Our Wonderful Ohio Vacation

When Jeff's brother invited us to meet his family in Ohio during their family trip, we were really excited.  They live in Utah, so it has been really hard for us to plan occasions to get together.  We only had to drive 5 1/2 hours to see them, and it was a fabulous trip for all of us!  The first thing I noticed about Ohio is how similar the scenery was to our Pennsylvania scenery.  With all of the green farmland and trees, we could have been driving around our own town.  But the landscaping at the home we were visiting (the home of Jeff's brother's in-laws) was especially awesome.  I had to capture a bit of this beautiful garden to keep with us.

All of us were super grateful that our newest Little Lovell nephew and his mommy were able to make the trip all the way from Utah to be with us.  He was exactly one month old :).

One of my favorite parts of the trip was visiting this church history site, the John Johnson farm in Kirtland, where the prophet Joseph Smith lived for one year.  This is where he lived when he was tarred and feathered, and where he received some very important revelations that we have in our Doctrine and Covenants.  It was a really neat place to see.

We also got to visit a friend's stables.  This was the largest horse I've ever seen!  The photo doesn't do it justice.  I was told that this horse is about 19 hands high, and weighs probably nearly one ton.  (The medium-sized full-grown pony in the stall next to it was about 13 hands high.)  Wow! 

Clark and all of the kids had a blast catching fish in the ponds.  Lots of blue gills, this one catfish, and even a couple of turtles turned up on the hooks. 

Uncle Steve was a super fishing coach.  He encouraged Clark to go all the way--so together they prepared two of Clark's fish for eating, so Clark can earn his fishing merit badge for scouting.  Thanks, Uncle Steve!

BROTHERS! 

The pet donkeys were lots of fun to see!  The cousins were super fun to play with, too, of course!  We loved our time with them.

If there's one thing I'm grateful for about this trip, it's that our kids got along 20 times better on the way home than they did on the way there.  We were all still so happy with the fun time that we had, and just a little bit tired, so the 5 1/2 hour ride home was nice and peaceful.   YAY!!!!   What a wonderful trip!

Here's a link to some more great pictures from that trip:
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AYtnDZi2cN2Jp
(just click on "View Album"...no need to log in)

Wildwoods Beach

Our kids were more than ready for a beach break, so we drove just 3 hours to spend time at an old friend--Wildwoods beach in NJ.  We all had a great time.  This beach was just right for our family, and the June weather that day was super perfect. 

Too bad Jeff didn't keep his shirt on--with no sunscreen (oops!), he was the most sunburned of all of us.

I feel a little funny about putting the bathing suit picture on here, but Jeff said, "Aw, come on, it was just for fun."  So here it is.  It was taken just before the big bad finger incident.  The pic of my hands shows the beginning of the swelling after I dislocated my pinky trying to catch one of Jeff's turbo footballs (yes, it was pretty gross).  I wonder if I can blame it on our playing with a wet ball?  "It's all fun and games until somebody gets hurt!"  I have purpler-finger pics, but I'll spare you.  We were having so much fun, too... :(

So happy together!

Happy Easter to Yous!

Just before the school-hosted daddy-daughter date.  I think it's so cool that Goldie's school has this annual tradition.

Papa Lovell couldn't wait to see his son's name updated on the marquis, now saying "Dr. Lovell" instead of the "Mr. Lovell" that it said all last year.  That's one proud papa (and mom, too).

This was one of the coolest volunteer jobs I've ever done at one of my kids' schools!  I wore this giant costume for two whole sweaty hours at the book fair and had fun entertaining the kids.  It was really funny to see the difference between the friendly (and sometimes aggressive) 2nd graders, and the curious but shy and worried kindergarteners.  Tootie had fun telling kids his mom was inside the costume, and kept talking to me through the eye holes (when I was on all fours).  I thought that was funny.

Today was a great field trip with Grandma and Grandpa to our State Capitol!

Today has been a great day!  We're so glad to have our visitors here for Easter weekend.  As they would say here in PA, "Happy Easter to yous!"

Orange Rhino: Letting Go

The Orange Rhino asked: 

Letting go is HARD (that is an understatement) but powerful and oftentimes needed. What can you let go of so that you don’t remain annoyed?

My answer:

      Wow, this is a hard one. I am really not good at letting things go. But since I’ve been successful and am now on day 29 of not yelling, I must have learned to let SOMETHING go! I believe I have let go of having to let my “right” answer be accepted all the time.
       I would like to choose something else to let go of from today on though, so I can be that much more at ease…and I am choosing to let go of dinner.  It was always a major trigger to me when someone would complain about what I fixed. Each person in my family has a list of foods that they don’t like, and no one’s list is the same, it’s almost a guarantee that someone is going to hate what I made. I will let this go. What’s most important to me at dinnertime is that we have a few minutes to be all together, and I would love it if that time was fight-free. SO, I am going to let go of my expectations to please anyone/everyone with my meals. If they like it, fine, if they hate it, whatever, I will not be offended. I will just do my best, enjoy the other 5 bodies around the table, and realize that what I’ve done by making their meal is contributing to our future feelings of love and friendship and togetherness as a family. I mean, I will try.
      I believe it will still hurt my feelings to have what I’ve made for them be rejected or frowned upon, but I know it’s the food they dislike, not me or my love.

What about you?

Pictures of Us

I haven't posted pictures for a little while, but I just discovered it's probably because we haven't been taking many pictures lately.  Weird.  I guess we'll try to do some more exciting things so we'll feel inspired to get the camera out more :).  Anyway, here's a little tiny update about nothing in particular.

This was one of my favorite Valentine's Day (15th Anniversary!) surprises--Jeff had his fraternity brothers serenade me Billy Joel's song, "For the Longest Time."  They sounded awesome, I enjoyed it so much!

Here's Shark's model of a cell and all of its innards.  He used candy as his medium (in jello--we put it in the freezer to make it stay solid until it got to school). 

Didi at Pizza Hut.  I love that my kids are still young enough to enjoy the kiddie place mats and crayons at the restaurants.  They're growing so big though!

Here's Goldie with her "Who hair" for Dr. Seuss Day at school.  We couldn't believe it when we were searching and saw  THIS picture of her twin with the same shirt online, so we had to copy her hair. 

I loved being a surprise volunteer Dr. Seuss reader in Tootie's kindergarten class!

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Lastly, I wanted to share with you Didi's exciting news:  She won a poetry contest!!  It was run through the public library here, and there were over a hundred entries.  She was one of 10 winners in her age group.  She will get to read her poem at a reception held in honor of the winners.  We're so proud of her for her ambitions and for developing her talents!

I LOVE TO READ, by Didi Lovell  (6th grade)

I love to read.
That's all there is to it.
It relaxes my life.
I just have to do it!

My escape rope,
is a book.
In a special corner,
my book nook.

Escaping to jungles,
or faraway lands.
Meeting dragons,
or the perfect man.

Reading is helpful,
in everyday life.
I relate to a book,
to avoid strife.

I read nonfiction.
Mystery too!
Fantasy is my favorite.
Tragedies are too blue.

Why shouldn't you read?
Because of dirty hands?
That's no reason not to,
considering all the magical lands!

So you should start reading.
Find a book nook.
You might love it like me!
Why don't you look?