Joseph Smith Birthplace Memorial

We traveled up to Sharon, VT (which is only less than 20 minutes from our house) to the birthplace of Joseph Smith, the first prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Sharon is a beautiful place and it was so fun to walk around and see it. We also went into the visitors center to watch a movie and see the beautiful paintings and statues they have. The tour guide related the info we were learning to the kids by asking them how old they were and then saying that Joseph was 2 or 3 when they left (about Sawyer's age) and his older brother Hyrum was 5 (Kate's age). It was fun seeing them running around and enjoying nature in the same area those boys did so long ago!
On the way home we saw a hamburger and ice cream stand and decided to have dinner and ice cream. It was actually really good and the kids loved it!

Ryan got the Vermont Sunday which was an elephant ear with ice cream, whipped cream and maple syrup on top. He liked it, but he was pretty stuffed when he was finished!

Eat as much as you want and sell the rest

Today I went with a group of friends to the Blue Bell Factory to take a tour. For those of you who are unfamiliar, Blue Bell is a very delicious and popular ice cream here. It is only sold in 17 lucky states and it is pretty good stuff. We drove the hour and a half with a jam packed car full of fun, the kids being entertained by a movie and the moms getting to talk. The factory tour was short and sweet and it wasn't but just beginning before Kate asked when she was going to get her ice cream. I think we were all thinking the same thing! After the tour you got to pick out a scoop and Kate and Sawyer and Summer all chose Krazy Kookie Dough. I didn't realize it was literally crazier than cookie dough ice cream until we got up there and found out it was sugar cookie dough dyed pink and blue. Even better. And Krazier. I got the Caramel Kettle Crunch which was SO yummy...I wish I was eating a tub of it right now! After the tour we ate a picnic lunch in the grass and then went to the country store where they sold these popping ice cream cones that I remember from my past. And they were 99 cents!! There are never souvenirs for that cheap in the gift shop! So the kids had fun offering each other ice cream and popping each other in the face. Who wouldn't?

It was a long day but the company and the yummy ice cream made it all worth it!

ice cream

I was sitting next to Kate on the couch while she was looking through a library book by herself. She turned to me and said, "Mom, this picture of ice cream makes my tummy think it wants ice cream."
It made my tummy think the same thing.
So we went to sonic for FHE after dinner. While we were waiting I took some pictures. And wouldn't you know it, I didn't take any of us with the actual ice cream!

Hopefully this will be our last FHE without our Daddy for a while. His capstone paper is due at midnight tonight and after that we might actually see him every now and then. He came home and saw us a little today and Sawyer, who has a tendency to want mom to do everything and be everything even when Daddy is around, couldn't get enough of him tonight! He wanted him to do everything and you could just tell how much he was loving reading books with Daddy and getting tickled by Daddy. But when Ryan tried to start working on his paper while I put him down for bed, Sawyer ran into the bedroom crying, "dada! dada!!" It was the saddest, most adorable thing I have ever seen.

ice cream with Daddy

Ryan took a small break from his paper to go get ice cream with us. Vanilla cones covered in sprinkles!
aren't they looking good in their summer tans?

free ice cream cone day!

Today Ben and Jerry's is having free ice cream cone day! We went after lunch and it was pretty busy. The closest one to us is in Rice village....which probably means nothing to most of you, but to Houstonians it means fun place with lots of stores and not much parking. So we had a fun walk and then some yummy ice cream. Before we even got in the car to go Kate told me she wanted pink ice cream, so she had strawberry. And I had Yellow Brickle Road which was just delicious. I highly recommend it.

At the end I wanted to take a picture of Kate eating her cone and I said "Say ice cream!" she said "Ice cream...cone....without the ice cream!" It was pretty cute.

So hurry on over to your local Ben and Jerry's! They said they're open until 8!