Summer Fun

I wanted to catch up and post pictures of some of our recent adventures.

We made another trip up to Greenwood a few weekends ago. It was warm enough to go to the pool this time. Elizabeth was so excited to go on the waterslide that as soon as I got her life jacket on her, she marched right up the stairs and went down. I'd never seen her be so brave. She proceeded to spend the entire time we were there going down it over and over again.

Here she is enjoying the ride:

Natalie liked playing on the little slide in the splash area:

Here's Natalie loving the great outdoors

We also took a day trip to the beach with some friends not long ago and had a great time. It was windy but pretty warm when the sun came out. Elizabeth was in the freezing cold water even when it wasn't sunny and having the time of her life.

Falling down...
...and still loving it!
Natalie was a bit more cautious and loved building sand castles with me.
Here we are (Caution: Looking directly at my white legs puts you at risk for temporary blindness:)
Joe had his first-ever surfing experience. He and his friend Justin rented boards and wet suits and had a great time. Joe said he definitely has a new respect for how much strength it takes to surf.

There they go:

The best action shot I could get:

Our family (and some random guy staring at us :)

Happy Father's Day

For a Father's Day gift for Joe, I took some pictures of the girls in his clothes. It was actually really fun. They loved dressing up and posing for me and we got some pretty cute ones.

Natalie was "Sunday Daddy"

I had to google how to tie a tie and it still didn't look so great but it worked for our purposes. I wonder if I'll have to learn now that we're having a boy.

Elizabeth was "Golfer Daddy"

I thought this one was funny--kind of Tiger-esque

We tried to make Joe feel special yesterday. We had a nice day of relaxing around the house and just being together.

Joe is such an amazing father. I knew when we were dating that he would be a great dad but I had no idea how great until Elizabeth came along and I got to witness it firsthand. He's been smitten with his girls ever since and they absolutely adore him. Now we get to experience having a son and I'm excited to see him with a little boy. We are so thankful for our Daddy.

I'm so thankful for my own father. He has always made me feel so loved and special. He is constantly encouraging me. I don't know what I would have done without his constant strength in my life. I love to now watch him with my kids. He is such a good grandpa.

Happy Father's Day!

We Moved

Well, I have neglected to blog about the fact that we moved last weekend. It has been a crazy few weeks with packing and moving and unpacking and what not. Luckily, we only moved a few blocks away and so our move was kind of a process (I don't know if that's better or worse). It always ends up being more work than you would expect. We had so, SO much help from people in our ward. Thank you to everyone who helped. Really, thank you.

We are now settled in our new place and we really like it. It's a little smaller, which is an adjustment of course, but we are saving a lot of money and that feels good. Now that we're here, it just feels right. This is a good place for us.

There have been some nice perks I wasn't expecting, too. I love the shower head in our bathroom. We have a dishwasher that actually works now. The house is shaded pretty well and stays cool during the day. I haven't had to turn on the air since we've been here.

There are some downsides, too. I am not a fan of the carpeted dining area and am hoping to find some sort of rug or plastic or something to put under the table. Does anyone have any good ideas in this department?

It has been an adjustment for the girls but they are handling it really well. It's funny, though, because Natalie still refers to this place as "Ann's house" (that's the name of our landlord). Her first night sleeping here she asked me as I was tucking her in, "Do they have breakfast at Ann's house?"

There have been perks for the kids. They have their bunk beds actually set up now. We'll let you know how that goes. Elizabeth loves it. They love the bar where they can sit to eat breakfast and lunch and that makes it easy for them to help/watch me cook. There's also a path right down the street from us along a canal where we can jog now and they love to see the ducks, geese and turtles. It takes us to a fun park just down the way. Elizabeth was so excited to see a real live see-saw there. She had only seen them in books and was excited to try it out. Of course it barely moves and is incredibly safe, to prevent tort litigation as Joe would now point out to me. Part of me misses the big dangerous ones from my youth. I remember one big see-saw we had at a Girl's Camp site that girls were always getting hurt on. It was so fun, though. Kind of scary-fun like a roller coaster. Anyway, I'm rambling...

We're doing good and I'm trying to motivate myself to put pictures up now that the main unpacking is mostly done. I'm getting quite a belly. I'll post pictures sometime. It occurred to me the other day that I don't think I've been in a picture for months. I just always happen to be the one taking pictures. I also only have like two pictures and some video of myself pregnant, and this is my third time around. It's not that I don't like to be in pictures, it's just that it doesn't happen for some reason. So, we will try to rectify that this time, when I'll probably be the biggest I've been so far (hopefully).

I have our last pictures taken at our other place on my camera but I can't work up the energy to post them right now. Now, I am going to eat some ice cream (and I wonder why I'm getting so big). :)