"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.

Making it hard to leave

Sole Sisters! (Some of my running pals) Shelly, Stephanie, Katrina, "Pete", me, Tammy
Palma & Tiffany at Favorite Things Party

Carol Sue, Michelle, Dana, Shauna, me

Brandy, Bethany (Brittany?someone correct me, she just moved in!), Chantel, Kasey

Leslie, Carol Sue

Diane, Sara, Des

Erin & me at lunch (sad we forgot to take pics until after Heather had left!!)

Arielle's awesome horseback riding instructor- Rosemary with Red Ridge Riding School. Gosh, I could do a whole post about this amazing woman! She is 70 yrs old! Still breaks wild horses, can do a headstand and is amazing with her horses and students. She has years of experience teaching disabled children to ride horses as well. She is SO sweet and will really be missed! We were so lucky to find her :)

Arielle's suprise going away party. Loved this pic of everyone squishing in for a hug

(F) Stella, Shaylie, Arielle, River, Victoria, Megan

(B) little Brinley, Sydney, Annie, Kim, Kylee, little Sullivan (help me!?), and little Kylie barely getting her head in the photo. See the adorable fondant (sp?) cake that Michelle made! Yum!

Andi, Des, Michelle, Me, Dana, Sara

What will I do without these girls (and Cafe Rio...LOL)

Ok...must admit...this one has nothing to do with moving, just thought it was cute!!

Kale, Seth, Caden, Toby (and Bro. Nelson) on the way to Scout Camp

I am getting excited for our move to NC...really!! I know that we are very fortunate to have this opportunity for Jim to go to anesthetist school :) and that there are lots of wonderful people & fun things to do in NC....BUT all our wonderful friends in Utah sure are making it hard to leave! This last week has been an emotional roller coaster....I should be really good at moving, after all- we are pro's! Since we've been married (almost 14 yrs) we move ALOT, at least every 3 years. But when we came back to St. George 3 yrs. ago we reunited with friends that we had when we lived here before and made lots of new friends! Palma put together a BEAUTIFUL scrapbook from the RS that almost every sister signed, its such a sweet keepsake! Michelle, Kathy & Rachel (Activity Days) threw a sweet suprise going away party for Arielle and Toby is having a blast at his first big boy Boy Scout camp with his close friends (up by Brianhead). So instead of moping, I've tried to just party as much as possible this week. Here's some pics of the lunches, ladies' night out, and the kids' last flings as well:) We love you all!

Cruise to Cabo San Lucus AKA The Murder Cruise

Dinner first night of the cruise

Towel monkey left by cabin steward

Me & Mom with Cabo in background

Waterslide

Arielle & Toby with handmade "name" bracelets (nothing screams "I'm a tourist" like these!)

Guy making their bracelets on the beach

Arielle & I swimming in Cabo. The ship wasn't actually this close to us, but looks really close in the pic

Lots of pelicans & old little boats at the marina

Elation anchored in Cabo

Getting feet wet on first day in Cabo

View of Lover's Beach from Buccaneer Queen

Dad & Mom having fun on Buccaneer Queen

Jim being made a fool of on Buccaneer Queen- good times :)

Pulling up to Buccaneer Queen

Water taxi over to Buccaneer Queen

Ditto

Galoon came along and made some great new friends

The family on "Elegant Night"

Waiting for the show to start

Toby & Jim looking so "elegant" It cracked us up that was the name of the semi-formal night..."elegant night" Probably 'cause our little family is anything but...

Getting dolled up

Runner up for "hairiest chest" contest. Yes..there was some good ol' fashioned white trash fun aboard

No, Toby isn't drunk. We loved lunches like this, private tables with ocean view & gourmet food!

Woke up in hotel in San Diego day we were supposed to board the ship to THIS! A flat tire. The guys were awesome, had it changed in no time!

Bill & Dotti started a WONDERFUL new tradition this year...taking each of their children's families on a cruise!! We got to go first (benefits of being eldest I guess...) We took the Carnival Elation for 5 days from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas. We were in Cabo 2 days. This was Jim & my 3rd cruise, 1st for the kids. I dare say it was our best cruise yet! AFTER we dealt with the flat tire we woke up to on the morning of the cruise! LOL...First off its just fun to be with my parents 'cause they are party animals. Mom was the big $800 Bingo winner on the boat- so fun! So it went something like this...the first day we left San Diego at 4pm and sailed all night..this was "get our feet wet night" kids checked out camp carnival & we had a gourmet dinner & great show. Sunday was at sea all day & the weather was perfect!! This day involved a lot of laying out and lounging by the pool. Monday was CABO! We booked a fun boat/snorkel cruise on the Buccaneer Queen Pirate ship. We had a great time and saw a few varieties of fish & even rays & eels. They made Jim get on stage and dance like a monkey & chicken...anyone who can get Jim to do that is amazing in my book! Tuesday was a free day in Cabo for us. We took a water taxi to a quiet part of the beach - swam & laid out. The water was PERFECT, I could have stayed there for days. Back on the ship that night we were in the karaoke lounge (Arielle actually did Karaoke!!) and that's when we heard "the code". They came over the loudspeaker and announced "code graystar"or something like that. We figured it was serious. We heard later from a family at our table that an older woman on their floor had passed away. However, we also heard from them that a security guard was posted at the cabin door at all times and we started seeing more security walking around the ship Wed. When we got off the boat Thurs. am we found out that a man murdered his wife in their cabin on Tues. night- YIKES!! The guy spent the rest of the trip in jail onboard...luckily Carnival was very professional as far as we were concerned..they kept it so lowkey and the fun carried on...Creepy though, huh?!