Jamestown! Complete with Indians, Pirates, and Soldiers!

So we will be doing our tour of Jamestown by picture, rather than just words.

First, we will skip the Indians, because we didn't have any great pictures. They were there, they did stuff by hand, it was dirty but cool, enough said.

Next were the ships. They have these big bad ships you can actually get on that are replica of the ones the Virginia company would have sailed on. Clearly I was steering this one.
And Nate and this Pirate (okay, sailor, but doesn't he look more like a pirate?) made friends and had a "hommies" picture taken, the pirate's idea of course.
Next is Yen perfecting her Medical Skills with this Pot.
Oh, and this is the gourd I wanted to steal, I mean take as a souvenir, but my purse was too small to hide it. And I would never do something like that....
Clearly this armor did not have Polynesians in mind when it was designed.I got to give the sermon, and I was feeling the emotions of the Boston witch trials, or so it would seem...
Finally this one is Yen firing the cannon. Watch out over there!
We loved Jamestown. It was a great half day trip for something fun to do, and we even took the ferry across the James River on the way home. All in all, this was a great adventure!

Washington D.C

So my FAVORITE place to go and visit is Washington DC, so naturally we spend a day up there with Stephanie. We ended up with a full van because Mom, Kye, Cami, and Zach decided to tag along too. We all drove up together, and then took the metro downtown. We started our day off with the mall. For those of you who haven't been to DC, the mall is NOT a place where you go shopping in DC, instead it is where all of the Monuments are. The only one we didn't get up close and personal with was Jefferson, because he is far off the beaten path and we only had one day.














Next it was off to lunch at the Air and Space Museum. This was extra exciting for the Nuffers of the trip because they serve Donatos pizza there, a Columbus chain that make some of the best thin crust pizza ever! Only pepperoni and cheese at the museum, but we'll take it. It was also nice to get inside out of the sweltering heat. Stephanie had not yet adjusted to humidity, so she was dying (and the rest of us too)!

The last and best stop was the National Archives.













I have never been inside before, even though I've been to DC more times than I can count. They've been closed due to flooding, routine maintenance, etc, so I've never made it in. We were able to see the Magna Carta, The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. Having studied these documents many time over, it was humbling to see them in person, to actually read the preamble myself right off the original. It made me extremely thankful for the opportunity I have to be an American, and for what our Founding Fathers did for us!


















There was no Flash Photography allowed, so I'm super impress that Nate's pictures turned out this amazing!


















Kye found this secret door while we were waiting to go inside! It all felt A little like National Treasure or something.

I'm glad we were able to go, I just wish we had a week or more so we could see everything!!

Touring Richmond

Well, the first tourist thing we did with Stephanie was Richmond Proper. Nate took her downtown with my mom and they saw lots of cool stuff. They went to the White House of the Confederacy (yes, there is such a thing, and when you tour it you get a truly Southern Version of the history of the Civil War. It's actually a pretty cool experience). They also toured the Capital Building. Lots if interesting History. In addition to that they saw VCU campus and Hollywood Cemetery. I wasn't there to ensure proper pictures (you know, with people in them) but here are the best ones they got.

This is the Capitol Building. (Lovely Pictures all provided by Yen).

This one is mom and Thomas Jefferson's original model for the building.

This one is mom looking excited and Nate looking ridiculous.

Oh, and we went and saw Transformers on Thursday too, for details see my previous post.

The Greatness of Norman

So this patriotic weekend we are going to Michigan, but we are not taking Norman with us. That is very sad for us, but it will probably be worse for Norman. Luckily Cami will be staying with her so she won't be lonely. The real reason I wanted to post was because I took a great Picture of what happens when you try to go up against my dog.















Diane really likes this picture too, she just about fell over when she saw it.

New Stories Coming Soon....

So we had a pretty busy week last week. My Friend Stephanie Yen was in town, and she has never been to the east coast (or even further east than Utah) so we felt the need to take her all over. Suffice it to say that I have pictures with pirates (okay, sailors, but that sounds more fun and was what this guy acted like), Indians, Lincoln, And a live Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry. This week will be another busy one, but I'm working on getting everything up, so until then I know you will be on the edge of your seat....

Transformers Review

Okay, so first of all, I will try not to spoil anything, but beware, I'm not perfect (contrary to popular belief!).

Nate, Stephanie, and I went to see Transformers 2 yesterday. Let me preface this by saying that when I went to the first movie, I was less than excited. I was basically going because of how excited Nate was. I walked out of the theater completely pleased having enjoyed a great movie. This one started out the same. Good action, fun characters, and lots of plot. Then it just got boring. The movie was 2 1/2 hours and would have been much better had they stopped at 2. I actually checked the time TWICE towards the end!! I swear they spend a good 30 minutes at the end just running. It was just ridiculous and anti-climatic. My second issue is character development, not of the people but of the Transformers. I am completely okay with watching a movie about Transformers (rather than humans), but I would at least like to know their names. You get that maybe once, and that's not enough for me. (yes, I knew the basics, but all of the new ones were confusing). They would have done better to focus on a few rather than tons. However, the action scenes, the military guys, and what they were able to do digitally was pretty impressive. It was not a bad movie, just not as good as the first one. Yep, that's what I thought....I dare you to disagree!

~Diane

Garden Update

Well, so far so good. All eight tomato plants are doing wonderfully. We finally staked them up today and they were way too tall for the stakes but it will just have to do for now. The peppers are growing strong, and the squash even stronger! We tied up the beans realized that there are tons there too. The only things that are struggling are the salad greens, but it's so hot outside it is hard for them to grow. We just waited too late in the season to plant them. Here are the pictures (cause we all know that's the best part!). The last picture is one of the butterflies that has been hanging out on our deck. They LOVE our flowers!!

Oh, this is me and Norman chillin while Nate finishes up!




I think this one might be my favorite because it is so pretty!


If anything actually starts growing veggies, I'll keep you POSTED (hehe, get it, posted, like as in another post on the blog....I'm rolling with laughter, I am just too funny!!!)

Cami and Norman Compete!

They had so much fun playing! Enjoy!

Jeni's Baby Shower

My sweet friend Jeni is having a baby girl soon and today we had her baby shower. It was so cute. My friends Shannon and JinHee threw the party and I pitched in a little. It was so fun. There was good food, good people, and fun games. We played this cute candy bar game where you have to guess which candy bar goes with the baby/pregnancy term (baby name = whatchamacallit). It was a blast!
Here is the cute diaper cake and presents table!
Here is Jeni and the food!

Here are the fruit flowers I made.
Here is the cake I made, I'm still not sure I like it, but it turned out alright. Shannon has all of the people pictures on her camera, so I don't have any fun friends ones, but if I get some I will put them up here! Thanks for reading and for all of the comments!!!!

Kye's 5th Grade Graduation

On Thursday Nate and I went to Kye's graduation from elementarty school. He has had a really good school year and is improving so much and we were really proud of them. The best part was that he was awarded the Pat Pagels award. Basically this is given to one 5th grader each year who has show dedication, perserverance, the ability to overcome obstacles, and is basically just a hard working kid. I was SOOOOOO proud of him!!! He got the award in front of everyone and it was amazing!!! To celebrate we everyone came over to our house and mom bought Pizza! I can hardly believe how much he has grown up. Here are some pictures from the graduation!

This one is of him being given his award (we were way in the back so it was tough to get a good picture) This is Kye and his teachers. They couldn't say enough good things about him!

Kye's Baseball Game, well actually snacks at McDonald's because of the Rain!

So today Nate and I headed down to Kye's baseball game. It was his second to last game, and we were really excited to go and watch. We were running a little late because Nate had Webelos. We got there in the 2nd inning, and Kye had already made some great plays. But just as we got there the lightning started so they put the game on hold. We waited about 30 minutes, but the storm just got worse, so we decided to all go to McDonald's for ice cream (Code for Chicken Sandwich and Fries if you are Kye). It was really fun to just hang out together! Here are some pics or us eating (because of course the one time I bring the camera I can't actually take pictures of the game).

This one is me, Kye, and Mom waiting for the lightning to stop.
This is me and Kye being cool...I think he got his posing skills from Shelly.
Here are my cute parents with Kye. Yep, there he is again being amazing! So hopefully I will make it to his baseball game Saturday so I have good baseball pictures! I love that little guy!!

Wedding Cake!!

So as you all know Shelly is getting married. As an attempt to save cost, they are considering letting me make the wedding cake. I've NEVER done this before, so I decided to practice so I would have something to send to Shelly to show her and see what she thinks. It looks nothing like the one she wants (cause she still hasn't sent me the picture) but I wanted to give her some idea of what I could do. I used flowers I had and the cheapest ribbon and beading I could find (since it was only a practice). I also didn't spend much time on the piping because I'm not sure what she wants. Here was the result of today's practice session:
The flowers are WAY too big, but I didn't want to go out an buy something for a practice cake.
The orange flowers are even bigger, but you get the idea. Perhaps this summer I will learn how to make good gumpaste flowers and then I will do my own, but that's pretty ambitious so we'll just have to wait and see how it goes.

On a different note, I just realized that I blog a lot about food and cooking, but guess it just goes to show that it's one of my favorite hobbies!

Employment for Nate!!!

So Nate has been working REALLY hard to find a job since school got out. He's sent out dozens of resume's, filled out tons of applications, and nothing. You'd think finding a part time job would be easier than this. Finally, yesterday, he got one. He will now be working for Blockbuster! I'm excited because in addition to Nate having something to do over the summer, it means FREE movie rentals! Hooray!!! I'm also really happy for Nate because he loves movies so I think this is a job that he will really enjoy, rather than just feeling Blah about. This does not mean he's quitting at Barnes and Noble, but they aren't giving him hours, so he'll stay on payroll and balance the two jobs if something changes. I think I may be rubbing off on him, he's had 5 jobs since we've been married! Hooray for Nate!!!