Stephanie's Surprise Visit

We didn't tell the girls that we were having a special visitor come. So, when Steph walked into the family room Thursday morning the girls were sincerely surprised. Carly was speechless and just stared for a few seconds before they all ran over and tackled her. 

Our first day together I let Carly and Ellie stay home from school and we took Steph to Mystic to see the drawbridge, get apple cider donuts at Clyde's, and visit Mistick Village.

The next day we took her to Watch Hill after school (and drove by Taylor Swift's house).

Saturday was apple picking with our Branch

Sister Avery and Sister Blair

Then we headed over to Harkness State Park (most of the pictures below were taken at Harkness and none of them include Steph. :( Steph and I did take pictures together, but they are mostly on her iPhone.)

 There were beautiful gardens and two old mansions

 and the park has a beach!

This is Aubree's camera smile:

and her real smile (and yes, this picture makes me want to eat her up!):

 We found this cool barn door at the park. I wish we would have been more coordinated in our outfits and actually done our hair.

Carly took this awesome picture of one of the beautiful views at Harkness State Park.

Aubree was always giving Baby Kate kisses and kept reminding Stephanie of how big her belly was. (Baby Kate is due in December)

 It was fun to bring Stephanie to our branch meeting house on Sunday.
On Tuesday I got my first migraine (because of my neck being out) - complete with blurred vision and vomiting. So, that day was pretty much spoiled since I was stuck in bed most of the day. But thankfully Steph took over and played with Aubree, cleaned my house, and picked Carly and Ellie up from school. What a sweet sister!

The last two days of Stephanie's visit, she and I went to Newport, RI. We did a Servants Life Tour at one of the Newport mansions (we wish we would have done just one of the regular house tours, but oh well), went out to eat, and rented two redbox movies. The next morning we got massages and walked around East Greewich, then off to the airport.

We sure loved having Stephanie here with us!

The Coffin Date (straight from my journal)

Oct. 21, 2001

 Last night I went on a date with Aaron Parsen, it was so much fun! (First of all, Aaron is this guy who I have a crush on. He is an awesome guy. He is so funny and nice, and everything - he's the type of guy I'd like to bring home someday.)
   The date he had taken me on was a date that he and his buddies had been wanting to do since their sophomore year in high school. They picked us up at 3pm and took us up to "their spot" at Kelly's Canyon. This is a spot that they had always gone camping at together. So when we got there we went hiking, played football, and some other games. Then we started to make a hole in the ground where we could build a campfire. While we were digging the hole we hit a piece of wood - about 6 feet long -in the ground. I had the flashlight and I was scared to death that there was a dead body or something crazy like that in it. Even the guys were scared. The thing that made it scarier was that a few weeks ago a girl from IF was kidnapped and killed and they think she was buried somewhere. So as we were looking at this piece of wood I was thinking that we had found this girl. We lift off the piece of wood and underneath it there are bones!! I was freaking out. But then one of the guys sees some paper plates and utensils in the coffin. The guys all start laughing and we realized that they had planned it.  (The bones were from the deer that Aaron had killed the other day!) It was a great trick. After that, we built a campfire and ate a delicious dutch oven dinner.
   Then Aaron and his friend Jordan played the guitar and sang for us. (Aaron has an awesome voice!) Aaron started singing and made up a song about his buddies. He told about how they came here all the time to go camping and that one day they decided to carve their initials on a tree and they each put a + next to their names. They decided that they would each bring their future wives here some day and propose to them. It was so cute! It made me wish at that moment that Aaron was my boyfriend because it was so romantic! After the date, as Aaron was walking me back to my apartment he asked me if he could come visit me here some time! :) I hope he does. 

I've discovered that my journals are not literary works of art. I think Carly, at nine years old, has better writing style than I did in college (or even now). Oh well, I'm glad I have it recorded. :)

Before we left Kelly's our dates took us to look at "the tree" with their initials and we had this picture taken:

Aaron is third from the left (doesn't he look exactly the same?) and I am above him. 

I remember thinking that night, "I want to carve my initials in that tree"!
Well, two years later, my wish came true.
Here's that same tree twelve years after "the coffin date":

And here we are 12 years after that first date:

Journal Entry: August 14, 2001

Sorry, not the coffin date. I'm going out of order here. But, I thought this would be good to add to our dating story even though this was written before I even knew there was a person named Aaron Parson out there.

(note: the words in blue are the words straight out of my journal. the words in black are commentary from me right now.) 

I need to be the kind of person that is qualified - or like - the person I want to marry. So, I'm going to list the qualities:

• Someone who reads their scriptures regularly
- yep

• A return missionary
- and I'm pretty sure he was AWESOME!

• Gets along with their family and is respectful to their parents
-yep

• A hard worker (not lazy), focused, ambitious
- very much so!

• Mature, not worried about trivial social things and not starved for attention
- he's pretty much happy to just hang out with our family at home every day.

• Takes care of their body and keeps their body in good shape
- Wakes up at 4:30 every weekday to go to the gym

• Good sense of humor - laughs and makes me laugh
- In a house full of emotional girls this quality is immeasurable! has come in handy on more than one occasion. He has the wonderful ability to not take me too seriously, and even laugh (in a very caring and sweet way) when I'm in an irrational state of mind. Not to mention that he is just a funny guy. He makes jokes and laughs at my jokes and can laugh at himself.

• Thrifty, good with money, doesn't have to be rich to be happy
- Aaron definitely takes his responsibility to provide for our family seriously, and works hard at being successful in his career. That being said, Aaron's biggest financial dream is to own big dogs. Seriously. Now, when I talk about financial dreams I talk about trips to Europe, shopping sprees, nicer home, nicer car, the list goes on and on. Aaron just wants an Irish Wolfhound. 

• Someone who is humble, can admit when they're wrong, can say sorry and thank you easily and doesn't always have to be right
- I could write essays about Aaron's ability to apologize (even when he's not always to blame), and his overall humility. This is one of the number one things I admire in him (partly because humility is not my strong point) and has made our marriage much more peaceful. If I would have married someone with my amount of humility .... there would be a lot of fighting! 

• Smart, studies hard
- Always one of the number one students in his class. 

• Spiritual, but doesn't flaunt it, loves the church, has a strong testimony
- yep

• Honest
- yep

• Happy, enjoys life, has fun and is optimistic
- yep. Although, life is not always peaches and cream and Aaron (and I) definitely have our unhappy, unfun, and pessimistic moments. We're real. :)

• kind to everyone, makes people feel comfortable around them
- I've never met anyone who didn't like Aaron right away (unless we're talking about his previous boss, but that's a whole other story, and he doesn't count).

• someone who is willing to go out of their comfort zone
- yep. Just one example: moving to Connecticut for a job that is way bigger and better than anything he had ever done before is definitely going out of his comfort zone. (And, by the way, he's learning so much at his job here and LOVING it!)

It's been a good reminder for me to read over these qualities - for a few reasons. First off, I realize how lucky I did get in finding Aaron and getting him to marry me. I was shooting pretty high ... and I got lucky! Secondly, this is a pretty good list of qualities that I still need to be working on. Thirdly, the law of attraction (like attracts like) really is a pretty powerful thing. I wrote this journal entry one month before I met Aaron. So even though a lot of these habits and characteristics are ones that I don't naturally posses, I'm sure they were ones that I was working on in that month. So, think positive thoughts and positive things will come your way! :)

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!