Happy 4th of July!

What is my favorite thing about moving to Georgia?  How about a small town 4th of July celebration?  Okay.  Nothing has ever compared to the Ridgefield 4th celebration in WA, but still, this one has plenty of small-town flavor.  We hung out at the park a good 5 minutes from our house, ate from food trucks and slid down inflatables.  They had a fun band playing and I'm pretty sure it wasn't just Sugar Hillians (that works.) in the mix.  When dusk came, they had a nice big firework show, and the weather behaved perfectly by blowing all the smoke out behind us.  So considerate.  The only strange thing was that the big celebration was on the 3rd...not the 4th.  I guess everyone wanted to do their own fireworks on the 4th?  I don't really get that.

Our crew.

Emmett hardly made it through 5 minutes of the show.  I'll never know how I have children who can sleep through fireworks!

The celebration continued on the 4th.  We had a great BBQ put on by Rob.

Robert was extra pleased with the no-restriction rule for home fireworks.  He started us out with about a million sparklers...

Goof.

Hermione Granger.

Ethan was laughing at this picture because he didn't realize that he was posing with a burnt out sparkler until the last second.

So, Austin shared on of his.  Nice brother.

Then came the real show.  I wasn't able to really catch show as much as I was able to catch the showman.  Just look at that smile.

I'm pretty sure this isn't safe...

No injuries *sigh* and the show went on.

During our fireworks show, we had background music put on by the local wildlife.  The loudest noise seemed to be right under the tree we were by.  My first instinct was to move away from the tree and Robert's first instinct was to find and capture the critter making the noise.  

Look at the size of this...cricket?  Locus?  Vampire, blood-sucking insect of death?  All I know is...I wasn't going to touch it.  Jason, however, was completely fascinated.  His daddy is the coolest daddy on the block.

June 18th 2017

We all managed to get back together again in order to celebrate THIS guy!  We made a lot of promises to the kids to help them accept our big move to Georgia.  A trampoline.  A treehouse.  A dog.  Yeah, we really pulled out all the stops for this one.  The funniest part of all this, has been watching Robert get so excited to get all of those things himself.  He's just as much of a kid as those sweet things standing around him.  He wants to plant fruit trees.  He's cutting down monster trees to clear the way for a tree house (and to allow those new fruit trees a few more hours of sun.  He's just so excited to do it all.   If we could only keep him in town long enough for him to get it done!

Robert is the adventurous Dad.  The Fun Dad.  The camping Dad.  The break the rules Dad.  He'll stay up too late, eat all the ice-cream and play the Wii.  Basically, he's the kind of Dad that every kid wants to have.  Because of that, these kids adore him.  They miss him when he's gone and are always doing everything they can to get his attention when he's here.

Not only that, but Robert loves being a Dad.  You can see it in his face when he walks in the door and sees those little boys running to jump into his arms.  You can see it when he is camping with the boys on hikes that are way too steep for his old-man's knees...just so he can be with the big boys.  You can see it when he teases Alaina and tickles her every time she tries to give him a goodnight kiss.  He loves being these kids' Dad.

We love you Robert!  Thanks for being the guy I knew you'd be when I started dating you.  I love the Father and Husband you are.

U love I,

Happy Father's Day,  Good-Job-Rob!

chris

Finally, after what felt like forever, all my family was back together again.  In our new, very beautiful, very humid home.  It felt good to have them back.

And look whose hair LOVES humidity.

We were still sleeping on air mattresses until the furniture arrived.  Emmett was always put to bed on his mattress, but even in his sleep, he'd make his way over to Robert and make sure that he was close enough to know where he was.

Ethan went for a week to Especially For Youth...and he loved every minute of it.

He also ended up going for a long weekend to High Adventure Camp.  This was a picture someone sent to me of him right before he started repelling.  Not a bad welcome to Georgia.

Robert had to go back to Nevada to drive our van back.  He ended up taking Austin with him so that they could have a little road trip together.  Robert took pictures of one of their pit-stops in TX.

These two partners in crime were able to tag their first cars.  That's what you get when take a cross-country road trip with the guys.

And we are off!

In the beginning of June I hopped on a plane with Austin and Alaina with a one-way ticket to Atlanta.  I was going to sign papers for the new house and Austin and Alaina were both going to join up with Sugar Hill youth group for both Girl's Camp & Boys Camp.  

We had a few days by ourselves and we took full advantage.  We ate out.

Met our new ward.

Ate out again...

And again.  We knew we were in the South when we found Praise the Lard, BBQ.  

We bought a few necessities since our furniture wasn't coming for about three weeks.

Like a purple chair.

We refinished some garage sale furniture.

And when the kids took off, I started painting Laina's bright blue room...

And waited impatiently for the rest of my babies to join us...

Contrary to popular belief...I don't LOVE moving.  It has, however,  seemed to mark important milestones in both my life and my kids' lives.  I thought it would be fun to document those which each state we've lived in.

Santa Rosa, CA

Here is where it all started.  California when Robert and I started dating.

Provo, Utah

Utah.  Our first real move together.  All dressed up. 

Studying hard...or hardly studying?

70's party

California

Summer in Santa Rosa.

Atascadero, CA (1 year)

San Luis Obispo, CA (1 year)

Summer in Camarillo

Had to add in this little picture of Rob after a shoulder surgery...because...LOOK at that hair!!!!

It was so cute when all our belongings fit into a baby-truck.

 

 Hawaii

Longmont, Colorado

Still just the two of us.  Look how rested we look!  

Then came our Ethan.  (Not terribly happy in this picture!)

And within 13 months...the twinnies.  We went from going out on Tuesday nights and impromptu road trips to diapers x 3 in one year.  Talk about a transition year!!

Never again, would we ever look completely put together.  :)

 

Virginia. (3 months.)

 Charlotte, NC

Vancouver, WA

Washington changed us a bit...

Jason.

Henderson, NV

Emmett.

 See how much I don't like moving?  But, like I said before, each new move has brought us new and wonderful changes.  We've loved the experiences we've had and the friends we've gathered along the way.  And now, we are ready for our new adventures in Sugar Hill, GA...