"Mom" Cut

Finally chopped the hair. I was trying to hold onto the long hair as long as I could, but spending 30 minutes to style it was getting really old! Jim said I should just let it air dry.... with THIS HUMIDITY -LOL!!! Have any of you seen the "Friends" episode where Monica goes to the islands and her hair is totally out of control..yah..that's how its been. So i finally took the plunge into a shorter, more manageable cut. Not sure how I feel about it yet!

Swimmer's Ear

3 weeks of swimming in the pool every day caught up with Tobes & Arielle. Here they are after swimming and having drops in their ears (I was out of cotton balls, so they had kleenex shoved in their ears to keep the drops in - LOL) Poor Arielle, her ears got so bad that she ran a high fever and had to make a trip to the doc for meds :( From now on its drops every time after the pool!

Ginny!

Max (Ginny's eldest) and Tobes hanging out

Arielle finger knitting

Mark, Jack, John & Max (Ginny's boys)

Ginny (Chatwin) White is one of my oldest and dearest friends. We met at BYU and lived together for 2 years- shared many laughs and silly experiences. Ironically she ended up marrying a guy who went to nurse anesthetist school and they have been in North Carolina for the past few years. I hadn't seen her since my wedding! We talked on the phone this past Saturday morning and spontaneously decided that we would each get in our cars with families in tow and meet up in Raleigh for some fun. She lived in Raleigh while her hubby was in CRNA school (same type program that Jim is going into now) so she was familiar with the town and took us to some hot spots- the Farmer's Market and Marbles Children's Museum. It was so fun to meet her 4 sons and see Ginny in full mommy mode (as compared to our single party days- LOL). She has obviously done an exceptional job with her 4 very well behaved, handsome boys :)

Carolina Beach

Arielle took this pic and Jim is holding up a crab claw? Her instructions?
Freeman Beach with Carolina Pier in background

Freeman Beach

Jim surfing very small waves at Carolina Bch

Love this shot. After all the sibling fighing this summer, its fun to catch them in moments like these. Arielle wanted to go play in the waves, but they were kinda big (for her) so her big brother offered to take her out & help her...ahhhh

Jim's having way more fun than Toby as he teaches Toby to surf

Unfortunately I didn't catch the best rides on film, but here Toby was just before he stood up

Perfect get away to Carolina Beach. Toby surfed his first wave! I mean, yah- he's played around on boards before, but this was a legitimate "stand up and ride all the way in" milestone for Tobes , and even more so for Jim :) Jim bought a board and was in heaven, he hasn't owned one in years. The first day we surfed at Carolina Beach, found a quiet spot with close, free parking. Carolina Beach is like going back in a time machine to 880 in the 60's (for those of you from Florida). Its amazing how quiet and not built up the beach and surrounding area is! Honestly I didn't expect to love the NC shore as much as I did. It was great! The 2nd day we checked out of the hotel, which means we couldn't leave Teddy in the room and we had to find a "dog friendly" beach. Not so easy to do in the peak summer months. We ended up at Freeman Beach which was pricey ($20 a day entrance fee) but very cool. You drive on the beach and it wasn't crowded at all. We did feel a bit like shark bait though, being some of the only people out in the water.

The New Pad

our new bed
the master bath (shower & tub- yippee)

Sunroom/Office

Toby's side of the room

Arielle's side of the room

New sofa (eggplant/brownish color)

family pic collage in hallway

kids' bath, went with crazy poka dots

master bath (2 sinks, its the little things that make me happy!)

Front of the house

view of kitchen from living room

love this sign that Erin gave me

our little kitchen overlooking living room

"eat in" area in kitchen

We made it! Wow, the drive across the country seems a lot longer now with 2 kids and a dog :) Back in the BYU days Stacey Belnap, Julie Beckman & I would do UT to FL in 35 hrs. flat. Not this time- 4 days!! We drove for 4, 10 hr. days & made it here late on Wed. 29th. We spent 2 days at Ikea in Charlotte shopping for new furniture (fun!) and then a couple days assembling the new furniture (not so fun...). Finally by the weekend we were able to start unpacking and now that we've been here just over a week, we are pretty much set up. We really like our new place. The community is cute and everyone is friendly. The kids LOVE the pool and tennis court. We have driven around just a bit...checked out a local Park (Tangelwood Park) and Toby is already on a soccer team so we drove out to soccer practice. Arielle gets to check out the stables next week. We know 2 LDS families in town and they are super nice!! We've already been invited to dinner and made to feel at home. The sister missionaries left a note on our door today welcoming up and letting us know they would like to come over and get to know us. (In the mission field I remember that is code for "feed us"!! hee hee) Here's some pics of the new place.