What a Weekend

Our plan was to meet Phillip, Jamie, and their family in Brevard, the land of many waterfalls, for a great weekend of camping and hiking. This is what the drive looked like:

Brevard advertises about 250 waterfalls in the area. We were excited to see as many of the falls as we could in one weekend. - Brian

If you can't tell, it was raining, and hard. It had been for about 2 days, so we hoped that it would clear up. We got to our campsite, and it was beautiful. It was a very nice area that even had a hot tub! We talked with the camp hosts, and they said that the rain was supposed to clear up soon, but that it would rain again the next day. So we said, BRING ON THE RAIN! And went to set up the tent....it started to rain harder. We got it set up and went to get the gear, it rained harder. Brian went to buy some extra twine to make some adjustments to the rain fly to keep us more dry...it rained harder. Needless to say, after only an hour we were soaked, and our tent was already overwhelmed. There was no way we were going to make it two days, and Jamie has a 6 month old, I just couldn't do that to her. So, we rolled up the tent, rain and all, and headed into Brevard. This is us after we tore down camp, you can't really tell but we are SOAKED!

I consider myself to be a good/prepared camper. I feel a little embarrassed that we had to clear out for a little rain. (Actually it was A LOT of rain). We have camped in rain, snow, and sleet before, but this was too much for our tent. Rain was coming in every seam, through the zippers, and through the rainfly itself.

We ended up at Holiday Inn Express where we got the last room they had. When we walked in we realized they'd made a mistake and had given us a suite. SWEET! So we called Phillip and Jamie and told them not to cancel plans but to come join us. We didn't want to hide anything from the hotel so we asked the lady at the front desk if it was ok if we invited our brother and his wife since we had a pull out bed. "You have a pull out bed??" She said, "did I give you a suite, Huh, I must have, sure invite anyone you want!" NICE!

After a long night of trying to get 5 kids to sleep in the same room, we woke up excited for a great Saturday. Heck with the rain we were going hiking! This is Kyler and Brian getting all ready.

The rain scared us out of camping but we were definately hiking.



Our whole group, heading to the first falls.

Jamie, Lydia, Morgan, Savannah

Our family, staying dry. (We weren't staying completely dry but we were having fun.)

Because of all the rain, the rivers rise and it becomes a kayakers dream. It was awesome watching them come over the falls.

We were talking to one of the kayakers and they said that this river is not good for kayaking unless it is raining. The water is too low without the rain. So we feel lucky actually that we were there when they were. It was great to see them go over this fall. It was about 20 feet high. I want a kayak.

This is the second hike we took, it's the falls in the Last of the Mohican's, it was really pretty.

All in all, we stayed pretty dry, our pants and shoes were wet, but it was so fun it was worth it.

We went to Pizza that night at a little hole in the wall place, and spent Sunday morning flying kites in park. It was a great weekend. Full of adventure!

Our next camping trip is planned for two weeks, we are going to the beach. We are hoping for nice beach weather. This video is of little Savannah pretending she is a duck. She is so darn cute.

POPCORN!

I looked out the window and what did I see?

Popcorn Popping on the apricot tree.

Spring has brought me such a nice surprise.

Popcorn popping right before my eyes.
I can take an armful and make a treat,

A popcorn ball that would smell so sweet.
It wasn't really so, but it seemed to me,

Popcorn popping on the apricot tree.

Help! I need opinions

Which outfit do you like best? I want to get his pictures taken, but I can't decide which outfit
Brown?

Greeen?
(I don't want to skew the results...but this is my favorite! - Brian)

Or Overalls?

A Day in the Life of Kyler

Happy 1 1/2 Birthday little man, we love you!!

Warning: This video is EXTREMLY long (about 8 min) it's probably something only a Grandma would love, but feel free to surf through it :)

If you don't want to watch the whole thing (but I think it is darn cute, Tiff did a great job) you should definately fast forward to the last minute. It is funny - one of his favorite things to do is put a blanket over his head and run around. Cracks me up every time.

Discovery Place Childrens Museum in Charlotte

This was Charlotte on Friday. It was the perfect day to spend inside a museum. So we headed to the Discovery Place Children's Museum. It's a lot like Discovery Gateway, except they have this wonderful little place for kids 6 and under. It was GREAT! Kyler could explore all he wanted and didn't have to worry about being run over by a big kid. He started at the playdoh table. He'd never played with playdoh before so it was very interesting. The ladies at the table (employee's) had so much fun showing him all kinds of neat things he could do. He loved it.

Then on to the most popular activity for the day, the water table. Kyler could have stayed here all day, it never got old. Brian and I decided we are going to have one of these in our back yard, simple, yet oh so fun. I think Brian had just as much fun as Kyler.

It was fun watching Kyler learn new things. He's growing so fast, and he catches on to things like lightening.

He was in love with this shopping cart. Once he discovered it, he took it with him every where he went.

They had this barn with "animals" sticking out of them, you could push the button under the animal and it would make it's sound. Kyler was terrified of it. He'd get brave and pet it, but the minute the button was pushed....run away!

At lunch time we went to a place called Rock Bottom for lunch, it was fun to walk the streets of downtown Charlotte, even if it was a bit rainy. Then we went back to the museum and watched a short kids film called Fly Me to the Moon on their IMAX dome theatre. It was pretty cool, the dome really made it feel like you were moving, the thing was HUGE! Kyler was scared, mostly because of the loud sounds, but he held on to me tight for 10 minutes, and then zonked! So he even got nap while we were there. It was perfect.

Then we explored the upstairs, everything from a rain forest, to the circus, to lots of fun fish tanks. Kyler loved this mirror triangle, he'd turn his head and laugh, and turn his head and laugh, it was great.

We got home, ate dinner and all went to bed. It was a great day, no temper tantrums, just lots of good wholesome fun!

Our New Home and Crowders Mountain

Brian is working four 10 hour days a week. So we get wonderful 3 day weekends to play.

First, here is our "furnished" apartment. It's funny EVERYTHING they gave us was either black, or white. Exept our couches which are brown...interesting I know.

Notice: white dish towels, white toaster, black microwave

This is our little piece of home. Some of the few things I actually brought with us. Magnets from all the fun places we've been.

Everything on the bed is white. Sheets, blanket, comforter, pillow cases....it's kinda fun. Excuse the box as a side table. I sleep on that side, and I had this terrible cough for a while, so I needed the humidifier close.

Again notice: White towels, white bath mat, white shower curtainThis is the outside of the building. It's really pretty right now with all the tree's in bloom. We really like the complex, the people are really nice, but it's not home that's for sure. Our first weekend free we went to a place called Crowders Mountain. They call it a mountain because the ground goes up a little, so it must be a mountain. Anyway, it was a beautiful day. We took some hiking trails, then found a nice spot by a little stream to have lunch. Kyler loved putting his toes in, and throwing rocks. It was a great day.

Kyler has had this thing with sticks. Because there are so many trees there are sticks EVERYWHERE! He loves it. Everytime we go to the playground he gathers sticks. It's not uncommon for him to have three of four in a hand at once. He'll pick up one he wants, take a few steps, then he'll spot another one that looks interesting. So he'll try and pick it up, but realise he has to many in his hands already, so he takes inventory, decides which one needs to go, then picks up the one he wants, takes a few steps and the whole thing starts all over again. Silly boy, he could do that all day.

Next stop, Discover Place childrens Museum in Charlotte.

Bored with Spaghetti?

So, I was going to post all about our new place, but for some reason I can't get the pictures to transfer from the camera...hope it's just being lame for the moment, and not something seriously wrong with the camera.

Anyway! Sense I can't post without pics I thought I'd post about what we had for dinner last night. I was planning on spaghetti, but really wanted something new. So this is what I did, and we loved it. Brian even had seconds, and he's not much of a spaghetti person.

I tried a new sauce that I really liked! All pasta sauces have a lot of sugar, but this actual has a sweet flavor. The brand was Classico, Flavor: Traditional Sweet Basil. Trust me on this one, you'll taste the difference.

Then I used Italian sausage instead of ground beef. I bought it in the round tube, and only used half. I browned it in a frying pan, then added it to the sauce. In the same frying pan I added a bit on olive oil and sauteed some mushroom and onions. This way Brian could just have the pasta and sauce, while I could still enjoy the veggies. It turned out really yummy!

Same easy spaghetti, totally different taste!

Georgia and finally....home??

The few days we spent with Phillips family were SO nice. The bug that hit Brian really took over so he slept most of the days and nights we were there :) But Kyler was in heaven. Little kids to play with....all the time!!! This is great! Morgan was so wonderful with him, she'd just hold his hand where ever he went and played with him so well.

It was so fun to see Phillip and Jamie and their kids. We are excited to be able to spend some time with them while we are out here. I can not believe how much the kids have grown.

The first day we were there it was almost 70 degrees, so we all headed out to the back yard. Kyler and Morgan played golf, and Ethan taught Kyler all about dirt and rocks.

And then the rain started....We stayed in all the next day, but that didn't keep the kids from having a great time.

We set off for our new home in North Carolina on Saturday, it was still raining, and rained clear till Sunday. Kyler did pretty well on this 3 1/2 hour drive, in this pic he has his hands over his ears and is pressing and releasing to hear the change in sound. He was getting a kick out of it. I thought it was pretty cute.

Wahooo!! Almost there!

The whole drive there I was nervous. Nervous to meet the people I'd been emailing at the apartment complex for over 3 months now. Nervous to see our new place. Nervous that everything would be how it should....what if we show up and it's a dump...what if we get there and we have no furniture...what if they have no idea who we are....ahhhhh! Needless to say I worried. And I guess I had good reason. We got there and the people were great, they gave us our keys, we opened our door....no furniture. Yup, just a big empty apartment. We went back to the office only to find that our furniture order had never been faxed. FRUSTRATION!!!! So they put us in their Model apartment, which was full of REALLY nice stuff, all of which Kyler couldn't touch, no doors, no kitchen stuff, I almost would have preferred to stay in a hotel. They promised us our furniture would be delivered first thing Monday morning, but guess what happened Sunday night.

It snowed.

To put it in the words of our apartment manager "we haven't seen this much snow sense I was a little kid". A whole whopping 3 inches. The whole city closes down. Schools were closed for 2 days....yes 2 DAYS! Brian didn't have to go into work on Monday, and our furniture still wasn't delivered. One more day trying to survive in a place that wasn't ours.

Since we were in an apartment without any cookware or microwave or any other kitchen items we had to eat out alot. It got old fast. As we were leaving the hostess told us "you guys be careful, the roads are dangerous". This was during the first part of the snow storm, the snow was barely sticking and the roads were still clear. Everyone was driving really slow and being careful. It would be great if drivers in Utah would settle down when it snowed. I think in Utah we don't tell people to "be careful" we tell eachother "good luck". There are enough crazy drivers that you are lucky to get through a snowstorm without some idiot crashing into you.

Things slowly returned to normal in the city by Tuesday afternoon, which is when we got our furniture finally. I spent today grocery shopping and unloading suit cases, finally making a home cooked meal, and trying to help Kyler get adjusted. Poor kid, he really need life to just be normal for a while.

Overall I like our place, the furniture etc is all nice, our walls are bare, but at least it's a place for us to call our own for a while. I'll post some pics of our place when we get it more put together. Remember, we have an extra bedroom if anyone wants to come stay!!!

P.S Rachel Seppie...they have a Ross and a TJ Max...I'm tell'n ya your meant to visit this place!