Thompson Family Tree

I was dreading the hot, sticky, humid weather of July in Ohio. But it was very pleasant. Lots of sunshine, mixed in with a little rain, highs in the mid 70's. The weather was great.

We did lots of fun things while I was in Ohio. One of the biggest events was "This Is Kirtland". Summer and Andrew both performed in the show, they did a great job!

It was fun to see Andrew singing and dancing on stage. Summer was an amazing dancer and singer.

She really shines when she steps onto a stage. (She got to be prego for part of the show)

I went to four performances. Logan usually came with me, sometimes Bryan went and I stayed home with Hannah. She just didn't appreciate the great performances, so she stayed home or went to a baby sitter.

Summer and Andrew had their cast party at a little private beach on the shore of Lake Erie,

families were invited.

Andrew had fun swimming in the lake with his friends.

Logan stayed on the shore but Hannah wanted to jump in with Andrew. Summer and Andrew stayed at the lake and I drove Logan and Hannah home.

Summer and I took the kids to Kirtland to see a Book of Mormon art exhibit. The pictures were beautiful. Walter Rane was the artist. He captured stories from the Book of Mormon on canvas.

After the art exhibit we went to John Johnson Farm. Neither Summer or I had gone on the tour there. Going to these sites and hearing the familiar stories makes them more real. The John Johnson Farm was were Joseph and Emma were living when they adopted the twins.

Joseph and Emma had been up late taking care of the sick babies, when a mob stormed into the home and dragged Joseph out. They beat him, and tarred and feathered him. The room that Joseph, Emma and the twins where in was right by the front door (the windows to the left of the front door was the room that they where in). The cold night air was to much for one of the babies and it died. Seeing the room and the bed and how close it was to the front door, and thinking how scared Emma and the babies must have been. It was just so real and heartbreaking. Joseph and Emma endured so much for the gospel. Wow! It would have been just to much for most people, me included. They were amazing people!

The Johnson Farm is about 30 miles from Kirtland. That is a long way by horse and buggy. We were surprise by how far away from Kirtland the farm is.

We had to make a stop at RJ's (just around the corner from the Kirtland Temple) to have a pulled pork sandwich, and fry's with fry sauce. That's right- fry sauce. The sister missionaries would come to eat at RJ's and they would mix up some fry sauce. The owner was interested in the sauce and he made some up. The missionaries approved the recipe and RJ's serves fry sauce with all of the fry's.

Then we went to the mall in Mentor. It has a Disney Store, so I always want to make a stop there. They have some pretty cute stuff. Maybe Santa will have to do some shopping at the Disney Store.

Summer and I took the kids to a free movie in Shaker.

It was called "Coraline". It was an animated movie, by Tim Burton, we expected weird.

But this movie was not a kids movie(all of the scary characters had buttons for eyes-they wanted Coraline to become one of them, so she would have buttons for eyes too), they had almost naked old women with pasties on, and disturbing nightmare like scenes. It was bothering me and Summer and so she asked Logan if he wanted to leave. He said "yes its a bad movie". He really had a hard time with it even after we left, he just kept saying it was a bad movie. We were going to go to some of the other movies but it just didn't work out.

These last four pictures above are before the movie started. We had lots of fun eating popcorn!

Last Christmas Andrew got a Star Wars Monopoly game from Kody and Brooke. He loves to play it. He and I played twice while I was there. He won once and I won once.

I always read a lot when I am at Summer's. More free time I guess. I read 7 books while I was in Ohio for three weeks. I read "The Sunflower" (by Richard Paul Evans), "The Goose Girl", "Enna Burning", "River Secerts"( These three are a series by Shannon Hall), "Harry Potter and the Half-Blooded Prince"(J. K. Rowling), "The Tales of Beetle Bard" (J.K. Rowling) and "Z for Zachariah"(by Robert C. O'Brien). It was fun to read so many different kinds of books. I would recommend all of these books, too.

Andrew also read a lot while I was in Ohio. He started a book reading program at the Shaker Library. He needed to read 100 hours to get a medal-he really wanted that medal. He would read anytime that we were driving in the car, he would read at night after he went to bed (he helped Logan make a tent around his bed-the lower bed of the bunk bed, so that Andrew could keep the light on so that he could read and Logan could sleep). Sometimes Andrew and I would sit upstairs and read in the living room together. Andrew got his medal the day before I left. He was so excited. He nearly ran all the way back to the children's section of the library.

He was so happy he was just about bursting. Andrew was so sweet, Logan wanted a medal too, so Andrew told him that he would share his medal with him.

We went to the library three times while I was in Ohio.

They have a great pool in Shaker. We were hoping to go to the pool more often but it kept raining. Oh well, we went three times.

Logan loves to jump into the pool off the side.

Andrew floats, jumps, flips, slides and swims.

Hannah is a little bathing beauty.

We ate out a lot!

The first place that we ate at was "The Cheesecake Factory". I had never been there before. But I had heard that it was a bit pricey.

The food was great, the restaurant was beautiful, and the cheesecake was to die for, and I don't like cheesecake that much. Funny thing, I tried to take a picture of all of the cheesecakes in the refrigerator but they said that I couldn't take a picture. What I am going to copy their cheesecake-oh please.

Crazy huh??!!?? This is the only picture of cheesecake that I got.

Then we went to RJ's-I have already talked about that.

Summer and I went to

"The Melting Pot". I haven't ever eaten there before either. It was so good! They were having a spa night just for girls. We ordered our drinks, virgin something, mine was a mango flavored drink, and Summer got a green apple drink. Then they came and took us to the "Spa" area. We had our make-up done. It was fun!

Here we are being funny after out makeovers. Then we went back to our table to eat our Cheddar cheese fondue and California salad.

Then to top it all off we had chocolate, Carmel, and pecan fondue.

We dipped rice crispy treats, brownies, pineapple, strawberries, marshmallows, and cheesecake. It was sooooooo goood!

"The Melting Pot" is in the Legacy Mall. It is an outdoors mall like the Gateway. We walked passed Lilly Pulitzer. We always think of Danny when we go to that store. She loved to try on all of the fun and way expensive clothes there. She even bought a sweater-it was on sale, 50% off, it still cost $99.00! I don't know how places like that stay in business. It's crazy.

Summer, Bryan and I went and saw "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows"

It was a good movie, but I had just finished reading the book on the day that the movies was released. Oh course they didn't stick to the book and made a lot of changes. So I was disappointed. I need to not read the books before I see the movie. Then I will be happier with the movie.

One day we drove out to the Lodi outlet mall. Summer and I shopped, the boys ran around and complained. Then we rode the Lodi train. Logan was sooooo excited. He just beamed! Then we had lunch at Subway, and got a cashew bear claw from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. (Summer do you have the pictures from the train ride? If you do will you add them to this blog or email them to me so that I can add them, thanks.)

We went to Amish country and had a great time at "Rolling Ridge Ranch".

We rode a wagon all around the ranch and fed animals along the way.

Logan is afraid that the animals will get his feet. It was crazy to be so close to the animals.

Watch out for the antlers!

They have a little area where you can pet the animals.

Logan got himself into the baby goat pen, and then got scared and wanted out, the baby goats wanted out to. So a nice young man picked up Logan and handed him to me.

Then we went to Heini’s Cheese Chalet.

They make all of their own cheese there. They have this big room with about 3 or 4 long aisle of cheese, and you get to taste as many different kinds of cheese as you want.

The Swiss cheese was sooooooo good! Summer couldn't get the cheese samples into Hannah's mouth fast enough. The boys liked it too. They also have samples of fudge-sooooo goood!

After our cheese appetizer we decided that we should get some lunch. So we went to Amish Door Restaurant and Village. It was good too. Hannah was pretty tired of being in chairs, car seats and being held. She had a complete melt down. So I was finished eating and took her outside to run around. Summer and the boys came out and we played a bit at a little playground. Then we took a potty break and got back into the van for the two hour ride home. Me and Summer need to go back without the kids. There are lots of shops that we wanted to go to but knew that the kids wouldn't like it. Maybe when I go back in October.

One of the big things for me was that I drove all over by myself. Summer and Bryan got a new toy. A Garmin Nuvi. I drove from home to the Cleveland Clinic hospital-it's in downtown Cleveland, home to Kirtland, Kirtland and back home again, from Lake Erie to home, and from Amish country home. It was so great! You can drive anyplace without a map. It was fun to watch too. I kept saying

"I want that" every time I drove and used the GPS. It was great fun! But kind of weird totally relying on a little computer that told me were to go. Ha Ha

Summer and Bryan are trying to get there house ready to put up for sale. They are doing most of the work themselves. They are working on re-doing the upstairs bath. Bryan needed to change the plugs to safety outlets. Something went wrong while he was doing this and the outlet for the refridgerator lost power.

They ended up with a big hole in the wall behind the refridgerator. An electrition came after I left and re-wired the outlet. Their refridgerator started leaking some kind of liquid a while ago and it just kept getting worse. One day the liquid ran all over the kitchen in little rivers in the grout lines of the tile floor. Then the oven stopped working. So they decided to get a new refridgerator, oven/stove and a built-in microwave. (These are cell phone photos so they arn't the best-sorry)

Andrew and Logan were almost as excited for the new refridgerator as Summer was. The new appliances look great! Makes me want a new refridgerator just like yours. :D

Summer and Bryan went out a few times and I babysat. One night Logan wanted to put his swimming life vest on to go to bed, I said no and set the vest aside. The next morning was Sunday and we had to wake the boys up to get ready for early church. This is what I found when I went to wake up Logan.

He also had his backpack on. I don't know how he was able to sleep, but he was fast alseep and hard to wake up. Funny Logan.

Thanks Summer, Bryan, Andrew, Logan and Hannah for letting me come and stay at your house. I had tons of fun. I always have fun, but this time was different. Maybe because it was one of those "last" things-last summer in Ohio. Thanks!