Will and Porter

For the first two weeks of October, Melissa, Will and Porter came to stay at our house. It sure changed things around the house--instead of 3 people we had 6, and instead of a nice, quiet house, we had a very loud, crazy, and busy house. I loved it though, and hated to see them go. Will had so much fun because he had so many people to pay attention to him. He probably got spoiled a bit. Also, Porter got spoiled because he always had someone to hold him. He really enjoyed that--if we set him down at all, he would start crying and right away someone else would come pick him up.

While they were here, Porter had his first real food--rice cereal. He stay pretty expressionless the whole time, so we are not sure what he thought about it.

Will got a new pair of pj's while he was here. He LOVED them!! He would just stare at himeself in the mirror and just laugh and dance around. It was hilarious!

Finally!!!

Well, not a whole lot has been happening around here. Troy and I have been working on the house a bit and making some good progress, finally! I can't wait to have it all done. We went on a nice bike ride around the river and a beautiful neighborhood. I love the houses there. We found a cool little swampy park with lots of big birds and tons of turtles. We also explored the "downtown" of the neighborhood--yes, they have a downtown with a few stores, a salon, and a cafe. We walked into one of the stores that had been turned into a workshop and this guy was building a boat. He is planning a solo journey across the Atlantic Ocean in this boat he is making. Crazy!! This guy lives for adventure--he has hiked to the North Pole solo and tons of other adventures like that. That was interesting! I went to a craft fair which was pretty disappointing. Most of the stuff was just junky trinkets that just looked like clutter. I found a cool bead store that I am going to check out again. I am addicted to beady necklaces lately, and have been interested in making my own. This place has everything you could ever want, and you can make your stuff right there in the store--cool! So I will be doing that in the next few weeks. We also went to the rodeo. It was so fun! I love rodeos and can't wait for more to come to town. This weekend we are going to Atlanta to do a little bit of shopping. Hopefully we can make it to Ikea. I could spend all day in that store! And for the big news......we FINALLY have a wedding date!!! It is December 10th in the Mount Timpanogos Temple. I am so excited to actually have things lined up now.

Nieces and Nephews

I have the cutest nieces and nephews ever! They are all so funny and have such cute personalities. I wish I lived closer to them so I could watch them grow up. I guess for now I have to live with pictures! Also, this video of Will dancing is hilarious! He loves to dance and especially loves to put on a show for everyone. As long as he sees you laughing, he will keep entertaining you. Also, make sure you read the sign in Kaylee's picture--funny!

Girl's Weekend

Last month Carolyn finished up her Master's degree from Arizona and moved back to Georgia. She will be teaching the harp at a school up in Atlanta, as well as teaching private lessons and doing gigs. What a fun job! Anyways, before she started working at the school, we went to the condo at Hilton Head for a girl's weekend. We had so much fun. We drove down Friday after I got off of work. We got there late, so we just walked over to the beach to check it out. The next morning we got up and went to Stacks for breakfast. They have this amazing creme brulee french toast. It is more like a dessert than a breakfast, but we still enjoyed every bit of it. Then we went back to the condo and hit the beach. It was a beautiful day. The beach was not very crowded and the weather was perfect. After we got tired of the sand, we went to the pool at the condo and swan there for a while. The fresh water sure is a lot nicer than the salt water! We managed to get very sunburnt, even with the sunscreen we put on. We needed a break, so we grabbed some lunch. During lunch it rained a bit, so when we got back to the beach the waves were HUGE!!! We had so much fun playing in them. They were so strong that it didn't take long to wear us out. For dinner we went to Hudsons. It was pretty good. Everyday they take their shirmp boats out and catch fresh shrimp to serve for dinner. It is right on the docks, so we checked out the boats and the sunset while we waited to be seated. It was beautiful. We had so much fun. It was relaxing and just what we needed. I can't wait until we can do it again.

North Carolina Camping

Well, it has been two months since I posted anything--shows you how exciting my life is right now. All I do is work. We finally did something fun--we went camping. We went with the Lerchs up to Brevard, NC. The first night we got started late, so we stopped at a hotel in Greenville. Then we got up in the morning and drove up to our campsite. It is in Pisgah National Forest, which is beautiful! It was about 10 or 15 minutes away from sliding rock, and about 10 minutes from downtown Brevard. After we got settled in the campground, we went to sliding rock. I was all for it until I stuck my toes in the water. It was soooo cold! I chickened out and just watched everyone slide down. They had a great time. Then we went back to the campground and cooked dinner and sat around the fire and made smores. Instead of having plain Hershey's chocolate, we used Reese's peanut butter cups. That was delicious! It started raining, but we still sat around the fire making our smores. Finally it started pouring and we ran into the tent! I didn't mind though. It made it more memorable. The next morning we got up, ate breakfast, and packed. Then we drove into Brevard and walked around downtown for a little while. It is such a cute little town. They have the coolest toy store there. It was two stories and pack full of every toy you could imagine. Then we drove over to our rafting place. We got there just in time for the last rafting trip. They dropped us off at the river with our tubes. At first the river was freezing, but then after a few minutes we got used to it. It was a pretty calm river--I thought there would be more rapids--but it was still fun. It was raining that day too, so we debated going on the rafting trip, but we decided we would get wet on the river anyway, so we did it. Right after we got started on the river, the rain cleared up and the sun came out. It turned out to be such a beautiful day. By the time we got done, it was starting to get late. We started heading back home, but stopped in Sapphire Valley and had a picnic dinner. That place is beautiful! I love the mountains in North Carolina. They have such a unique beauty about them. We had such a good time on the trip and can't wait to do it again. I posted some pictures of the area and will post my own pictures soon. Troy and I decided not to bring my camera because we didn't want it getting messed up, so we bought a little waterproof disposable camera that we didn't care much about. As soon as the pictures are developed I will post them.

Porter Benjamin Atkins

At the end of April I was able to go out to Twin Falls to visit Melissa's family. She had her new baby, Porter Benjamin Atkins, on April 11. He is so adorable!!! I loved it. She had him about 3 weeks early. She actually was beginning to go into labor 6 weeks early, which is when she had Will. Luckily, they were able to to hold it off for a little while. He did have to go to the NICU, but not for very long. I had so much fun with the kids. I also went to Shoshone Falls, which is about 10 minutes away from their house. It is beautiful!!! It is actually taller than Niagra Falls, but not as big across. It is huge in the spring because of the snow melting from the mountains. I have been before in the fall, but was not impressed. When I saw it this time though, it was awesome! I couldn't get very good pictures because it was so misty there! I got soaked--not from rain, but from the mist that comes up. It was so good to take a little mini vacation.

Pictures

The other day Tanner took us out to take pictures. Normally Troy and I both hate getting our picture taken, but we had a lot of fun this time. I think they turned out awesome. Here are some of our favorites.