September 2001

I met Aaron for the first time at my friend Shawna's apartment. My friends and I were watching a movie when Aaron and his friends came to visit. We paused the movie to meet these guys and my first impression of Aaron was "I can definitely tell he is Brett's brother" (nothing more, nothing less), and I think that was the first thing I said to him. (His older brother, Brett, had married a girl who grew up in my neighborhood.) Well, I went back to watching my movie, and Aaron, along with a few other people, went into the kitchen to socialize. Several minutes later I heard laughing coming from the kitchen and saw that they were having a great time in there. My FOMO (fear of missing out) kicked in, so of course I got in on the conversation, which consisted of us joking around about how awesome it is to be a sophomore, and generally just have a very silly and funny conversation (you would have had to have been there to appreciate it) :) That night I talked to Shawna on the phone and told her she had to set me up on a date with that Aaron guy!

Well, a few weeks later I got a call from Aaron! (Major excitement and butterflies on my part!) He said, "I have a question to ask you.... what kind of weed killer do you use?" (it's a line from the seminary movie "The Telephone Call") We laughed (mostly a nervous, giddy laugh from me). Then he told me that he and his friends had a special date planned on Saturday the 20th (of October) and he wanted take me. I was scheduled to work that day, but said that I would try to switch with someone. He told me to just let him know as soon as I could so he could ask someone else if I couldn't go (I still remember being a little bugged that he said that - ha ha!).

Journal entry September 2001: 

"After I hung up with him I started screaming and I announced to my whole apartment that I was going out with Aaron Parsen [yes, I spelled it incorrectly] - I was soooo excited! I talked to Shawna about it later and she told me that he had a list of 3 girls that he wanted to go with and I was one of them. He choose me mainly because he had already gone out with the other 2 girls before."

Ha ha! It's so funny (and embarrassing) to read back through my journals!

Next installment: The Coffin Date

The Parsons and the Big Apple!

I LOVE to go places and see things! So, it's been on our bucket list to take the girls to NYC while we live out here. Here are some highlights:

 Aaron getting his upper-body workout while walking down the city streets. :) The girls were such troopers - we walked at least 4 hours just on Friday! Aubree didn't even whine or complain once! She did sleep for 13 hours Saturday night though.

 Central Park (p.s. I found these cute shirts for $2.95 at JC Penney a couple months ago)

 We ate lunch at Uno's. It's popular for it's pizza - which is SO so good!

 Sitting on Roosevelt's lap at the American Museum of Natural History. There was a lot of really interesting stuff to see. We really liked looking at the taxidermy animals - they were very real looking.

 Central Park again. They have so many beautiful bridges! We didn't even see a third of the park, it is so huge!

 A raccoon in Turtle Pond

 Another beautiful bridge

 Carly took this picture of me. Pretty impressive.

 At Bethesda Fountain. If you look closely at Aubree, you will see her new picture smile.

 Ellie making bubbles at Central Park

Carly making bubbles

 Of course it's always a special treat to watch TV at the hotel! AND our hotel was one of the only one's in Manhattan with an indoor pool - another special treat.

 Grand Central Station - love that place!

 Governor's Island is an old military base that's turned into a tourist attraction. The ferry ride out there is free and gives you a view of the Statue of Liberty. Also, Gov. Island has an authentic old French fair with beautiful old rides. This is Carly standing in front of the pretty little pavilion.

Overall, the trip was ..... expensive! We did have a good time though and I don't think I would have been satisfied until I crossed this thing off my bucket list.  But, considering what the girls really love to do, I think we would have been just as happy to stay in a hotel with a pool (anywhere), go out to eat and ride public transportation. :)

Random pictures

We went to the Washington County Fair in August. I did not realize what a rip off fairs are around here. We paid $20 dollars to get in, then another $20 for the girls to do this ride (pictured below) two times!! After spending that $40, we didn't feel like spending any more for food. 

 It was pretty hot and the girls were NOT very happy about their choices in rides (considering the money and height restrictions), so this is a good picture of the overall attitude:

BUT (this is the highlight of the fair), we participated in the egg toss competition and Aaron and I won third place!! We got ribbons and $2 - woo hoo! (which almost made the fair worth it .... almost.)

Girls playing in the hot weather with our neighbor

Aubree and her friend Aiden playing battleship. They basically just do designs with the pegs and pretend they're playing the game.

What Aaron would look like with a mustache:

Girls and I at the Providence Children's Museum

 Midget pictures at the museum:

 The girls wanted to have a little tea party with the tea set Nanny Nette gave Aubree for her last birthday. They had s'mores with their tea.

We watched our friend's kids while they went to the temple, and the kids did some yard work for us.

These little girls played and played with the chalk until their clothes were totally covered in chalk.

Aubree and I went to the Westerly Farmers Market. Our family used to love to go to the Farmer's Market in Moscow, but we haven't really been to one since. This one was really tiny, but still kind of fun to see all the local produce.

Little Miss Polka Dot:

At our bus stop there are about 12 girls that wait for the bus and no boys!