Time Out For Women -- Cincinnati, OH

This past weekend was incredible!  Full of laughs, tears and spirtual upliftment.  I'm still recuperating from the late night girl-talk and the rollercoaster of emotions!  I went to Time Out for Women with these cute girls in my ward (R-L: Shanna Olmsted, Katie Kirkham, Laura Pettersen, Lisa Ybarra, Lindsay Weston).  Thanks to Laura I have all these great pics of our time there.

 

We were uplifted with amazing music.  Here we are with the girls of Mercy River.  I wanted a picture with Michael Mclean but i was too shy. :)

And outstanding speakers.  This is cute Mariama.  We all loved her and her heart wrentching stories.

But best of all I loved bonding with my fellow sisters.  We got to know each other so well and I truly grew to love these girls more and more with each passing hour.  It was such a great weekend!

I also wanted to post some pictures of our little sara with her new teeth.  they are finally big enough to capture in a photo so here you go.

scott wanted in on the picture action as well. 

When I came downstairs this morning from putting sara down for a nap I found these boys cooking together in the kitchen.

James has a slower rotation this week so he's been home a lot more. It has been so nice to have him around now that his board exams are over.  Now his residency interviews begin!  He has the first one this Friday and another fifteen (plus) over the next three months!

Scott's favorite part of cooking...

And another random pic of sara because I love this hat and i love her so much.  she's such a cuddly little bear.

Cedar Point!!!

this past weekend the palmer familiy finally made it to cedar point.  we have had a goal to go there since we found out we would be doing two years of rotations in cleveland and we finally made it!  for those who don't know, cedar point is a very large and very nice amusement park in sandusky, ohio (about an hour from us).  and since we are enjoying 75 degree weather in october we decided to go (and so did the rest of the people living in ohio.)

yes, it was very...very crowded but we still had lots of fun.  the park has a parent swap program where one parent can wait in line while the other one hangs with the kids.  then the other parent can go through the exit and get right on the ride once the first parent is done.  it was sad to not be with james while he waited in line but the kids and i found lots of ways to entertain ourselves.  here we are waiting for james to ride the "dragster".

and here is james waiting to go on the "dragster".  he was in line for almost two hours after the ride broke down half way through his wait!  the break-down only added to the thrill of the ride.

i tried to capture this craziness of this ride.  see that huge peek in the distance?  the rollercoaster shoots ExTrEmEly fast up and over that peak.  it is seriously freaky deeky.  i was still shaking ten minutes after riding it. i'm not joking.

my favorite thing about cedar point is that you can leave the park for a while and walk along the boardwalk and go out to the beach.  not many people were out here and it was so peaceful and beautiful and relieving to get away from the crowds for a while.

and this is just how sara was for 80 percent of the day.  she constantly amazes me by how chill she can be in potentially stressful situations.

we finally got to the point where we decided that splitting up and waiting in long lines wasn't worth being away from each other so we spent most of the evening together going on "family rides". 

the kids were so happy to have daddy back.

the whole reason we went to cedar point in the first place was to see our friends ryan callahan and b.j. jones.  ryan came and hung out with us in the evening and it was so good to catch up with him.  it was weird that he hadn't even met our little sara considering the fact that he was like a member of our family when we lived in iowa.

we kept saying that we'd leave the park when the kids got cranky but they never did!  they were so good and so we stayed into the night letting scott run around from ride to ride having the time of his life.  it was such a great day.

other things we've been up to...
scott had his first japanese "hibachi" experience.  he loved the big fire in the middle of the table.  we went there with some of our new ohio friends (katie and mark mcvey). 

sara just keeps getting older and older.  she is very much posed here and not at all big enough to actually sit at scott's table by herself but she is getting old enough for these two to entertain each other.  scott is so good at playing with her (especially when i bribe him with treats) and scott is now willing to play in his room by himself as long as sara is there with him.  i absolutely love hearing them play and laugh together.  they're such cute little gigglers.

we had our new friend, tyler weston, over the other day.  tyler and scott are such good buddies and here are some photos of them working with their jello jigglers. 

and this is my new favorite picture... maybe ever. (scott found this bike helmet in the closet and was convinced that it was a baseball helmet.)

james is in philadelphia TONIGHT getting ready to take the second portion of his board exams tomorrow.  these roses are what he brought home to me after the first section was over (last thursday).  i can't wait to see what he brings me when he gets home tomorrow! :)

and lastly, i just wanted to thank everyone who signed my petition to move victoria secret from the play place in the mall.  (this is a photo that i took to include in the letter that i wrote the mall management).  and here is some positive news... i heard back from the mall and they said they have received a lot of complaints about this very issue and they are moving the play place!!!  it will be in its new location by january of 2012! i'm so excited and so grateful to the many people who have opened their mouths so that this change could take place.  thanks again!