Who shot JR?

This is a very bittersweet post to write. The Winn family is leaving Richmond and headed for the Lone Star state. This all began a few months ago when Nate got a call from a recruiter about some job openings in the Dallas area. One of the questions that he was asked was “what would keep you from leaving your current job?” And one of the answers to that was that he really liked living near his brother. So he decided that he would only look at jobs with Jarom, so that they could move together should an opportunity arise. So they both spoke with the recruiter and outlined their wish lists for a job and he told them that he felt very confident that he could find two positions in Dallas that would work out, although maybe not with the same company. After a few weeks they heard from Parkland Hospital that they wanted to interview them. So they flew down to Dallas on Sunday, interviewed on Monday and came back Monday night. They both left the interview feeling very good about the people and the company and the opportunity. Then it was a two-week, very anxious wait. The Thursday before they had to leave for Kentucky, Jarom and Nate had scheduled a golf match against the Bleyls. Things weren’t going well, and they were down two points after two holes. In the middle of playing the third hole, they got a phone call from the recruiter telling them about the offers they were getting from Parkland. It should be noted that they immediately turned things around in the match, winning 6 of the remaining 7 holes, including a game-changing 80-yard hole out for birdie on the 17th. When they got home they shared the good news with their wives, and then told them about the job offers.

Some holdouts from the last post. Lix finishing the deck and Bo in the jumper.

All of this happened about 60 hours before both Jarom and Alixa were planning to be out of Richmond, Jarom to Kentucky and Lix up to Delaware with the kiddos. So they called up their realtor and started cleaning and putting stuff up in the attic so that the house could be listed and people could come check it out while everyone was away, thus eliminating the need to be constantly cleaning and leaving whenever someone wanted to come see it. Given the short time frame, I think they did a great job.

We are all very excited about this new opportunity, and for some reason completely convinced that we will enjoy Dallas. But we will be very sad and miss Richmond. This has been a great job for Jarom, and he has very much enjoyed his coworkers. It is nice to be within a few hours of so many family members, whereas Dallas is not even within a few hours of the state border. And we will certainly miss the many wonderful folks who have become such good friends to us in such a short time. Without a doubt, this has been the place that has felt the most like home of all the places that Jarom and Lix have lived.

But as we learned from Seinfeld [the opposite], the Universe has a way of evening itself out. So all the excitement of the new job had to be offset somehow. Enter the Winn’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. It came on Sunday, July 31. Jarom began the day on Saturday evening by driving to Kentucky after finishing most of the work to get the house ready to show. He arrived in Kentucky around 10 and headed to the hospital for his first night shift. As some of you may know, night shifts are not fun. At 7 am he finished up and headed back to the hotel to get some sleep. It was around this time that Lix was getting up with the kids and preparing herself and them for church. Now Jarom would never claim that he is a big help when it comes to getting ready, but at least he is an adult that can put on some shoes or grab some diapers or put a kid in the car. But poor Alixa was all on her own, and Bo decided that he wanted to sleep in, and Jenna was a little bit grumpy. But they did make it to church, where they didn’t have the back open so Lix had to squeeze into a row with some other people and then Bo wouldn’t eat quietly. After church Lix had to make sure everything was picked up and tidy and then she was off to Norfolk to visit her uncle Kevin. It was a sad visit because Kevin has cancer and is not doing very well, but she was very glad that she got to see him. After letting Jenna run around with some of Alixa’s cousins for a while, they packed the car back up and headed north towards Delaware. But Jenna had some scrapes on her legs and wouldn’t stop crying and Bo was fussier than usual, so she decided to stop at Friendly’s to feed the kids and have a break. Poor choice. Jenna fell down again and proceeded to cry for the duration of their stay. Both children pooped particularly messy diapers and had to be changed together on the changing table, which is quite a balancing act. Finally it was back on the road. Around this time in Kentucky, Jarom was waking up and headed out to the car to grab a few things that he had left in the trunk. As he walked past the windows, he noticed a few spots on the back seat, and opened the door to investigate further. It was a fairly hot day in Kentucky, apparently hot enough to blow the top off of the unopened can of soda that had been sitting in the cup holder. There were sticky bits of soda everywhere. The dashboard and windshield were covered, the seats, both front and back, and the ceiling. Jarom headed up to Walmart where he bought some wipes and spent an hour or so scrubbing down pretty much every inch of the car’s interior. He had gotten nearly all of it cleaned when Lix called him to commiserate about her day. They chatted for a bit, sharing war stories and some tears. But it wasn’t over. Shortly after that call Lix was driving through a little hamlet in southern Delaware where the speed limit drops from 65 to 35 and got caught in a speed trap. She was sobbing uncontrollably now, but the officer had no soul and gave her the $130 ticket anyway. Hooray for stupid cops.






But the day did eventually end, and luckily for Lix it ended with her at Nancy’s house, where she could take advantage of Jamie’s wonderful hospitality and spend many hours lounging by the pool. Which is exactly what she did for a week. That house is Jenna’s favorite place in the world. Each morning would begin with Jenna waking up and asking to go play with Hailey’s toys, of which there are many. After playing with Hailey and her toys for a while, she would then ask to go swimming. So it was into the swimsuit and out to the pool, where she would immediately head for the diving board and begin jumping off and swimming around all by herself. And you’d better not try to help her. She was very brave and got very good at maneuvering in the water. There was also a day trip to the Brandywine Zoo and a drive up to Lancaster to see our favorite Amish friends, the Boyds. Jarom even came out for a few days and had a great time swimming with the kids.



And while they were up north they got some more good news in the form of an offer to buy their house. So it only ended up only being on the market for about a week, which was fantastic. There are still the standard inspection and closing hoops to jump through, but they should be out on the street by the middle of September. So now Lix has to really get into her house hunter mode, and nothing makes her happier. As an added bonus our Delaware state trooper friend Officer Dear managed to get Lixi’s ticket taken care of, so we won’t have to deal with that mess. Hooray for knowing cops!

Jenna was very afraid of the goats, but was eventually brave enough to graze its tail

And now Jarom is back in Richmond while Lix and the kids are off to Ohio to visit her parents. Jenna will surely spend her time jumping off of their diving board while Bo perfects his rolling over techniques works on standing up. Jarom will stay busy missing his family and taking care of the myriad things that have to get done in the next month so that this move can go as smoothly as possible. It has been a hectic few weeks, and the next month will be very busy and very stressful I’m sure, but we are all excited about this move.

From one Commonwealth to another

The past few weeks have been highlighted by several wonderful trips to Ashland, Kentucky, where Bon Secours has a hospital. Whatever it is that Jarom does at work needs to be done at that hospital, so he had to travel out there for a week to do some stuff. He doesn’t mind the 6 hour drive, the staying in a hotel and the eating out all the time, but he definitely hates leaving Lix and the kids. While he was there Jenna learned that daddy was in Kentucky, and decided that she does not like Kentucky because it takes her daddy away. But it was only for a few days, and then he was back and performing his favorite parenting task, putting Jenna to bed.

If it is humanly possible, Jenna has increased the amount of time she spends talking. She pretty much doesn’t ever stop, and her vocabulary is growing every day. Recently they have started to work on her Spanish, and Jenna has grown quite fond of it. She enjoys learning new words and practicing the ones that she already knows, and will often ask how to say new things in Spanish. Most of what she knows comes from a book that she reads. It consists mainly of animals, colors, numbers, and a few household items. She also knows please and thank you. Her bilingualism has proven to be quite a crowd pleaser at parties and other adult gatherings. The other thing that she started to do the past few weeks is sing the hymns in church. She has always enjoyed the music, and has been helping to conduct for many months, but singing along is new. She does pretty well, and it’s pretty cute.

Bo has been doing stuff too. His personality is starting to show more and more, and his parents are very pleased to say that it is delightful. If you had asked either Lix or Jarom two years ago who the best baby ever was, they would have told you Jenna. And she was pretty good. She slept pretty well, didn’t cry a whole lot, and was pretty smiley. But compared to Bo, she was a menace. We can probably count on two hands the number of times that Bo has actually cried. He grunts sometimes, and will sort of yell at you if you take his bottle away to burp him, but as far as real crying goes, nothing. And he is as smiley as any kid I’ve ever seen. When you go to get him out of his crib after a nap or in the morning, he just smiles and giggles at you. Half the time you can’t get him to put a binky back in his mouth because he won’t stop smiling at you. And he loves to talk to you. He will sit and mimic the sounds you make for as long as you want. It is one of his favorite games. He is also figuring out how to play with toys, and enjoys swatting and grabbing at things, especially if those things make noise when he touches them. And the young men at church can’t get enough of him. Part of that is because he is a pleasant baby, but most of that is due to the fact that the Gayton ward has the most maternal, loving, baby-hungry group of 14-18 year olds in the world. It is quite strange and very amusing.

This past week Lix crossed off another thing from her home improvement list when she stained the deck. Her original plan called for one can of Thompson’s Water Seal (Honey Gold tinted) and 1-2 hours in the early morning before it got too hot. At about 10 Jarom was sent back to Home Depot for another can, with a third can being purchased a few hours after that. So the budget and the time frame both tripled. But she finished it, and now the deck looks like it has been rain-xed. And anyone within a 50 yard radius of the house got to listen to her singing along with her music at 100 decibels. She sings beautifully.

And now Jarom is back in Kentucky, where he will be for the next 3 weeks. Nobody in the family is overly thrilled about that, but I guess these are the sorts of things you have to do if you want to keep the really nice job that you have.

Child abuse?

The Winn family returned from their wonderful two-week vacation to Utah and promptly had to jump to the other extreme of the spectrum by taking both kids into the doctor to get a total of six shots. Jarom decided that he would be a supportive husband and father by taking the day off to help Lix with all the consoling that would need to be done. Lix took advantage of Jarom’s aroundness by heading to the gym without the ninos. Jarom then did his best to make sure he is never given that responsibility again. He and Jenna were sitting on chairs looking out the front window at some cicadas flying around the front yard when Jenna decided she wanted to get down. Unfortunately, the chair was more slippery than she thought, and she fell forward, smashing her right eye square against the windowsill. There was some initial bleeding and it quickly started to swell and get very sensitive, but it was an injury that looked worse than it actually was. Lix predictably yelled at Jarom when she got home from the gym. I think the worst part of the whole ordeal was when the doctor had to rip off the Band-Aid to take a look at the injury later that day. Poor Jenna, a bunch of shots and a black eye all in a few hours. Welcome back from vacation, eh?

The day of

A few days later

On the plus side, Jenna aced her doctor’s tests, which consisted of questions like “does she sing to herself?” and “does her vocab consist of at least 14 words?” Either those questions are designed for the dumbest of 2-year olds or Jenna is a genius. Bo is also doing well, and continues to be tall for his age. Jarom feels like 2 months is enough of a sample size and has begun to make preparations for a comfortable retirement based on Bo’s projected NBA salary. The hardest part of the appointment was the doctor’s insistence that Jenna be cut off entirely from her pacifier. She only used it when she went to bed, but after 2 years of everyday use, she had become a little reliant on it. But like any good Americans, we always do everything doctors say to us (except for eating right and exercise), so we scheduled a trip to Build-A-Bear. Apparently this is a fairly common tactic, albeit one that Jarom hadn’t heard of, as he pays little attention to the trends and techniques among mothers. You go to the store, let the kid pick out one of the animals and have them put their binky inside it as it gets stuffed. So Jenna is now the proud owner of a new animal named Binky Bunny. The first few nights were a little tough, although it was easier than Jarom thought it would be. There were some tears, and Jarom ended up laying by Jenna for much longer than usual, and there were a large number of requests to tear Binky Bunny open in search of what was hidden inside, but now Jenna goes to sleep happily without them and her teeth will be less ruined, although given her heritage she doesn’t have much to look forward to in that department anyway.

One morning she woke up and kept asking to wear her tutu, so there you go

Happy 4th

She's a little too big for her pool, but when it's 100 degrees out you do whatever you can to stay cool

Speaking of putting Jenna to bed, it has become one of Jarom’s favorite things to do. Jenna’s bedtime routine consists of brushing her teeth, a bath (depending on how dirty she is), changing into her pajamas, and two stories read to her by the parent putting her in bed. She is allowed to choose which stories she reads. Choice A rotates between 5 or 6 of her favorite books, but choice B is always Sleeping Beauty. And because she hears it every night, she has the entire book memorized. We’re not sure how long she has had it memorized, because this was only discovered recently when she began finishing Jarom’s sentences as he read. But it is pretty impressive, and almost painfully cute to listen to her say things like “burst into the party and cast a cruel spell on the little princess” using the same intonation as her father but unable to pronounce any of her l’s.



Another piece of good news that came was a reimbursement check from Mullins Marking for $350. Those of you with uncommonly good memories may recall that in early November last year Alixa ran over a puddle of paint and marked up our then brand new car, which cost us the mentioned amount to have cleaned up. Immediately afterwards we took many pictures and wrote up the details of the incident and contacted the Virginia Department of Transportation to find out about getting some money back. After a few months we heard back and were told that that particular road project was being handled by the county and we would need to get in touch with them. So we did, and after another month or two they called Alixa back and informed her that they had contracted that out to someone, but that they didn’t know who the contractor was, so they would neither reimburse us nor tell us who else to call. Alixa said okay and hung up, and then called Jarom to tell him what she had been told, which was an obvious and ridiculous lie. So he called them back and harassed the moronlady who answered the phone until she told him the name and contact information for the contractor who had done the work. He then called that contractor and was referred to the subcontractor who was in charge of the road paint, Mullins Marking. He then called them, sent them the pictures and information from many months ago, and was told that he would be receiving a check in the mail for the full amount. From that point, it only required 2 more months and several reminder emails and phone calls before last week, a full 8 months after the original incident, he got a check in the mail. Even by your typical slow government response times this was something special. To celebrate this unexpected windfall (and also their 7th anniversary) Jarom is going to take Lix to the cheesecake factory. He is honestly not sure which one he is more proud of. The refund definitely took more work than the marriage has.





Here are two videos of Lix practicing her baby talk. If you are only going to watch one of them, watch the second.




Last week Jarom had to go on a high adventure with the youth from the church, leaving Lix to fend for herself with the two kids. One evening Jenna was being particularly troublesome while she was preparing for bed. She was refusing to hold still while Lix put her pajamas on and combed her hair, instead jumping around her bed and generally acting like a happy two-year old should. But as mothers sometimes do, Lix reached the end of her rope and had had enough (or it up to here, you may choose.) So she reached over, forcefully grabbed Jenna’s arm and pulled her close and spanked her square on the bum. Jenna looked at her and began to laugh hysterically. I guess you can look at this and say that Lix needs to spend more time in the gym, or that it is probably a good thing that the kid is not afraid of her parents in any way, shape, or form. Also pretty funny, Jarom got a text message from Lix that I will share verbatim:

Jenna just yelled at me "please mommy get in the shower. Your icky mommy! Get in the shower!" it was hilarious

It's the little room in the front of the plane where the pilots sit, but that's not important right now

The Winn family just got back from Utah, and it was a wonderful week or two by all accounts. Lix spent the first week out there with just the kids while Jarom stayed behind to work. She loves to visit Utah because there are so many wonderful people that she loves and doesn’t get to see very often. She had a roommate dinner, and all the former inhabitants of their apartment in the E. Richards building were there, and they all (except Alixa) had their spouses and any children as well. The word on the street is that they had a fun time. Since she was spending all of her time with Nancy, Jolene, and Kristi, she also got to do another of her favorite things: visit the spalon. She took Jenna along and got her nails did and had a generally fun time being pampered by white chicks (that means it's more expensive.) She cut her hair pretty short, and it looks great.

So pretty

Kristi makes house calls too!

Lix continues to work hard to get rid of her baby weight, and spent many mornings out jogging with Jolie. She also participated in a few P90X sessions. Jenna saw what was going on and didn’t want to be left out, so she grabbed a few 2.5-pound weights and mimicked the girls as they lifted them up over their heads and what not. Apparently all that exercise was a success, because both Lix and Jenna weighed less today than they did when they left for Utah.

The crew also had a very unique experience that I will let Lix tell you about.

We came to Utah on Tuesday to see Grandma and Grandpa. They live in the mission home that conveniently sits behind President Monson's house. From their front door, you can see his back gate, chicken coop, and pigeon house. When we come to Utah, we know there is a chance of seeing President Monson. He frequently comes by to check on his beloved animals and he always uses the back gate to get into his property. On occasion, we have caught glimpses of him, but never got close enough to say hi. Usually when we try to get close, his bodyguards shoo us away. Well, on Tuesday, we were having dinner with a bunch of missionaries who didn’t have appointments and had come to the mission home to eat. After dinner, a companionship was leaving when President Monson pulled up to his back gate. They knew it was he and approached. Surprisingly, Pres. Monson stopped to say hello to them. One of the elders ran in and told everyone to come outside. We all ran because we expected our window to meet him to be small, as his bodyguards are grumpy and don’t let anyone near him. We actually ran out there. Jenna had great timing and had just pooped and smelled terrible, and none of us had shoes on, but it was so worth it. When we got outside, he was chatting with the missionaries and shaking hands and asking where everyone was from. Jenna and I were the last ones out and as we came out he said hello to us, shook my hand, and asked where I was from. I tried to get Jenna to say hi to him, but stranger danger set in and she got all shy. President Monson was great, though, and started wiggling his ears. Not by using his hands, just wiggling by themselves. Jenna thought this was pretty cool and warmed up to him. He then started to tell stories about when he was a mission president in Toronto, and about how he met and married his wife, and that it was his wife, Frances, who had picked out this plot of land for their house to be built on. He then started to sing to us some songs from when he was in scouts. Jenna really liked that too and when he was done she kept asking for "that boy to sing some more." He told stories and sang and chatted for about 20 minutes, and then invited us onto his property to see his chickens and his pigeons. We were stunned that our visit was continuing, and eagerly followed him through the gate. We saw his chickens first. He has four hens. They know his voice and he calls them his "girls". When he came to the door, they came right to him. He gave them a treat of wheat and then we moved on to the pigeons. He has three buildings to house his pigeons. At first I couldn’t understand why anyone would want to raise pigeons. I asked him what he got out of them and he simply replied, “They are beautiful.” After looking at them, I couldn’t agree more. They really were beautiful. He apparently used to show them. He breeds them differently to create different features. It was really quite fascinating. Jenna loved seeing all the birds and chickens. After we got the grand tour of his backyard, he decided that he had told enough stories, and was ready to leave. We chatted for a few more minutes and shook hands again and he was on his way. The whole visit lasted about 45 minutes. While he was talking, Jenna got really serious and just stared at him like she knew he was important. She patiently listened. The spirit was definitely present. The coolest part was realizing that he really is just a normal man who likes to talk and tell stories. I immediately felt very comfortable around him. It was a very special experience, one that I won’t quickly forget. His bodyguard mentioned that he never does this sort of thing. Always brief hellos, if he stops at all. We all felt very special and privileged to have had this opportunity with the prophet of the Lord. Jenna had so much fun that she woke up the next day asking to go see the chickens again. I invited him to come to the Richmond Virginia stake sometime and speak and he said he would look into it. :)

Jenna, terrified. This was before the ear wiggling began.

There was also a day spent at Thanksgiving Point Gardens visiting Farm Country, where Jenna got to run around with her betrothed, Wes. There were all sorts of goats and sheep and chickens to pet and play with, which she loves. There were also pony rides. Jenna has a long history of loving to look at horses but being deathly terrified of them up close, so it was a huge surprise when she happily climbed up on the first little pony, Chief. She then moved onto to a slightly larger pony, and finally rode a normal sized horse without even holding her mom’s hand. Jarom got a slew of pictures and videos of this event while he was sitting at his desk in Richmond. But he did make the trip out to see his family for the second week of the vacation, which included Jenna’s second birthday.

The full-size horse. Also a full-size Jenna.

Jenna knows what goats like

Jenna's little pony

The birthday began with a video chat with Jenna’s favorite people: Natie, Kenz, and Kenna. They had sent her a birthday present and wanted to sing to her. Next they decided to visit the Hogle Zoo. Jenna enjoyed all the animals, but seemed most impressed by the animatronic dinosaurs that are stationed throughout the zoo. The only real disappointment was that they went early and got good seats for the elephant show, only to find out that it had been cancelled due to “technical difficulties.” I’m not sure why you need anything technical to bring an elephant out and have it pick up some trees and do tricks, but whatever. After the birthday girl had seen her fill they went back to Grandma’s to open up a few presents and take a nap. In the afternoon the drove down to Pleasant Grove to have a barbeque with a group of Lix’s cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents. There were about a dozen kids between the ages of 1 and 12, so Jenna was in heaven. The Gunthers have the most kid friendly backyard known to man. There is a huge swing set with a slide, lots of grass to run around in, a trampoline to jump on, a cat, a bunch of chickens, a basketball hoop and some older kids to lift her up so she could dunk, and a birthday cake with candles that she was allowed to blow out. At about 9:30 Jarom looked at the time and realized how late it was getting, but Jenna probably would have stayed and played forever if they had let her. She had so much fun that she didn’t even sleep on the way home, although part of that was her excitement about getting one more present from Grandma. She loved her new fire truck and didn’t get into bed until about 11:00. It was quite a birthday.









The next day they tried it again, this time inviting a bunch of Jarom’s relatives over for dinner. Lix made cupcakes and Jenna was a little better at blowing out the candles. Everyone wanted Jenna to take a cupcake and eat it with her hands, surely creating a huge mess and making everyone laugh. Sometimes people think that Lix and Jarom don’t let Jenna be messy because they don’t want to clean her up or because they are repressive parents or whatever else they might think, but this is not and never has been the case. Jarom told people that Jenna would probably enjoy the cupcake more if she had some utensils, but people just sneered at him and told him it would wash off her clothes. He just smiled. After two mostly force fed bites of the cupcake, Jenna had some chocolate on her face and promptly put the cupcake down and asked for a wipe. It was like her first birthday all over again. But that’s our little Jenna and we love her for it.






On Monday Jenna and Bo got to spend the whole day with Grandma while their folks went with Grandpa, Rob, Jolie, Kristi, and David to Sleepy Ridge to play a round of golf. Jarom and Lix combined to shoot an 82, and Lix got one of the worst shaped sunburns I have ever seen. Plus it was a lot of fun for them to hang out with Kristi and David, whose company they enjoy but don’t get to see very much. After the round they took Grandpa to Outback to celebrate his 56th birthday by making him pay for everyone’s food.

Jenna missed doing pushups with her dad and made David and

Jolie (the military arms of the family) fill in for him

The holes in this recap were filled by an inordinately large amount of time hanging out with Jolie and Rob while the mission pres and wife attended to their calling. Mostly they played dominoes, ate Café Rio, and let Jolie and Rob practice being parents by holding Bo. Bo spent approximately 94% of the vacation asleep; thanks to the most awesome vibrating swing you have ever seen. Unlike his sister and mother, he did not even come close to losing weight on his trip and is getting fatter by the minute. Alixa is terrified of the possibility that he will take after his father, who weighed 20 pounds at 4 months. Perhaps some family member has a photo that can be sent my way for inclusion in a subsequent post.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

A few of his moments awake, and also fat

Lastly, the trip home. It became painfully obvious to Jarom that Jenna has flown WAY too much during her two years on earth (something in the neighborhood of 25-30 flights). On their first leg, a few minutes after takeoff she propped her head up and told Jarom that she was ready for her cookies now. About 10 seconds later the lady came over the intercom to announce that they would be coming down the aisle with beverages and snacks. It’s like she has an internal clock for this stuff. It got even worse on the next leg. Their 1-hour layover had been cut in half while they sat on Atlanta’s tarmac, so they had quickly purchased some Chick-Fil-A to munch on. They arrived at the gate after everyone else had gotten on the plane, Jarom carrying two carry-ons, two drinks, and a bag of food, Lix with a stroller that needed to be gate checked and a carry-on of her own. So Jenna was walking free, ahead of both of them. She strolled nonchalantly onto the plane and promptly turned left instead of right, sauntering into the cockpit, where she shimmied up into the co-pilots seat and began to look at the buttons and charts that were next to her. The pilot and flight attendants thought this was the cutest thing ever and happily indulged her for a few minutes. Thankfully she didn’t press the self-destruct button or do anything else to get herself thrown off the plane, and they made it safely back home to their overgrown lawn and a pet snake who desperately needed his cage to be cleaned. It sure is nice to have everyone back at home.

Jenna has finally allowed headphones in her ears

Bo, resting from his tiresome vacation

This is where Lix found her daughter after she had checked the stroller

Count your blessings

We had some visitors down here in Richmond last weekend when Lixi’s parents decided to stop by to attend Blake’s baby blessing. PJ came in on Wednesday and was promptly put to work keeping an eye on the kiddos so that Jarom and Alixa could go to the driving range, where Alixa needed a little practice. She hadn’t played golf for about a year, and her dad’s visit was a great reason to get back out on the course. She was hitting the ball pretty well, but I guess her dainty little fingers don’t do enough hard work, because she got a blister after about 20 minutes. So she had to get a right-handed glove to protect herself. Unfortunately, Richmond is in a little bit of a heat wave right now, so they ended up golfing in 95-degree heat, with lots of humidity. In a misguided effort to save a few dollars, Jarom chose to walk. At the beginning of the day he weighed in at a near-obese 205. When he showered afterwards, the scale happily showed him a less-fat 199.6, which is the first time he’s been under 200 since BYU. Sadly, after a few Gatorades and lots of water, he’s back up to his normal weight. Mars and Lix teamed up to destroy Jarom, and contrary to her expectations, Lix hit a lot of really great shots. Jarom is excited about having his playing partner back.

Pictures from the blessing day

The Hegewalds short visit was also filled with some ward volleyball, a breakfast (appropriately enough) at Mimi’s, a trip to the children’s museum, and a barbeque with a bunch of families in the ward at the Anderson’s house. As an added bonus, the Andersons have about a dozen chickens, and Jenna and Kenna got to go into their cage and run around with them and hold them and generally enjoy themselves. Sunday was the blessing, and once again Jarom wimped out on giving his kid super powers. But he didn’t forget the name or drop the baby or anything else embarrassing, so we’ll call it a wash. And before Jenna was ready to lose two more story readers and before Lix was ready to lose two extra Bo holders, the grandparents had to go home. The consolation prize is that Lix got to take the two little ones out to Utah a few days later to spend some time with the other grandparents, leaving Jarom back in Virginia to celebrate Father’s Day using his nieces and nephews as surrogate children.

The grandparents and their temporary jobs

Jason and Annie were moving this weekend, and since Jarom had no family at home, he decided to jump in the car and drive up to lend a hand. Thanks in large part to the many favors the Winn family has done for others over the years, there was a lot of support from the locals and all of the moving activities went very quickly. The stuff from Bruce’s house and the stuff from their storage locker were all moved into the new home by about 2, which left a few hours to splash around in the pool before heading back over to Jason’s to put beds together and arrange couches and stuff. On Father’s Day morning Jamie made Jarom a great waffle breakfast, and Hailey even made him a little card. Then he drove back to Richmond to eat dinner with Nate and Kenz. It sure is nice to have so much family around even when the family isn’t around.

One of Jenna's favorite games - Wear Dad's Shoes

Here are a few funny Jenna developments. Jenna and Kenna are hilarious, and have taken to calling each other by their full names: Jenna Bear and Kenna Bug. Since all four parents call both kids by both names (Jenna Bear, Jenna Bug, Kenna Bear, Kenna Bug), nobody is quite sure how they decided who would get which name extension, but listening to them call each other those names is about the cutest thing in the world. Jarom has since tried to teach Jenna that her actual middle name is Marie, but she doesn’t seem to believe him. Jenna has also started to show her imagination in new ways recently. The past few weeks there have been frequent appearances of a lion around the house. The first few times that she “saw” this lion it was paired with a request for mom or dad to make him go away, presumably because he was a scary lion. Once Jarom got tired of going into rooms to scare the lion away he told Jenna to go and talk to the lion to find out if he is friendly. She did, and it turns out that he is. So then she would tell them that there was a lion in the shower, and go and have a conversation with the lion. Funny stuff. She is also showing signs that she might be ready to give potty training a shot. Lix has decided to try it when they get back from Utah. We are all cautiously optimistic. It sure would be nice to get one of these kids out of diapers. Cross your fingers for us.

On this morning Jarom was up early with Jenna and told her to play with her animals and read her books until Mom came in to get her so that Lix could sleep in a little. This was the scene when Lix went into her room.

All buckled up and ready for the first leg of her trip to Utah, with Fufu and Finago, of course