This past week was a really quiet one. Alyssa is still at GHP (two more weeks) and she's enjoying that. She is taking a computer programming class (Delphi?), math in art, math in sports, and various communicative arts (translation: English or language arts) classes. She's spending time with her friends, meeting new people, and generally having a good time. We're so glad that she has this opportunity, but we definitely miss her!
We started off the week with the 4th of July, which we celebrated by painting Brie's bedroom a lovely shade of robin's egg blue. They also assembled her new dresser. After that we had a cookout at Mom and Dad's house which included Brie and I making homemade blackberry ice cream...the custard kind, from scratch. It was delicious, but it was an awful lot of work for the amount of ice cream it produced. Next time, I think I'll stick with an ice cream mix from the store and add blackberries to it. LOL After it got dark the kids did some small fireworks and sparklers in the front yard. It was nice.
Mark and Brie bought the wood this week for their summer project -- building a new bed for Brie. This should keep them busy for the next few days!
Brie and I had the opportunity to go to the Atlanta Temple yesterday for a youth baptism trip. I was so excited to get to go with the youth, and especially because it was Brie's first temple trip. It was a wonderful experience and I'm so glad I got to be there. She and I did a little shopping on the way home...can't believe school starts in less than a month here! Yikes!
Mom and Dad are out of town right now. They went to Mom's family reunion in Idaho and will be going to a memorial for my Granddad tomorrow. We miss him so much and wish we could have gone to the memorial but it just wasn't possible. *Sigh*
Mark and I are working on our preparations to be group leaders for about 40 youth at a church tri-stake youth conference later this week. I'm excited to be able to be there and be involved in this -- it's going to be a lot of fun and a great experience for the youth.
And in other news...can't wait for the premier of the final Harry Potter movie later this week! We love the Harry Potter books and movies. It's sad that this is the last one...but I'm excited about my plans to take the girls to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter park in Orlando in December. *smile*
