Beach Time

We spent a lot of time at beaches while on the island. On the first day we went down to Maple Bay with Eric's brother Jacob and his family. EASY entertainment for everyone involved!

Our nephew Jackson is fearless and decided that even though the water is freezing he'd like to get in and find creatures. He is super funny and knows all sorts of big words and info on all the sea creatures.

Reese tried to share the sand with Ava, but the sand was old news to Ava.There are miniature crabs EVERYWHERE! At first they sort of creeped me out because they look like enlarged tics, but after seeing Reese and all the other kiddos sit down in swarms of them I decided they must not be too bad. There were lots of jellyfish too. Lots were on the sand from the tide having gone down.

Ever seen a sunfish? Eric and Jackson kept bring huge starfish and sunfish onto the dock for us all to see. They are pretty cool.

One of the sunfish was eating a jellyfish when they brought it onto the deck. Jackson gave the sunfish a squid egg. It was cool to watch it's tenticles move the squid egg to its mouth and then decide it didn't want it and move it away and off of its body. Its tenticles would also take away anything unedible, like pieces of coral, weird that there is a brain behind those tenticles.

We walked up and down the beach for hours. The guys would flip big rocks to uncover big crabs. Jackson was once again fearless. He would pick up the big crabs and even if they pinched him he wouldn't drop them, just readjust. It was unbelievable how ok he was with them.

Reese thoroughly enjoyed all the attention she got, and all the freedom she had while on the beach.

Canada 2010

We were so excited for our trip to Vancouver Island this year. It has been close to 2 years since we were last up there to visit. Eric's childhood friend Andrew was getting married so we planned our trip around that. Rachel and Micah went with us and we always enjoy having them around.

At this point Eric had been awake for about 28 hours. He woke up at 7 am Thursday morning for work and then drove from 5pm (when we left SLC) all through the night, until our 9am ferry ride. Then he decided he wanted to party all day long and didn't go to bed until 10pm, maybe 11, I can't remember. Like 40 hours of no sleep! Seriously, how can he go without sleep - and not look like a zombie?? The air was CHILLY but it felt super refreshing.

Reese was the best kid EVER. She traveled perfectly! She was happy the whole entire time except for like 5 seconds when she spilled her water all over herself. It definitely helped that Micah and Rachel were sitting next to her. She really bonded with them :) I didn't even have to try pulling out the DVD player or anything, she was so good. I complained more than her.

How do you like to eat your Reese's peanut butter cup??

When Reese was born, my parents brought a package of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups when they visited us in the hospital. The next several times they visited us they brought us more. I didn't complain - I LOVE those things!!

The other day my dad brought me home a package, so me and Reese shared. I ate mine the "normal way", popped it in my mouth and devoured. Reese ate it the "normal way" for a minute, but then switched to the fork.

May

Me and my sister have May birthdays. Mine is the 7th, hers is the 17th. When we were little this used to make her sad and confused. She was older so shouldn't her birthday be first?? I didn't get any pics on my birthday, the big 24, I had a seedless watermelon and yummy BBQ, but I did get pics of Aubrey's big day.

Reese likes to play with daddy.

Kids

At the beginning of May my sister and her husband went to Hawaii and I watched their kids for a few days of their trip. These kids are so good, it was a breeze! Luckily the weather was good so we spent most of our time outside. Reese was in heaven. She LOVES Chelsea and Eli SO much!!!!

Chelsea has learned to like bugs. She captures them and treats them like pets. Reese isn't so concerned with bugs or where she is travelling because on two occassions she smashed Chelsea's pets to death obliviously. Once with her foot while climbing up the front porch steps and once while riding Eli's motorcycle. Oops. Luckily, Chels was very forgiving.

One of the days Whitney and Tula came over for a visit. It was so funny seeing the personality difference between the two gals. Tula was so chill. She just sat on the bike, drank her capri sun, and jabbered. Reese was quiet pretty much the whole time, like she was shy or something, and only stopped running/climbing/riding for a minute while she ate some chicken nuggets. She kept miss Tula entertained the whole time. They are such cute friends, hopefully Whit and I can keep hanging out so these girls can continue to get to know each other and be friends.

I didn't get any pics of lunch time so I stole this off Whitney's blog. Reese was COVERED in ketchup.

33

Eric had his 33rd birthday on April 28th. We kind of spread out the celebration. On the day of his birthday we decided to head down to the Meadow hot springs with Scuba gear so we could explore it better without worrying about running out of breath. My sister and parents watched Reese, which was MUCH appreciated because the whole time we were at the hot springs it was snowing like crazy, so I'm thinking Reese wouldn't have enjoyed herself much due to the fact that she would've been freezing since she wouldn't be spending the majority of her time under the water. We had a ton of fun and it was cool exploring the bottom of the spring.

The next day we did a little birthday dinner at home, on Friday we had a birthday dinner with friends in Provo at Olive Garden, and on Saturday we finally had ice cream with yummy homemade fudge sauce so he could blow out a candle :)

I really love this guy. He is the perfect man for me. I love that we are the best of friends and like to spend as much time together as possible. He is a fantastic person to learn how to be parents with, full of good ideas and wisdom. He makes me a better person and makes me feel "at home". I love everyday I get to spend with him and am excited for this year (and forever) that I'll get to experience even more with him. Happy Birthday Eric!

ChAnGe

So many things are changing right now and I have so many blog posts to catch up on! I need to locate my camera cord, but then I'll do some more updating. As for the changes, we moved out of our house so that we can rent it out. We are now in my parents basement and got a letter yesterday telling us we could move into the housing in SLC July 1st. It is a blast living in my parents' basement. We are having so much fun spending tons of time with family and Reese is in heaven with friends all around her and unlimited access to a nicely grassed, warm backyard [except for today since it is raining :(], dogs, and little chicks that my sister is raising. I am going to be VERY sad to move away from everyone, not that it is that far, but I know that even that far is too far many times. It will be good though because Eric will be in SLC all the time and I definitely want to be able to see him more than an hour a day.

Other than that, I seem to be getting over the morning sickness. I think my belly is expanding at a much quicker rate than when I was prego with Reese. I need to check pics from my last pregnancy to see if it's true. I'm seeing a midwife this time around with the goal of going all naturale - very excited and confident about that. We found Hoover (our cat) a home. Coincidentally my cousin was looking for a cat to get rid of rat problems, so I called her up and she was happy to take Hoovs. I was relieved. Eric is loving his internship and work, and getting all kinds of good experience. I've enjoyed a couple motorcycle rides with him over the past week. Living in the city facilitates ease of using his motorcycle. I feel like we're dating all over again when we go on rides because that was our primary means of transportation while dating. Reese is amazing. She is so fun and at such a great age for summer time. She just loves playing outside all day and it is nice that she walks/runs so well so she can entertain herself a ton. I love that she gets to play with her cousins daily. She ADORES them and I like seeing her play so well with them (you always worry when they are an only child).

Anyway, things are great. We are busy and are leaving to Canada this week for a short vacation, but I will be updating asap.