encouraging those.  I want to have enough to can.

We're gearing up to do In Vitro soon.  As part of the medication cycle, Walt and I started taking an anti-biotic a few days ago.  Yesterday morning was the first time we remembered to take it in the morning.  We didn't want to forget, so first thing after we got up we each downed one.  About thirty minutes later I was bending over the toilet and Walt was looking green.  We learned the hard way that it should be taken with food!  We went downstairs to eat breakfast, but our stomaches were rebelling, our appetites were gone, and it was all we could do to swallow a few bites each before heading off to work.  We felt great a couple hours later, though. The whole incident was so funny!  We kept giggling about it even while we were feeling sick.  

I have a baseline ultrasound on Sunday, and my shots start on Wednesday morning.  Apparently I can give this first round of shots to myself - one in the morning and one in the evening for 10 days - in the stomach.  Lots of women do this every day.  No big deal. (right?)

We're heading down to Cedar City on Monday for the bi-annual Stevenson family reunion.  I love those.  We stay in the dorms on SUU campus and hang out together.        

Illinois Reunion

We got back on Monday from a Johnson family reunion in Illinois with all of Walt's siblings (there are 6 kids). It was so fun! We wished we could have had many more days together. The first several days of our trip was spent at Walt's Dad's house with Anna and Charlotte. We did some yard work and cleaned out the storage room. We also got all the boxes of things belonging to the kids and went through them. It was fun to find Walt's baby book and some grade school assignments and high school year books. I wonder if we would have liked each other if we'd known each other in high school.

The second part of the trip was spent in Nauvoo, Illinois, where Andy and Stan's families met us. Jim's family drove down, too, so we were all there. We toured the old city and learned a lot about life in the days of the early pioneers. We toured the Jonathan Browning gun shop (Walt and I are both related to him), visited the brickyard, blacksmith shop and bakery, and spent time in the Pioneer Pastimes area (playing pioneer games) and the Family Living Center where they showed us how to make rope and candles, how to weave. etc. We took two wagon rides and watched a short video about the temple before taking pictures in front of the temple. Lastly we walked the Trail of Hope where all the pioneers lined up to wait their turn to cross the Mississippi, hoping that the new life ahead would finally be free from the intense persecution they'd endured in Missouri and Illinois. They could look back and see their temple up on the hill, and I'm sure it was somewhat discouraging to think of all the work they put into it only to have to leave. I am so thankful for their faith that God's promises would one day be fulfilled.

We went to Carthage Jail on the way home, which is always a solemn and reverent experience. I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God.