Blessings!

Nathan and I have been extremely blessed since moving out to Michigan. Our long trip out here went very smoothly, with the only thing going wrong was loosing the keys to the master lock we got for the truck. So we just had to get a new master lock, and we were good to go! Then, when we arrived at our new home, we were greeted with a handful of people from our new ward out here, waiting to help us move all of our stuff in! It was so nice to have so much help, especially since we were pretty exhausted from our long trip. We have also had many families invite us over to their homes for dinner and games, mainly on the first couple of nights we were here, which was so helpful!

Our ward has been extremely welcoming to us and we have met so many new people and friends from it! We only have one car out here right now, so most of the time I'm stuck at home with no vehicle, and I have had so many ladies call me up and invite me to different things during the day so I'm not home all alone, like going to the pool, to the park, to their homes etc, or have even offered to take me to the store whenever I need! We even had some friends lend us their car for a week while they were out of town!

Nathan and I are truly amazed at how generous and kind the people we've met have been to us! We could not have asked for a better situation! I know the Lord has truly blessed us, and I could not be more grateful for it! I am so grateful to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints!! The Church is true where ever you go, and you will always have a church family no matter where you are at! We have been so welcomed by our new church family and we are just SO grateful for them and their hospitality! We love it here! :D

Goodbye Idaho!

Well sadly, the time came for us to say goodbye to our home in Idaho and start a new adventure out in Michigan! So the morning after we got back from Atlanta (Monday morning) Nathan and I and some much appreciated help, loaded up all of our stuff into a 16 ft Budget truck. We then finished cleaning and checked out of our apartment and around 2:00 pm started the long journey out to Michigan! 

We knew we had a long drive ahead of us, so we had a cooler and big bag full of food, water and snacks (thanks to my Office), also we got the whole Hunger Games series on audiobook! The truck didn't have any way to plug in an iPod though, so we found these speakers Walmart, which worked great! So we were set for the 4 day drive!

 The first day we drove about 9 1/2-10 hours and made it to Lusk, WY. We stayed at a hotel there for the night, then woke up early the next day and got back on the road! We drove 8 1/2 hours to Vermillion, SD to visit Nathan's sister Lisa and her little family! It was so great to see some family on our way out! Loved spending time with Nick and Lisa and their adorable girls, Maddie and Kenzie and their newest edition Baby Colby! He was 4 days old when we got there! He was such a precious little bundle! I held him as often as I could while I was there! But I did share and let Nathan hold him a couple of times. ;) He was so good with baby Colby, I was very impressed!

 

 

It was so fun to play with those cute little girls too! They are just so dang cute and were my little buddies while we were there, and I just loved it! Of course Uncle Nathan was a hit as always! He helped make Maddie a pirate ship with a hat and hook to go with it, would read stories to the girls and played the Wii with them too! He really is going to be such a great dad in the future!

We had such a great time with Lisa and Nick and their little family, and also Nathan's mom! (She was there helping Lisa and Nick out with the girls and the new baby). It was so nice to take a break from driving and to spend time with family! We really enjoyed it and were sad to leave. But sadly we had to keep moving on, so we woke up Thursday morning and were back out on the road by 7:15 ish in the morning and drove 9 1/2 hours or so to Campaign, IL. We stayed with a buddy that Nathan served with on his mission and he is little family! With such a long day of traveling, it was nice to have the evening to relax and chat with friends. Finally the last 6 hours of our trip was that next day! 5 days, 34 ish hours, and 2,000+ miles later we finally arrived at our new home in Westland, MI!!

First Time in Atlanta... Part 2!

Atlanta adventures continues...

Little Zaylie let me help pull-out her first tooth the night we got back from the Aquarium. She had been wiggling that little tooth all day long and it was just barely hanging on, but she was a little nervous to get the last bit out. So dental assistant aunt to the rescue! haha! She did so great and was so excited when we got it out! I just love that little toothless smile! 

We went to this cute little town one day and walked the streets looking at all the shops and boutiques. We found a cute sandwich shop to have lunch at, and of course we had to have some dessert! They had so many delicious cupcakes, oh man were they good! My favorite was the chocolate chip cookie dough cupcake with cookie dough frosting! It was amazing! 

Any free time we had, Zaylie and Nathan were at the pool! Zaylie loves to be in water, but wouldn't swim more than 2 feet away from the steps. By the end of the week tho, Nathan had her swimming across the pool, jumping into the pool, and floating on her back! It was so fun to watch Nathan teach Zaylie and to see her trust him! It was always a hard task to get those two out of the pool! They never wanted to leave, even if it was raining!

On our last day in Atlanta, my dad took us all to hike Stone Mountain. There is a walk-up trail on the west side of the mountain that even little kids can handle for the most part! Zaylie and Titan had fun being able to walk up the mountain themselves. 

It gets pretty windy up at the top, so my dad brought some kites for the kids to fly! 

We hung out on the top for awhile, flying kites, eating snacks and enjoying the view!

Nathan and Zaylie had a fun trip down the mountain! It was so cute to watch them play and hold hands all the way down!

So after hiking up a mountain in the hot sun, some pool time was much needed!! 

The sisters in our matching sunglasses! Pink for Malarie, green for Shantay, and blue for me.. perfect match!

The next morning Jason, Nathan and I had to fly back to Utah. Our flight was super early, that we had to be at the airport by 5:30 in the morning! It was rough! This is what we all looked like for the majority of our flights back. Haha!

We had some great times in Atlanta with my family! It was a nice vacation and great to spend some time with everyone before we moved! Atlanta is a beautiful place and I can't wait to go back and visit to see more of it!