And...We're back!

So I had big plans this summer not to get behind on my blogging...it didn't last too long and we got super busy and when I wasn't busy, I just really didn't feel like bloggin!  Now I have a lot to catch up on.

The drive back to Ohio...


We made the long drive back to Ohio last weekend.  I'll tell ya now, I would prefer not to ever have to make that drive again...EVER...unless, of course, it is to move back!

Nate was in Colorado Springs finishing up his rotation there, he had our car so his parents were going to drive me and the kids to meet him in Rawlins, Wyoming.  I drove up to their house on Friday and we had planned to leave Saturday morning at about 3:30 a.m.  I had a weird allergic reaction to something at about 8 that night and by midnight the back of my mouth had swollen up huge.  I woke up with 3 hours to go until we had to leave and felt like I had a ping pong ball stuck at the back of my throat!  It was awful!  I have always suffered from seasonal allergies, but never had anything like this happen!  Luckily, I had taken 2 benadryl before I went to bed.  I got up and got some ice and a popsicle to try to get the swelling down, and because of the benadryl was able to sleep a little before we had to get up.

Saturday was the worst of the drive because of the swelling in my throat.  The kids actually behaved really well and watched their movies the whole day.  I was happy to have Nate along for the drive to help, I really don't think I could have done this one on my own!  This time it ended up being 17hrs Saturday, we stayed with some friends in Des Moines on Saturday night and finished off the rest of the 9 1/2 hour drive on Sunday.

Although it is great to be home, and have Nate around again, I miss Utah and my family!  We had such a great time and were so grateful to everyone who let us stay with them!  My sister was awesome and let us spend most of our time living at her house!

Since we've been home:

• It was like Christmas for Brynlee and Gracen when they walked in.  They were so excited to see their toys!  They have both been playing really well this week!
• We got unpacked and everything back in it's place.  I was gone so long, I actually forgot where some things went and where other things were!
• Nate started a rotation in family practice.  He is with our family doctor and I don't think he likes rotating with the doctor that his wife and children see.  He seems to like him though!  The schedule is pretty nice too!
• Brynlee started back into preschool!  We had a bit of a dillema that day.  I got a phone call that morning that it was yellow day, and the kids should wear something yellow.  Brynlee doesn't have any yellow shirts, so I told her she could wear a yellow hair clip.  She was not happy about that!  With it being her first day back, I decided we could run to Target and get her a shirt really fast before we went to school.  We were still running on Utah time and that really fast trip didn't go as planned and Brynlee was about 10 minutes late for school...whoops!  Her teacher didn't seem to mind!   The following picture is before we ran off to target.  That's all I got!  I planned to take one at school too, but once I saw we were running late, it didn't happen!  

I can't believe this cute girl starts Kindergarten next year!

Gracen wanted to be in the picture with his big sis!  Notice the yellow rain boots...he hasn't taken them off since we got home!

• Nate had an interview in Cleveland.  When he came home he said, "I think they are going to be last on my list!"  He wasn't too impressed.  He said that a lot of the doctors had foreign accents that were very hard to understand and that one of them was actually implying that he shouldn't be going into pathology because most people don't see them as real doctors.  That is definitly something I would say if I wanted someone to be interested in my program!
• We played with friends!
• Brynlee started dance!  She loves it!  She has a different teacher this year, I think she will do great!

Now What...

• We're headed to Columbus tomorrow to pick up Nate's car and see some friends!  I'm excited, I haven't been there yet, but I've heard it's great!
• Catch up on my blog.  We had so much fun in Utah and lots to post! 
• Nate has lots of interviews set up.  We'll be going to Wisconsin, Tennessee, and Kansas with him.   I'm excited for these trips, it'll be fun to get out and see some new places!
• Gracen's birthday!
• Nate has a test in Philadelphia at the end of the month.  We'll be going with him out there, and visit some historical sites!
• Finish some projects.  Somehow, I have a million projects going all at once.  I need to get them finished before I start anything else!
• More interviews in Texas.  I can't go this time!
• Christmas shopping!  I can't believe Christmas is already almost here!
• Nate's parents come out for Thanksgiving!  We're excited to have them here!
• The list goes on and on...but that's enough for now!

Funny kid sayings...

Since we have been out here in Utah, my kids have had a few funny comments that I wanted to get on here before I forget them.

I'll start with Gracen:

Grandpa Thompson(Nate's dad) took Gracen for a walk down the street one morning. They live in a really small town with lots of big fields. Gracen has loved seeing all the tractors out in the fields. Grandpa Thompson decided to walk down the street where a combine was parked so that Gracen could see it. As they walked up to it, a couple of deer started jumping out and into the field. Gracen thought that was pretty neat!

When they got back, Grandpa told Gracen to tell me what they saw on their walk. He looked at me and said, "Camels" and laughed a little in the excited way he does. We all had to laugh at that response. Then he said, "Jumping" He was so excited that he saw "camels jumping."

Funny thing is he knows they were deer, and I am sure Grandpa told him they were deer. I don't even know where camels comes from. When we went to the zoo in Des Moines we saw a camel for about 30 seconds. That is his ONLY experience with camels...so I'm not sure where he got it!

Every time we talk about him going for that walk and ask him what he saw jumping out, his story changes back and forth from camels to deer. When we went to the zoo here a week ago, we missed seeing the camels, and when Grandma and Grandpa Thompson asked him what he saw at the zoo, he answered...Camels!

Now for what Brynlee has said:

We had just left my sisters house and I stopped at a stop sign. Brynlee looked out the window and said, "Look mom...a grape tree!!" I looked over to see what she could be talking about and what she thought was a grape tree, was actually an apple tree. The apples were still kinda small...I can see where she's coming from! I had a good laugh at that one!

Not the exact tree, but it looked just like this one...

When we got up to Nate's parents house for the first time on this trip, Grandpa went down stairs with Brynlee and Gracen. He has a big gun safe sitting down in the hallway, and asked Brynlee what she thought was in it. She said, "Cookies?" Grandpa said, "No." She said, "Blueberry muffins?" He said, "No." Then he told her what was in it! Could you imagine a big safe full of cookies and blueberry muffins...she must have been a hungry girl!

My grandparents live down in Arizona, and were up in Preston, Idaho visiting my aunt, so I decided to drive up and see them. On the way, we passed a few fields and Brynlee was watching out the window. She noticed a big field with a few cow's and only one horse. She said to me, "Look mom at that field with a whole bunch of cows and only one horse...they must've invited him over for dinner!" She was very serious about this! Such a sweet girl to think that the reason there was only one horse was because he had been invited to dinner with the cows!

That's all for now! I sure do love these two kids of mine! Without them, my life wouldn't be the same!!

More updates to come...lots of them!

Clinton City Days

The kids and I went to Clinton City Days with my sister, Amy, my niece, Shyley and my brother, Brian. It was terribly hot outside, but we wanted to get out and do something. I had to laugh at the little carnival rides and some of the carnival workers. They can be so odd sometimes!

They had some of those big blow up toys, like a bounce house and one where both people stand on a platform and try to knock each other off with the big pad thing(not the best description, I can't think of what it's called). Brian and I decided to try our hands and beating each other. The thing was burning hot, and it was so hard just to get up and balance on that platform while holding the pad to hit him down with. We both hit each other off a couple times and then my feet couldn't take the heat anymore so I ran off it. It was fun!

We played a few games and the kids won some prizes, I think that may have been the highlight of the whole experience for them!

Shyley got her face painted and Brynlee seemed to want to get hers done until it was her turn. She was a little unsure of the lady doing the painting, so we just had a little flower painted on her arm. It turned out cute and she loved it!

Shyley got dragonflies painted on her face.

Brynlee's flower.

Cute girls showing off their paintings!

Uncle Brian decided he didn't want to be left out, so he got the spider man painting.

There was a little boat ride we were going to let Brynlee and Gracen ride on, but they were both too afraid to get in the boats. Brynlee's always been afraid of rides and I think her fear is rubbing off on Gracen. He decided it was much more fun to splash the water!

Playing at Grandma and Grandpa's

After our long drive Brynlee and Gracen were ready to play! My niece Shyley was at my mom's house when we got there, and she had her new puggle (a pug/beagle mix), Harley, with her. Brynlee and Gracen shouted for joy as soon as the car stopped!! They were squealing and ready to run!

Gracen loves Harley!! Here he is trying to feed Harley the dog food out of his hand. These two run and play and Gracen just gets so excited to see him! He tends to get a little rough with the puppy, so we have to watch him carefully. There have been a few times I've found Gracen laying on top of him, or trying to pick him up by the hair on his back!

The day after we got there, Grandma went to the store to buy a little pool for the kids to play in. I think they enjoyed the hose a little more...the pool water was freezing cold!

She also got them some squirt guns. Gracen was funny to watch with it, he would point it at his face and squirt it and jump...a little surprised that he got wet. Eventually, he figured it out...

and then he turned on Grandpa!

The LONG drive home...

Nate is currently doing his audition rotations, which is where he travels to different hospitals he would like to apply for residency. He has decided he would like to specialize in Pathology. I am not good at explaining what a pathologist does(not sure I fully know myself), but I am always being asked. My best description is terrible so I am not going to give it on here. The one thing I know about it is that they have great hours, are less often battling ridiculous lawsuits, and they don't have to do an internship year during residency(which I've heard can be pretty rough).

His plan is to be in Akron, Salt Lake City, and Colorado Springs for these rotations. I figured the kids and I might as well take off and spend time with our family out in Utah since he's not going to be around much anyway.

With a 16 hour drive ahead of us, I decided to hit the road early. We left at 4 a.m. a little tired, but ready to get it over with! I had the portable dvd player all set up with movies, toys, food, candy, cd's, anything and everything I could think of that I could pass back to keep Brynlee and Gracen entertained!

We made it to Morgan from Des Moines in almost exactly 16 hours. I was afraid I was going to get too tired to drive, but it really wasn't too bad! We made about 4 stops and one was an hour for lunch. I only went about 5 over the speed limit and hit way more construction than I had hoped to!

Brynlee and Gracen did awesome! They didn't complain much. Gracen found that throwing his snacks and spitting his water was quite entertaining! I just let it go, he was laughing and happy and that was all that mattered!

Wyoming was the worst part of the drive, brown with sage brush everywhere and no trees. I just about got ran off the road twice within 2o minutes just outside of Cheyenne, and the gas station pump stopped, but didn't fill up my car. By the time I noticed it wasn't full, I was already on the freeway, so we had to make one unscheduled stop to fill up again about 2 hours later.

2 1/2 months from now, and we get to do it all again!

Des Moines

DMU wanted all of the 3rd year students that have left to do rotations away from Iowa to go back to Des Moines to do some testing and have a few lectures all together. Our trip to Des Moines was the beginning of our long trip back to Utah. It ended up being a 12 hour trip, we skipped the toll roads and went through Amish country in Indiana. It makes for an hour longer drive, but it seems to go fast having something to look at besides the freeway! Brynlee also got to see a few Amish people riding on a wagon being pulled by a horse!

It was fun being back in Des Moines. I loved the last part of the drive, coming in to the city and the familiarity of it all! I realized pretty quickly how much I loved living there and how much I was missing it! We have some awesome friends who, even though they weren't home, let us stay at their house! Brynlee and Gracen loved their house and their back yard! I don't think Brynlee could walk through their house without stomping, she loved the sound of her feet hitting the wood floors! We didn't have too many plans while we were there. Here are a few things we did:

• Went to church at our old ward. It was fun to see some of our old friends there and catch up with them!

• We decided it would be fun to visit somewhere we hadn't seen, but wanted to, while we lived there, so on Monday we headed up to Ledges National Park. It was beautiful! We could have spent more time, but we didn't pack lunch and the kids were starting to get hungry.

Sitting on the bridge.

The whole place was beautiful! Brynlee thought this bridge was pretty neat!

We hiked up some trails where Nate and Gracen found lots of little frogs. Gracen and Brynlee are checking it out and Gracen is trying to poke it with a stick to make it jump.

Hiking up the trail!

We walked out near some shallow water and there were tadpoles that were just about to become frogs. I've never seen them at this stage before and it was kinda cool.

Throwing rocks into the water with Daddy!

• Went to the ZOO for free with our zoo pass!
  

• We went to a kids movie for a dollar at the Jordan Creek mall and did some clearance shopping at the Children's Place. I really miss having that store close by, so I had to take advantage of it while I was there!

• Went to the school to have LUNCH with Daddy. Brynlee used to love to go eat lunch at Daddy's school when we lived there! We also got to visit with our friend and Nate's school advisor, Sharon!
  

• Had dinner and went SWIMMING with our friend Laima. Most of our friends from Des Moines had either moved away or were out of town, it was fun to see those that were there!

• Went to a park and got ice cream with Nate the night before the kids and I left for Utah.

We loved being there! If it weren't for the distance between Iowa and Utah, I think we could be pretty happy living there! It'll be fun to go back again for graduation!

One last thing! This trip to Des Moines marks the beginning of 4th Year!! I am so excited and can remember thinking it would take FOREVER to make it to 4th year, but we are here and the road hasn't been too bad! WE have some great memories! Can't wait for graduation!!

4th of July

With all of the craziness of getting things ready to go on our long vacation, I have neglected to update our blog. I am going to attempt to catch up, and stay up to date with what we are doing while we are visiting our family here in Utah.

We had a great 4th of July! It has always been one of my favorite holidays! To start the day off, we met up with some friends at East Harbor State Park to swim and play at the beach. Brynlee, Gracen and I ended up being the only ones in the water. Nate and our friends decided they would rather watch! We had lunch and headed home for naps.

Later that evening we had everyone come to our apartment for a bbq. We played cornhole and Nate helped the kids light some sparklers. Then we headed out to watch the Cedar Point fireworks. They were okay, lots of heart shaped fireworks (Brynlee loved that). It made me miss being home and the sound of the fireworks echoing off the mountains!

Helping the kids with sparklers.