Bear Lake 2011

We had so much fun in Bear Lake, even if it rained for one full day! We went with my brother and his family and my mom.We of course had the best time! We painted rocks, found sea shells, went swimming, played at the park, went on walks, watched movies, played baseball in the sand, roasted hot dogs and smores by the fire, and buried the kids in the sand! It wasn't the warmest trip but we knew it wouldn't be since it's only June. And apparently June in Utah is still cold! I'm not sure when we will be able to go back so I am so glad we got to go before we move.

The kids (and Eric) loved playing with the squirt guns!

Dresden was so proud of his paint job. He kept saying "wook mom wook"!

The lake was so far up this year.

Dresden thought Tia was his best friend. He loved chasing her and feeding her everything he could! :)

I love these pictures of Dresden in the sand. He loved it and held so still for all of it!

Being one of the boys

Aunt Camille painting Ava's toes!

We had a huge milestone while we were there too! Ava swam WITH OUT her water wings! We were shocked. She has been so stubborn about it and finally just gave it a shot. She did better the first day, of course when I didn't bring my camera but I got one the next day we went. She still tries to do vertical instead of putting her head in but we were just happy she even attempted it! She was doing pretty good by the end.

Thanksgiving point

We went to Thanksgiving point farms with my sister, her friend Emmalie, and my sister-in-law Angi. Dresden liked it but Ava was acting so scared of everything. She did not like the chickens, or roosters, or anything at look remotely like them. She did want to ride the horse though. That was for sure their favorite part! She just loves doing anything with her cousins. It was nice to get out of the house. I started to miss my old routine from Vegas.

Dresden loves Drake! He followed him everywhere and Drake was so sweet to help him. We had never been in this part before and the kids has so much fun. Dresden went around pushing all the buttons and watching the little videos on the bugs.

Utah

St. George

After we packed up we headed to St. George to stay in my parents house there. It was heaven to just relax and play with the kids. We had no schedule at all. The whether was wonderful and we went swimming and to the park everyday. Ava and Dresden loved walking to the park and seeing the lizards, squirrels, and a few bunnies. I wish we would have stayed longer. The kids played so well together and actually found ways to entertain themselves.

Ava is getting so good at the monkey bars, she can actually do it by herself but sometimes gets nervous and wants daddy there. Dresden loved them to. He isn't afraid of anything.

They were constantly playing on the bunk beds!

Missing Vegas

I still can't believe what just happened. We are now in Utah for a little vacation. It still feels like we will just be going back when it's over but unfortunately that's not the case. I started out being so sad, I probably cried like everyday for almost two weeks. Then I was just mad we had to leave. It didn't seem fair. There was not much I didn't like about our life in Vegas. I will miss so many things. Nebraska has ALOT to live up to. I am excited for our new adventure in Nebraska though. And just to document for myself these are the things I will miss about our Vegas life.

5. The weather

That was probably obvious but it sure was nice to have warm whether almost all year long. We loved swimming and being able to play outside all year long with no snow(mostly). I think I may have gotten a little too used to warm weather and now that we are in Utah I am freezing!

4.Our Ward

We had the best ward ever! We moved into the ward about 9 months after we moved there. I loved all the people. Almost everyone was young and fun and there was always at least 5 or 6 people pregnant at a time! We had great enrichment activities and ward parties and park/pool play days. Our kids made some cute friends too! We always looked forward to church.

3. Our house

Of course the house I love is the last one we find while we are living there. We went through 4 houses and by far this one was my favorite. I don't think I took too many pictures of it but it was wonderful. It had 3 bedrooms and a loft, stainless steel appliances, granite counter tops, and painted walls. It was just nice. We also loved our neighbors, we rode bikes outside all the time with our friends the Mengs. The only thing it was lacking was a normal size washer and dyer(no really it was the tinniest one ever), and no backyard. But we loved it anyway.

2. Our YMCA

I started going about a year ago. I went with a couple friends two or three times a week. By the end I was going five times a week and some days for two hours. It got a little addicting. I even got some cycling shoes. But besides the awesome classes I got to go with my friends. Becca, Dayna, and Karrissa. By the end it was mostly just me and Karrissa every day. It was SOOOO nice having someone I knew would be there. We spend any time we could actually breath talking and laughing about stuff. It was something I looked forward to everyday. They had a wonderful daycare and the kids loved it. Ava always just called it the CA. They made friends and so did I. And since Eric was out of school he came with me the last month and a half. It was fun having him come to a few classes but mostly he did his own thing. He lost like 20 lbs and looks hot by the way! :) I will miss everyone at the YMCA and I already looked into one in Lincoln, and luckily they have some!

1. Our friends

Probably another obvious one but by far the most important! I remember moving down and being so nervous we weren't going to make any friends. The school had a couple get togethers and that's where we met Dane and Camille and Joe and Karrissa. They were all starting their first years of dental school as well. We started hanging out a few times and eventually ended up moving into their ward. Which is where we met a lot of other dental students and just fun friends from the ward. Then we were introduced to Dayna who's husband was just a year behind us in school, and Becca who lived just a few streets away, Brittany who was also in the ward, and Scovia who was a friend of Becca's. And also Klisa and Kaitlyn! I seriously don't know what we would have done with out our friends. Over the four years we got closer and it felt more like a family. In the beginning the boys studied together and we would find ways to entertain ourselves and the kids. I am going to miss the park days, going to the pool, having BBQ's, watching the dumb bachelor shows, game nights, birthday parties, babysitting offers, gym buddies, play dates, recipe exchanges, and girls nights. About the last year we started a babysitting coop. We each signed up for a day on our little google calendar and then we got to go out twice a month. We watched two families for 31/2 hours and the kids loved it. Ava was always asking who's coming over and what the plan! Eric and I got to go out to dinner, to the temple, or to the movies and it was so nice! I miss them so much already. It was so hard to say goodbye to people you've spend the last 4 years with. I am pretty positive we will never have that kind of group of friends again. We were so lucky! Thanks you to all my wonderful friends I miss you so much! I could go on on on about them but I won't! haha I will just post a picture of our last girls night. Thanks for planning it girls.

Dayna, Scovia, Becca, Karrissa, Camille, and me

We also had a little fondue party the last week we were there with our bestest friends Karrissa and Joe and Dane and Camille. Karrissa put together a cute slide show of the last 4 years. It was so fun to look back and see what we all looked like in the beginning. Crazy to think Ava was just 6 months when we moving there. It was great to hang out one last time but hard not to cry, especially after watching the video! I'm excited for them and their new adventures and I hope we will get together as often as we can!

And last is some pictures of what our family looked like when we first moved to Vegas and then 4 years later!

This was literally the day we moved down and unpacked our stuff in our first apartment. Which is why we are look the way we do. WOW! Seriously could we have a had a more crappy camera?! :)

And our family today. Quite a change!

Packing and dress up

I guess we knew it was coming but it came way to fast! You'd think we wouldn't mind it after moving 8 times since we've been married but this has been my favorite house and I really didn't want to leave! PACKING sucks! We did it all by ourselves so I'm glad we started early. The kids were ok and I was SOOOO happy we had some great friends to watch the kids for us...thanks Karrissa, Becca, and Megan, we couldn't have done it with out them! We went with the ABF moving company and because we tried to save money and we didn't really have the space for a huge truck to sit outside our house for three days we decided to do terminal to terminal. Which at the time sounded fine. But we had to load everything into a uhaul then drive to the ABF place, then unload everything and load it into their truck! By far the most annoying thing EVER! It was just Eric and I moving all the couches, dressers, furniture, and boxes across two trucks. It took like three hours. Needless to say we will not be doing that when we get to Nebraska. We will have them drop the truck right in front of our house! It was quite the moving day. We thought we would leave by 2 or 3 and we didn't leave til 10.

During the packing the kids were forced to play with whatever wasn't packed. We pulled out Ava's dress up's (which she hardly ever plays with) to pack up and she dressed up herself and Dresden. They had just gotten out of the tub and as always Ava had found her clothes that don't fit her or are winter clothes. They played so well together and it sure makes a mom happy to see! She was so sweet with him, helping him put on shoes and picking out hats. Poor Dresden was covered in girl stuff, minus the spiderman costume! I love when they play so well together. Dresden looks up to Ava so much and always wants to do whatever she is doing. Ava loves telling him what to do and he will do almost everything she says! I had to take pictures they looked so silly!

This picture might come in handy one day! haha!

Graduation week

I forgot to post a few pictures from graduation week. It was so fun to have my mom and sister stay with us for almost a week. They were so nice to come to support Eric and see him graduate. We did lots of playing and they helped out a ton. The kids loved all the attention and of course loved playing with Sienna.
These two were good at cuddling!

Sienna is so funny! I put this wig on her and she just kept walking and playing.

Eric's family also came down and we met up with them for some swimming. Ava and Dresden absolutely LOVE swimming. Dresden is a little fish and not afraid of anything. He has been jumping off the side with his wings on for awhile now. Ava on the other hand works a little slower. But while we were there she finally decided it was time. She was so brave and did it. And if you know Ava that is a huge for her! Everything on her own time. :) We had fun hanging out with everyone.

This one makes me laugh. She plugs her nose but by the time she lands her hands are straight out!

Sienna was loving the cookies, and she couldn't get to them fast enough!