Isaac Goes for a Ride on Daddy's Shoulders

The perfect excuse to mop the bathroom floor is to have the toilet overflow! Dang. I admit that's sometimes what it takes to get me to mop because the floors for some reason are my least favorite task. I decided to go all out and have the toilet water pour down the heat vent, too, and drip through the screw holes onto the laundry room floor so that I could clean those floors, too. A job worth doing is worth doing well, right? To be honest I just sopped up all the water, and Walt mopped the floors when he got home. Thanks, Honey! I needed that.

This week our good friend John returned from 5 months in Iraq. We sure appreciate the sacrifice he and his wife and little boy made to serve our country in such a difficult way. God bless the USA!

Isaac has been fighting his nap all morning, and still isn't asleep, which means my visiting teaching appointment will need to be rescheduled...again. And I had to make the crust for the lemon bars twice because the first time they were in the oven Isaac was supposed to be sleeping but needed my attention, and I couldn't get away so the crust burned. But you know, it's okay. This morning those things aren't bothering me. This is what life is all about - learning to sift out and not stress about the things that don't matter much and really focus on the things that do, which often means rolling with the punches and changing plans. I'm not always so good at that. But this morning I'm at peace.

Another First

This weekend we took Isaac on his first camping trip! It was only 30 minutes away, so we figured if it was a disaster we could always pack up and come home in the middle of the night. But Isaac slept great all night, and we had a lot of fun. It was actually a ward campout, so the best part was talking and having fun with other ward members, and the second best part was that we didn't have to bring any food! The ward cooked dinner and breakfast for us. That was awesome.

What wasn't so awesome was the BYU v. Florida State home game yesterday. No, not so awesome. (Byu 28, Florida State 54).

My talented sister-in-law took some family pictures of us at the retreat I talked about in my previous post, so here are a few of my favorite shots. If you have a minute, go to her website and comment on the photos she posted of us. If we get 15 comments we get a free 5x7 print! Thanks! http://bellepetitephoto.blogspot.com/

Togetherness

For the Labor Day weekend my family rented a vacation house outside Heber City for our third annual Graden Family Retreat. We had such a fun time talking, eating, playing games, watching BYU beat Oklahoma (Go Cougs!), having a family testimony meeting, going on a walk, taking pictures, and just generally enjoying each other. The house was really nice. My 2 year old niece said the blessing on breakfast Monday morning and among other things thanked Heavenly Father that we could be there to take a nap and go potty. It made us all smile, but I had to agree - the bathrooms were so fancy it was fun to go potty! :) Next year when we have our retreat there will be at least one more member of the family - another niece is due in just a few weeks! Wahoo!