Cornell in the Spring

      We took our first official Family Pictures as a family of five yesterday and  I am so happy with the way they turned out!!!  My sweet friend Melody has taken all our family pictures while we've been here at Cornell and they always turn out so beautifully!

      I am going to miss this beautiful campus, this BEAUTIFUL place full of amazing beautiful incredible sights, our INCREDIBLE WONDERFUL AMAZING friends and every last thing about Ithaca.  I am going to be sobbing my way out of town.  This place has been perfect for me and my family in every way and it will forever hold a special place in my heart.   I can't believe we're really leaving.  I am so so grateful that we will always have these beautiful pictures to remind us that this truly magical experience was a very real part of our lives.

Family Pictures 2015

We took family pictures a few weeks ago on Cornell Campus.  I know everyone has already seen them but I wanted to post them anyways.  I know I'm eight months pregnant in these photos-not a dream come true but I still love the way they turned out.  I will always treasure these pictures.  Thank goodness for my sweet friend Melody who offered to take them.

Family isn't it about time?

   Since living in Southern California we have already made one trip to Sacramento.  It was a seriously debated trip since we would have to leave on Friday night and come home Sunday afternoon.  In the end we decided that more than half my siblings (sorry Sam, Hannah and Rachel we missed you) were also making the trip we would go.  It was also the first time that I can think of that all the married siblings would be together for a vacation.

     I am so grateful we decided to go.  Despite my morning grumpiness on Saturday morning for a bit we had an amazing time.  Largely thanks to my parents who were extremely accommodating to all our needs.  We had an amazing amazing canoeing trip planned that was so much fun for everyone.  A pretty hard thing to accomplish with so many different age groups.  We canoed, swam, spent time with my wonderful grandparents, spent time with my wonderful in laws, went shopping at the outlets, saw Jurassic Park, attended church on Sunday and all with enough energy to drive home safely Sunday afternoon.  P.S.  I am still dreaming of those tacos you made on Sunday mom.  Thank goodness for Family.  I am so lucky to have mine.

Moving and Stuff

  So I'm finally getting around to updating this blog after ignoring it for almost an entire year. My only excuses are 1 that we are having far to much fun to stop for any length of time and 2 that we hardly ever have a computer that is A working and or B at home for any length of time. I know, I know, lame excuses. So on to the fun stuff.
 We are now in Southern California for Wyatt's summer internship and having an amazing time. I was a extremely little doubtful at first but after all the love shown to me by my family members here. Serious LOVE I mean really. Giving us beds, couches, toys, kitchen appliances, chairs, tables, tv, dresser, towels, linens, lamps, mirrors, and last but not least a serious list of fun invites and fun places to visit. I am definitely warming up to the idea of being here long term if it happens.  It is such a beautiful place and has such beautiful weather and fruit and of course COUSINS!!!
    If anything could sell me on living in California again it would be the amazing fruit.  We have been going to the Farmers Market every Friday and LOVING all the beautiful fruits and veggies.  We have been able to do so many fun things since we've been here and for relatively cheap which is good considering how much we pay in rent each month. lol. These are some of the fun things we've discovered so far:

• Farmers Market
• Beach
• Orange County Great Park
• Outdoor Movies
• Hero's Camp (that will be a post all of it's own)
• Shopping
• Sprouts... again Shopping
• Coolest Parks
• FAMILY
• Downtown Disney

and I'm sure more to come....

Our summer essentials

Memorial Day with cousins as it should be

Huntington Beach

OC Great Park

Downtown Disney

Home Sweet Home Ithaca

We are now fully settled in Ithaca and we love it!  We have made the most wonderful friends here and there are so many fun things to keep us occupied. We have endless waterfalls, beautiful trees and parks, moss (yes I'm excited about the moss), beautiful old buildings, historical sites, red trees, orange trees, yellow trees, lily pads, ponds, forests, church history sites, the best farmers market I've ever seen, rain! Oh how I love the rain!, a bigger apt, a car, a gym pass, the sciencecenter, berry picking, apple picking and of course the beautiful Cornell Campus.   It was a big decision for Wyatt and I to pick up our family and move here but I always felt good about it.  I am so grateful we did.  Despite never having lived on the East Coast it feels very much like coming home. Poor Wyatt is going to have a hard time dragging me away from this wonderful place.   Josh and Henry have so many built in buddies here.  There are several families with two little boys close to the same  ages in our complex and our boys could not be happier. Here are some pictures from our more recent adventures.   These first ones are from the falls on Cornell campus.

Cornell Campus Falls

Forgive my finger but I love this picture!!!

Farmers Market

Cornell Bell Tower

Henry Dancing during a bell tower concert

Corning Glass Museum

Josh getting his bowl ready for sandblasting

Blowing glass

Hollebreck? Cider Press.  This one was a bust.  Only go on weekends!!!

Josh was very excited about their matching shirts

Cornell Plantations

Sparklers so our kids wouldn't realize they missed the real Homecoming fireworks we'd talked about

Buttermilk Falls

I know It's blurry but I just couldn't help myself

T.J. MAXX Thank you Henry.  T.J. MAXX and  Target are good friends of ours now that we have very little shopping available.  Oneof the very sad things about leaving Utah.

Thank you Elyse for allowing him to ride your elephant.