We Love our South Carolinians!

Several weeks ago-I won't say how long exactly-our dear friends Jake, Mary, Rachel and Olivia came to visit us!! We hit the pavement hard, and packed in tons of D.C. fun while they were here. I would say we were all amazing troopers, being that it was also a week of 90+ degree weather everyday! Some of the highlights of their visit included the mounted police officers by the Lincoln Memorial- Porter was thrilled/terrified at the same time. This is him trying to get the courage-yet deciding he didn't have it at the last minute, to pet "Moe". The officers were really sweet though to let all the kids just swarm them with excitement!

Here are the kiddos, all just cute as can be if I do say so myself! They all got along great, which is great news as we've got a couple of pre-arranged marriages in the works for these four! We are so lucky to have friends like these that we already consider to be family. It would be nice however if we could make it official though through at least one marriage:)

We enjoyed some fantastic picnics, including this one under the tail end of the cherry blossoms at the Tidal Basin! So beautiful, and a with a wonderful breeze.

Now this picture, at the Washington D.C. LDS Temple is one of our favorites. Mary captured this one, and we are definitely planning on using it in their wedding slideshow (per the above mentioned arranged marriage!) Obviously, we won't really make them get married if they don't want to, but we will sure try our best to help them fall in love:)

We also had a major adventure on the metro. We went to go downtown for a baseball game, and perhaps due to the game, and also getting ready for upcoming rush hour they must have just put an extra train or two in the rounds. So, being that we are a little further out we were the very first ones to get on the train! Typically when one is not in service the doors do not open for you, they did open, so we assumed all was well. We were living it up being on a completely empty train (the picture is of cute Mary and Rachel in our empty car)! It was seeming a little creepy though, it is just not something that happens very often! Still we assumed they wouldn't have let us on if it wasn't in service. As we considered the possibility that no one knew we were on the train, it went underground and pitch black!!! It was totally spooky! I must say, I didn't like the feeling one bit of zooming along in the total blackness and having no control over what was happening! Luckily, we were correct to assume that it was just the first run it had done, and by the next stop the conductor must have figured out that the lights weren't on. When we stopped they did come on, and we could all breathe a little easier. A funny adventure, but not something I want to do again anytime soon! Can you say Claustrophobia?!

We really had such a great time when they were here, also including multiple museums, celebrating Olivia's first birthday, a night driving tour of D.C., a Phillies game (which will soon get it's own, albeit belated post) and oodles of playtime and friend time for the kiddos and parents! Thanks for coming to visit guys, we love ya and can't wait till we're together again!

A Wicked Awesome Time-30th Birthday Celebration

(it was pretty packed with people, and a bit cold and windy-so this was the best option for taking a pic. We hurried so as not to be accosted by bike ride vendors. At least it reminds me that we were actually there!)

For my 30th Birthday the big thing that I wanted to do was go see Wicked. I have wanted to see it for a LONG time now, and it finally seemed to be the perfect occasion. The plan was originally to see it my birthday weekend itself, but with the way all the logistics worked out it ended up being better the weekend before. So Noah took me to a Mother's Day/Early 30th Bday celebration instead! We went to NYC to see it on Broadway itself, and were very lucky to have Noah's parents offer to babysit (seeing as they live not too far from the city)!! So, not only did I get to see Wicked, we also got a FABULOUS day-SANS KIDDO in the Big Apple!

After the show we had a great time just being together and strolling the streets; AND making a very valid attempt to locate the Discovery Channel's Cash Cab. No luck, unfortunately but if we had, we were going to take it all the way to the airport! Noah rocks it at trivia:) We could have been rich! Next time I guess:) We tried to hit up Serendipity again (side note-I was on vacation here visiting one of my best besties Amber when Noah decided that he wanted to ask me out for the first time. I was wearing my cute Serendipity shirt that I had just picked up on the trip for our first date, so now it has a little bit of special significance) We have since tried a couple of times to go together, but the line is always horrendous. Same story this time too, but in our journeys on the Upper East Side we came upon this amazing place!

The stairs were made out of gummies, suckers, candy corn and jelly beans and the tables made of gumballs! It smelled absolutely intoxicating, and we came away with these beauties! When we are in New York the one thing I always like to get is a good cupcake. Mission accomplished! They packaged them up in these cute individual containers which was great. The cupcakes were huge and beautiful. They had tons of flavors-all of which look amazing, but we came away with a carrot cake, red velvet avec cream cheese, and a reeses peanut butter cup! can you say DELICIOUS!? One of my new favorite stops for sure.

The tulips and I at 30 Rock. (also one of our favorite TV shows)

We had such a fabulous time. Truly. It was so wonderful. Wicked was AMAZING, even better than I had imagined and worth every penny. And we had such a fun time together for one last big date before we head to Turkey. It was so nice to just be together and go and do whatever we wanted with nothing particular in mind. We walked all over, by the way...my walking legs must be getting better from D.C. because I didn't even notice how far we walked! Thanks again Sweetie. It was amazing. Happy Birthday to Me:)

(also, yes there is 1 candle on my cake. Noah said it is for the first year of the next big part of my life...and who wants 30 candles on that cake?!)

For the actual day then, since we had already done the "big" part it was a little more low key, but still great! Noah got me a delicious ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins (one of my favs), went to see "Letters to Juliet" which was darling and just a fun chick flick, some shopping at Potomac Mills (and a AWESOME new wallet), dinner out with all three of my favorite boys, and the Soundtrack to Wicked and Valentine's Day. Both of which I LOVE. It was a wonderful birthday, and a great one to remember. So far I'm handling 30 great, so let's hope the rest of the year goes as well!

the other half

I am indeed still behind in my blogging quest. In an attempt to catch up though I am diving in at least half way. Many-yet not all, thankfully of my photos seem to be MIA for the uploading process. ugh. I am having a bad computer day. So I will share with you just a couple of the fun highlights from the second half of our recent trip out west. After spending a great time with all my family in Colorado, we headed to Utah to see some more family and some awesome friends. We all had a great time seeing Uncle Grant graduate from BYU-at which graduation, Porter loudly announced after entering a few minutes late (no parking to be found) "wait a minute, this is not a party?!" Yes, he was sorely disappointed. Poor kid, but he sure did do a great job of embarrassing mommy! That's ok, these are the stories that we love. Just imagine my handsome brother in his cap and gown. like I said. photo MIA.

We also got to spend some awesome quality time with some of our favorite pals Art, Steph and family. These are some of our peeps we miss the most, and we all had a great time being together again. We went to see How to Train Your Dragon, which was AWESOME by the way! A perfect day of fun for 4 little buddies. Art got this darling picture of them all "in the zone"!

Also, thank you to Art for babysitting all 5 kiddos so Steph and I could have a fantastic and much needed girl's night!!! We had a wonderful time with dinner, a chick flick and chocolate fondue for dessert!

Our friends Kesli and little Ryli were in Utah briefly as well before they left officially and we were thrilled to be able to spend a few more fun times with them. We hit In N Out together among other things and the boys had a fabulous time wearing their darling hats! On a side note-I also tried the strawberry shake for the first time at In N Out, and it was delicious!

We got to spend more time in Utah with the cousins, tons of playing, and more quality time with the my grandparents. I also loved being able to go to at least one "Sit/Chat" night with the girls as well....so sad I didn't get to see everyone, but I'll be back!

Lastly, three days before we came home it hit...Ronan's "rotavirus type" illness (yet, he has had the vaccine, so they don't think it was that officially). We got to take a nice after hours visit to the pediatrician, had not so pretty fluids coming out everywhere, ...but it made for a great story to finish out the trip:) Ronan was mostly feeling better finally for the trip home and we were thrilled when we got home and saw daddy again! All in all, a fabulous time with lots of things accomplished-yet still so much more that will have to wait till the next visit! We love you all, and can't wait till next time!

redirect

i finally finished a post about the rest of our trip, although apparently blogger posts it when it was initially started. Therefore, it is below the 30 year old post. If anyone is interested at all, just letting you know-look below:)

In my Next 30 Years

Warning: self-reflection to follow.

So, it is finally upon me.

I will be officially 30 years old in 11 hours. For most birthdays I usually agree to my birthday starting at Midnight on the 13th. This year, however, I can wait till the official hour. I have been thinking a lot about it all lately. I have gone back and forth between the ideas of "oh no, I'm so sad I'm thirty" and "no big deal, I'm still awesome:)". For myself and just for the sake of writing down my feelings at a milestone like this I'm going to share my recent emotions here. It is a pretty weird feeling that I will no longer be a "twenty-something". I truly am having a hard time wrapping my brain around the fact that I attended my 10 year high school reunion 2 years ago! I wanted to record what I'm feeling right now...so then I can look back when I turn 40,50 etc. I'm sure this will probably seem hilarious then. In a lot of ways I am really excited to turn 30. In your thirties, you are truly a grown up. I know I already am one, but when you are still in your twenties it is still easy to tell yourself that you are younger than you are. Even when you are in the tail-end of the twenties...you are still in your twenties. Once you turn thirty...there's no denying you are an adult. Full on, an adult. This is a good thing.

Mostly, I am just trying to think about how young I feel, but appreciate all the wonderful things I have done and learned in my first 30 years .To quote one of my fav's Tim McGraw, "in my next 30 years", I want to do so much more. I guess I am just feeling reminiscent because I feel like this is just a great evaluation point. I feel like for me, in this particular stage of my life... starting this lifestyle and getting ready to move across the world right now is pretty great. It will help me divide my life into sections that round out nicely. Pre-30 life until FSO. Post-30 life after FSO. I like it when things work out nicely like that:) I guess that is why I was born a "Decade Baby"!

I decided that I wanted to write down some highlights, and make a few little goals just for posterity sake. We'll see when it's all said and done what life brings... but as for now I am pretty happy with the results and the possibilities.

In my first 30 years:

-played, played, and played in dirt,trees, "the rocks", playgrounds, backyards-you name it. I feel like I had a fun childhood.

-learned to drive, and got my licsence

-graduated from high school

-attended and graduated from BYU with my Bachelor's degree

-met my fabulous hubby and got married

-went to Europe for the first time, and multiple wonderful trips since

-had two beautiful children

-had two corresponding and only surgeries thus far of my life

-lived in 15 different homes in 4 different states

-drove on nearly every square mile of I-80 from literally coast to coast except a 40 mile stretch in Indiana

-went to Madagascar and La Reunion-truly a trip of a lifetime

-made many AMAZING friends that now live in nearly 20 different states and soon to be 10+ different countries

-made mistakes, cried, regretted things

-was proud of myself, happy, and laughed A LOT.

-learned I DO NOT like to be upside down on any amusement park rides

-ate a lot of licorice

-had way to many other awesome experiences to even write down. In thinking about all the many things I could add to the list, one thing is clear. I have been very, very blessed. I am in awe. How thankful I am for all the amazing experiences and people that have made my life so rich.

In my next 30 years:

-want to visit all the places on my top 25 list. There are some good ones... I won't bore you with the list in this post. maybe another time though.

- want to finish building our family

-learn to make bread (yup, I'm pathetic. can't do it)

-brush up on my piano skills

-be a better friend and sister

-be the best mother and wife I can be

-read more books

-ACTUALLY LEARN FRENCH!!-also, hope to learn several other languages too

-make it through a FSO career without too much turbulence. yup. not my favorite thing. I'm praying for many good flights:)

-take Noah to a KU game

-buy a house one day

-take my kids to DisneyWorld

-make a quilt for every country that we live in

-enjoy the traditions that we have made so far in our family, and pass them on to our children.

-watch my children grow up, get married and hopefully give us some grandchildren!

ok. that is enough of my thinking for one night. I just felt like I wanted to write something. To have something to remind me of this milestone in life. that's all. I'm done. If you made it through, thank you for reading.

Easter part 2- The Poconos

So on actual Easter weekend, we hopped in the car and headed to Noah's parents house for a quick surprise visit! The boys both loved shouting SURPRISE when his dad opened the door. It was really great. We were able to also do some of our favorite things during our short visit-most of which included our favorite foods. We checked off some REAL cheesesteaks from our favorite place, Pizza from that same awesome place, the pretzel factory and Callie's Candy factory. We definitely love to eat when we are there! I got a fun shot with my boys and the Easter Bunny, (they would only get close though because he had a basket of suckers)

The Easter Bunny also found these giant AWESOME solid chocolate letters, bringing respectively a "R" for Ronan and a "P" for Porter. The glare made it hard to get a great picture, but they both loved them. Porter's basket is unfortunately not pictured as well....I've tried 5 times, and the photo will not load. hmm. no idea why. I give up, sorry.

We finished up the morning with a great Egg Hunt outside. They both did a pretty good job actually of finding even the tricky eggs! What good lookers I have!

Ronan, being very serious here. He was on a mission.

And yes, the Easter Bunny brought Dinosaur Eggs this year. What can a bunny do? That was all that was left. They LOVED them though. Good job bunny:)

And for one last side note, we have discovered that completely unknown to Noah- on his old weathered basketball hoop in the backyard, was an omen. In looking up at this fabulous old hoop, which I'm told was used for countless hours of memories- is Porter's name. Who even knew Porter was a brand of basketball hoop? We had absolutely no idea this was the case when we named Porter, we came up with it totally on our own for different reasons! Maybe it was subconsciously why Noah liked it?!

Back to the story...so yes, we had a fabulous time with the grandparents and the boys can't wait to go back and play some more! It was a terrific little trip, full of candy, traditions, playgrounds, cravings, and family.

After we got home, the Easter Bunny found some things that he forgot to put in the baskets in PA, SO he dropped by the next Sunday morning too! It was General Conference on actual Easter Sunday for church, so it was a perfect opportunity to let them wear their outfits and have a little more traditional Easter Morning as well. These boys, I tell ya!! Two rounds of Easter Baskets. Very lucky indeed.

Easter part 1- The Incredible Edible Eggs

Back before our lives got CRAZY busy, we kicked off the Easter season with some traditional egg dying! This is one of my favorite little traditions, and we also love doing it with good friends! The boys love to get creative, and then getting to go on an egg hunt. We were thrilled to be able to do it this year with Kesli and Ryli before they left. We all had a great time, made some beautiful eggs, and even went on a hunt the next day around the apartment. We did this activity multiple days early from Easter, so after that initial "practice hunt" those eggs were eaten, sorry bunny. He had to buy some more plastic ones at the store later that weekend:)

I love it all. These are some of my favorite moments. I hope my boys will enjoy them as much as I do when they look back on their crazy lives.

It's the little things. The beautiful accomplishments!