Happy Three-Oh to my Love...

I could regularly dedicate a post to my husband and go on and on about why i love him but will simplify and just say that I am so lucky--the luckiest! He is wonderful and he is mine and for that I am so grateful! Happy Birthday to my Lance--who I celebrate today and everyday!

Had some great friends over for cake and ice cream tonight to celebrate

--stay tuned for pics:)

Ben lately...

Ok so I know I haven't posted my "Ben at 8 mos" yet (i will, i will, but it will be postdated because i started it:) but I had to hurry and post Ben's latest tricks...

Crawling at 8 mo and being silly laughing with dad...

Drinking from a straw...fINALLY!

Ben at 8 mos!

Ben's 8th month was a whirlwind! Ben made the chaos and move and road trip etc. very bearable and fun!

Ben at 8 months:

• I don't know how much you weigh or how long you are this month but I know you are growing constantly!

• You wear 6-12 month clothes and they fit you really well for the most part.

• You still just have your 2 lower teeth.

• You started out the month with some final trips to Merwin. We canoed, swam, tubed, and floated. You love the lake! (see pics from Merwin posts)

• You got to go to your cousin Cole's baptism and birthday which was super fun!

• You took your first Family pics with mom and dad. Aunt Rach took them and they turned out awesome!! Thanks Rach!! (see pics at top of post, on side, as blog header, etc.)

• You said "goodbye for now" to your family/friends in UP and Royal

• You visited Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky for the first time. (see pics in previous post:)

• You stayed in Hotel for a week + with mom and dad and then moved into new home in Louisville

new small but fun old house in a GREAT neighborhood!

• You have thought about crawling a lot but haven't quite crawled yet and I am ok with that for the time being:)

• You still love to eat and eat a lot. You eat 2-3 meals a day and in between. You really like puff and are still working on picking them up on your own. You like original and strawberry mum-mums and yogurt melts:) and anything else we give you tastes of:)

•You love walks with BOB in KY. We have to go early am or late evening before bed because it is TOO hot in between and is sometimes too hot then:)

KY or Bust: Part 2

Alright, so we arrived in Louisville. It seemed kind of surreal that we actually lived here but it is slowly sinking in :). Fortunately, our good friends from BYU, Brandon (Lance's college roomie) & Brittany Curfew live here and have helped us out so much! We narrowed, with some help, our list of housing options and it quickly was down to one. One that wouldn't be ready for a few weeks! So we camped out at the hotel, swam, relaxed, and waited. Paul and Debra were so thoughtful in offering to drive our Audi to KY for us. They got to KY Friday and because we couldn't move in, we decided to try a few tourist-y stuff:)

We went a found the Louisville, KY LDS temple.

and of course the Costco:)

Then we hit Churchill Downs

had to try on the jockey gear:)

Ben liked riding the horses

posing by Barbaro :)

We tried out some yummy restaurants..new ones and some oldies but goodies:)

and we did lots of swimming!

We said goodbye to P&D on Sunday and cant wait till we see family again in October.

We found an older house in a darling neighborhood and great location. We were able to get moved in sooner than expected because we offered to do the cleaning. I am still deciding if that was a good idea:) haha. We are all moved in and slowly getting settled. Ben helped a ton!

a magic carpet ride:)

We have met so many fun new friends here in Louisville and are blown away by how kind and including (can that be used as an adj?) they have all been.

Ben was invited to his darling friend Lakai's 1st birthday party

we have been to bbqs, bonfires, bday parties, ward tailgate parties, etc and feel so good about this move. It is a leap of faith-step into the dark and we REALLY hope it works out this year. I am feeling it this year--Go Cards!

Stay tuned for more pics from KY!

KY or Bust: Part 1

The day came to move and I had done pretty good. While we had hoped we would be moving to start Dental School, we were prayerful about our decision to relocate and felt good about it. I couldn't imagine going from being 2.4 miles to 2,354 miles away from my family but we were excited for our new adventure! Now I'm not gonna lie, I cried by myself all the way to at least North Bend while Ben slept in the back and Lance drove the Audi alongside me but I pulled it together:)

We drove to Royal for a fun few days before making our journey east:) I will have to get some pics from my mother in law:) We had a lot of fun eating, swimming, and visiting. We left Royal on Friday morning.

I didnt have the state sign idea till after we passed the IDAHO sign and were on the other side:) I took lots of scenic pics because it really was pretty but when it came to narrowing down...they didn't make the cut

Idaho to Montana...BEAUTIFUL drive!

Montana to Wyoming...

First night: we stayed the night in Buffalo, Wyoming. We had no idea that finding a room in a small town off of I-90 would be a challenge but because of the unknown phenomenon of Sturgis, everywhere was crowded with leather sportin, tatooed, bandana doo-rag wearing, harley ridin' peeps (kinda a stereotype but most fit the bill:) We got the LAST non-smoking room at a Super 8 and were pleasantly surprised.

Ben took a tub, slept like a champ, and we were on the road again...

to South Dakota...

1st stop: We took a slight detour to see what the fuss was about. We had been seeing bikers for miles on I-90. In fact, Lance counted 80 motorcycles that we passed going other direction during only 10 minutes! So we decided we better take a quick drive through Sturgis, South Dakota and it was an experience. We will probably never make the journey on a bike so it was worth driving through!

Fortunately for us our drive through Sturgis fell on the last day of Bike Week 2010! It was a zoo in Sturgis, bikes EVERYWHERE!

Because we were going about 2 mph down the road with bikes and people all around we gave ben his only driving break out of the car seat and let him look out the window. Ben was totally fascinated with the motorcycles and especially their noises!

2nd stop: Mt. Rushmore-Great Faces, Great Places:)

From the looks of the picture below you can tell Ben was excited to stop and so were Lance and I. We thought Mt. Rushmore was so cool and while we were further from the Presidents than Nicholas Cage led us to believe, it was a beautiful and incredible monument. We even watched the little film and checked out the museum.

Just past Mt. Rushmore, we were tempted by stopping at the Badlands because we heard they were beautiful but Ben had just eaten and was asleep and we had just stopped at Rushmore so maybe on the way back to WA in 5 yrs? we forged on...

to Minnesota...

Gas stop... Dinner Stop...

2nd Night was in in Worthington, Minnesota-our 3rd stop attempt due to NO VACANCIES-stinkin' bikers! Gave Ben a tub, he slept fairly well, ate a little continental breakfast, then hit the road...

to Iowa...

3rd Night we were so excited to stop at Megan's in Davenport, Iowa. Ben had never met Aunt Megan and we hadn't seen her since December so we had fun visiting with her Sunday afternoon and night. Monday morning we followed Meg...

to Illinois...

where she works in Moline at the John Deere Headquarters. Lance could not have been more excited about this stop. My handsome farm boy was like a kid in a candy shop:) He got in EVERY tractor and combine that he could and sat in each for a while admiring all their features. He detailed in which order he would buy each piece if we had a bottomless bank account and was texting his brother Chad throughout to share his excitement with someone who understood it's greatness. Ignorant as I am about farm equip, Ben and I thought it was pretty sweet too!

Ben thought he was a fancy donut being buckled in to all the jump seats by his Daddy

Picture with Meg out front of her office. The grounds were beautiful!

Ben saying bye to Meg but we are glad we will see her more often now because we are only 6 hrs. away!

we hit the road again...but had to snap this exit sign in honor of my LLB:)

Ben thought his feet were quite tasty and we often found him snacking on them during the drive... anything to keep him entertained. True to form, he was an ABSOLUTE ANGEL!! ONLY crying when hungry or tired and was otherwise happy as a clam:) He sucked on his toes all the way...

to Indiana...

then FINALLY into Kentucky...

our first look at Kentucky skyline...

our new home for 5 yrs and we are so excited!