Catching Up

 After weeks without a functioning camera (or the means with which to upload pictures), I'm thrilled to say we have pictures again! Mostly of Oliver, because he can't see a camera without saying, "You take my picture?"

 

 

But, just to recap. Here's Jake, looking dashing at his Eagle Scout Court of honor last Saturday.

Evelyn on Monday just after her penultimate play performance, hamming it up for the camera.

 Slightly farther out, so you can see the flippers she wore for her costume (and Oliver's arm). This is downstairs, where the kids hung out while waiting for their parts.

And . . . that's about it for the catching up pictures.

We're barreling toward the end of the semester, so life is pretty busy. But at least Evelyn's play is done! Fun as it was, it's also a relief not to schedule daily rehearsals into our schedule. Especially this week. The above pictures were taken after Oliver and I left our van at the shop and walked to campus to pick her up.

The previous Thursday, I took the car in to get the oil changed. They mentioned that the rear tires were wearing a little and we might want to get the alignment checked. But they said the front tires looked fine, so I put it out of my head until after our trip up north.

Monday, I took the car in to have the alignment looked at. Oliver and I went to the park, then came back. After an hour and a half, they brought me into the garage to show me that the front tires were worn all the way down to the metal on both sides. (Remember, four days earlier they had been fine!)

Turns out, the alignment and a couple other parts weren't functioning right. They kept the car overnight, replaced a few parts and the tires and we got it back. The upside of older cars? We own our car outright. The downside? Sometimes repairs are expensive. At least it's safe to drive now!

On Thursday, I watched a couple of cute little boys while their mom was substitute teaching. They tore apart the house, but they had fun. (One of them serenaded me with *all* the words to "Take Me Out to the Ballgame"). Here's Oliver with puppets instead of gloves and shoes. 

 

We spent yesterday up north again--Dan and I got to listen to Neil Gaiman (!) in Park City. We spent the morning at the Monte L. Bean museum with the kids--and happened to run into my youngest brother and 3 of his 5 kids just as we were leaving. (I hadn't told anyone we were coming up because we weren't going to be in town long). 

 And everyone loves a good "Liger."

Justin brought his kids over in the afternoon and the cousins ran around together until it was time for us to leave. My mom arranged a babysitter for the kids, since she and my dad were at the temple, so we'd asked Andrew to help Oliver go to bed, reasoning that he'd be more responsive to Andrew than the babysitter. Unfortunately, things didn't quite go to plan and Oliver was still awake when my dad got home. He's taken a long nap today to compensate. (I will say, however, that at least he slept through the night, unlike the previous night where I found him in the hallway at 3:30 a.m., reading a book to himself by the light of the hall nightlight.)

Dan and I had a wonderful time. We had a nice Mexican dinner in Park City (with a salsa bar--I was too chicken to try most of the offerings, as they were marked outside of my heat range), then listened to Neil Gaiman tell stories and talk about his writing for nearly two hours. I even ran into several writing friends, including three of my agent sisters!

Afterward, we returned to Provo by way of Salt Lake and met up with Sarah and Aaron for dessert at a swanky place near their house. We were pretty exhausted when we got back to my parents' house (and everyone there was asleep), but it was lovely to have an evening to ourselves.