DC with the Storeys

On Wednesday (September 3) after Dan got home from school, we packed up the van, moved the car-seats to the back, filled up with gas, picked up the Storeys, and drove 7 hours to Washington DC. We had been planning this trip for awhile and were so excited to finally be on our way! Ross works for the Hyatt in downtown Columbus, and so taking advantage of his employee discounts, we got to stay in the Grand Hyatt in DC for FREE!! It was a sweet hotel and in walking distance from everything we wanted to see in DC. It was awesome!



So Thursday we spent the whole day in Washington DC seeing the sights. I love walking around DC. I love all the smithsonians, the monuments and memorials, the patriotism I feel, the desire to know everything about our country and its history. There were a few things I especially wanted to see this trip that we didn't have time for during our trip to DC last year. One of those places was the Holocaust Museum. We spent a few hours there in the afternoon and it was quite the experience, very moving.

Another place I really wanted to go was Arlington National Cemetery. Wow, what a beautiful and peaceful place this is. It's huge . . . . and it's amazing. Here we are in front of Kennedy's grave.


We had grand plans of getting something for dinner and having a picnic before touring the cemetery. So we bought some yummy Philly cheesesteaks, chicken quesadillas, and cobb salads from our hotel (we got 50% off all the restaurants) and drove to Arlington during rush hour. We finally got there at 6:30, and found out it closed at 7:00, and to walk up to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers took at least 20 minutes. So instead of sitting down and eating, we decided to book it and see if we could make it to the Tomb before it closed. Well, after 25 minutes of pushing our strollers uphill (seriously, I was exhausted, and I have no idea how Katy did it being 34 weeks pregnant!), we finally succumbed to our growling stomachs and gave up seeing the tomb. We found some benches in the middle of the cemetery and opened our now cold, soggy, and wilted dinners. Oh well. At least we could laugh about it . . . . and it was hard to be too disappointed when we were eating in such gorgeous surroundings.



After Arlington, we met up with some good friends from San Francisco that recently moved out to Baltimore - the Jergensens. It was fun seeing them and getting caught up. Annie and Carter were good little buddies back in San Fran, and after seeing him, she said, "Oh, NOW I remember Carter!" They spent the rest of the evening with us . . . . going to the Jefferson Memorial and then back to our hotel where we got virgin strawberry daiquiris and talked until it was late. (I wish I would have gotten a picture of all of us!)



The Jefferson Memorial

King's Island

For Labor Day yesterday, we went to King's Island, an amusement park about an hour and a half south of Columbus. We were joined by Brandon and Sara Hicks for the first half of the day (for our family members who don't know the Hicks, this is the guy that Dan team teaches seminary with:). Anyway, we had a great time going on some of the big rides with Brandon and Sara. They even watched our kids for us so Dan and I could go on a few roller coasters together . . . . thanks again guys!!


Sara and Sarah on Delirium. This ride was crazy!


It was such a hot day - in the low 90s. So after the Hicks left, we decided to cool off and hit the water park. What a great idea to have a water park in an amusement park! The best of both worlds.

Watch out! Don't let Daddy the Shark get you!

We changed back into our clothes, and spent the rest of the evening in the kiddie section. The girls had so much fun. They both love rides! Leah wanted to go on every ride Annie went on, and would cry if she wasn't tall enough. She thinks she should be able to do everything her big sister does!

This ride whipped the kids around the corners . . . . Annie loved it, Leah was just trying to hold on!

Annie says this ride was her favorite!

We finally convinced her to ride this little roller coaster, which she loved and wanted to go on again immediately after she got off. She was so proud of herself!


Taking advantage of her courage and pride (and because it was pink), we got her on this small-scale wooden roller coaster. It was a little faster and the hills were a little steeper than even I was expecting, and she was definitely holding on tight! After it was over, I said, "Wow, Annie! You were so brave! Wasn't that fun?" Barely catching her breath, she replied, "Yeah! But it was a little bit scary!" She did not want to go on it again.

We stayed until the park closed. We were exhausted after a long day of playing hard!

Berry Picking

An Ohio Pastime.

Earlier Bedtimes

There are a few reasons why we will be going to bed a little earlier these days.

Reason #1 – no more of this:

or this:

on until 1:00 a.m., which I am sad about, but, with the rest of the sleep-deprived country, am ready to get back on a normal sleep schedule. This is what we have really been doing the past 2 weeks! Watching with awe as athlete after athlete broke Olympic records, world records, and all boundaries of what we thought was humanly possible. I have loved watching these Olympic games, and I feel like I have watched quite a bit, but at the same time, there was so much that I missed.

Some of my favorite moments of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing:

The Opening Ceremonies in Beijing. Holy Cow, does London have their work cut out for them. Have you ever seen anything so visually stimulating and choreography so well rehearsed? I heard the 2,008 Chinese drummers at the beginning were told to smile so they wouldn’t look so intimidating, but I’m not sure anything could have taken that effect away. The whole show was absolutely amazing and I think it set the perfect tone for the 2 weeks of events.

Michael Phelps. His AMAZING fingernail victory in the 100-meter butterfly, when he out-touched Milorad Cavic of Serbia by one-hundredth of a second! And also, the exciting 4x100-meter freestyle relay, where Jason Lezak’s superhero anchor leg won the U.S. the gold by 0.08 seconds when he outswam Alain Bernard of France, the world-record holder in the100-meter freestyle. These two incredible victories enabled Phelps to go 8 for 8. 8 gold medals! He now holds the record for the most gold medals in a single Olympics. Seems fitting that this would happen during the games that began on 8/8/08 (8 being a lucky number in Chinese culture). Phelps is now regarded as one of the greatest athletes in the world, and it's not just because of his freakishly long torso, a wingspan that's uncommonly longer than his height, his flexible ankels, double-jointed knees, or his huge feet. He's the greatest swimmer of all time, a legend, and if you can't tell, I'm a huge fan.

Kerri Walsh and Misty May became the first pair, male or female, to repeat as Olympic champions in beach volleyball. These girls were so fun to watch and definitely a highlight of the olympics.

Women’s Gymnastics. Nastia Liukin winning the gold and Shawn Johnson the silver in the women’s all-around competition. I LOVE watching gymnastics, but this year I was often frustrated with the judging system the IOC has in place. How does a Chinese gymnast win the bronze after she lands on her knees over an American gymnast who had 2 solid vaults? And why does Nastia have to settle for the silver after tying the Chinese girl in score, the gold decided by one judge's score? I know the "logical" answers to these questions, but I can't help but think the results might have been a little different had the games been anywhere but China. Not to undermine the Chinese gymnasts - they have definitely proven to the world that they are the new powerhouse in gymnastics. Which is fine, the U.S. needs a reason to contiually push themselves to bigger and better. Anyway, back to original topic - I also loved watching Shawn Johnson win the gold on the balance beam. She is such a cute girl and I didn't want her to go home with just 3 silvers. I was rooting for her, and got choked up myself watching her on the medal stand.

I also loved how into the olympics Annie was. Her favorite was the rythmic gymnastics. It's more like dancing with props - she loved how the "princesses" would dance around and twirl ribbons in the air. "Mommy, look at that one! Isn't she just beautiful?" she would say while watching each one. Annie also loved volleyball. Everynight she would ask, "Mom, can I watch some volleyball?" Beach or indoor - she loved both. She'd hurry and get on her pajamas, go to the bathroom, brush her teeth, and often would fall asleep on my bed watching volleyball.


Reason #2 - Dan started early morning seminary this morning! Yep, that's right, every morning at 6:00 a.m. he will be at the church teaching the New Testament to the freshmen and sophomores. He will be team teaching with his good friend, Brandon Hicks. They will be alternating teaching every other day, which is nice because that will definitely lighten the work load, but they will both still go every day. So, no more late nights for him . . . . and I don't really like staying up by myself, so I guess I'll be going to bed a little earlier too! And by earlier, I'm talking like 11:00. We rarely go to bed before midnight, so this is probably a good thing for both of us! Anyway, he's excited for the seminary year, and I know he'll be great!

Annie's 1st Day of Preschool

Annie's first day of preschool was this week! She will be going two days a week in the afternoon at Alisha Bailey's house. This is great for me since it's right during Leah's naptime - a few hours a week all to myself:) She was so excited and looked so cute!


Here she is anxiously awaiting her ride to come.



My friend, Heather Whitehead, will be picking Annie up and taking her to preschool everyday. Then I will pick up when it's over and drive Sienna home. It works out great for both of us!

Disneyland

Also while we were in Southern California we got to go to Disneyland! Dan and I have been to Disneyland every year since we've been married, and we hope to always continue this tradition!






My sister, Stephanie, and her cute family.






Meeting the princesses is always a highlight (for Annie and me:)! I LOVE watching Annie as she interacts and talks with the princesses. They are always so sweet to her. The hour wait is definitely worth it. This year she got to meet Jasmin, Mulan, and Belle.






We played in Mickey's house for awhile. And guess who we met there? Mickey himself! (this hour wait was probably NOT worth it, but Annie really wanted to meet Mickey, so wait we did.)

"Sarah Walton . . . . Come on down!"

"You're the first contestant on The Price is Right!"

I still can’t really believe that actually happened to me.

The whole day was a thrilling ride on an emotional roller coaster. It was probably one of the craziest days of my life! And the reason it has taken me so long to post this is because I was typing out the whole story for my own journal purposes that I was going to post on my blog as well, but after I typed out 2 single-spaced pages and wasn’t even 1/4 into the story, I realized no way is anyone going to want to read a blog post that long! And besides, it’s much more fun to tell the story in person! So here’s the shortened version of July 22, 2008.

It’s a miracle we made it into the studio in the first place. We hit TERRIBLE traffic going through L.A., almost ran out of gas, got lost, were separated from our other 2 cars, had no directions, arrived late, and after they told us we were out because of our tardiness and that the hundreds of anxious stand-by contestants who had camped out over night to get in would be angry if they let us in, SOMEHOW we managed to convince them that they wanted us. Okay, the ONLY reason they let us go in is because we had a large group with matching shirts (and that is exactly what they want in the studio audience). We were so happy to know we would just be in the audience, that we were saying, “At this point, we don’t even care if one of us isn’t called on down, we’re just so lucky we’re in!”

After a lot of sitting and waiting and excited conversations, we were taken to be interviewed by the producers. This is how they decide who they want to be called on down. It’s NOT random! Dan and I knew we had to act peppy and enthusiastic, do something to make us stand out from the crowd, so that’s what we tried to do! But our hopes of getting on stage were soon dashed when my uncle said the producers hadn’t whispered to each other after our group had interviewed, something we saw them do after other groups. Oh well . . . .

Almost 5 hours after we arrived at the studio, 350 very eager and fired up people filed into the Price is Right Studio. It was awesome! They were playing all kinds of fun dance songs (“Twist and Shout,” “YMCA,” etc.) to get the audience pumped up! Everyone was dancing, singing at the top of their lungs, high fiving, going nuts basically. It was so fun. Then Rich Fields (the announcer) came out and explained what was going to happen. He said that when the show starts, it’s going to be SO loud in the studio that we won’t be able to hear him call the names, so we need to be watching up on stage for the posters that will have the names written on them. And then, all of a sudden, the show started! Drew Carey came out, everyone was cheering, the tv monitors around the studio were showing what was being filmed, I looked out over the studio thinking everyone must be having the same excited butterflies in their stomach that I had, and then I looked up on stage and saw the big poster with the first contestant’s name written on it: “SARAH WALTON” I could not believe it. I hit Dan on the shoulder a few times yelling, “It’s me! It’s me! It’s me!” Then I freaked out, practically sat back down in my chair, remembered that I was supposed to run on down, made my way down the row, came back to “celebrate” (because that is what we had said to do if one of us got called on down: “remember to celebrate with everyone before running on down”) and the next thing I knew, I was standing in contestants’ row with a huge tv camera right in front of my face!

So I made it up on stage the second round (I won a wine cabinet:) and after giving Drew a hug and answering some of his questions (I hope I don’t look too stupid!), Rich Fields announced what I would be playing for . . . . “A New Car!” The doors flew open to a huge truck – a Ford F-150. “This CANNOT be happening to me!” is what was going through my head as I jumped up and down on stage. My family was going NUTS! My sister said they were all going so crazy in the audience trying to high five each other that they weren’t even hitting hands – just arms! And my uncle said he almost passed out and had to put his hands on his knees and bend over. My whole family said they all felt exactly the same as I did, just the most excitement you could ever experience! Wow, what a rush.

Well, I’m telling you what happened since I didn’t win the truck. If I had won it, I probably wouldn’t have said much about anything, just “You gotta watch The Price is Right on this day!” (they still haven’t posted the exact air date). I got to spin the wheel, but that didn’t go that great either. But how many people out there can say, “I’ve spun the wheel on The Price is Right!” It was still so much fun just being in the audience and seeing how everything works. The studio is actually pretty small, and I was amazed at how many staff they had hanging around on the stage. We also have a crazy story about something that happened while a girl was playing Plinko . . . . but this post was supposed to be a shortened version, which is turning out to be not so short . . . . so if you want to hear it you'll have to ask us in person!

It would have been so much fun to have won the truck (my uncle, Russ, says he would have boughten it from us for my cousin to drive to high school - to keep it in the family!), but the day will still forever hold great memories and stories that I get to share with my family. And thank you, thank you, thank you! to my mom and sister and cousins (who weren't old enough) for watching all the kids so we could have such a fun day!


Drew's Dream Team