navy and missionaries

We have had some fun experiences lately. Our neighbor is in the navy (I am sure we are about the only ones who aren't), and took us out to his boat the other night. He is an OS2 on the carrier Iwo Jima. He took us all over the inside and up to the runway on top of the ship. It was an amazing tour, much better than the ones you pay for. We also got to see 2 submarines and he showed us all over the base. His boat carried President Bush while he was seeing what happened from Katrina. He said that was quite an experience.
We had the sister missionaries over for dinner on Saturday and then I went out with them for the evening. They taught a first discussion and we were able to see two less active families. It was amazing for me (never being on a mission), and I have a whole new respect for people who do go on missions.
Tobin started work and school today and seems to like both. His Dean apparently is quite the fanatic about the west and loves to talk to Tobin about Yellowstone, Utah, Colorado and is very up to date on the fire in Sun Valley. He is amazed that Tobin would leave the west to come out here. I guess when we figure it out we can let him know why.
I made Ryan's spaghetti sauce for some friends last night and they loved it. They said it was "Olive Garden" good....it that really a compliment?
hope everyone has a great Labor Day
Alison

Our weekend

This weekend we went up to visit Alison, Tobin and Hallie. It is about a three hour drive for us. We found that while we were not particularly well practiced in this area—I had counted on two sleeping children as we drove during nap time—we all survived and Ian had a great time playing with Hallie.

We went to the Living Museum, which is kind of a small scale zoo with primarily native North Carolina animals. My favorite was the little green Heron flying around outside near the board walk. There was an aviary housing various herons, ducks, and other water birds. There were several Night Herons roosting in the trees. After we pointed these out, Ian pointed out the "morning time" ducks.

We went up Friday afternoon and came back Saturday evening. This morning Ian wanted Hallie to go to church with him and during the opening prayer in Sacrament meeting added "bless Hallie" to the official prayer. He has been parroting phrases in prayers and sometimes the whole prayer, so it wasn't totally unusual to hear him praying aloud with the opening prayer, but it was heart-warming to hear him add his own personal blessing on Hallie—I'm sure the rest of the congregation enjoyed it too.