Our New life in Utah continued....

Shortly after we moved to Utah Kristen came with the kids to visit for a few weeks. Or should I say..for her to work and do school 24/7 (she had to come for clinicals) while her kids played:)

Between living with parents and having Kristen here at the same time as us, it almost seemed like we were on vacation instead of actually living here! We are always visiting at the same time, staying at parents houses, not working.... the only difference being we are actually staying this time!

One day we took Abby, Aidan, and Gabe to the pool. Dan went out in the deep end with the older kids while Aidan and I hung out. He was quite a handful but I loved it! He is at a really cute age right now. He was scared of the big water to an extent so we spent lots of time playing follow the leader. I followed him as he walked across the shallow part of the pool, up the steps, across the hot cement (where he kept on trying to run, which after telling him not to would turn into a hop/skip sort of movement..), back down the stairs, and back into the pool. After awhile we added me carrying him to the deep end and back as part of our workout. Towards the end of our pool adventure the small pool finally opened and all of us were able to relax together in "safer" water.

Afterwards the kids came back to our house to play for a few hours. We love hanging out with them as much as they look forward to seeing "uncle".

Abby, Aidan, and I.

Gabe & Abby in the deep end.

A few days later we got to take Abby and Aidan out for another day full of adventure. Dan's brother, Jordan, works at Lagoon so we were able to go for $10 a person on family day. Dan's mom, his brothers, our sister-in-law, and a few nieces and nephews were able to come. We had a great time. For most of the day Dan and I stayed with Abby and Aidan and once my sister-in-law, Cami, came she joined me and Dan was able to go with the big kids on a few rides.

Us right before we entered the park.


Our first ride. It is probably hard to see but if you look closely you can see that Aidan is about to strangle me:) This was the first ride we went on and he was REALLY nervous. He was holding on my neck so tight and wouldn't budge an inch. Once the horse started to move up and down I just had to do my best to move up and down with it. Finally at the very end of the ride I had convinced him that nothing was going to happen and his security blanket became the pole instead of my neck:) Abby loved all the rides right from the start.

The very next ride we went on was Space Scramblers...which is REALLY fast an spins you like crazy. Aidan LOVED the ride and giggled the entire time. When we got off all he could say was "dizzy" and kept on spinning his head round and round and giggled. Funny how nervous he was at the carousel and then was perfectly content on a big kid ride after that! For the rest of the afternoon he kept on asking to go on all the big scary rides he was too little for.

Dolores, Abby, and Jo.

Morgan and Gabe.

The Musical Express. Abby kept on "squishing" Dan on this ride. Once it starts moving really fast everyone gravitates to the outer edge. Dan said that she better not squish him. It was funny to watch her try with all her might not to move to the outside edge.

Aidan just giggled away. At one point his body was laying sideways across the seat when the ride was going really fast.

The plane ride.

Abby and her diva pose. Aidan and his smile you could never see with his hat!

Aidan loved the cars. Abby loved the swings (I didn't get a picture of that one because I was on the ride with her!).

All of us!

Kristen sent money for the kids to buy souvenirs. Abby came home with a kitty.

Aidan came home with a giant lolly pop.

We had a great time getting to spend so much time with them and can't wait until they come and visit again!

Dan's Bear

One thing I forgot to mention while we were in Jackson Hole was that Dan was determined to see a bear. I finally found him one as we were about to leave on Sunday. What would he do without me?

Our new life in Utah

So far our new life in Utah has been filled with lots and lots and lots of job hunting, getting set up with new insurances, changing our address on everything, registering for school, applying for tuition assistance through the AF MGI Bill, etc, etc. But in-between to keep ourselves from going CRAZY we have done quite a few fun things!

We both know once work and school starts our lives will get crazily busy so we have been trying to enjoy the time off as well. I have been able to do some craft projects with my mom and Dan has spent quite a bit of time with his brothers. We have enjoyed getting to catch up on time lost with both of our families as well as some of our friends!

For the weekend of the 4th of July we decided to all get away from reality. We took a much needed short two day trip to Jackson Hole. It was fun to relax with my parents and enjoy the scenery. I hadn't been there since I was really little and Dan had never been.

The boys

Mom and Dad in front of the Antler Arch

We did this as a joke to tease my brother Rueben. When my family went to Jackson Hole last time Rueben was probably about 7 years old. We were taking a picture in front of the antler arch and he went to do a peace sign and so did I. He got so mad thinking I had copied him that in the picture you see me with my peace sign and him with the biggest pout on his face ever. We thought that memory was worth reenacting.

Dan with his new cowboy hat.

Me at the Parade. It was really hot so I did more sitting than actually watching.

Mom and Dad at the Parade.

I got some free stickers at the parade. I put one on Dan's back and my Dad put the other. It took him several hours to notice they were on there. It was really funny.

Dan and I at the Parade.

The boys.

When Dan finally noticed he tried to get us back by putting the stickers on my dad's shirt. My mom kept on pulling them off so it didn't work too well!

After the Parade we road a tram up to the top of the Tetons.

Watching the scenery as we rode up the mountain.

It was VERY windy and cold up at the top of the Tetons. Quite the opposite of the parade we had just come from!

Dan and I took a short hike while we were up there.

Dan got this picture for his dad. He hiked up a really steep part and I took a picture from a much lower spot (with more stable ground! I was quite nervous!). His Dad took him for a graduation trip on a hike to the top of the Tetons. We did the cheater version and wanted to send him a picture for memory sake.

Playing in the snow on the 4th of July.

I just observed it.

Us as we finished our short hike.

That night we watched fireworks from right outside our condo. We purposely chose to stay where the fireworks were so we wouldn't have to deal with traffic afterwards. We had a great time and can't wait to go back! The condo we stayed in was really nice too. It was much bigger than we expected and will be fun to go back to once Rueben and I both have families.

We drove by the Tetons one last time the next morning on our way out.

Goodbye Tetons!

Roap Trip Continued to AZ....

We were lucky enough to be moving the same weekend as Kristen and Spencer were blessing their cute little baby Elijah. We have always wanted to go visit them in AZ but had never been able to before. We had a VERY long day of driving and got there just in time for dinner with all the family. Dan’s mom was there as well as Kristen’s parents, her sister, Randy & Megan, and Coach B. It was nice to be able to visit and relax with all of them!

Abby and Aidan LOVEd having "Uncle" there. They wore him out with all the games and activities they involved him in during the weekend. Dan loved it just as much though!

The first night we were there they played probably about 20 games of Hungry, Hungry Hippos, of which Aidan won all of them except like one!

The older boys all went outside to play Frisbee and Aidan joined them to watch everything very up close and personal!

Dan was excited about this catch!

Aidan observing Randy.

The boys were all able to do a few fun things including going off road jeeping with Spencer's new jeep. Dan was a little more fortunate than Randy. They both didn't have seat belts on and Randy just happened to be the lucky one to gash his forehead open when they went over a bump!

After everyone left but us left on Monday morning we were able to spend a some more quality time with Kristen, Spencer, and the kids.

Abby and I at the swimming pool.

Dan, me, Kristen, and Spencer.

(Sorry my camera had water on it so it has a funny blur)

Dan and I had bought birthday gifts for Abby and Aidan a few months back but never mailed them. They didn't mind too much getting gifts late and unexpected though!

Aidan and Dan playing with his new Hummer. I have never seen Aidan go anywhere without having a car in hand.

Abby with her finger kite that her Cajun Grammy sent with us.

We got to watch the kids one night while Kristen and Spencer went out. They were so tired from all the fun games they played with Uncle during the day that the three of them fell asleep pretty quick!

I even got to catch up with a few zzz's with Eli as well!

Kristen and Spencer also took us to a neat AZ wildlife outdoor museum. I didn't get any good pictures really, I will have to get some of the one's Kristen took and add them sometime.

Thanks Spencer and Kristen for such a fun visit!

After spending a few days with them we finally made the last LONG leg of our trip to our new home. We drove all day and all night with a quick short stop to say hi to Grandma Crandall in St. George. I missed out on taking a picture at the Nevada and Utah state line. I think the only thing we had on our mind was to get our road trip finished!

San Antonio Continued....

For our extra day in San Antonio we decided to go to Seaworld. Military families can get in free once a year there. We had fun and enjoyed relaxing but probably wouldn't have gone there unless it was free! I am sure it would be more worth the money with kids, but as adults it was fun, but not as cool as we thought it would be.

Dan went on a few rides. This picture made me laugh because if you look closely everyone is just sitting there and he is the only one with his arms up screaming at the top of his lungs!

We did enjoy getting to see Shamu!

Dan loved this ride. He actually said it was probably the best ride he has ever been on! So the day was worth it, we just wish they would have had more than 2 or 3 rides at the whole park!

I also really enjoyed seeing the Dolphin show. It is amazing how smart they are!

After our day in Sea World we decided to try to get better Mexican food for dinner. I guess it just wasn't meant to be! We ended up with a flat tire and spent most of the night dealing with that. We finally got to dinner around 8:30-9:00 and were not seated until 10:30 at night. The food was okay, but not worth that long of a wait! The next morning we had to miss out on our yummy embassy suites breakfast as well because of some mix up with the tire being repaired that morning. Oh well! We got lucky that with two cars that was the worst road trouble we had along the way!

After our late start at leaving we had a LONG drive to get to Tuscan that night in time for our Nephew's blessing the next day.

We made a quick stop to take a picture at the New Mexico State Line.

As well as the Arizona State Line...but other than that we spent from sun up to sun down driving. Dan listened to lots of John Bytheway talks on CD and I listened to Twilight. So despite the long drive we were both quite entertained!