How 'bout them dawgs?

We had a fun trip after Christmas visiting our dawgs in Georgia. Here's some pictures from over the weekend. (Heather I would really love some pictures of Anders with his tie on :) 

These three love watching TV. 

McKay looks like he's losing his patience after being constantly photographed 

Wow! No doubt these guys are brothers. 

Chillin' with Uncle Brent 

They're cute 

Anders rocking his bulldog look 

 Of course no trip with the nephews is complete without a visit to the local mall's train.

This is what happens when we give Mike the camera. 

A Night for the History Books

Dad and I went on another adventure last night. I don't know many dads (or anyone for that matter) that would be willing to be taken to so many random events with me (especially this one where I was at the height of my nerdiness) but my dad is the best!
Last night one of my favorite historians was in Cincinnati. Doris Kearns Goodwin (she's won the Pulitzer and her book Team of Rivals was the research basis for the movie Lincoln) was giving a lecture at The School for Performing Arts.

Apparently I'm not the only nerd in this city: the venue was so full that we had to sit up in the balcony. About 600 people were there!

Nerd selfie!

Dad just loves history books :) ...Not really but he's a good sport

The lecture was based on her new book The Bully Pulpit about Taft and Roosevelt. The lecture was great but the most impressive part of the night was her open mic Q&A session. Doris Goodwin is brilliant! People were asking her about a wide array of subjects (some of them seemed pretty random) and she could answer every question!
After the Q&A session they formed the autograph line and we were able to go on stage and meet her. (I got my copies of Team of Rivals, Wait Til Next Year, and The Bully Pulpit signed!) Talk about knowing everything...dad told her that he grew up in a city called Kearns in Utah and without missing a beat she knew the city and told us about who it was named after (A popular senator from SLC, no relation to her though). She was so cool! It was a great experience and I was nerding out like crazy!

Our First Reds Game

Dad and I went to our first Cincinnati Reds game yesterday! (Luckily we didn't go on the 4th,we looked at buying tickets for that game but it got rained out) It was a lot of fun and even though the Reds lost to the Seattle Mariners we still got to see Choo hit a home run! (and I had to resist my urge to do the Chop) Todd Frazier didn't seem like the best of batters but I loved his Frank Sinatra walk on music and even though we didn't win we still got to watch the Friday Night Fireworks!

Us in the sea of red

The Great American Ball Park!

$1 hot dogs! Clearly I spend way too much time with preschoolers because I kept thinking of the Mickey
Mouse Clubhouse hot dog song.

The only shot dad and I got together thanks to another Reds fan. 

Sunset over Cincinnati (I heard on the radio there were 33,000 people at this game!) 

The real reason dad wanted to come to the game

Friday Night Fireworks 

Pops!

This weekend dad and I went to a Cincinnati Pops concert. The theme of the concert was Broadway Night and the guest artist was Brian Stokes Mitchell (a Broadway singer we learned of from attending a Mormon Tabernacle Choir concert a few years ago)

We stopped by The Levee before heading to the show. (Heather: There's a kids' train that goes around The Levee now for Anders and Tom and Chee now has gluten-free bread!)

Tom and Chee out on the patio. Its a fun place to eat because it has a cool view of
the Cincinnati skyline

The concert was at Riverbend (which we both had never been to before) and we discovered that Riverbend is Coney Island's amphitheater. (Coney Island will be a fun place to take Anders when he gets a little bigger, they had a fun looking kids' area)
The concert was great! The Pops and Brian Stokes Mitchell were both stellar and it was a fun night of great music.

Andrea's Big Week

It's starting to dawn on me how close my baby sister is to being an adult. This week I took her to Sinclair to get her Tartan Card. (She's all registered and set to start Sinclair classes in the Fall.) I'm happy that she's going to Sinclair (my Alma Mater), now to work on convincing her to join Phi Theta Kappa....

This week she is also serving a "mini mission" (where she'll get the full experience of being a full time missionary, but for a week rather than 18 months) in the Cincinnati area. (Hamilton for those who know Ohio well :) Sadly I was working when she reported for her mission so I wasn't able to send her off. When I saw this picture later, I was blown away by how much she actually looks like a sister missionary (..and rocking my cardigan better than I do!)

Yes, baby sister is growing up, which is making me a sentimental wreck....

Zion's Camp '13

Over Memorial Day weekend I was able to attend Zion's Camp (a state-wide YSA conference held in Kirtland, Ohio), which was a lot of fun! I met people from all over Ohio and also people from Michigan, Utah/Idaho, Missouri, Kentucky and a few people from Canada. We participated in different workshops, service projects and devotionals. Alex Boye from The Mormon Tabernacle Choir was our key note speaker and on Sunday we held sacrament and testimony meeting in the Kirtland Temple! (A very cool experience!)

Graciously being welcomed by our hotel :) 

My friend took this picture of the temple, looks pretty spiffy doesn't it? 

Dayton YSA attendees at the neon themed dance. 

Working on our service project of writing our testimonies in Books of Mormon for the missionaries to hand out. 

Flying Pig 5K