The Longest Road Trip Eva!

A couple months ago Alan had a BRILLIANT idea. He suggested we go to the west coast to visit family while he studies for his second set of (med school) board exams. Not fly, but drive.

I hate driving. I fall asleep at the wheel. I get car sick. I HATE being strapped into a car for long periods of time.
So of course I said, "Sure, let's do it!"

The kids were great, it was just...well...four days of tired, antsy, bored, unadulterated torture. But it was well worth it.

We made it to my dad's in Modesto, CA just in time for my birthday (Jul 7, in case you wanted to send presents). My dad even wrapped a package of lotion he didn't want. So thoughtful.

 We had cake (I made myself) and Its-Its (yummy ice cream-cookie sandwiches).

My little family drove to Reno visit my oldest sister, Francine, for a few days. We went jet skiing and to her community pool and hung out and had a ball. :D

I spent almost every day with my sister Jennifer. I loooooooooved it! :)

We went backpacking overnight with our friend Lindsey.

It was awesome girl time, to say the least. ha!

And we swam at lots of friends' houses.

 

I was able to meet up with lots of great friends like Amy...

And my dear friends from United Rentals (Athena, Paige, Sarah and Jessica). I love them!

I visited my awesome friend Liz.

And my dear, dear friend, Katie. I'm so blessed to still have so many wonderful friends in my hometown!!

After 3 weeks in CA we drove up to WA. I got to see my BFF's older sister (hence my sister by proxy), Trina! She made us carne asada which was ridiculously delicious. I love her so mucho, more so that she's Mexican now. :)

We caught up with friends in Renton, WA where we used to live. Sexy ladies!

And stayed the night at Alan's Aunt Donna and Uncle Stu's. Luckily Cousin James was in town.

I love Donna! :D And Stu. :D :D :D They are my faves.

We met Alan's family (parents and two sisters and their kids) and his friend (and wife) at a Mariner's game. They lost terribly. We're convinced us being there somehow broke their winning streak.

At least we had fun!

Then we headed to Ocean Shores, WA. 

 The beaches were huge and they had cool tide pools.

 We stayed the night and had a blast at the beach. Alan rented a scooter and took some of the kids for a ride.

Mom with a big starfish!

Alan, Miles, Elijah and I hit a trail on our way to Wenatchee, where his parents live.

It was fun and gorgeous. Yeah us! :)

We stayed at his beautiful sister's house. I fell in love with their pitbull, Remi. :)

We celebrated a birthday (kids in line to hit piñata)...

 Went to a splash pad (free and so fun!)...

Visited Levenworth and hiked some more...

...

And hit the super slide and horseback riding at Ensign Ranch on our way out. It's such a FUN and INEXPENSIVE place to play!

After 2 weeks with Alan's family we drove back to the Vancouver area to stay 2 1/2 weeks with my older brother and his family.

They've got a full on mini farm going on with 3 cows, over 30 chickens and 4 or 5 turkeys. And can't forget their 5 children. ;)

Needless to say, my outside-loving boys were in heaven.

They also played lots of video games, of course...namely Mine Craft.

One day we hit up Cannon Beach, OR.

And I fell in love...
(Not with my sister-in-law, I already loved her.) :)

 I was surprised to find awesome tide pools and the giant rock was so majestic and mysterious.

Alan studied while we played and it was such a fun time!

We enjoyed our time in Vancouver area immensely and look forward to the day we can move back to the west coast, nearer to our awesome family! 

On our way back to good ole' PA, Alan took us to see Multnomah Falls. They were beautiful! He and the two boys hiked to the top of the falls while me and my flip flops stayed with baby down below.

The next day we drove by Mount Rushmore. It. Was. Awesome. That's what my 6-yr old kept saying, anyway. :) And it was amazing!

You can take a little mile long hike to get different views of the carvings.

And you can walk through a really cool museum. Ive always wanted to see Mt Rushmore but never thought I would. Hooray!

The next day we stopped to see my old friend, Annie. We know each other from college days and it was so good to reconnect over pizza!

The next day (we're at August 23rd now) we saw our friend Michelle! We were friends and neighbors in Hershey, PA for 2 yrs and now she lives with her family in Ohio. It was good to see her again!
We reached State College around 4:30 p.m. that same day.

The next day was Saturday and we drove 1 1/2 hrs to Harrisburg to hit Bass Pro Shop and Costco. There we were able to meet up with more Hershey friends: ate lunch with the Mikesell's (no picture) and said HI to Kara (above) and Jeffrey Chen (booty...er...I mean below).

We love them a whole stinkin' lot. :)

Christian started first grade today. Miles starts preschool next week. 

Time to unwind...while getting into a school routine. Are we insane?

Don't answer that. ;)

It was a fun summer. And while we say we'll never do a cross-country road trip again...

I'm glad we did this one. :)

(Elijah saying, "Noooooooo!" to another long road trip!)

Happy 1st Birthday, Elijah!!!

June 2nd Elijah turned ONE. The year has gone by too quickly! :(

We threw a joint party with two of our friends, so Alan thought of having a "Three Amigos" birthday party theme. So I HAD to make this for the invitation:

We had crafts, including finger tattoo mustaches and make-your-own-sombreros, and a taco bar and cupcakes and ice cream and a piñata.

It was a fun time and we were blessed to have a lot of friends come support us!

The babies had a blast, too. :)

 I think Elijah enjoyed his cupcake, don't you?

I sure love this little guy. One year in our life, yet it feels like you've always been a part of our family! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Little Man A.K.A. Elijah

I took Elijah for a walk yesterday.

He looooooves being outside. Takes after his Mama...and brothers. :)

He crawls and puts everything in his mouth. Yum.

I'm so glad he got his Daddy's beautiful blue eyes!

THERE'S that smile he wears almost 24/7.

I love, love, love this Little Man. 

He's only been in my life 10 1/2 months, but he makes my heart absolutely swell with joy!

The Prophet's Voice

So I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This fact has played an integral part on who I am today. Being a member of the church dictates my thoughts, actions, desires and goals. Its teachings are woven so deeply into my very being that I forget that not everyone believes what I believe.

And what I believe, what the church teaches, is that Christ is the Savior of the world. Not only this world, but worlds without number. That Christ has instituted His church on the earth various times, taking it away in between because the people were too wicked (apostasy), and that He has instituted it one last time through a prophet, named Joseph Smith, and called it The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We believe that God is our Heavenly Father, that Christ is His only begotten son, and that we can all know the truth of all things through the Holy Ghost.

Since Joseph Smith, the Lord has continued to call prophets to lead and guide His church. The one today is named President Thomas S Monson. President Monson is a true prophet, I know it, and he and the twelve apostles and other leaders of the church speak every six months, in April and October.
Yesterday and today I've been able to listen to them and be uplifted to my very soul as they teach timeless gospel truths about God, family, and the great plan of happiness our Heavenly Father has laid out for us.

After the first session (a two-hour block), I put baby down and went for a walk to stretch my legs and ponder the things I'd been taught. Toward the end I rested on a swing in the back of our apartment complex. The swings overlook a large golf course, which was crawling with Sunday visitors in golf carts, hoping to play a good game in this lovely spring day. I felt sad as I watched them. Sad that there is a prophet today who speaks the word of God, directed to everyone today as prophets have directed their teachings to those in days of old, and the majority of the world is not listening.

A prophet is speaking, and the majority of the world is  not listening.

Sound familiar?

It happens all the time in the scriptures from the majority refusing to listen to Noah's warnings about the flood to the inhabitants of Zarahemla not heeding the warnings to repent or be destroyed. Today the world is rampant with spiritual destruction and the prophets, apostles and other leaders are warning us to protect ourselves spiritually by doing things like:
stay away from pornography
devote constructive time to family
limit time-consuming vices like video games
pray, read scriptures, serve others daily
go to church
go to the temple
pay an honest tithing...

and physically, such as:
keep a year's food storage on hand for each member of your family
keep an emergency cash fund on hand
be self-reliant (plant a garden, stay out of debt, etc)
obey the "health code" God has given us today, called the Word of Wisdom...

These things are given to us to bring us closer to God. Because, though we can't be perfect in this life, we need to be as clean as possible to be able to one day stand in His presence. To stand in His presence, blameless, knowing I've done everything I can to deserve all he has to offer me--and He offers ALL he has. I couldn't imagine the joy.

In the meantime I'll keep on trudging, trying to overcome my mountain of imperfections as I sit at the feet of the prophets and apostles and listen to the sweet words they give that feed my soul.
And I'll invite everyone else to listen...click on the link below and you can watch any session of conference from this weekend. I pray you do!

Watch it here.
And here's a link to learn more about those of the LDS faith, also called "Mormons" (mormon.org).

Pittsburgh Zoo

March 30th we took the boys to the Pittsburgh Zoo. It was our first time and it was fun-o. :) The spring/summer season wouldn't start until the next Monday so some of the exhibits were closed, but the most important ones were open! Overall it was well worth the looooooong 2 1/2 drive.

When we approached the zoo, we saw a big Hot Wheels stand in front of it. There were stations for the boys to play on and they gave out raffle tickets.

The boys won a Hot Wheels track. It was a fun and exciting way to start our zoo trip. :)

HA! Miles is such a little ball of energy, sweetness, and attitude all wrapped into one. Love these boys!

 Baby elephant: Miles is shorter, Christian is taller. :) 

 And this elephant is taller than us all...and yes, it's real! :D You could pay $10 to have 2 pictures taken on your camera with the elephant. It was so fun! We got to pet her and Elijah grabbed onto her tusk. HA!

These rhinos were fun. The baby was running around in all its cuteness and the Mama kept looking at us like she would gladly horn us if we tried to harm her babe. :D HA! Looooved it.

The weather was PERFECT and Elijah was so good the whole time! He sat in his stroller and looked around and eventually took a nap and loved the whole thing.

There was a big aquarium with GIANT stingray you could touch. It was AWESOME! We didn't get any pictures of it, of course, but here's Elijah with Daddy after his nap inside of the aquarium. :)

Next best thing, right?

On the way home we ate at Clem's Cafe, a reeeeeeeally good and affordable barbecue place. mmmmmm.....drooling just thinking about it. Hooray for family fun time!

Catch-up Time!

February 18th the boys were both home from school. 

And when they're around all day they tend to drive me crazy...as well as each other.

SO, I took them to a happy-fun place called Fun Unleashed.

You pay $7 per kid for unlimited play on a huge jungle gym. I figured it would kill a couple of hours.

They had so much fun, in fact, that they lasted not 2, not 3...but SIX hours.

Elijah took a nap.

We ate pizza.

I explored the jungle with them.

And they played and played and played. It was AWESOME.

The weekend of March 2 we drove 4 hours down to D.C. We stayed in a nice hotel with a pool.

It was the nicest room we've ever stayed in. This is half of the room...

This is the other half where the boys slept on a hide-a-bed.

We shoved Elijah's port-a-crib in the kitchen area.

The main reason we went was to hit the D.C. temple. We went to a session together while our friends watched our kids. Then they went and we watched their three kids.

We took all six kids to a mall nearby so they could play on the equipment.

It worked out nicely.

Elijah and their little man posed for a pic.

Cheeeeeeeese. :D

On our way home we stopped at the Bass Pro Shop in Harrisburg.

We love the fish and playing on the big party boats and ATV's.

We may have spent a while in the hunting area...

ahem

We played the gun game for the first time. We were feeling spendy, I guess. :)

For some reason we never spent the $.50 a game before.

What cheapskates.

I can't get enough of that smile.

Needless to say they were BEAT on the drive home.

March 9 we wanted to hike with the boys, but don't know the area around here very well.

So we tried Spring Creek Park.

The area was small and ended up being a small jaunt than a hike.

So we drove to Tudek Park. We wandered around and found a huge field with two horses and a donkey.

 They walk right up to you and let you pet them.

The boys were nervous, but they got a kick out of it.

We finally got to use our baby backpack. :) Cute face.

March 19th was Alan's Birthday.

We bought him a shirt, cologne, 2 packs of Legos, and "The Hobbit".

He turned 31. My big boy. :D

I invited some friends from the neighborhood to eat cake with us.

Yes, those are Kit Kat's lining the outside of the cake. And there were Reese's Peanut Butter cups and pudding in between the chocolate cake layers. YUM.

It's been a good month, even with the incessant snow we've had.

Where is our Spring?

Hopefully it will come soon!