Life of Grem: August 2009

First things first, I keep forgetting to make my official blog announcment. It's never been a secret that I couldn't call my own baby by his name. Andrew just doesn't fit him. So we are officially calling him THOMAS. Not Tom or Tommy, just Thomas. He is so much more of a little Thomas. Thomas is his middle name, but we are going to try to officially change it to his first to spare him the trouble throughout his life.

So with a new name for our baby, we kicked off the summer. Greg left at the end of May for a summer internship in Missouri and I had to stay behind to finish working. Thomas and I were able to join him at the beginning of July.

We started off with a glamorous stay at an Extended Stay hotel off the side of a freeway. Aside from the shared laundry, occansional gunshot and mid-night appearances from the cops, we enjoyed getting around and seeing the Mid-west. We drove to Iowa for the 4th of July to visit my then, expecting sister Abby and her husband Dave. It was great to see their little home.

Better then their home was a park near their home. It was there that I discovered fireflies.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE them. I had never seen them before. It is like something strait out of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Of course I knew about them, but I guess I never believed they were real. I was absolutely tickled at nature's twinkeling lights. I feel as though my childhood was a bit robbed by not growing up with such awesomeness. Greg's wasn't robbed at all. Growing up in Chicago and Michigan, Greg took the opportunity to describe to me how as kids he and his brothers would try to catch and/or hit the innocent fireflies with tennis rackets mid-glow so they could smush the bugs and wip the glowyness on themselves. Thanks for the visual Greg. In spite of that, I fell in love.

While in Iowa, I convinced Abby to do a photo shoot. 7th months is a great time for the perfect pregnancy tummy. She looked beautiful. Hope she doesn't mind that I'm posting one.

Back in Kansas City, we went to a cool outdoor theatre,

explored some museums, went to GREAT parks

and enjoyed some gelato and custard a few times. We also took the opportunity to see some Church History sites. Missouri is the mother land for that kind of thing, and I have a rich ancenstry among the early saints. We drove to Independence, LibertyJail, Haun's Mill and Far West. I had a Great Great Great Grandfather killed at the Haun's Mill Massacre, so I was a little disappointed that we drove so far just to see an open field next to a creek with a sign. Oh well, I did my part. We also saw the Community of Christ (RLDS) temple, which was so interesting. It is like a spiraling corkscrew into the sky. But have to say, it was really funny seeing other LDS families with their teenagers. Although I really enjoyed seeing a lot of the sights, there really wasn't much to see and we imagined them thinking of their friends that all got to go to Disneyland for the summer.

Someone got to feel grass for the first time.

I found that the mid-west has its fair share of churches and religions. Religion was everywhere. Enter exhibit A.

Clearly this man does not want to be tail-gated. But how else was I going to be able to get this shot? Anyway, I really feel that this driver taught me a valuable lesson on following the Lord. Funny how bumper stickers are so inspiring. People in the mid-west sure know how to spread the word. :)

I spent the last week of July visiting my sister Natalie and her family in Chattanooga Tennessee. She had baby Collin just a few months after I had baby Thomas, so we felt they needed some cousin time. My niece Lydia tried to squeeze in when she could.

I made my last trip back to Kansas City then Greg finished his job and we headed back up to Iowa to visit Abby and Dave. I got to help throw a baby shower for Abby and we all headed to the Nauvoo Pageant that night. We crammed a lot in, but we had a great time.