Catching Up on the Blog

     I've done a bunch of blogging tonight. Sorry that I haven't put up pictures of the house yet.  I'm getting there.  The house is slowly coming together, and we are trying to settle into a new routine. In the meantime enjoy some pictures of the sunset from our deck tonight.  I even remembered to use the distance lens!

Five Years

  Yesterday was our five year anniversary.  We actually celebrated last week though while my parents were still around by going down to Portland where we stayed at the Heathman Hotel.  While there we went to the temple, ate lots of good food, and went shopping tax free.  We've always wanted to stay at the Heathman partly because it is reputedly haunted; we both love a good ghost story.  Mostly though because it's a cool old hotel in downtown with doormen dressed as Beef eaters. We ate at a Peruvian restaurant called Andina and became fans of ceviche.   It was an excellent time.  In case you're wondering we stayed in the reportedly most haunted room,703, and the ghost must have been on vacation because we slept like babies.

The night we went to the temple it was snowing.  It was quite beautiful.

Daryl arranged for flowers to be waiting for me in the room.

On the beside table they left us a variety of teas as well as earplugs and an eye mask for our sleeping comfort.

Maddux's Baptism

  As I was saying, the day after we moved in we hit the road for our nephew Maddux's baptism in St. George, Utah. We drove to Pendleton, Oregon, and then the next day we made it to Layton, Utah.  Before heading on down south to St. George we stopped at Temple Square, so we could visit my mission.  It was a pretty cold day, and we actually had followed a lot of snow plows through Idaho and Utah the previous day. Despite the cold we did okay though.  Avery insisted on touching all the water in the many, many fountains we visited that day.

  We were fortunate enough to have all of my sisters there for the baptism, as well as my parents.  (We missed Adam and Angie of course.) Avery and Harper really enjoyed seeing almost all of their cousins on my side. (Except for Ashlyn who was performing most amazingly at her percussion competition.) The last night that we were there we went over to Phil and Heather's and we watched part of  Tangled on an outdoor screen in their backyard, and made some scrumptious S'mores.  

  On our way back home we were lucky enough to see Daryl's cousin Jenny and her husband Mike and their two girls Sophie and Addie.  We went with them to see The Lorax. Harper's first movie in the theater.   That little girl is a born couch potato.  She did pretty good sitting on our laps during the movie. We were glad to see Jenny and Mike before we left Utah, and we will get your blanket back to you one of these days. 

Harper feeling the magic of Temple Square.

Avery looking especially rag muffin like on Temple Square.

Addison and Harper looking super cute.

I got a lot of really cute pictures of Addison.  They were playing soccer in Phil and Heather's backyard.

This is pretty much everyone except for Dad who was taking the picture and Alex is behind the post and Addison is beside her.

Somehow DeAnna got in the picture with all the nieces and nephews.  Harper, Maddux, Addison, Aidan, DeAnna, and Avery.

Here's Maddux. I can't believe he's eight already.

We are Finally Moved

   We moved into our house on the last Monday in February, and then the next day we went out of town for about a week.  We went to St. George for our nephew Maddux's baptism; otherwise we would not have gone anywhere.  Moving the day before you go out of town is crazy.  We don't recommend it at all.
  Unpacking has been a pretty slow process.  As you might guess putting things away and watching a three year old and a one year old is nearly impossible.  We'll get there though.  So far everyone loves the new house.  The girls love all the new open space.  Sebastian didn't seem fazed at all.  Fox on the other hand is incredibly angry with us.  Mostly because he is forced to be inside for a couple weeks, so there is less a chance of him making an incredible journey back to the old house in Auburn.  We're happy to be moved, and are looking forward to new adventures.