A Walk in the Park

Last Friday was a gorgeous fall day, so I decided to take Mason to a park that's just a few miles from Austin's parents house. It isn't a playground, just beautiful manicured lawns and trails and trees. It's the perfect place to just relax. Not that Mason knows how to relax in the way I'd like to relax. We picked up some apple cider from Starbucks and had a little picnic. He wasn't too sure about his drink at first, but as you can see in the pictures, a small taste went to gulping and then to sucking every last drop from the cup. It was so much fun and we ended up staying for almost three hours. Mason ran the trails, climbed the benches, repaired the rock wall, and played with every dog that passed by. He even somehow managed to sneak a rock into my purse to bring home as a souvenir. And he slept great that night.

A week in pictures.

Halloween 2012

I don't think it bears repeating that Halloween is my utmost and absolute favorite holiday ever. EVER. I love everything that goes with it. And I am so excited that sweet Mason is getting almost old enough to enjoy the day as much as I do. Free candy from everyone you know...what's not to love? We decided to take him to Crabtree Valley Mall to trick or treat at the stores so that he could be around lots of costumed little darlings and still be in bed at a decent time. And not have to be outside in the cold. He couldn't quite believe it when the first piece of candy went into his little bucket, and I think he would have been satisfied to leave right then. His patience ran out quickly but he was adorable while his joy lasted! Here are a few shots of our little lion. And a video of his irrepressible dance moves.

Belated: Atlantic Beach

In July we spent a week and a half in North Carolina and four of those days down at Atlantic Beach. Mason absolutely LOVED the ocean and sand and beach and seashells and everything there was to offer. Uncle George and Aunt Kelly took us for some beautiful boat rides, and Mason wasn't the biggest fan of the life jacket. He loved the boat, just wasn't pleased that we wouldn't let him jump overboard and swim like the little fish he thinks he is. Fourth of July was incredible. We sat out on George and Kelly's dock and ate burgers and watermelon and watched the fireworks shows at Atlantic Beach and Emerald Isle. Now that we are living just two hours from the beach, I think we are going to have to make this an annual thing.

Back Burner

I think it's pretty obvious that I've been slacking like whoa on updating this blog. Over the next couple weeks my plan and commitment is to write a blog a day catching up on the past 2 1/2 months. Mostly for my own records, but also on the off chance that anyone is still reading this blog. And for my sweet cousin Anna who requested that I update this dang thing! =)  To start with today, here's a little summary (aka list of excuses why I haven't blogged) of what's been going on in our lives!

1) We moved to North Carolina about six weeks ago. After about a week long ordeal of packing, driving, flying, and truck deliveries, we are all here in one piece. Austin has been at his new job for about six weeks now and absolutely loves it. We are staying with his parents for just a couple more weeks because...

2)...we bought a house! The first couple of weeks here were spent looking non stop at I swear every single house for sale in the great Raleigh area. And we found our perfect place. They accepted our offer a couple weeks ago and we are just waiting for it to close. We should be moving in by the end of November.  And we are getting this darling little house just in time because...

3)...baby #2 is on the way! I am 18 weeks along and due April 3rd. I posted this on Instragram a while ago, but since that isn't as far reaching as Facebook, I feel bad that I've left so many out of the loop. We are so excited and will be finding out in a few weeks if it's a boy or girl.


And I think that about sums up the really big stuff! Look forward to posts on our 4th of July beach trip, two trips to Connecticut and New York, birthdays, Fall, and lots and lots and LOTS of pictures. Thank you for being patient with me and for even continuing to check this page after such a long sabbatical!

Gone to Carolina

Ohh for heaven's sake, has it really been this long since I last blogged??  Well this little announcement will serve as my excuse...

We are moving to North Carolina!

Yeah, we just moved to Idaho. Well 8 months ago now. But this is definitely a move we did not plan to make so soon. Austin received an amazing job offer in Raleigh. We tried to turn it down, a couple of times actually.  But the offer just kept getting better and in the end we couldn't say no.

We are leaving Idaho the first week of September and will be driving to Utah for a couple of days and then Austin will drive the moving truck the rest of the way while I fly with the babe. We considered driving the whole thing together. And then we came to our senses and faced the reality that we have a 14 month old who does NOT like to be in his car seat for more than ten minutes max. So my gallant husband will be doing the remaining 30 hours of driving on his own.

I have spent the last three weeks cleaning and packing and spending about 8 hours a day on the phone making arrangements to move across the country.

We are so excited about this too because we are going to be able to buy a house!!!!  I can't even begin to describe how grown up that makes us feel. We thought we would buy a house here, but for some reason Lewiston doesn't believe in houses that have more than one bathroom. Or that were built post-1892.

Anyway, blogging might be sporadic during this transition. I am still planning on doing a recap of all of our summer vacation adventures. Austin will be out of town for work until Monday so I'll have some free time on my hands and maybe I'll take a packing break to upload some of the 700 (seriously) pictures that we took.

For now...here's a little sneak preview.

I have about a hundred blog posts to write to document our three week excursion to North Carolina, the beach, Connecticut, New York, etc. I have over 700 pictures from the trip to sort through, so be ready for some very photo dense posts in the near future.

But today I wanted to just document a little experience we had in Wal Mart while doing our restocking shopping trip, post month long sabbatical from home.


Austin has always had such an incredible respect for men who have served in the military in any capacity and talks a lot about how much he wishes he could have done something like that.

So today at the store we saw an elderly man wearing a World War II veteran's hat.

Austin was kind of lagging behind me near him, and I said "why are you acting so weird?"

He said, "I really want to say something to that guy to thank him for his military service."

Me: "You really should! Go say something."

Austin: "I feel too dumb. Ugh, why am I such a wuss?"

We continued to wander around the produce section while the man looked at oranges. I continued to try to build Austin's courage with things like "it would mean so much to him" "you'll never feel bad saying something nice to someone". Finally I said, "do you want me to say something?"

He refused to be shown up in bravery by his wife, so he started to walk toward him. The sweet old man then looked up and asked Austin if the oranges he was looking at were grapefruits. He said no, and then I pointed him toward the grapefruits.

Then Austin put out his hand and said "Sir, I wanted to shake your hand and thank you for your service because I noticed your hat and I just wanted to say thank you."

The man had the most genuinely surprised and appreciative look on his face and said "I truly appreciate that."

I was of course trying not to start bawling.  After we walked away a woman came up to Austin and said "Did you just thank that vet for his service? You are so nice, people don't do that enough anymore. Thank you for thanking him. I am so impressed."

By then I was like on the complete verge of tears and couldn't say anything. I was so proud of Austin for being so appreciative, and for that woman for being willing to thank Austin. We both agreed that we will always express our gratitude to military men and women whenever we get the chance.