Good Bye Carolina!!

The last few days before we left for vacation/move, the girls had to get really good at taking care of themselves. I looked out the back window to see Cambry and Vienna eating some popcorn and drinking some water. How they got all that up there, I'll never know.

Usually, I catch the girls and give them hugs at the bottom of the slide, but with their parents preoccupied with packing they caught and hugged each other.

Part of the moving crew that came to help us load up the trailer: Aaron (Anderson), Aaron (Syrett), John, Charlie, Skip and Matt. We were seriously taken such good care of in this ward.

It was so hot and sweaty in that trailer. Mark, David, Eric (not pictured), and Devin tetris-ed all our belongings into a 8'x9'x10' block. There is something humbling about seeing all your belongings packed up into such a small space.

Speaking of how good a ward took care of us, this woman, Sister Bray, let us stay in her house for our second to last day in NC after we packed up all our stuff. She fed us and let us our kids play with her toys and in her backyard, and sleep in her beds. She was so generous to us.

She has the sweetest setup for our kids, complete with a loft and a slide.

Our last night in NC, we stayed with our good friends, the Meyers. They treated us to our favorite pizza place, Mellow Mushroom. Those aren't in Utah and it is our favorite restaurant. It was a perfect last dinner in NC.

Our kids were a big mess afterwards. So we threw them all into the bathtub.

We spent the rest of the night chatting as late as we could. We are really going to miss those guys and all the other wonderful people that we met out in NC.

One Last Carolina Shindig

One thing we loved doing while in NC was planning get togethers and parties. We met and bonded with so many great families this way, we hope to keep the tradition up. This was our going away dinner with some of our great Cary family. We hope to stay in contact with them. Here are pics of as many as I could snag. We realized later that Devin isn't in any of them!! whoops!

Kilgore family

Lavers and Wagners

White family

Sullivans and Richards

Roberts, Andersens, and Ashley Nygaard

Durrs, Charlie Walton, Gregory Lyon

Sotos, Wades, Pearsons

Meyers

Marianne Durr- I visit taught her for over 2 years. Great woman

Rachael Lyon, Julia Wade, Jen Pearson (and cute Jack), Elyse Roberts :)

Cambry and her friend Katelyn put dirt and wood chips on their heads for about a half hour (that was an exciting bath). Vienna was so disgusted.

Vienna was so perplexed why she would voluntarily put all that garbage on her head.

Every day life

Last week for family night Devin talked to the girls about moving, and riding on an airplane. He built lego airplanes for visual aids. They sure had a great time flying around our front room.

Another dad game. These girls climbed in the collapsed tent and Devin dragged them around the house much to these girls delight (is it any wonder he is the favorite parent???).

I went to ice cream with Lucy, one of my favorite young women that I taught last year. The good byes are getting hard!

After a day filled with packing, cleaning, etc, we needed a little break, and went to Bond Park for a paddle boat ride. It was a pretty good time. V wanted to steer the whole time... so we went in circles and she and Devin wrestled for control of the boat (look at her grip! and look her cheeks resting on her "pillows")

She was loving being a sailor, "and the wind and the wind and the sky... AHOY!!" (Thank you "What about Bob")

Somehow, land exploration was way cooler when you got to that spot of shore from a boat (doesn't my life jacket just look ridiculous over my belly?? You can never be too safe! lol).

Another little packing the house break. We're going to miss this swing set!

Breakfast with some of my favorite women for Summer's Birthday! And creme brulee french toast really capped a perfect morning.

Superheros, Birthdays, Kisses and Tricks

So I was going through out camcorder and found some sweet short videos that some of you may like. 

This first one shows off Vienna's super puckered-up kiss. It's pretty amazing. Unfortunately, she has learned how to give normal kisses and hasn't really done these for a while.

Cambry has become quite the creative and imaginative child. She loves to take our garbage bags and make capes out of them. She calls them "superbags." Of course, Cambry loves to get Vienna involved.

One more picture to show off Cambry's creativity. Please excuse this proud father.

The other day Cambry put on a pillow case and said: "Look, I'm a penguin!"

Can you tell that Cambry was excited for her birthday?

Showing of their mad skills. Be sure to crank up the volume so that you don't miss Vienna's baby seal impression.

Soaking up the Beach

We went to Wrightsville with the Andersens and Roberts and had a blast!! The beach is a guaranteed good time anyway, but with good friends, it makes it even more amazing. The kids and adults all had a great time. We're really going to miss living this close to the ocean, and to these fun people.

Vienna was so funny and kept doing this ostrich pose. I wish I could know what was going on in her head!

Luke and Cambry chased each other around in the shallows forever. Cambry mentioned that they were rescuing the waves. Glad someone did!

Elise and I laughed and laughed and laughed together as we got destroyed in the ocean on the boogie boards. The waves were so strong this time!

Devin and Dan took a turn together for some manly time. We all had varying degrees of pink skin at church the next day to show for all the great time we had on the shore.

Splash Pad

We found out that the shopping center where the concert was held has a little splash pad. So Friday evening, I took the girls over there. But there was a slight diversion - this cool little fountain.

Yes, ours are the ghetto children without any shirts on and no swimsuits. That's what you get when a dad is in charge.

Maybe this is just an engineer thing, but I love how the flow of the water jets are captured in these photos... The girls are cute too.

Missed!

Isn't the fluid flow below amazing!

Thirsty?

Concert in the Park

On Wednesday evening, we went over to a park/shopping center for a little outdoor concert. It was great.

Joslyn packed a delicious dinner picnic for us

This band was good, but they were a bunch of guys in their 50s. You know a band is past their prime when they introduce their songs with phrases like: "back in the 80s when we recorded this song..." Even past their prime, they were still enjoyable to listen to. 

The girls loved that they could dance and eat their dinner at the same time.

Eventually the girls' dancing transformed into mauling mom and dad.

Joslyn and I did manage to dance to together for a minute during a slower song ( I needed a little persuading) until Vienna had Cambry in choke hold on the ground. It was all playful fun to Vienna. Cambry recovered quickly though. It just took one blastoff to get smiling and giggling again.