Summer Is Over!

That means I have a lot to write about. Summer time is such a busy fun time so I never found time to write about it. I have no pictures of this but we did a lot of swimming! I can't believe I left my camera home each time we went. I took Evan to our community pool during the day and we would go with Matt in the evening. A few times friends joined us. Evan hated it at first during the beginning of the summer because it wasn't blazing hot yet. He's just like me when it comes to water, we get cold easily. Once it really heated up he was really enjoying it. He learned to go under water without coming up coughing because water went down the wrong pipe. He loved it when Matt or I threw him in the air and he went under water.


We got to have fun at the park a lot this summer as well. Evan now goes down the slide all by himself. He loved feeding the ducks. He had more fun chasing them though.

We had a fun Pioneer Day. Matt had the day off so we went to Spanish Fork to see the parade with his Family. Uncle David was in town from California so it was great having him with us. After the parade we walked around the carnival and let Evan ride his first carnival ride. He loves water so I was worried he would fall out of the boat trying to touch it. Luckily he stayed in. He loved it so I'm excited to take him to Lagoon during Frightmares. It's cooler then :).

We went bowling with our great friends Jon and Aubrey. They moved in next door in May and I'm so grateful! We've become great friends. I really enjoy all the fun activities we've done with them and the great conversations we have daily. We took Evan with us so he could experience bowling for the first time. They didn't have anymore of those ramps that help kids bowl so I had to help him. He took my first turn and I finished up. Once we rolled the ball down the lane, Evan would sit down and wait for it. He was being so cut and we made a great team! I really thought Jon would beat all of us but Matt ended up coming first and then him. I guess Evan helped in that lol! He's our little secret weapon. Evan and I came in third and then Aubrey. We had a great time. I wish I got a picture of Jon. I guess we have to do it again :).

We had a lot of game nights with our friends and family. We love playing Celestial Champions with our friends because it's fun getting to know them better.

We went on a lot of morning walks with Amy and Jen. Sometimes we would walk to get free food. That's always fun!

Matt and I took Jon and Aubrey to the Manti Temple. I look forward to our trips up there. It's one of my favorite Temples. The feeling there is just amazing! I also look forward to eating at the Manti House after the session because their food is also amazing! We got a group photo at the Temple but the lady that took the pictures managed to not take a picture with my camera. We heard the click so we thought she got us but all she did was focus. I have yet to get Jon and Aubrey's copy.

Evan had his first taste of Corn on the Cob and loved it. The white stuff is sour cream. Something he also tried for the first time.

We spent a lot of time outside playing in our front yard. Evan also helped water our plants but sometimes he takes it a step further in fun.


Evan aged really fast during the summer :). He's now 22 months so that makes him 2 years old in two months.

On Labor Day we went up into the mountains and had a picnic with Matt's family. We then drove up to Cascade Springs. It was a beautiful place and there's signs of Fall coming. Yay!

Our BYU Cougars had an amazing win against the Oklahoma Sooners.


Evan learned how to do somersaults.


There's nothing better then a nice cold drink of water on a hot summer day.


Our summer was a lot of fun but it left us tired.

We're excited that fall is coming, it's my favorite time of year.

Ahhh!

You all know that Evan's favorite songs are "The Peanut Song" and "If You're Happy and you Know It" from our last post. What we didn't tell you is that it's the only songs he wants to here. If we sing something else, no matter what, he will scream! We got it on video yesterday while visiting our families. During the taping our battery died just when he started to scream on another round of songs. It's too funny to not post. When we take Evan's photo he loves to say cheese so that's what you hear when I first start filming. He thought I was going to take his photo :). We love that kid!!!

Evan's Favorite Songs

After church yesterday Matt got Evan to perform a little bit of his favorite songs. We all call him Peanut so one of his favorite songs is this Peaunt Song.

"A Peaunt sat on a railroad track, his heart was all a flutter. A choo choo coming around the track, choo choo Peanut Butter!"

His other favorite is "If You're Happy and You Know It" We did these songs a couple times before we got the camera to record it so when we recorded it he started doing a new thing. He wiggles his body when the song goes to "If you're happy and you know it than you're face will really show it". I thought it was so cute and it's his favorite part so he was waiting for it. One of these days he will start to really talk and we will get him to sing them for us instead if us doing it for him over and over :).

I have the best Husband!

Everyone says they have the best Husband but I really do! I turned 25 yesterday! I can't believe it because I still feel 21. It's like time has stood still since we got married because it has gone by so fast. Marriage has been great and it's also hard to believe that our son is almost 2 years old!
Matt always asks me what I would like for my birthday but he always ends up surprising me. In the past I mentioned to him that I would love to have a sewing machine because I really want to learn to sew. Now I know the basics, but I want to learn to make clothes, quilts, bags, baby blankets and much more. Matt just told me I need to learn more before he goes out and just buys me one. I thought that was fair so I asked my sister to help teach me. Well it hasn't happened yet so my dreams of learning to sew haven't been accomplished so I knew a sewing machine would be in my far future, but..... Matt surprised me and bought me a sewing machine for my birthday! I was totally not expecting it because I just told him to give me money to go shopping for clothes. Well this is much better! What's even more shocking is that he also got a sewing cabinet to go with it so I have a place for it. This is something that I wanted too but didn't think I could get them at the same time. I love that Matt thinks ahead and thinks of my needs. I truly have the best husband in the world!

Winchester Mystery House

Before the Thompson Reunion started we spent the night in San Jose because it's been a wish of mine to walk through the Winchester Mystery Mansion since my mom and sister went through it way back in like 1999. I thought I would never get the chance since the move to Utah so when it came up in our plans for California I just wanted to go. Matt didn't care about going but his brother did so I had nothing holding me back. Grandpa stayed with Evan at the Hotel so the three of us just went. It was awesome! Matt even thought it was worth the money to go see it. There is so much history about it so I don't remember everything but this is a great website that can tell you,
http://www.prairieghosts.com/winchester.html

Here are some amazing facts about the place:
Number of rooms: 160
Cost: $5,500,000
Date of Construction: 1884 - September 5, 1922. 38 years of 24 hours, 7 days of week of building and rebuilding the house.
Number of stories: Prior to 1906 Earthquake - 7; presently 4
Number of acres: Originally 161.919; presently 4
Number of basements: 2
Heating: Steam, forced air, fireplaces
Number of windows: Frames 1,257; panes approx. 10,000
Number of doors: Doorways 467, doors approx. 950 not including cabinet doors.
Number of fireplaces: 47 (gas, wood, or coal burning)
Number of chimneys: Presently 17 with evidence of 2 others
Number of cars at her death: 2 (a 1917 Pierce Arrow Limousine & a 1916 4 cyl. Buick truck)
Number of bedrooms: Approx. 40
Number of kitchens: 5 or 6
Number of staircases: 40, total of stair steps - 367
Number of skylights: Approx. 52
Number of gallons of paint required to paint entire home: Over 20,000
Number of ballrooms: 2 (one nearly complete, and one under construction)
Blueprints available: No, Mrs. Winchester never had a master set of blueprints, but did sketch out individual rooms on paper and even tablecloths!

Here are some pictures that we took of the place:
Part of the outside of the house showing a door from the second story that goes to nowhere
One of the staircases that leads to the ceiling.
They call this the $25,000 storage room because at the time of her death everything in the room was appraised at $25,000. These doors and windows were waiting to be put in the home but some of them were exchanged for other pieces. Today this collection of Tiffany glass windows and doors appraise around 3.5 Million. These pieces are just gorgeous!
This is the bedroom where she died in. None of the furniture in the house is original. It was all sold after her death.

This is the Seance Room. There's only one way in but you can't go out that way and three ways out. One way is through this window (see below).

It's a window that drops into the kitchen sink. The other way is through a door that leads to a shallow closet. The only way out that wont trap you or maybe even hurt you is through a door that doesn't have hardware on the other side, so once you are out, there is no way of going back in.

One of the elevators in the house.

When she would go into town and find fabric that she loved, she will buy the entire stock of it so no other women would have the same fabric. She would put the fabric in this room.

This is the most expensive window she bought. It cost $9,000 at the time and that's enough to build nine homes back in those days. Wow! The sad thing about this is that she put this on the side of the house where no sun will ever hit it and then built a wall behind it.

This is the room she was sleeping in during the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. She feared the spirits were trying to get her because the house was nearing completion. Without fixing the damage she boarded up the front of the house so it would never be completed. A guy walked in front of it but that's where a fireplace was. It fell two stories and shifted the room causing her to be trapped inside the room till her servants found her. They had to use a crow bar to open the room and the damage is still there.



This is the front door. Only three people ever walked through them and they were herself and the two carpenters that hung them. She had no visitors. President Roosevelt was a fan of the Winchester Rifle and wanted to go visit Sarah so he could have been the fourth person to walk through those doors but when he was walking up to the door, the gardener didn't recognize him and told him if he's looking for a job to go through the servants entrance. He was offended and never saw her.


Here is one of the Grand Ballrooms

This chandelier was imported from Germany. It originally had 12 candles but she put a 13th one. She was fascinated by the number 13. The number 13 is associated a lot around the house.

This is the unfinished Ballroom. It's part of a different tour that we didn't go on because we ran out of time but I was able to find it walking outside and took a picture of it through the window.


Sarah developed crippling arthritis in her old age so she replaced most of the stairs with these easy risers. They only raise a couple inches.

Sarah stood 4ft 10in tall. She could easily walk through this door.

These two pictures show what the house used to look like before the 1906 earthquake hit and today. We walked over a mile in the house during the tour. It was a lot of fun and extremely worth the time spent there. I wish we had time to take the other tour where it would take us beneath the house and of course see the unfinished ballroom. Maybe next time we are up there. If you are ever in the area you should go take a tour.

Thompson Family Reunion 2009

It was that time of year again when the Thompson's get together and spend a few days with each other. Ethan and Becky were in charge of it this year. They found a house big enough to rent for the week up in Grass Valley, California.

Matt, Evan and I left two days before the actual reunion started. We left Tuesday afternoon with Matt's Dad and brother. We woke bright and early after arriving late Tuesday night. It was probably early morning on Wednesday even. We had breakfast with our Aunt and Uncle and got ready to go watch the Oakland A's play against the Detroit Tigers. We met up with some of our Aunt and Uncles from the Thompson side that wanted to go to the game since this was an extended day for the reunion. Ethan found $2.00 tickets per person for the game and since the A's is Matt's favorite baseball team we had to go. It was such a fun game to watch. We were down the first couple innings but took the lead and won! There were two home runs where they scored two runs each time. I called them before they even happened so I had a lot of fun. It was nice weather so it was a perfect day. It was chilly in the shade so it was nice in the sun. Evan enjoyed it so he allowed us to stay and watch the entire game but Grandpa did end up taking him out because he was so tired. Grandpa wanted to take him out even if he wasn't tired. Evan has so much fun with his Grandpa. He took Evan to play on the playground inside the stadium a bit. After the game we went our separate ways since we couldn't go to the reunion site till Thursday late afternoon. The plan was to go to the Oakland Temple while Matt's dad and brother would watch Evan for us by site seeing in San Francisco but we were late to the session we needed to take. We only had 15 mins to the next session and we still needed to change our street clothes to church close and we forgot to get cash out so we could rent clothes for the Temple. Their sessions are every hour so it would of been too late for us because we had to drive to our hotel in San Jose. This was the second time this happened to us with this Temple so I was sad. One of these days we will be successful! It's the Temple Matt's parent's were married in so it's something we really want to see. Since those plan didn't work out for us we got to site see San Francisco with them. We got to see the Pixar Studio and I finally got to see Golden Gate Park where my Uncle's life was taken in a bizarre way. I never met him because he was 21 years old, just off of a mission. He was out there with a bunch of college students out on tour. It was a Sunday so they were just walking the beach. A summer storm rolled in and the waves got so big that it took everyone out into the ocean. A human chain was created to get my Uncle back to shore but a whirlpool came about and took him and another guy. They never found him or his friends body. I'm grateful for the Gospel in knowing that we will see him again because families are forever. We spent the night in San Jose because our plans were to walk through the Winchester Mystery House before we headed up to the Reunion site. I had to put it in a post of it's own because there's just so much to say about it. Make sure and read it!

Once the tour of the Mansion was done we met up with Matt's mom and sisters that came up another day so we could go up to the reunion site together. The reunion was great! It was so nice to relax. Evan had so much fun with the little cousins. We were up in the area where gold was sited so we go to visit Sutter's Mill on the 3rd. It was so hot that day. Evan gets the red face from me. We both don't take heat very well but he's still cute! I was surprised he let us hold him in the full family picture because he didn't want to be held. In our family picture he fought us till we just let him stand in front of us. He was really happy when we let him play in the water.

People panning for gold! On the 4th we went to another gold site, Empire Mine State Park. The workers would ride on this to get into the mine. It goes 11,000 feet but it's filled with water right now. It's Leanna's birthday on the 4th so we had some fun activites for everyone.

Here is Evan with some of the cousin's playing the happy birthday song to Leanna with those noise makers.
We had a pinata for the kids and the adults. Matt had fun keeping everyone from hitting them. This was Evan's first time with one.

We played volleyball with a regular ball and with water balloons. That was a lot of fun!
Sunday we relaxed and had fun playing quite games in the house to end the reunion. Monday we said our goodbye's to everyone for another year. Before going home on Tuesday, we spent some time with the Haymore side of the family. I'm blessed being married into Matt's family because they are the greatest! I love every chance I get to spend time with them.
Thanks for a great reunion Ethan and Becky!