Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Leaving NC

Being in the military has been a great experience for us so far. It has it's perks, but it also has some downers. Moving is one of those downers. I don't like change to begin with, so having to move after only 2 years is no fun. It took me a while to get used to the culture, weather, etc. of Jacksonville, but once I did, I was in love.

We made some great friends in North Carolina. Our neighborhood was absolutely wonderful. Small, secluded, right on the water, a park in the neighborhood, and tons of kids. I loved the camaraderie. Nancy always said, "It takes a village...Thanks for being my village." It was hard to leave my village. I miss my village.

Ice cream with Elias

Evan and Patrick are 1 week apart in age. Such cute little friends.

Evan and Patrick, deep in conversation. Probably planning their escape.

Evan with the football helmet. We spent as much time as possible with Nancy and the Brown boys before we left. 

Snuggling while the packers packed up the house.

Brighton told me he wanted to go look at his Legos. I went in to check on him, and he had fallen asleep. Come to find out he was running a pretty high fever. Poor guy. Luckily, I learned from our KY move when he got strep throat and kept out the thermometer and tylenol. 

It was also hard to leave these sweet girls (Pictured: Kelly, Chloe, Nikki, Sera, Elizabeth, and Macey). I loved being in YW with them and serving with Katie and Camille.

Christina, Karin, and I were going to meet at Chick-Fil-A for one last play date with Brighton, Garek, and Koreen. When I pulled into the parking lot, I noticed some other friends' cars as well. Christina and Karin surprised me by calling other friends in the ward to come as well. 
Christina, Karin, Rebecca, Carmen, Camille, Me, Heather, Gretchen, Brynn, Amy, and Asha

See you later, Camp Lejeune!

The Rest of Spring 2015

Here is what the rest of spring looked like, according to my phone.

When I went to get Evan out of his crib one morning, he had managed to get one arm out of his pjs. Pretty funny.

Spring was beautiful this year. Lots of sunny days. Rachel always let me borrow her double jogging stroller, and so I'd put in a few miles with these two cuties a few times a week. I ran a 5k in March, and it was amazing how much easier it was to just run rather than pushing 70 pounds of kid/stroller.

One Saturday, Greg and Brighton went to a birthday party. So Evan had some alone time with Noel and I. Here he is playing soccer with Dad.

Whenever we go to the playground, the boys usually collect rocks and sticks to take home. Brighton always said that the sticks were for a project he was going to build. :) One day, he found this log and wanted to take it home for his project. He is too cute!

FHE at the beach


After a good, hard rain, the ditches in front of the HP houses would be really muddy or have standing water in them. We were playing at the playground, and I decided to stop fighting the "stay out of the puddles" battle.


Brighton kept saying, "I don't like getting wet." So he was the only kid in the neighborhood who wasn't muddy.


We went to see the Marine Corp marching band with the Cummings. It was really cool, but a little bit long for our kids' attention spans. Thankfully Julie had some suckers to keep them happy for a bit.

Brighton wore this football helmet pretty much the whole time we were playing at the Brown's house.

When Evan wakes up from his nap, he likes to sit on my lap for a while (and usually watch a show). One day he sat there the whole time with his hand behind his head. So cute.

I don't remember why, but we didn't do an Easter egg hunt before Easter. I had the stuff ready, but it just didn't happen. So we did it the day after Easter.



Evan was good after finding a couple eggs and just dug into the treats inside.


Playing in the water table, literally.

Building a fort to protect them from the sprinkler.



Macey, Sera, Chloe, and Elizabeth (and another girl in the stake) at the scripture mastery dance.

The scripture mastery game was to draw a picture for the scripture reference, and then everyone had to get to that scripture. The kids came up with some code for the section and verse rather than drawing pictures of the doctrine of the scriptures. They didn't quite understand the letter vs. spirit of the law lecture they got from the seminary teacher. :)

He is so sweet, and I wish that he would just stay little forever!

Evan and Will wanting to cruise in the truck.


I love how going outside to play would most likely turn into a neighborhood play date. So many friends that I miss terribly.


"Reading" to little brother.

Digging at the beach with Elias.

The Haney twins had their birthday party at Jump In Jax. Evan was afraid to go on the inflatables, but he had his eye on the basketballs in this game the whole time. He kept trying to reach up into the game to get them. We were on the other side of the room, and I set him down to dig in my purse for a diaper and some wipes. I looked up, and he had run across to the game and climbed up IN THE GAME! He was so proud of himself!

Determined to get those basketballs.

Another example of Evan's determination...we were in the truck waiting for Noel's mud run race. He wanted a clementine, and I said that I'd peel it after I handed Greg and Brighton their snacks. He apparently didn't want to wait the 20 seconds and peeled his own clementine. 

Noel and the boys before the mud run.

At the starting line

Waiting for Dad to finish. Evan held Greg's hand almost the entire time. Be still my heart!

At the finish line. I don't remember what it was, but he finished with a great time.

Greg said that he would touch Noel's shoulder because it was the only part that wasn't muddy. 

Sometimes I find toys in interesting places, like a Power Ranger doing the splits with one foot wedged into the paper tray of the printer. 


Evan's Birthday 2



The birthday boy! 

Evan is obsessed with the cartoon "Paw Patrol." So I made a Chase cake. I was really proud of myself. It tasted pretty good, too!

Carrie mailed the decorations she used for Bolton's "Paw Patrol" birthday. Evan loved them!

Evan with Dad and every Paw Patrol toy Aunt Melissa could buy. :)

Rubble and Chase or Brighton and Evan.