August 7, 2009
Dear Family,
Before I have 6 months to catch up on, I think I’m finally feeling well enough to share some of our summer. I’ve tried to take pictures so that the kids will remember something besides Mom being in bed all day every day for 6 weeks! We are all so excited for the baby coming in Feb, and we will be that much MORE thrilled after all this “investing.” Everyone’s been ENORMOUS help, and the children don’t even complain about our slow schedule, but it has been a loooooong July!! I’ve lived off of Gatorade (which I normally can’t stand), grits, Ramen noodles, toast, and Sprite for a week at a time, and then dream at night of times when I could enjoy eating. Blessedly, I was able to prepare about 25 freezer meals and the children’s job charts as the sickness was setting in. My plan was to put the news in Brian’s Father’s Day card, but, Saturdy night, as I was getting steak ready to cook, and lamenting on not getting the mail out sooner, Brian said to me, “You do know, Father’s Day isn’t until next week, right?” By this point, I was already fighting off the woozies, and I had no intention of being brave alone for a whole extra week, so, exasperated, I sat down in the kitchen right then and told the whole family. We told our parents on Father’s Day, at least! Poor Spencer keeps saying, “Just 2 more weeks Mom!” or when I correct him, “Just one more month until the baby comes out Mom!” He’s finally learned to just ask, “How much longer??” Emily said the other day after I’d hung up w/ Scott, “Oh, don’t you just wish Rebekah were here to pull that baby out of you?” She’s lately fascinated to realize that’s where Aunt Rebekah’s been working all this time! My strength is now returning though, and I got a beautiful ultrasound of the baby a couple of weeks ago (relieved to see only one!), and we’re trying to pack a whole summer’s worth of activities into the last 3 weeks .

For starters though, we had Nick and Laurie up from Provo for a weekend (the kids keep longing to repeat!), which happened to be our “Syracuse Days”—(I LOVE finally living in a city w/ it’s own “Days”)—we had a Saturday morning parade—at the end of our street w/ TONS of candy, and an impromptu invitation from our hometeacher to go out on his boat at Willard Bay for a few hours. Nick and Laurie were great sports—having had no plans for that, and we had a blast riding the boat and trailing along on his little water rider, and a few even tried the slalom ski, and brought a picnic lunch to eat on the beach. Poor Brent got pretty seasick very fast (remember those canoe rides when he was 2, Dad?) and wanted nothing but to go back to shore a few minutes out, but he was a good sport waiting a while, and even got a chance to drive the boat for a few minutes (what an in tune hometeacher!). He was so generous to take us—he’s got plenty of his own kids and grandkids around too, but we really enjoyed it! I was crashed by that point, but the children had nonstop entertainment w/ their Uncle and (they just kept calling her Aunt, b/c what else do you say?) Laurie, who were AMAZING sports to watch movies, play endless games, and even make our Sunday dinner, while I convalesced. We did make it out to the park that night to watch the fireworks the city does that night—great show, except that it’s a park w/ a big pond, so we could barely see them through the mosquitoes (the first pic is of Laurie and the kids waiting for sundown at the park), and I had not stayed up until dark for a lot of days, so I was pretty spent! They came to church w/ us, where Laurie volunteered to help in nursery! (much to the dismay of everyone waiting to meet her!), and like I mentioned, oversaw the making of the whole meal--Nick even mashed potatoes w/ a pastry blender, burning his knuckles, since he couldn't find our masher! It was a fun weekend though—a lot more fun that we were used to having, thanks to all the outside input . Even Brent now says the boat was pretty fun . This also marked our year for living here!—we vaguely remembered there being a parade on the day we moved in!  And thus, ended our June! Love, The Duncan’s



















Anne got a bandana AND candy!!













Anne at parade


















Anne in her sunhat













Tired Anne, Maddie & Spencer on boat













Brian, Maddie, & Nick on water rider













Nick, Laurie, and Anne in our tailgated van













Nick, Em, and Laurie













Brent trying not to smile while he got to drive the boat













Nick, Em, and Laurie again













Char & Brian (I chose this time to tell our poor hometeacher I was expecting, and to take it easy!)














Bri, Maddie, Nick


















Anne on beach















Spencer, Emily, & Brent on beach