Kurt and I had a chance to be together kid free for five days thanks to a dental conference in New Orleans and my mom. I loved the architecture in the French district, also a French cafe I found that serves the best praline icecream i have ever had. I stowed away in there to read my book and people watch from the window while Kurt was busy at his meetings. Here I am at the cafe. It was one of my favorite afternoons...so yes I decided to take a picture of myself, my icecream, and my table where I could see people passing outside.
The Jazz music was really fun too. Our favorite Jazz was at a place called Preservation Hall where they had the live music. The guy on the piano and clarinet were a-MAZ-ing.
Goodbye to friends in Seattle--what can I say? We loved our friends and home there and have such fond feelings for our time there...
Drive to Utah with a stop in Idaho to see my newest niece Emory--who is a red-head. They keep popping up in this family. She is adorable and tiny!
Breakfast and hot air balloons for the Fourth of July with Youngs followed by bbq and sparklers,homemade icecream and visit with my side of the family that night.
Kurt and I go to New Orleans for six days while my mom dad and Aaron watch my kids in Lehi
Come back to stay with my mom in Lehi while Kurt flies to WA to get released from Bishop and drive our moving truck to Ridgecrest, CA where he unpacks our stuff with Carol, Kyle, Elise and Janelle's help. (hardest move I've ever had to do...poor Kurt)
Three weeks with my mom, dad and Aaron--tying baby quilts, free piano lessons from grandma, grandma's camp complete with t-shirts, swimming in the backyard pool, Darc cousins, dinner with uncles and aunts and cousins Eli, Cohen, Emerson, Nathan and Darcs, dutch oven in American Fork Canyon with Grandma and Grandpa Rollins, and most importantly all-you-can-eat icecream sandwhiches...mmmm
Five days at Steven and Allison's house in Orem. They have a new house and it's beautiful! They let us stay in their very cool and spacious basement suite. We had so much fun with Emerson and Cohen. When it was time to go Cohen hopped in to our car and wouldn't get out. It was very bitter sweet. I wanted to take him but Steve and Allison said no
10 K with Allison and Lou on Pioneer day --We ran/mostly walked up a giant hill called a "goliath" We made it all together under 1 hour. Pretty good especially for Allison who had a baby four months previous.
Goodbye Utah, hello Ridgecrest California-spend a week moving in with Carol helping by watching kids, cooking us meals, and anticipating everything we might need to make it go smoothly. I LOVE living by Carol and her family!
Reagan turned one and started walking! She looks so cute on those little legs.
Mark and Michele come to Ridgecrest for a visit.
We hang up our hammock--it is so fun, it gets it's own line on this never ending list--if you are still reading you must really love our family... : )
Camping with Carol in Mammoth---wow, gorgeous place to go and we just scratched the surface being there two days.
My friend Allison made this cake for me. She makes amazing cakes and she just started learning how not that long ago. Talk about serious TALENT! She also watched Reagan for us so we could enjoy the grad ceremony and dinner afterward. Thank you so much Allison! They read a script Kurt had written and put up pictures of him with the kids me and him etc. It made the ceremony more personal and fun I thought. I did feel like the picture of him and I was up there too long though. Camry putting up with her little cousins. She and Libby were huge helps and fun to have up here for the visit. Kurt's sister Tamara This is Roche Harbor on San Juan Island. It is such beautiful little place to walk around. There were some English style gardens and I loved seeing all the flowers and the way they landscaped. Here is Lincoln with Timothy they are about a year apart so they had a lot of fun together. Kurt's brother Aaron's family. They stayed after the graduation for a week over on the San Juan Islands. We went over to visit them for one night. They had been on a whale watching tour and spotted the perfect place to see whales so we all went to that spot and I got to see a whole pod go by twice! The second time I saw one jump right out of the water right in front of where we were watching. It gave me goosebumps. Kurt's siblings minus one. We missed you Adele. Here is where we saw all the whales. Right before Kurt left for the ceremony I took a picture with all of us since Reagan wasn't joining us for the day.
We have officially signed a contract...we are moving to Ridgecrest California. I know, it's old news but I thought I'd post it on here in case anyone stumbled onto this blog that didn't know and would care to. I'm really very excited when I'm not sad about leaving all the great friends we've made here. I am planning to really start packing boxes tomorrow. The move is only two weeks away. I've been preoccupied with the festivities. Kurt graduated and all but one (Kurt's youngest sister Adele was induced two days after the graduation--we sooo missed you Adele and new baby Emory!) came up for the big event. I have some pictures, but as always, wish I had taken more. I loved having his siblings here. Thank you all for coming! I'll have to add pictures later when I've downloaded them onto my computer.
My friends who came to support Natalie being baptised. So nice of them! Right before the baptism This is after it's over in front of the building My parents made a really quick trip. My mom spoke on the Holy Ghost and played some prelude--good thing she was here. Mom and dad also are the ones who gave Natalie this dress for Christmas-so beautiful!
Spring break-with the Hunts This is all in a little icecream shop in Langley, on Whidby Island. We stayed the night over there and enjoyed some fun with the Hunts. Christina and I tried to run 10 miles while we were together Sat. morning, but lets just say running in a downpour with winds up to 40 mph--Christina holding up her pants, they were so wet--we didn't quite make it to 10. We did run 6.5 though. Good thing Jason heard the rain when they quieted the kids for a prayer over breakfast and came to our rescue.
Lincoln, Jackson, and Ethan at Jump Planet to celebrate L birthday. All of the pics I took of Reagan in the bounce house are blurry because she was having too much fun to stop and pose. She was really brave---I remember Maya doing this and crying because it freaked her out.
This is Natalie with her good friend Erin outside her school-- Right before they entered the second grade spelling bee.
Play group Easter hunt and cupcake decorating. Maya's friend Austin and family came up for the weekend. They had fun together that day and then Sat. night during the P session of conference he came over. We had a house full of moms and kids that night for a potluck girls night--sooo fun!
This is a common sight for me lately. Reagan loves to crawl to my leg and hang on until I'm holding her. Who could resist those eyes... I'm going to get her pics professionally since I feel like I just can't get a good one anymore-now that she is so mobile. Almost all the ones I get are slightly blurry. But here are a couple that show just how big she is getting. I can't believe she is eight months old.
Here is the spread for Natalie's late-over pajama, pizza party. She was so excited when she saw the table decorated like this.
Here is Reagan doing her downward dog yoga routine. This is about a month ago when she was just starting to crawl. Now she's pulling herself up on furniture and me. She's very advanced...I think I'm going to start her on Japanese next. Lincoln joined her for some yoga
I haven't been so great at posting. I haven't been great at downloading pictures. I just downloaded these and it reminded me that I was sick twice in the last month. Maybe that is part of the reason I'm a bit behind. I also attribute it to the pace my life has recently taken. Somehow we've turned a corner on how fast time goes. Weeks fly by. I don't think it's crazier, as in more stressful, just fuller. Ok, sometimes very much crazier as in more stressful.
And for those of you who are wondering...no we don't know yet what Kurt is planning, we are planning, after he graduates June 5th. As soon as we have something concrete, I'll update that news on here. I WISH I knew.
Yesterday for FHE lesson Natalie took the kids upstairs, got her new scriptures out, and found three stories for her, Lincoln, and Maya to act out. My favorite was Moroni burying the plates. Lincoln was Moroni. He prayed over the scriptures, then buried them under our living room rug, and got up and walked away. At that point Maya jumped out from the corner with a foam sword and started whacking him over and over. He would fall down, then get up and walk to another spot in the room and she'd jump at him again until he was down again. They did this three times until Natalie said, "Ok guys, that's good, he's dead." Then turning to me, "Can you guess what it is mom?" I was laughing too hard to say anything for a full minute... Man, they are funny!
.JPG)
