Summer fun (if you're just reading to see about our life in Doha, skip this one--we're in America!)

Well, last you heard from me we had just finished our visit with my parents in Germany. On the day of our flight to Tulsa, Elliott managed to stay awake for nearly 24 hours straight, which really helped with getting over jet lag, since he was ready to sleep until morning the very first day. Amelia took a little longer to adjust, but it was pretty smooth overall.

 It also helped to have so many people around who could put the kids in a good mood when they were feeling tired! Here's Nana with three of her grandkids.

 I was in Tulsa for just two days before I rented a car and drove 14 hours to Amherst, Ohio for a friend's wedding and to visit friends from my home ward and high school. This is Jill, a really good family friend who hosted me. Despite promising my mom I'd get pictures with all the family friends I visited, this seems to be the only one I managed to get!

But thanks to everyone else who entertained and fed me, too! To make up for being gone for a few days, I took Big E to get ice cream and play at a McDonald's after one day of his swimming lessons. We had fun playing together.

But he and Miss A probably didn't miss me too much while I was gone. By the looks of things, they had plenty of fun. Here Miss A has fallen asleep during a routine diaper change.

And Big E was found here asleep in the closet after a tantrum.

In the absence of me and Nate, Grandpa became surrogate dad to Manu and Miss A. He has enjoyed that a lot! Although if he had to watch the Piano Guys one more time, his head probably would have exploded.

And I think this is one of my favorite pictures of the year so far:

Bliss! Here we have all four Hall grandchildren in the bath:

Miss A and Manu had a bit of a love/hate relationship. Sometimes they'd enjoy playing together, and other times they'd hit and bite each other. They each had a lot of timeouts. But now that Manu's gone Miss A wanders around the house calling to him, and it just breaks your heart to hear it.

Happy (and tired) grandparents!

All the grandkids dressed up for church:

I was gone from Oklahoma for another week to attend a conference in Portland, where I stayed at the Downtown Waterfront Marriott. I walked on the riverfront a lot.

And up to Washington Park to see the International Rose Test Gardens.

And their Japanese garden, which was very peaceful. I sure miss parks when I'm in Doha!

I found a game of Pacman in chalk on a sidewalk one day.

Visited Powell's, the world's largest bookstore.

Attended a session at the temple.

My in-laws have a pool, diligently maintained for the sake of the grandchildren who are happy to use it this summer. Though when you tell them it's time to get out, they look like this:

 Big E took swimming lessons for two weeks and finally got over his fear of putting his head under water. Today he set a new record of staying under for 15 seconds! He also really loves jumping off the side in his floaty ring and letting the water swallow him then spit him back out. Miss A just likes getting in and out... and in and out and in and out and in and out ad nauseum.

When grandpa had a scaredy hole installed in the garage floor for tornados, we ended up with some extra dirt that he wanted distributed into garden area where the soil had been depleted over 20 years of gardening, so we all pitched in to spread it out.

Getting ready for the joint birthday party we had for every family member with a summer birthday:

Deb made these hooded towels for each kid in the family. Miss A is a ladybug, and Big E is a monkey. Thanks, Deb!

The fam... minus a missionary and a dad who couldn't make it because of work.

Miss A looks winning in her pretty new dress. Thanks, Nana!

Speaking of Miss A, she's speaking. She talks mostly about the most important things: "Dada!" "Mama" "Shoes!" After her cousins left, she wandered the house piteously calling their names. She says please, and has just started folding her arms and saying "Amen" for prayers. She says "Nana" and "bubbles" and for some reason calls her sippy cup "Lulu." She also lets us know very clearly when she wants to go "ou-side" or "simming" in the pool. She also says "meow" and "hat" and "teeth" and "cheese" and "joos". Probably some other words, too, but you get the idea. Basically ADORABLE.

Well, that's enough gushing about our kids and summer for now. More in the next post, I'm sure!