Life in St. Louis

We are here and finally settling in. Well, almost. We still have a few things to get done in our apartment so as soon as they're finished, I'll post pics of our new place. The apartment we are in right now is a lot smaller than our old place, so we are having to be very creative on how to make it all fit, but more to come on that later.

As far as living here goes we are LOVING it! I feel like I live in a condo resort area that people stay at on vacation. We have so many fun things to do within walking distance.


There is a way fun playground that is shaded 24 hours a day. We go about twice a day.

We have a swimming pool that the girls and I are having a blast in each day while Greg is at School. Then when he comes home we usually go again.


There are walking paths, that a bunch of us Mom's walk together in the mornings with the kidos. Speaking of walking, our church is only a 5 min walk also. Woot! Woot!

The office staff is awesome and if anything is wrong with the apartment, they send maintenance over to fix it in a flash. They also have a place where we can rent movies for free too.

Basically if this place had a grocery store, I would never have to leave my house!

The best part, as always, are the wonderful friends that we've met so far. There are so many fun couples to hang out with and they all have kids around my girls ages. Brinley is loving having friends to play with everyday.


Our fourth of July weekend was really nice. It happened to be Greg's birthday also, so we had double celebrations.


He got up of the morning of his birthday and went golfing with a bunch of the guys here. Then when he got back all of us went to the pool for the afternoon.

Play a little pool volleyball

Brinley had fun playing with her new friends.

That night we put Brinley to bed about 8:00 and when I went in to check on her at 10:00 this is how I found her. I guess she had a lot to be thankful for.

On the 4Th we woke up and went to this darling little town for a parade. The girls loved it because

The girls loved it because they tossed out candy.

Three new posts

Sorry for my lack of blogging. I just got done catching up on the last month.

We are now in St. Louis and adjusting well. More to come on that soon, but I just wanted to post entry's of our summer so far.


Enjoy.

A tribute to my Grandpa's

The day we were suppose to leave Utah, we got a call saying my Grandpa Egginton had passed away.
Luckily I was able to change my flight and the girls and I stayed six extra days. Greg, unfortunately, still had to go back to St. Louis to unload our truck. Luckily his parents we able to go back with him and help.



My Grandpa Egginton, also known as my singing Grandpa, died on June 9Th.
He had been in a nursing home for the past two years, but other than that he had a healthy and full of life. He was always so fun to be with and like I said, always had a song in his heart. I think that's where my Brinley gets it from.
This picture was taken the last time I saw him, just two weeks before he died. I had a strong feeling that it would probably be the last time I saw him, so it was very tender. Brinley was surprisingly very interactive with him and he was with her, even though he couldn't speak.
We asked Brinley if she would sing Grandpa a song and she sang Beauty and the Beast. As I watch my Grandpa watch Brinley, he had a smile on his face and his eyes filled with tears as he listened to her sing. It was a perfect final memory of him.
His funeral went very well and it was good to see all of my cousins, and aunts and uncles that I hadn't seen in a long time.

Three days after my Grandpa Egginton passed away, my Grandpa Gibson also passed away.

He had been sick for some time and finally after a long struggle passed away on June 12Th.

I was able to be at his bedside, surrounded by my family, on the day before he died. We sat and visited with each other and told him our goodbyes before he slipped into the next life. It was a very spiritual and wonderful experience to witness.

My Grandpa Lamar was also a wonderful Grandpa. He was involved in everything we did and always made it a point to tell us he was proud of us. Since moving away, five years ago, most of our conversations have been over the phone, but they are conversations that I'll always cherish.

The day he died all the grandkids got together and we wrote his obituary. It was wonderful to put into words all the amazing things he did in his life.

On the day of his funeral, me along with my brother and four cousins got to speak. It was a great opportunity for us to be able to share special memories we had of him and honor his life and how he lived it.

Although going to two funerals in two days is something I hope to never do again, I walked away feeling very uplifted and motivated to live a better life. My Grandpa's both lived wonderful lives but above all were just good people, with their priority's straight. They put their family's and the gospel above everything else and were both very loving.

I will miss them both very much, but know that one day, I'll get to see them again.

I love you Grandpa Egginton and Grandpa Gibson.

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!