Year of Dates...August

I have been excited for this one...not because it is something I am passionate about but it is one that I thought would be custom tailored to Anna.  Here is the card:

 

This may sound a little morbid and you may not be aware of this but Anna loves cemeteries.  When I say she loves them I mean we visit them on vacations, when she is stressed she sometimes goes and walks through the graves, and she always stays abreast of who has been buried in our little cemetery by our house and how much space is left.  She says it is because you can feel the veil closer and the peace she feels she often compares to visiting the temple.  So that being said I thought she would be thrilled at this date and was only slightly put off when I came home ready to go and she said "I am dreading this date"...and quickly followed up with "it is just so hot" to cover her tracks.  But being the good sport she is we headed out.

We decided to drive to areas of the cemetery where there was a concentration of leaders and explore them and then drive to another cluster.  For one, Anna was hot and didn't want to hike the hills because this cemetery is HUGE and very hilly and two, Sophie was asleep in the car for the first half of the expedition.  Here is Molly and Anna in front of a huge piece of petrified wood...how cool is that for a grave stone.

When Sophie woke up we took a photo at President Grant's obelisk.

After exploring the cemetery we headed down to Temple Square and to dinner at the Lion House Pantry.  Anna had never eaten there before so it was something new for everyone.  The girls loved the cafeteria style of going down the line and picking what they wanted.  Jello was a hit as was the Lion House rolls.  After dinner we decided to walk around the temple grounds and get the wiggles out and we only had to threaten them, in hushed tones of course because we were in public, to be good or we would leave right then.  For the most part the threats worked and we enjoyed going from fountain to fountain and taking in the beautiful flowers. 

At one point Sophie saw a large patch of grass and immediately exclaimed "Oh I love grass so much because it is the perfect place to dance" and then proceeded to show off her skills which, by the way, she didn't inherit from me because she can dance and loves doing it.

 

We also ended up walking through City Creek to get back to our cars and we had to again stop at every fountain for the girls to play in and for Sophie to dance by as the music played.  I wish I could capture Molly's faces all the time because she has the most amazing faces that perfectly express what she is filling but doesn't do them on command so it is hard to capture but if you look close as she is in the fountain you see her look of excitement.  

It was a great night and we realized if we didn't get stressed and took it at the kids pace they were much happier...a good lesson to learn as we plan to take our first family vacation this September to San Diego...wish us luck.