Weddings Galore

Drew and I haven't been to a wedding in forever and then in June, two very important weddings fell on the same day. AHH! What to do, what to do. Lucky for us, they were an hour and a half away from eachother (Drew's law school buddy: southern Massachusetts; my cousin: central Connecticut). We decided to make a trip of it and go up a couple of days early to play in Boston. I LOVE Boston- one of my all-time favorite cities, so this was the perfect excuse to get up there.

Even though it rained from morning 'til night our only full day of touring Boston, we still made the most of it and had an awesome time.



In front of the USS Constitution (Old Ironsides).




World-famous Pilgrim Sandwich at Mike's City Diner on the South side of Boston. Please tell me I'm not the only one who has a life goal of visiting all the hot-spots on "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives," because this was our first place we checked off.


Makenna by the Old North Church on Boston's Freedom Trail...right before her catastrophic melt-down.


Experiencing the deliciousness of Katz' Delicatessen in NYC on the drive home.


My mom and dad met up with us during the Connecticut wedding and drove back with us (can you say "cramped quarters in our Camry?") to VA. The girls dominated the back seat and loved it!


NYC skyline. I seriously love this city.


Ironically I'm not posting any wedding pictures at all, even though my post title implies that I will. Sorry if I deceived any of you. I will tell you that they were both amazing. Also, how much do we love all the hoopla of non-Mormon weddings? Filet Mignon, Grilled Swordfish, killer Hors d'oeuvres...I mean, come on! And the picturesque backdrops. And the bells ringing in the cathedral after the ceremony just like after Fraulein Maria and Captain Von Trap got married. Not that I didn't love every minute of my so-much-fun reception at the stake center; I wouldn't have changed a thing. But there has to be something said about the grandiose measures most non-members take for their wedding.

Ahhh...I love weddings.

Patriotic Indeed

Holy cow- our 4th was rockin'. No, seriously. We've never seen fireworks on the Mall and had no idea what to expect. If you know Drew, you know we played it safe and got there at TEN A.M. And what time did we leave? TEN P.M.

If you ever do the Fourth on the National Mall, it would behoove you to take a word from the wise and follow this checklist:

1. Show up early for the parade and sit at the BEGINNING of the parade (7th and Constitution) so that you can high-tail it out of there when it ends.
2. Make friends with an unusually muscular, thus very intimidating, black man so that he can be your family's body guard throughout the parade while herds of spectators try to step over you to get to the street.
3. Take lots of videos/pictures of the parade to show your posterity that you WERE brave enough to go downtown on such an insanely crowded day.
4. Once the last float has passed, casually run to the Old Post Office for a quick, but always delicious lunch of $6 gyros, before everyone else has the same idea.
5. Head on over to the Navy Memorial on Penn. Ave. to wash your dirty feet/legs in the "No Wading" pool. You'll feel much refreshed.
6. At this point, you're going to have about 7 hours to kill before you can enjoy what you really came for, the fireworks. So walk around the Smithsonian exhibits set up under tents all along the mall. You may even be tempted to try some ethnic food or dance to some ethnic music. (Note: your child should be sleeping in their stroller at this time, for they will not get any sleep the rest of the day).
7. There are lots of religions handing out free things on the Mall today. Why not take one? And then get into a religious discussion/debate/fight with teenage minions the churches have persuaded to do their missionary work.
8. Now hunker down at your chosen spot to wait out the evening for the fireworks. Make friends with the people next to you so that the time will pass quicker. Send your husband back to the much-coveted A+ parking spot you could score if your husband works for the FTC (free parking garage located on 7th and Constitution) multiple times to lug back chairs/umbrellas/sweatshirts/food.
9. Play the "I Spot a Mormon Family" as long as you can by looking for smiley face g's on the passersby.
10. Bring your own TP to the porta-potties, for they will surely run out 1/2 way through the day. Also be prepared to be 54th in line.
11. Hold your loved ones close and watch the most amazing fireworks display with the most gorgeous backdrop ever, making lots of oohs and ahs and making everyone feel very patriotic.
12. Now RUN to your car as fast as you can and don't look back.

Good Deed for the Day

This morning Makenna and I were on our walk, minding our own business, when out of nowhere we see a youthful-looking turtle wandering Roberts Pkwy, lost beyond all recognition. He was holding up traffic (good will still exists!) until finally 2 teenage girls get out of their car and move him gently to the sidewalk. The one girl douses him with water from a water bottle and begins to walk away.

Makenna is entranced by the small reptile and my heart strings are being pulled quite strongly by the soon-to-be dead-by-dehydration turtle. I ask the girl if she would so kindly pick him up and place him in the basket below the stroller because I'm a little too scared to do it myself (you've heard of killer turtles before, haven't you?). I tell her I'll take him back to the stream he obviously wandered from behind my neighborhood.

And so I walk all the way home with a turtle and a toddler in my stroller until we reach the stream. I think the turtle must have been extremely frightened because he made a mess of his own in my basket which I shall now have to go clean up. I picked him up by his shell (with all the courage I could muster...you know a mother must be brave for her child) and placed him gently in the stream. From there he plunged his head under water and drank like there was no tomorrow. Then I saw the very sweetest thing I can remember seeing in a long time and watched my daughter wave good-bye to the relieved turtle as he swam away down the stream.





You may be wondering how I knew it was a male turtle. Because if it were a female, she would have obviously already stopped and asked for directions on how to get home.

A Salami For the Boy in the Army

A long, long time ago (2000) while I lived in Centennial (at BYU), a very strange thing happened. College BFF Jenn did not live with me this year, but it proved not to matter in the "necessity to prank call" department. On a weekly basis we would get out our apartment telephone and begin dialing random numbers, reciting random requests or declarations, making lots of random people either very mad or very scared.

Early one morning (around 3 am), I was awoken to the ringing of our telephone. I ran to the kitchen and answered it hearing only this,

"SEND A SALAMI TO YOUR BOY IN THE ARMY," in a very thick New York accent, with lots of commotion in the background. I later described this noise as "something out of a warehouse or the back of a restaurant."

I was dumbstruck as the stranger hung up and I was left standing in our apartment kitchen. For years, Jenn and I wondered who would have made the call; was it payback for our prank calls, or was it truly a wrong number? It is one of our longest inside jokes in Jenn/Kara history. By merely mustering up a thick New York accent and repeating those words, fits of laughter are sure to follow.

FLASH-FORWARD 9 YEARS...

On Sunday, Drew, Makenna, myself, and my parents are all driving home from a wedding in Connecticut and decide to stop for lunch in Manhattan. We stumble upon the world-famous Katz Delicatessen on Houston Street. After ordering the most delicious pastrami on rye ever to enter my mouth, for some reason or another, I told this prank call story to my family. Five minutes later, in an act so serendipitous I hardly believe it myself, my dad looked up above our table. This is the sign he saw dangling from the ceiling:



The prank call mystery has been solved (other than the mystery of who made the middle-of-the-night call) after all these years. Of all the delis to walk into in Manhattan, and of all the stupid stories to share with the 'rents, I shared that one and we walked into this one.

That is my story from beginning to end. And just to make your taste buds water, here are a couple of pictures from our adventure...

Follow-Up To Record Keeping

Me: Girls, what are some different ways we can keep a personal record for our posterity?
Girl #1: On the computer.
Girl #2: Make a scrapbook.
Girl #3: Take a notebook around with you to write down random thoughts.
Girl #4: Make a video of yourself every night before you go to bed (a new-age twist on Doogie Howser's journaling)
Me: How about blogging? Do you think keeping a blog could be a way of record keeping?
Girls #1-9: Sister Mann, what's a blog?
Me (dumb-founded): It's a website all your own that you can write thoughts down and put up pictures and videos.
Girl #2: Oh yeah. I think my grandma has a blog. She's serving a mission in China with my grandpa.
Girl #1: Yeah, my grandparents have a blog too.


So to all you senior citizens out there: keep up your record keeping. Those young grandkids of yours will figure out what you're doing someday and be very grateful.

Can I Get a Wuh-Wuh for New Callings?

Can I just say how overjoyed I am with my new calling? I loved my old calling of which I held for a mere 5 months (Valiant 10 teacher), but I am ECSTATIC to be the new Burke Ward...



BEEHIVE ADVISOR!!!


You may think me odd to have so much emotion accompanying a church calling, but hear me out. There are, have always been, two callings I have very strong feelings about.
The first being Gospel Doctrine Teacher- never had it, never want it. The only calling in the church I would actually regretfully decline. (I'd rather be a full time building janitor than be the gospel doctrine teacher; that's how strong my sentiments are).

But the 2nd calling among the two accompanied by very strong emotions is ANYTHING in the Young Women. In seven years of marriage, Drew has heard me pine over this church auxiliary. I've never had the pleasure of serving in this capacity. I feel like once the new ward peeps hear I play the piano, it's all downhill from there. But here, someone tuned into the true desires of my heart. I LOVE the youth. I LOVE teaching. I LOVE hanging out and doing fun things on Mutual night. This will be the most awesome calling ever.

And in honor of my excitement, I wanted to come in with a bang and make journals for the girls (the lesson on Sunday is about record keeping). Here's a picture of the final product, which I think turned out pretty cute.





P.S. This is not meant to be a "look-at-me, look at what I did" post; I'm just so excited to be in YW. I actually can't even believe I've devoted an entire post to a calling.

Family, Monopoly, and the Pool

The long-awaited arrival of Eric went without a hitch, and was totally worth the plane-ride-from-hell with none other than my beloved daughter.

May 11th, 6:50 a.m.- I was prevented from checking in prior to the gate so that I ended up with a middle, hear me: middle, seat in a packed flight. I had two very hefty men on either side of me, Makenna in my lap, my diaper bag, her mini back pack, and the dvd player at my feet. After turning to the man in the aisle seat and asking if he would so kindly trade a young single mother seats for the arduous journey ahead, he cold-heartedly declined my request. What followed was a five-hour plane ride with ineffective Benadryl, NO naps, claustrophobia to the max, and a series of unstoppable tantrums.

But... it was SO worth it to be there when Eric walked off the plane, tired to the bone from two long years of serving his mission in Bucharest, Romania. I couldn't help but get a bit sentimental when I looked down as we were waiting for his luggage and his shoes, so shiny and sturdy when he left, were worn down to the soles, scuffed, and showed signs of endless days of walking.

What followed over the next two weeks during my trip home was superb:

1. Drew flew in secretly to Phoenix and we surprised my family with a whole weekend of our entire family being together.
2. Makenna becomes a water bug and will not leave the pool under any circumstances. Not for sleep, not for a dirty diaper, not even for a popsicle.
3. Family volleyball and paddle ball tourneys in the pool. And bless Drew's heart for always being willing to take the handicap on his team. (I don't proclaim to be a water volleyball master, but I can kick serious butt with a paddle in my hands).
4. Roasting s'mores in the fire pit in the back yard.
5. Endless amount of hours spent either defending, or claiming, the title to Monopoly Champion at the kitchen table.
6. Eating divine Mexican food that you CAN NOT get here in Virginia. (Long live Carolina's, Caramba's, and Rubio's). I think I got my fill of fresh tortillas, fish tacos, and supreme chicken quesadillas until July.
7. Visiting GG and Grandpa Phil in Prescott for a day. GG broke her ankle the day before Eric's homecoming talk and is bed-ridden for 6 weeks- yuck. Pobrecita!
8. And I could NOT leave out seeing Air Force 1 parked at our very own Sky Harbor Airport while Mr. Barack was delivering a commencement speech at ASU and controversially being withheld an honorary diploma.
9. Invaluable family time and photos, documented by yours truly...