Beach House!

What's better than a beach house??? A FREE beach house! Corey's study buddy just happens to have the sweetest parents EVER, and they let us stay at their beach house for two nights. It was great to see the beach in May, because the waves seemed bigger and there were tons of great shells. Also, hardly anybody on the beach! Below are a few pictures from our mini-vacation.

A pillow we found on one of the beds.

 Hanging out on the deck.

The view

 LOVE this picture, and his crazy hair.

This is as close to the water as Addy will get. 

Ever since she was 18 months and first saw the ocean, 

she has never wanted to get in the water. She loves to swim, 

but I think she's heard too many shark stories. 

 Found a jelly fish, but it was dead. Corey and I both touched it though. 

 My cute man, not sure why he's running, but cute anyway. :)

THE AQUARIUM:  

Since we were at the Pine Knolls Beach, we were about a mile from one of the NC Aquariums. We had to take advantage of this opportunity:

 Penguins

 Jelly Fish

A scary fake alligator

A big thank you to the Barry family for letting us stay in their lovely home.

Great Friends

The day after we moved to North Carolina I was trying to find our friend's apartment, she was the only person we "knew" in North Carolina. I began walking all over our apartment complex (it's huge) with my two children in 90 degree weather and I had NO LUCK finding the right apartment. But, then I thought I found it, I knocked on the door, and a guy came to the door in a BYU t-shirt. I was shocked, I just said, "You must be Mormon, do you know where The Swift's live?" Needless to say, he was Mormon, he did know where the Swift's lived, and he had a WONDERFUL wife and two adorable children. That day I accidentally knocked on the Roisum's door, they have become great friends. But, nine months later they have decided to leave and go back to Idaho for the summer. So, that called for a going away get together! We had a LOT of fun and the kids did too. Living this far from my own family has helped me realize the importance of GOOD friends, and we have found some great friends here in North Carolina!

 

  

I love having lots of kids around playing, it reminds me of my childhood!

The ice cream and cake were a hit!

 Salem and Craig Roisum, Sheri and Jeff Swift

I enjoy having people over to our little apartment,  but

I can't wait until I actually have a house that can hold a bigger group! 

Young Women Campout

I had a great time with all the Young Women at a camp-out near Falls Lake! Can you find me in this picture? Every time I hang out with these girls I feel like I am a teenager again, in fact I often forget I'm a Mom of two who's almost thirty. I truly love my young women, and I could write several pages on their AMAZING examples of courage and strength!

P.S. A huge thank you to Corey! He takes great care of the kids so I can "party" with the Young Women.

My Childhood Dream...

We had the time of our lives at the Cole Brother's Circus a few weeks ago. Going to a circus has always been on my bucket list, and who can resist when the kids get in free?!? By the way, that's the catch. Once we got in there every toy, drink, or food item was about $10. Good thing we brought in our own stash of snacks! 

Jack loved everything and Addy still talks about the COOL magic tricks. 

Tigers 

Elephants

These girls were hanging by their hair!!!

 They did SO many tricks with their bodies hanging by their hair.

$8 later Addy got to ride an elephant! 

The ending was the best when they shot a guy out of a canon. 

Yeah for the circus (minus the weirdos, the stinky-nasty bathrooms, and the creepy clowns,)! Oh, and the animal cruelty. (Yikes!)

Easter Time

He's 16 months, my baby is growing up!

Spring is BEAUTIFUL here, but you can't forget your Zyrtec!

Adelynn, all ready for the Primary Easter Egg Hunt

We don't really know what our traditions for Easter are yet, but the Easter Bunny is always a fun tradition. So we went with one big gift from the Easter Bunny and an Easter basket, along with a three hour long church session and many stories about Jesus throughout the week. Regardless, we have been telling Addy for about a year now that the Easter Bunny would bring her a bike because we had to leave all her cool bikes in Utah when we left. We thought that spring time would be a good time for a bike, but come to find out anytime of the year is a good time for a bike in Raleigh! So, every time we walk into a store she goes straight for the small princess bikes. She rides around on them at the back of the store, you get the idea. So, since the gift was coming from the Easter Bunny we couldn't buy it until the day before. It was Saturday afternoon and I was on the phone calling bike stores about what they had for inventory. It was a lot of work to find the perfect bike that would last her a few years. Corey had to stop studying and drive a great distance to pick up the bike, and not to mention it cost $$. So, here is Addy's reaction on Easter morning:

Needless to say, the "Easter Bunny" was about ready to beat her over the head after that reaction, but as the day progressed she became more and more grateful.

This is Addy a little more excited?!? (Excuse the crazy zebra pj's)

Corey got the fourth book from the Eragon series,
 and I got the second Hunger Games book!

Now we sit in bed at night and read until all hours of the night, he says it makes him feel old.

She finally broke down and sat on the BIG bike.

Jack is going to be our little ball player.

Jack's bike, he didn't complain. :)

Perfect Ending:  By the end of the day Addy was riding her bike outside and all around the house!

Panic

Corey started feeling like this everyday, it started in December and progressively got worse:

(I found this picture on his phone, so shhhh) 

In fact, one day in March he started talking to me about having panic attacks about the thought of a panic attack. Basically, his schooling is intense because they are in class, studying, taking tests and quizzes, along with clinicals three days a week. So, when we got a call one morning from the school secretary saying that Corey's temporary NC Nursing License had expired, we panicked. Without his license he wasn't allowed to go to clinicals, even though  he has a Utah Nursing License. It's a long story...but, I didn't know it expired and we thought we had a couple more months to get the paperwork in for the permanent license. So, Corey got all the paperwork to the Board of Nursing that same day and they said it usually takes four to eight weeks. We were stressed, and let them know the situation. They said, they could maybe get it done in seven days. So, Corey got an unexpected break from school, and to be honest I think it was a tender mercy from the Lord. He actually got to breathe for a few days and think about life, and spend time with his family! It was stressful not knowing when he would get to return to clinicals, but he only had to wait two weeks.  He's back at it, learning all the anesthesia tricks, but he seems to be doing much better now that he had a break.  

Fun with our Dad!

These are a few of the fun things we did with our Dad while he had time off from clinicals:

Playing Outside

Ice Cream at Baskin Robbins! 

We tried to eat it outside and soon discovered Adelynn was covered in pollen that had fallen onto the table.

Breakfast with the Easter Bunny

My little "rabbits" with their rabbit ears. 

Dyed Easter Eggs

NC State University's Farm Days with free ice cream!

Yeah for sheep!

Jack was in LOVE with this cow!

 

Our first experience at Steak 'n Shake

Falls Lake for the first time with our Dad! 

P.S. To any of you far away friends and family, I hope I have promoted Raleigh enough that you just can't wait to come visit!!