Footballs and Peaches

Peaches Peaches Peaches!  We went to Hartland Orchard in Markham VA and picked pounds of peaches!  The peach tree branches were hanging low enough that the kids could just pick them right off!  Austin and Ash loved it.  Every summer/fall we've loved going fruit picking.

Austin also started his "Gainesville Grizzlies" flag football practice this week.  He loves it!  They've started plays and he's now the center and hikes the ball.  He loves the team, players, the game.  The coach (Coach Robert) is excellent he lets and the kids have fun while learning the sport too.  Ashley loves to cheer Austin on.  It's so cute.  Go Grizzlies!

Burke Lake Park

While trying to get everything in before the end of the summer, while Jonathan was in between trips, we all went to one of our favorite locations in VA.  Burke Lake Park in Fairfax!  Austin loves the train and going fishing, Ash loves the merry-go-round and I love taking the kids on the trails and making them put on shows in the amphitheater!  The best part is that Daddy was there to share the fun with us.

Signal Bay Water Park

We played with our good friends the Johnsons and Crowley's this week at

 Signal Bay Water Park.  Ash and Gavin were having a great time on the slides chasing each other!  Little Lottie was taking it all in, splashing, and being really cute!  Austin's buddy Tate came over and Ashley was in the middle of whatever they were doing the whole time.  Poor boys.  

County Fair!

Every year we've attended the Prince William County Fair.  Every August we look forward to the demolition derby, petting the animals, cheap thrills, funnel cakes, elephant ears, fried oreos, big corn dogs ....do you get why the Toler's really go to the fair each year?  FAIR FOOD!  We had a ball this year!  

Disney Princess

We had a GREAT time!!!!!  

Orlando Magic

We stayed at one of my favorite hotels of all time in Orlando and highly suggest it to anyone visiting there.  The JW Marriott in Grande Lakes.  Its grounds are shared with the Ritz Carlton and it has an amazing pool, lazy River, amenities and activities for the kids every 2 hours.  It's a resort and totally caters to the children.  The kids enjoyed tie dying their own T-shirts, S'more's at night, there are movies outside, crafts, and Ashley even got her sparse hair put in a little hair wrap!  I thought when they tied the thread around her hair, that this little thin shock of hair was going to pop right out the top of her head.  But, it's still in there!  There are even beads at the bottom.  She hated it the first day, but since she can't pull it out she's gotten used to it.  

The kids have a ball putting the room key in, pressing the buttons on the elevators, eating at Denny's and Cracker Barrel every morning and visiting the kid arcade.  When the kids are happy, the adults are happy.  The busier they are, the more enjoyable vacation is for mommy and daddy.  We had a ball together.  One of the highlights for me is getting matching shirts for the kids from the Universal Dr. Seuss theme.  I'd seen it the year before, and regretted not buying them then.  But this year, we bought Austin a "Thing 1" shirt and Ashley has a matching "Thing 2" shirt.  Very fitting for my little munchkins!  

Ashley had to carry her Sleeping Beauty "purse" with her everywhere we went.  She was actually really good and carried it all by herself and never pawned it off.  Austin however, brought his big backpack and loaded it up with all of his goods from home and it weighed about 20 lbs.  As soon as we hit the airport, he started complaining of how heavy  it was.  But the kids love carrying their own "luggage" with them.  We allow it, why not?  It's vacation.

We were sad to go to the airport on Wednesday night.  Duane being a 1k member with United, we all enjoyed the Red Carpet Club privileges.  The poor businessmen.  Our flight was delayed 4 hours and so we were in the lounge for 6 hours.  The kids loved the free drinks, treats, and snacks.  So did Mom.  Relaxing in the Red Carpet lounge before a flight is old hat to Duane, but I loved taking advantage of some of his travelling perks!  It also took care of our hotel and flights out to Orlando.  We got back to Washington Dulles and we were so sad.  It's always nice to come home, but what a wonderful time.  

Disney World 2008

So here we are, Disney World 2008!  This year, Disney World was magical for Ashley.  She thought she was a real life princess herself.  She loved seeing the 
characters, and thought Snow White ride was too scary.  Austin however, was too cool.  I got all excited when I saw Mickey Mouse.  Austin turned to me and explained that it was only a costume.  At least Ashley still upheld the magic of Disney.  I guess there is a timeline for this type of thing.  I'm kinda sad that Austin hit it so soon.  Another coming of age experience I had with Austin on this trip is when he had his body board out in the ocean following other bigger boys with their surf boards, 
I kept yelling at him
from the shore to not go too far or to be careful and to come back in front of where I was.  All of this yelling by his mom finally made Austin turn around in front of all these bigger boys and he yelled, "Mom!  I can take care of myself!"  I felt like yelling back, "No you can't!"  But I decided to quit barking like a mother hen and to just watch him and trust him.  Not yelling at him like he was a baby made him feel a lot better around the bigger boys.  He's only 5 though!  I was so sad.  Why does he care now?  I wish he was still the age that it didn't matter what other people thought.  He was oblivious to those types of things.  I'm going to be a mess the first day of kindergarten as well.  I know I know.

Disney World was amazing, expensive, hot and did I say expensive?  But thoroughly enjoyed it and most of all because we were all there together, as one happy little family.

This week we spent 3 days at Cocoa Beach.  This is a special place for the Toler's for a couple of reasons.  First, Duane grew up travelling from Charleston down to Cocoa Beach  for body boarding/surfing competitions growing up in his teenage years.  He knows the area very well and we've been there many times as a family.  We also love Cocoa Beach because that's the home of Ron Jon!  We love Ron Jon!  So after many trips to the store, the Kennedy Space Center/Cape Canaveral is there.  It's also a major port for many Disney cruises!  The kids loved seeing the big Disney boats coming in and out of port.

We rode the waves and enjoyed the beach immensely.

We had dinner at a delicious Thai place, that looked "iffie" but ended up being some of the yummiest pad Thai we'd ever had, second to Matsumoto's in Honolulu.  

2nd Tooth!

I'm starting the blog back a few weeks, as a lot has happened and I'm catching up!  Austin lost his second tooth (the two bottom teeth are now missing) on August 6.  It was in anticipation for going on vacation the next day!  He pulled and pulled and twisted until he said that he heard the roots crack and that he feels the burn!  Finally, the little booger came out.  The tooth fairy wasn't as generous for the 2nd tooth, which surprised Austin, but I said only the first tooth and molars get the big money!

Also this week, Mountain View Elementary school had their student evaluations.  Austin was so excited to be there and I was like a nervous mother hen.  He did just fine and can't wait to start school in just a couple of weeks!  

We also sent to the DC Zoo this week!  It was really hot, but the kids enjoyed seeing the animals.  Very fun.

This week, on August 7-13 Jonathan was on vacation.  Finally Condoleezza took her vacation and so it wasn't a problem to take time off.  So we headed down south to Florida!  We flew to Orlando for 3 days in Cocoa Beach (a favorite spot of ours) and then 3 days in Orlando/Disney.  We were just so excited to be with Daddy!

New calling

I just got released from being the Enrichment leader to now being the Primary Secretary.  I must say I absolutely LOVED planning the enrichment nights for the sisters.  Now, I'm buzzing around, taking attendance, bookkeeping and watching how my son really acts in primary.  However, different callings make us better people.  Constantly refining our skills, learning new things, adapting, bettering ourselves.  Change is good.

Jonathan came home this week.  Condoleezza Rice has been on vacation, therefore Jonathan has actually had some downtime.  He sent other teams to do protection and he's been laying low.  In fact, now it's his turn to take a vacation.  So what did he do?  He booked us a vacation this week!  We're going to Disney World and to Cocoa Beach, FL.  What will I do with a husband that doesn't have a blackberry in his hand 24-7?  I don't know but I'm ready to find out!  The kids got on their disney hats and are ecstatic.  I feel spoiled this summer, as the kids and I have done our fair share of vacationing.  So I think this is more for Jonathan than for us.  At least we can all be together. Yeah!

This week the kids picked out their backpacks and lunch boxes for school. They slept with them on their backs and carried them with them everywhere for the first 2 days!  So cute.

Ash and Austin got new dressers this week.  I must say it was really sad getting rid of the baby furniture.  Sniff sniff.  Although we made a few bucks  off of Craiglist.  I wanted to say, "Take good care of that!  There's a lot of memories in there!"

Austin told me that this week he wanted to move to Mexico.  That they can eat all the quesadillas they want there.  Also, we were proud of our little guy bearing his testimony so proudly at church.  Each fast and testimony he asks if he can please go up there.  Before, we would go up there with him and then of course we were mandated to bear ours as well.  He was a  good little example.  But recently, he just goes up there on his own.  This time he sat through a couple of testimonies as if he were one of the bishopric on the stand.  He likes being up there.  He just beams when he gets in front of the pulpit.  I love it that he loves to share his testimony.

Ashley the little Daddy's girl, has enjoyed every single second with Daddy.  We all have.  We're so glad when Daddy comes home, glad as we can be!

Anonymous Card

I just wanted to say THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to the writer of this incredible card I received.  It was in the mailbox addressed to me, with no return address on it.  I opened it and read the kindest, sweetest, most genuine words in a heart-felt note to me.  I was truly touched when I read this.  I was eager to see who felt this way about me only to see that it wasn't signed.  It was anonymous!  Amazing.  I poked around a little bit to see who'd sent this to me and called a few of my friends, but all had denied it.  Regardless, I just wanted to Thank from the bottom of my heart the person who wrote me this card.  It's on my dresser, I will keep it forever, and it made me feel like a million bucks.  It was deep, observant and well thought out.  Things like this are not replaceable.  Acts like this are non-replaceable.  Thanks from the bottom of my heart to whoever you are. 

It's Showtime!

This week the kids and I have had so much fun together putting on skits/shows for each other! After bathtime, instead of reading stories the kiddos had the option of putting on a skit of their choice using their imagination.  Ash had chosen to act out Little Mermaid musicals, Twinkle Twinkle Little star and sings Dora's Swiper song.  She sings and does her own choreography too, mostly mimicking what she's memorized in the Little Mermaid movie.  She loves Ariel. 

Austin got out his pirate toys and hid behind Ashley's footboard of her bed and put on pirate shows.  He even was talking about how the "ships were plundering the high seas."  I stopped him and said, did you really just say the word plundering?  

One night I got out the video camera and it was showtime! They loved being taped and would say "CUT" and do their skit over again until is was exactly as rehearsed.  So funny!   

This week Austin has done really well in his last session of swim lessons.  His first session was taught  by an American boy who was so congenial with the kids but did only the basics in swim instruction.  At least that's what I think now that we have the Polish Swimming Waterlogger.  Austin's new instructor, Conrad, is all serious.  Austin wasn't listening to instructions one day and he was told to get outside the pool and do jumping jacks.  Then I look over and see Conrad pushing Austin's head under water then popping it back up again.  He shoved his head down then up so Austin would feel the rhythm of taking breaths when his head is outside the water.  Then Austin became a little out of breath from doing laps and he was the only one physically breathing heavy.  The teacher didn't like that, so he made just Austin  do another lap!  A little uneasy initially, but Austin has jumped leaps and bounds in 2 weeks than what he did before.  Thanks Waterlogger!

We have been working on family prayers this week trying to make them more sincere, not rote, and from the heart each time and adding some personal elements to make them more effective. It's coming along really well.  In one of Austin's prayers one night he even reached so far as to be "thankful for the Nile River."  ???

These weeks Jonathan has been on his 4th trip around the world.  The last few legs have been Abudhabi, Singapore, New Zealand, Somoa then Honolulu.  He's telling me he's not getting personal time, probably only because he knows I would be insanely jealous even if he had 30 minutes on the beach alone out there!  In the past 6 months, Jonathan has visited 28 countries. 

As for me, I've had a fun week!  Ashley and I painted our nails together, had many tea parties, I attended a card making class (I love making homemade greeting cards!) and a super fun BINGO Olympic party!  It was great!!!  We even competed in Olympic events!  It's always a great summer event.

During these hot dog days of summer, I'm doing the same ole' thing.  Swim lessons, running, pool, library, slurpee runs, and playing outside in the humidity.  Generally keeping the kids and I busy.  We're all missing Daddy.  This is beginning the 4th year of him being on the Secretary's detail.  There is an end in site though.  Next summer.  In fact, it's bidding time AGAIN.  We get the list in a few weeks.  We're kind of getting the overseas itch now that Austin is doing so well after his surgery.  We're feeling better about heading overseas.  So maybe this time next summer we'll be somewhere International!  I get excited when I think about it.  Probably too because that way I'll have a husband around and the kids can be together with their Dad.  And ALL OF YOU can come visit us, wherever we are, anytime.  (Let's all pray for Rome :)

Much love,

Angie