A fun Utah Summer!

Well, actually it way pretty cold most of the time, but it was still fun.
Our trip consisted of most of the usual activities; seeing family and friends, eating at our favorite restaurant's, going to the cabin, and just hanging out and playing.

The first weekend we were there, Brinley got to go on a special date with Grandpa and Grandma to the cabin all by herself. She LOVED it.

While she was gone Greg, Julianne and I headed down south to see our good friends from dental school, Bryce and Miranda(aka Mandy).
We had such a fun night and their little Ellery is adorable. Julianne loved her and they had so much fun playing together. We love and miss them so much!

Then a few days later we headed south again to get together with more dental friends. We sure love this whole bunch and ALWAYS have a blast when we get together. It was just like old times.
After many months of planning, I had a little get away by myself with two of my favorite people. Holly, Mary and I have been friends for nearly 23 years!!! We had a fun girls trip at my cabin and spent most of the time eating and talking! What could be better than that? I even got to sleep in for the first time in weeks.

.......and it was a good thing I did because I didn't get much sleep the next week.

While I was with Holly and Mary, Brinley and Julianne got very sick in the night. Poor Greg got thrown up on by Julianne and Brinley threw up about four times. Good thing he stayed at my parents that night, because they all pitch in and cleaned everything up.
It was an awful bug!!! It seemed to last forever and they were both so uncomfortable.

After five very long days,as luck would have it, I got sick too. Luckily mine was for only one day, but it was still awful.

When all of us were finally healthy we went to St. George with the Carr's. It was so much fun! Brinley was heaven being able to play with her cousins 24/7. We always have such a great time.

Mary, Brinley and Abby.


Brinley, Mary and Luke. These three are hilarious together!
Tim, Jen, and Ellie.


Eating dinner.


On the stairs of the St. George temple.
Some more of what we did in Utah.

Went to Temple Square.


Played at the church history museum. It was so much fun!




Met our perfect new niece, baby Eve.


Played at the park.


It was indeed a great trip!!

Greg's Graduation and the Big Move

It's official! We have a doctor in the family.

Greg's graduation went very well and he did an absolutely superb job on his speech. I can't remember if I mentioned it or not yet, but Greg was the Valedictorian for his dental school so he got to speak.

I was so very proud of him. He has worked so hard and it was nice to see him get some credit for it. I loved how in speech he mentioned the girls and I also deserving the title as well because he couldn't have done it without us. It really was a group effort for all of us.

The awards ceremony the night before

Greg receiving his highest GPA award.
Giving his speech
After Graduation




Greg's parents came out for the occasion and also got the fun task (again) of helping us move!! They were so kind to come and help out. We honestly couldn't have done it without them.

Our awesome ward and friends came to help us load the moving truck. We'll sure miss all of them and the beautiful area that we lived in.

After Graduation we spent the night in a hotel by the airport and the next day Greg, Mike, Brinley and I drove in the mini van to St. Louis. Carole was kind enough to fly back with Julianne so she didn't have to make the journey (thank heaven for that.)


Brinley, bless her heart, traveled so well the whole time!

Count Down

We are nearing our last day here in Philadelphia. I realized that I never posted pictures of our apartment. We have absolutely LOVED our place. We have only been here a year, but I wish I could take my apartment with me to St. Louis.


Here are just a few pictures:

My Kitchen has been a dream come true. It has SO much cupboard space! My new place has about half. But the thing that I LOVED most of all was the dishwasher. After living without one for almost 4 years you come to really appreciate that piece of technology.

Our dining room/Brinley's kitchen. I love that it matches mine!

Our living room, plus a little cute peanut watching her show
The master bathroom, plus a little cute peanut!

The guest bathroom/girls bathroom.
But my MOST favorite feature of all has been our backyard! We have spent countless hours back here. Brinley has had so much space to run around and play.



I also decided to make a top 10 list of things I'll miss and things I won't miss about living in Philly.

Top 10 things I WON't miss:

10-Having no good Mexican food.

9- Customer service (for the most part is bad, but there have been some good, some.)

8- Turnpike tolls!

7- All local news stations!

6- Driving in parts of Philly where I feel my life is in danger.

5- Having to pay silly township taxes!

4- Greg's long commute.

3- TRAFFIC on weekdays.

2-TRAFFIC on weekends

1-TRAFFIC EVERYDAY!!!!

Top 10 things I'll miss:

10-How beautiful it is where we live.

9-Being able to walk to my grocery store.

8-My grocery store that has free babysitting, by professional care givers, that watch your kids while you grocery shop! AMAZING!!!

7-Zwahlens ice cream shop.

6-The King of Prussia Mall/shopping in general here.

5-Philly Cheese steaks.

4-The leaves in the Fall.

3-Amish Country

2- Living so close to so many amazing places, like New York, D.C, Boston, Palmyra.

1- All of our wonderful friends, who have become like our family! We will miss them most of all!!!

Tim and Jen come to visit!

We had an incredible week. Greg'sbrother Tim and his wife Jen came to visit us. We had such a great time with them. We went to Washington D.C, Gettysburg, Amish country, and of course downtown Philly.

We were in the car a WHOLE lot of the time, but it was so fun just visiting and catching up. The girls did really well, for the most part, and we saw a lot of really cool things.
D.C Temple


The cherry blossoms were out in full force.
Taking it easy at Arlington Cemetery

This is typical no matter where we go, Brinley finding some random person and going up and talking to them.
Jen and Julianne

We found a head stone with the last name Carr on it.

Iwo Jima

The White house
That is really all the pictures we took. We went to a lot more places but didn't seem to capture them. Good thing we had been to most of the places before this.

Anyway, we had a wonderful time. We LOVED seeing Tim and Jen and are thankful that their SIX girls let us have them for a few days. We love you guys! Thanks again for coming!

Happy Birthday Julianne!

Our sweet baby girl is already one years old! We love this little pumpkin to pieces. She is so delightful. I'm so blessed to get to spend each day with her.

We had a wonderful time celebrating the day with her.

We went out to our favorite cheese steak place for dinner. That was more of a celebration for us however, because Julianne only has two bottom teeth and can't chew yet.

But she sure thought they looked yummy!

Then we came home to open presents.

Then of course let her dive into her first cupcake. She LOVED it!

We LOVE you Julianne! Happy Birthday baby!

Poor Julianne

It's never good when your three year old comes to you with scissors in her hand and says, "Mom, come and look at how beautiful Julianne looks."

My baby who is already lacking in the hair department, is now lacking even more.

Good thing her cute little face (and a bow) covers it right up.

.........something tells me this won't be the only time her sister makes her more "beautiful."

Brinley's little friends

Brinley loves stuffed animals. She always has. She has around 25 (not all shown above) or so and they each have a name.

I must admit that she takes extremely good care of these little guys. Every morning she makes sure they're fed.

This usually results in a least one spilled bowl.

Then, while she is taking a bath she insists that they watch her.

At night they must all be located and put in her bed.

Sometimes Greg and I will test her and hide one on purpose to see if she can recognize what one is missing. We'll put her in bed and about a minute later, without fail, she comes out asking for the one we hid.

She is so funny.