Memorial Day

What a rainy Memorial Day. And although we had all these outdoor plans, we still managed to do it all just in a different order. We began with a late morning matinee of Ironman and really enjoyed it. Then spent the rest of the rainy afternoon playing games and enjoying a BBQ with the Drapers. When the sun finally decided to show, Madeleine headed right outside to play some baseball. She had been waiting all day to swing the little broken wooden bat. We are proud to say that she's good! She hit quite a few balls, and even four in a row at one point.

We then went on an early evening stroll down the Jordan River Parkway.

This was Tori's look the entire time. I think she liked the walk.

We had a lot of discoveries. We found a lot of snails along the path and took the opportunity to let Madeleine to get to know these slimy creatures. She was quite hesitant about it, but eventually touched it's shell. This picture shows the one brief moment she actually liked the snail. She was actually quite disgusted with it and was glad when we took it away.
We also saw some ducks, duck poop, ladybugs, geese, bikers, sticks, and what Madeleine remembers most, the park with wet slides we wouldn't let her go down.

The Draper boys of course brought a football to toss along the path. At one point Madeleine took their ball and put it in the stroller deciding they were done with it. What a nice niece. Madeleine also found a chance to get out of the stroller and ran and ran. She didn't want to stop.
What a fun day. Rain and all.

Information Superhighway

All right; it's official. The Draper family has joined the 21st century. We finally buckled and decided to pay monthly for this thing our friends and family have been telling us about. It's called "High-Speed Internet," or "DSL." Some of you may have heard of it before, but it is a brave new world to us.

There are many advantages to this technology. For instance, did you know that you can actually watch video on the internet? It is remarkable. Also, some people's blogs actually play full songs! We thought they just played two-second clips of songs at random intervals. And finally, if you call us and get a busy signal now, it's because we're actually talking to someone on the phone. No more getting a busy signal for two hours while we post to our blog or check our e-mail!

We are sure enjoying this new paradigm. While we will definitely be able to enjoy all of your blogs more thoroughly now, we make no commitments to increased posting here . . .

A Sister's Bond

First of all here is a picture Madeleine took. Out of the many she tried, she actually got one of our faces. It may be fuzzy, but it's not so bad for a two-year-old. Here are some cute pictures of the girls. The quality isn't that great, but the two of them have been so funny lately. They know each other exist more and more and the bond between them is growing. In fact I can't feed Tori her veggies when Madeleine is around because they get laughing and Tori starts blowing raspberries and there is food everywhere. Tori also loves to give hugs and kisses and Madeleine often gets her hair pulled as a result. Thankfully Madeleine has finally learned to laugh at it rather than cry.

They are just so cute together and it's so fun to see. Last night Tori was rolling around, as she does now, and Madeleine was rolling right behind her. It was comical to watch. Madeleine also gets Tori to laugh so hard by just saying nonsense words and being a goofy kid. We can't get Tori to laugh like she does. They are a fun pair and it's just beginning.

What a Deal!

As you may know, I'm not such a fan of shopping. I would love to just have one store 5 minutes from my house that has everything and has it always on sale (I mean really on sale, none of this on sale but still way expensive), as well as the perfect color, shape and size and always in stock. Unfortunately that store doesn't exist. But every once in awhile, maybe once a year, I'll find a deal. By find a deal I mean just stumble upon it. Since we moved into our house I've wanted a couch for our space off the kitchen. But couches are expensive and I can never justify it. That is until last week. As I was grocery shopping I often take a detour by the furniture hoping for something wonderful to happen. And it did! A couch was there with a blazing tag advertising the price of $179. I couldn't believe it. You can't even get a decent chair for that price let alone a couch. So later that evening we bought it. I was shocked it was even still there. There was absolutely nothing wrong with it, it was just the last one of a discontinued model. Yea!!

It's the perfect size, color, and looks great! And hardly a dent in our pocketbook. My patience of a year and a half has paid off. Sometimes I get a little taste for what it's like for those bargain shoppers. That adrenaline rush you get when you find a fantastic product at an unbelievable price. But, it's not enough to convince me I like to shop. I just like to keep my eyes open for something to fall into my lap. And every once in awhile it happens.