Lake Tahoe

We are so excited to be living less than an hour from this gorgeous place!   We spent an afternoon at Sand Harbor and fell in love with the lake.  The water is so clear, the sand is soft and clean, and the scenery can not be beat.  We’ll definitely be spending lots of time here in the future!

Although next time we will come a little more prepared.  We didn’t bring any sand toys to play with, so our poor girls had to make do with an empty Pringles can.  We also need a giant beach umbrella.  My arm was starting to hurt after awhile holding one up.  Oh, and some inflatable toys and rafts would be fun.  Just giving people some Christmas ideas . . . 

 

Good-Bye BBQ

What are we going to miss most about Ohio?  Our wonderful friends.  For 3 years we were surrounded by some of the most high caliber people we’ll ever know, and we were truly inspired by each and every one of them.  Here are some pictures from our good-bye BBQ the Burnetts threw for us.  Ahhh!  I get teary eyed just looking at these.  We love you people!

Clockwise from top left: me with Leah Young, Sanae Gazdik, Joni Wright, and Amy Elmore

Noelle Bastian, me, and Joni Wright

Brandon Hicks, Spencer Elmore, Dan, and Brandon Teeples

Trever Burnett, Rocky Wright, Phil Bastian, Burke Manning, and Landon Hagberg

I feel bad we hardly took any pictures of the kids!  They just wouldn’t hold still long enough . . . .

We also celebrated Joni and Debbie’s birthdays!

Love just sitting around and chatting with all the girls.

Us with Brandon, Sara, and Brooklyn Hicks 

Me and James with Heather and Alysa Teeples.  Alysa was born just a few weeks after James.

Us with Burke, Julia, and McKay Manning

Tyler and Stacy Ann Burnett, me, Angie Christensen, and Lacey Stewart

Me and Ang, my Relief Society crying buddy:)

Me and the chica who always throws great parties.  Kristie told everyone she was taking applications for a new BFF.  She better not be!  haha . . . thanks for the great send off.  Love you girl!

Polar Bears!

We made one last trip to the Columbus Zoo before we moved to see the new Polar Frontier exhibit.  And wow, it is pretty cool.  I’m so glad it opened this spring, just in time for us to see it before we left.  This is a $20 million exhibit, and just another reason why this zoo is the best in the country.  The polar bears were really putting on quite the show for us as we watched them from the underwater observatory. They would jump into the water and and swim around much to the delight of the camera happy crowd.  I could have stayed and watched them for hours.  The girls were the ones that were finally like, “come ooooonnnnn!  Let’s go!”  Oh, how I will miss this zoo!! 

James – 4 Months

Annie’s Last Day of Preschool

Annie loved her year at preschool.  She had a great teacher, Mrs. Gifford (in the purple) and enjoyed being one of Mrs. Gifford’s Goldfish.  I loved watching Annie gain her confidence this year as she made some good little friends in her class.  I wish I had taken a picture of the group of girls she played with everyday.  She had to miss the graduation because we moved 2 weeks before it, but we still celebrated by going out to ice cream after her last day.  We will miss this preschool!  They did some really great things here, and I’m sad Leah can’t go here with all of her little friends next year. 
 

                                                    This girl is ready for Kindergarten!

James – 6 Weeks

One Last time

The other day as Sarah headed out with some friends for the evening, the girls and I took off to explore some favorite parks for the last time. We made our way to the bunny fountains, a favorite with the girls in the summer. Despite the setting sun and coolish temperatures, the girls begged to go in. I said, “You can take your shoes and socks off and run around.” “And what happens if we get all wet?” Annie asked. “Then you’ll be cold.”

As expected, they got soaked, laughing and screaming the entire time. But after a cold walk back to the car, Annie, trying desperately not to let her wet shirt touch her skin, exclaimed, “I’m never going to do that again!” (Unlikely) I guess some lessons are learned best through experience.