4th of July

There wasn't much going on during the 4th of July. Darin had to work in the evening.  We met some new friends at church that had us over for lunch...which was super nice that they did that so Darin could be there.  I didn't take any pictures because I didn't want to overwhelm the new friends with my crazy picture taking...YET!  But don't you worry we arrived in style...

Exploring Brick Pond...

Asa had a bit of a hard adjustment to the move.  He and Nash were a bit naughty in the beginning.  So we had to do a lot of exploring to get out of the house or this mama was going to go CRAZY!

We had heard there was a place in downtown North Augusta that had alligators.  We went out looking but didn't see any. I guess it was too hot.  I have yet to see one there but I am little afraid every time we run through there.

 The grounds are super pretty with a lot of photo-ops!

 And other wild life to play with. :)  Nash LOVED seeing all the little turtles.

Settling in...

Our home here in North Augusta is great.  It is owned by a former GRU resident and ER doctor.  The fellow Darin replaced lived in this home.  So far we have been pretty happy.  The part I was SOOOO SUPER excited about was the backyard.  There is tons of space for the kids to play.  What I didn't realize is that South Carolina has TONS of bugs.  The fire ants are the worst.  They are all over the grass. I REALLY despise them!  Nash was really excited about the backyard until I found him screaming back there because he said there were HUGE things buzzing around his head!  We bought a ton of bug killer stuff and it made a SMALL difference.

Our neighbors are pretty awesome.  They gave us this lawn mower.  It had a part broken on it but Darin was able to fix it and it works AWESOME!

Nash was pretty excited that we purchased a fire pit.  The summers are pretty hot so you don't want to stand too long by the flames.

 Asa on the other hand was NOT so excited about having to stay in the screened porch.  He wanted those flames!

 I really love that I can open the back door, let Asa into the screened room and he will sit and talk to the  birds, throw balls into the yard and is such a happy little boy.  Until one of those ridiculous fire ants gets him!

Pennsylvania to South Carolina

Darin didn't finish working at Lehigh Valley until Saturday, June 22nd and then had orientation in Georgia on Monday, June 23rd.  Luckily LVH let him get off on Saturday.  The boys and I ran by our old house one last time to see if there was any mail that had come and to say good-bye to our next door neighbors the Hendricks family.  We loved them a lot and will miss them!

Darin and I decided we would travel 6 of the 12 hour drive that night in hopes the boys would sleep most of the way.  It worked out great!  The only problem was when we arrived at the motel there was not a pack n' play available for Asa to sleep in.  So I got a bit creative which didn't work out so well....

 Asa and I did not sleep to well that night and the "creative bed" turned into a jungle gym.

Asa rode with me in my car, and Nash with Darin.  Both boys got carsick once on the trip in about the same place.  Overall they were great little travelers which I am so thankful for!  We had plenty of treats and movies to carry us through!

We made plenty of stops to stretch our legs and collect rocks and sticks and make friends with people making pit stops as well. :)

 But boy was I happy when I saw this water tower...

 North Augusta...Our new home.

We couldn't move into our new house until Monday so we stayed in a hotel (in the ghetto of Augusta). We attended our new ward and one of the sisters in the ward lent me a pack n' play because of course this new hotel didn't have one either...ugh! 

On Monday we arrived early to the house.  The people before us were still moving out and the landlord and his wife were there cleaning...boy was it dirty!  We didn't get it all the way clean before they left that night but I didn't mind cleaning as I unpacked.  We had no where to go and Darin was at work so we asked if we could stay and help clean.  Our trailer of stuff was supposed to arrive by noon...ya it didn't get there until 5pm when I tracked it down.  The ward showed up at 6pm and WOW what a turn out of help it was.  We had the trailer unpacked in no time.

Bova Family....

These pictures are basically all the same but I couldn't throw any of them out because it was so typical of how things go when playing with the Bova kids.  This family was our first friends in PA.  I met Christine at a Club Mom meet up and we have been friends ever since.  Cece and Asa were little friends...Cece was more a mother to him and was trying to teach him how to crawl in these pictures.

 We really wanted a group picture... ya this what we got...

 Then they formed a chorus line and began singing songs....WHAT??!!  

I love it when Nash plays with Emory...so random!

And of course Asa could not be left out! lol. 

Thanks Christine for meet us one last time during our good-bye tour! ;)  We sure miss you guys!

SMITH BOYS...

The last week we spent in Pennsylvania we stayed in Stacia and Taylor Smith's house.  They were headed to Utah for a while so we volunteered to house sit for them.  They were great to let us! THANK YOU THANK YOU! Man I feel like such a mooch.  We really did have great friends in PA!  It was a sad day when we said good bye to these crazy boys!

 You add in the Brinton girls and you have a crazy house of kids! :)

 Nash considered these boys as his brothers.  They were his only brothers for a few years and he learned the ways of tackling and wrestling, so it was no surprise that good-bye hugs turned into a mass doggy pile!

Man these pictures are really getting to me.  I miss these families greatly and I am completely thankful for each one of them!

Jim Thorpe...

We really didn't have a plan while we visited Jim Thorpe.  We just wanted to get the kids out of the house and enjoy the beautiful PA surroundings.  We found a park to swing, climb and practice our imagination...

 We had lunch down by the river where they were about to launch a river rafting group....SO FUN....I so want to do that with my kids someday.  This group was a church group.  They did not have swimsuits on but were completely dressed in white shirts, ties and slacks.

 I think the kids would have stayed there all day throwing rocks into the water if we would have let them.

 However the boats looked like too much fun so we asked where we could rent some boats for us and we were pointed to Mauch Chunk Lake Park.  We found a pedal boat that one of us could take the older kids in while the other adult stayed back with the babies.

 It was a hot but fun day and we wore the kiddos out...

 Thanks Malesa for carting us round.  We had so much fun!