Eight Years

 A picture of a picture, but this is what we looked like when we were engaged. 

 Our happy wedding day!

 I think I married one of the most romantic guys ever, 

he got me flowers and always writes the sweetest notes.

Casey was sweet enough to watch the kids for an evening and 

we went out to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, it was perfect!

Rite of Passage

We didn't even know Addy had a loose tooth, and one morning when she bit into a muffin, she came screaming to my room saying that something happened. She didn't know what happened, but her mouth felt weird. Her tooth was gone, and she ran back to her muffin to find her tooth! Our baby girl is getting so big.

5 1/2 years old 

The Koyle's Visit Continued...

 Day 5 - Church in Raleigh and a drive to Wrightsville Beach and Wilmington

 Driving with an ornery boy in the back seat...

Dad and Mom at the beach

 The first time my sisters had ever seen the ocean! 

My Dad, he's one of a kind and I love him! 

 Brittana

Wilmington

The Battleship, North Carolina

Day 6 - Wrightsville Beach and The Battleship, North Carolina

The guys went to see the battleship and the girls (and Jack) went to the beach, we could see a storm heading our way and it was raining off and on at the beach, but I was determined to let my sister's have their fun. My Mom insisted we get away from the beach before the storm hit, but we didn't make it and we were stuck right in the middle of a down-pour/wind storm on the beach! It made for some great memories. Then, we picked up the guys and went back to the beach for the calm after the storm. :) 

 Where's the sun? It was hiding behind all the clouds! 

 And then the rain came pouring down and we hid out in this bathroom for an hour under the hand-dryer.

 We were soaked and had sand everywhere.

Two hours later we went back to the same beach and everything was calm:

 They were posing for a beach picture and the waves actually got Dad's feet wet...
that's as close as he got to the water. :)

Goodbye Beach, until next time.

Day 7 -Pullen Park and Ice Cream

 Carousel

 Mother and son

Baskin Robbins Ice Cream and Dunkin Donuts

Day 8 - Sarah P. Duke Gardens and Duke University 

 This Cathedral was amazing, you just have to see it for yourself!

 The depictions of the Bible stories on the windows are so awesome!

 Opps!

 Only Ethan, who is a HUGE Duke fan, would wear his Idaho Broncos shirt to Duke's campus!

 Uncle Ethan went home this day, good-bye buddy.

Day 9 -North Carolina Science Museum

 Beehive!

 Jack loved this bear skin!

Day 10 -Goodbye North Carolina...Hello tropical storm Andrea, South Carolina, and Georgia

They rented a car and headed down to Georgia to see my Dad's mission and a few people he had baptized. He hadn't been back to the East Coast since his mission, 35 years ago!

It was SUPER hard to say good-bye to my sister's and my parents, but we had so much fun together and made lots of memories!

The Koyle's Visit!

My parents and sister's came to visit for 10 days! While they were here my brother flew in to visit for six days. We had non-stop fun the entire time, and all together we took about 650 photos, so I wont share every picture, but just about! In fact my sister made a photo-book of the vacation. That will be a book I value forever, because let's face it the Koyle's don't vacation; it's about as rare as finding a one-legged gymnast. Imagine a bunch of country folks coming to the city and that will sum up the vacation. I think my favorite part was watching my Dad in the Art Museum, it's the most "liberal" thing he has ever done. It was laugh-out-loud funny! Enjoy the pictures below to see some of our good times together!

1st Day - My sisters got a stomach bug and were sick at home all day, but that evening we went strawberry picking and visited the Raleigh, North Carolina temple.

 So yummy! 

2nd Day - North Carolina History Museum, Uncle Ethan Arrived, and The Durham Bulls Baseball Game

 Dad and Mom

 Play Ball!

3rd Day - Farmer's Market, Swimming, and Groom's Cake Mania

Farmer's Market Ginger Ale! 

God-bless my husband for his crazy, hair-brained idea to make a groom's cake for his best friend (study partner) on her wedding day. It was a project (I'll leave out the stressful details), but it was super fun to see the finished product:

Congrats Kate!
P.S. I've never been to a wedding where I felt like I was in a movie, but this was a BEAUTIFUL wedding, with some hilarious moments through-out the night! Loved it!

4th Day - NC Museum of Art and Cook-Out

 My first time at the art museum and I can't wait to go back, it was amazing. 

 "It's art", something we had to keep reminding my Dad.

CookOut with Cheerwine floats and hush-puppies; see those happy faces!

Days 5-10 to be continued...