Thanksgiving Break

For Thanksgiving this year we did something a little non-traditional. We went to a waterpark! We went with the Bonds to a waterpark called Kalahari in Sandusky, Ohio.  We got a room there and spend the day before Thanksgiving going down water slides and riding the lazy river with Eden.  On Thanksgiving morning we got up and got ready for our Thanksgiving Buffet at lunch time, which we enjoyed very much.  I especially enjoyed the chocolate fountain at the desert table.  It was a great way to have a nice Thanksgiving meal without any preparation or clean-up.  Following our meal we had a little fun at the arcade while the food digested and then it was back in to the swimsuits for another aternoon in the waterpark. We had a blast and Austin seemed to really enjoy himself, he even rode some slides by himself by the end of the trip.  It was a great holiday and a good break for the boys to get away from school (except Ryan studied at nights which is kind of lame).  Here are some pictures from the trip.

Getting a Little Crazy

Well I decided it was time for a change and I got a little crazy last week. I said goodbye to the blonde and went dark. It's still growing on me...but I think I like it.

Our new Hobbies

So since I have been home and not having lots of luck with the job thing, I decided to learn a few new skills. The one I am most proud of I have no pictures of or proof, but I really did do it. I learned to change a car battery by myself! I really did. I watched some videos online and changed Kyle's battery in our parking lot where his car was dead. And the car works! I didn't blow up a single thing. Second, I have also taught myself how to cut boys hair. So I gave kyle his first haircut and it turned out quite well if I do say so myself. I also decided one day to bake a million sugar cookies and deliver them to my friends here. Kyle has won his second intramural football championship in the past six months with his team here.  They were pretty excited about the victory as you can tell in the picture.

Kyle's new haircut, by me.

Intramural Champs!

My sugar Cookies!

Playing Dress up with Eden

I have spent quite a bit of time with the Bonds lately, mostly because I have nothing else to do, but also because I have to take advantage of the time we are this close. So I have done my fair share of babysitting lately, and I have to say dressing a little girl is a lot of fun. I messed it up a few times when it was only me and Ryan there to put together an outfit (he can't dress a girl either),  but the results were pretty hilarious.  Poor Eden looks ridiculous when Jess isn't there to pick her clothes.  Here are some pictures from my recent outings with the kids.

Ballerina Baby! Ryan and I put this together while Jess was at work. 

80's Jazzercize baby!

Eskimo Baby!

Beauty Queen! Complete with headband and shoes!

I just added this because I didn't want Austin to be left out. On our way home from the park he just plopped in the middle of the sidewalk and started playing in his own little world with Woody.

Trip to Niagara Falls and Palmyra

I have gotten way behind on this thing already. So I am going to do a couple quick posts just so I can cover all of the major events that have happened for us in the last couple months. First, Kyle and I took our first major road trip.  We drove to Cleveland and spent a night with the Bonds, then the next day we drove up to Niagara Falls and spent a full day there.  The next day we went just another 90 miles over to Palmyra where we spent another full day seeing the sights and exploring the town. Not much to explore there though to be honest :) We had a great time and it was Kyle's first time seeing either of those places and I think he really enjoyed them.  I kind of had to convince him that we should go on this trip, he wanted to go to an Indianapolis Colts game instead for his time off school, but I convinced him that seeing a wonder of the world and the place where our church began was a little more significant.  Now that he has seen them both he agrees. But that doesn't mean I am off the hook for going to Indianapolis soon to see the Colts play.  Here are some of our favorite pictures from the trip.

The Bond's trip to Louisville

So we had about a week to settle in to our new place before we had our first visitors.  Knowing they were coming was great because it kept me motivated to keep unpacking! We were so excited to have the Bonds here and of course extra excited to have the Bond kids here (no offense Jess and Ryan). I was also really excited to have someone see our apartment because I had worked so hard on it all week I was ready to show it off to someone.  They arrived very late Saturday night so they mostly went straight to bed because we have 9 am church, which they were not at all happy about.  As we were unloading their car Austin told me that they couldn't fly on an airplane to Louisville because it's too far. Clearly he had been told they weren't going on an airplane and got the explanation as to why not a little mixed up.  :)

On Sunday we went to church in the morning and then just played that afternoon.  Kyle and I took the kids while Jess and Ryan slept and we played for almost three hours straight. We had a blast. Kyle and Austin mostly spent their time beating up on each other and rolling off the bed while I had Eden duty and spent most of my time trying to make her smile and laugh.  We were trying really hard not to interrupt Jess and Ryan's nap, but when all at once Eden had something green leaking out of her diaper and Austins shorts were all wet on the bum we had to call in backup.  Diapers and potty accidents are not my job. That is a job for mom and mom only.  So we had to wake them then to take care of that little mess :) Sunday night we just relaxed and had dinner. We had to convince Ryan that just because there was a gas station with cheap fountain drinks just down the street it was not OK to buy them on Sunday :) I think they are a little fountain drink deprived in Cleveland.

The next day we spent the day at the Louisville Slugger Museum and at the park down on the river.  Austin was especially thrilled when they gave everyone on the tour their own little bat at the end of the tour.  He hardly let go of that thing the rest of the trip.  Kyle and I especially enjoyed the batting cages and trying to hit a few balls with some famous bats.  After that we headed down to the park where Austin was especially excited about the boats and the bridges and some water fountains we found.  He ripped his shirt off and in he went! We all had a pretty good time in the fountains because we were pretty exhausted from a long walk and needed to cool off too.  Then of course after that it was off to get some snacks and drinks and we settled in for the Boise State vs. Virginia Tech football game which Kyle absolutely insisted we not miss. It was a great trip and I miss those kids like crazy when they are gone. Hopefully we can get them back here again soon.

Me and Eden. This was before her diaper started leaking :)

The Boys!

The Girls!

Kyle and Austin with their new bats!

These two are best buds.

Just chillin'. I don't know why but he refused to wear a shirt all afternoon. He kept telling me, "I don't wear a shirt after church." Ok whatever!

Our new Place

Alright. So in my last post I told you that I was uncovering some of my decorating talents. Which is true, but then I discovered something new and I fell in love. The Hobby Lobby! Thanks to the Hobby Lobby my decorating skills are no longer being uncovered they are now fully blossomed! Now that college football is on I really don't have a husband on Saturday's anymore.  So I decided to run some errands on my own and see if I couldn't find a few more cute things to cover the endless amounts of blank wall space we have in this apartment.  Then when I was trying to get home from an entirely unsuccessful trip to Bed Bath and Beyond, and I was of course lost, I discovered a Hobby Lobby. I had never been in one, but I have heard a lot about them and they are really popular in Utah, so I thought I'd give it a try so I didn't come home empty handed. I walked in, took one look around, and knew I had hit the jackpot. Not only did they have tons of cute stuff, but the entire store was 50% off. It was meant to be! So I spent a couple hours in there letting my creative juices flow and I'm pretty happy with what I made it out of there with.  Then in between football plays Kyle helped me hang everything.  I snapped a few pictures so I could share with you all what our new place looks like, and also to tell you that if you have never been to a Hobby Lobby you simply must go as soon as possible.  If I just had endless amounts of money and endless amounts of time, I could have a lot more fun at the Hobby Lobby.

Kitchen wall. Couldn't not buy the top sign once I read it.

This idea was all my own. I found this fake fruit and thought it was so cute. Turns out it looks great on the hutch!

Our new rug for under the kitchen table.

I have discovered how fun and pretty fake flowers can be.  Pretty proud of how this little project turned out.

Above our bed. I think this wall has become my favorite of the house. 

Getting Settled

So since Kyle had already started school when I got here, most of the moving in process was left to me. Ok actually all of it was left to me, but that's alright because I have nothing else to do at the moment! Plus we discovered that when he tries to be helpful and unpack things and put them away I just end up moving everything he put away to a spot that I like better, so it really is more efficient for me to just do it on my own :) Projects that I am particularly proud of include mounting a shelf to the wall in the bathroom completely by myself, I even had to use a drill in the process and only messed up the wall a little. I also decorated our hutch which required every ounce of creativity I have, but I'm pretty proud of the finished product.  Kyle keeps catching me just staring at it.   I also have uncovered some of my decorating talents, which previously have never  been tested, and turns out they aren't all that terrible. I hope at least.  It has been a huge adjustment for me to go from sitting at a desk all day crunching numbers to doing things like decorating the tops of my cupboards and blogging and cooking and cleaning. It's pretty much a complete 180 from my life in Utah, but so far I am enjoying it.  I haven't had the urge to do anything about finding a job just yet so I have been enjoying it enough that I'm not dying to get out of the house and back to work.  Hopefully I can go a few more weeks before that happens.

Kyle is in his third week of school and seems to be really enjoying it. He never used to come home from school at BYU and want to talk about his classes, and now I can't get him to shut up about them. So I figure that's a good sign.  He also got an internship with the athletic department which he is enjoying, but also he has already got his eye on where he wants to work next semester and he's doing a little brown-nosing in order to get there by December.  He comes home between work and class to hang out with me and have lunch and keep me company.  He spends a lot of that time studying and writing papers for class too.  Right now he has a big research paper going on and he is already brainstorming about what he wants to write his thesis on. I'm proud of him he has done a really good job jumping right into things here.  On his third day of work he came home with a sideline pass for all the home football games which I think is awesome! I just wish he came home with a spouse pass to go with it! Last Saturday he worked at the UofL vs. UK football game which he says was a pretty cool experience, much different than the feel of BYU games.  That night we actually went to a friend's house in the ward who has the Mountain and watched the BYU game. It was a crazier more rowdy crowd than anything I ever experienced in Provo.  BYU football definitely has a following in Louisville we know that for sure. And of course we were happy when they pulled out the big win!

I decided to make a list of the things I like and the things I don't like about Louisville. Here it is.

Likes:
1. The country radio stations out here are AWESOME!
2. The watermelons out here are so much sweeter than anything you can find in Utah. I'm guessing its because they grow them here.
3. Gas is cheap! So there are a bunch of BP gas stations out here, and I guess since BP dumped a bunch of oil into the gulf they had to lower their gas prices. We are talking like less than $2.50 a gallon right now. So we are getting cheap gas!
4.  So far the weather has been beautiful!
5. Although I still get lost a lot, the freeway system here is great.
6. They LOVE their Big East basketball out here, and so do I!

Dislikes:
1. No Cafe Rio or Chipotle
2. We don't have DVR here :)
3. My allergies are really bad. I am pounding the Benadryl all day long.

Jess and Ryan helped me with the decorating of the tops of my cupboards. I think it turned out pretty good!

The hutch I did all on my own, and I must say I am pretty proud :)

                                          

Cardinal fan by day!

Cougar fan by night!

Our Moving Story

Well I figure the best place to start our blog is at the start of our new life here in Louisville.  Thankfully the 1,700 mile move was mostly uneventful, but the story of how we ended up here and got all of our stuff here was no simple task.  Kyle and I left our jobs on August 6th, which gave us 12 days to pack and clean everything before we left for Scott and Breana's wedding in Newport Beach on the 18th.  Despite all the packing and cleaning we had plenty of fun over those 12 days.  Pretty much everyday included several hours at the gym and the pool, and then we would throw in a little packing at the end of the day.  Kyle deserves most of the credit for us actually finishing everything we needed to do, if it were up to me we would have played all day and we would have never finished on time.  Anyway, we left for the wedding on the 18th, went to the wedding on the 21st, and flew out very early the morning of the 22nd.  The tricky part about this was that we didn't fly to the same place.  Kyle flew straight to Louisville because he started school the very next day. He camped out with nothing but an air mattress and a towel in our empty apartment for his first week of school. In the meantime, I flew back to Utah to finish the packing and make the drive to Louisville. Thankfully I wasn't completely alone, my mom and dad made the trip up to help with the final cleaning and loading up the moving truck.  Aaron, our brother-in-law, was a huge help in getting the truck packed up too. It really only took the four of us about 2-3 hours to get everything loaded and cleaned, so I was grateful for that it could have been a lot worse.  Then we spent one final night in our house (I slept in the basement because our room was already clean which was really weird), and the next morning we were off.   Well we had an interesting experience learning how to attach a car trailer to a truck, but we finally got it and the car made it all the way here unharmed so we must have done it right! So that morning we said goodbye to my mom and my dad and I began our 24 hour/1700 mile drive. He drove the truck (thank goodness) I just had to follow in my car behind him so it wasn't so bad.

Everyone keeps asking me if the drive was terrible, but to be honest I didn't mind it.  I had Twilight on CD, lots of good music and a fully charged phone to keep me going.  We saw a lot of the country that I had never seen, and my dad and I had a pretty good time making pit stops and exploring random little cities at night.  The first day we covered 685 miles and spent the night in North Platte, Nebraska.  I'll be honest, that was a long day.  But only about the last hour did it start to feel really long.  So that day we covered all of Wyoming and half of Nebraska, and I think we maybe saw one house that entire time. Pretty sure nobody lives in either one of those states.  The next day we covered another 550 miles.  We finished off Nebraska, saw a little piece of Iowa, and then dropped down into Missouri.  We spent the night in Columbia, Missouri which was actually a pretty cool place.  It was also toward the end of this day that we really started to feel the humidity kicking in.  The third day was a piece of cake.  We went about 400 miles on the last day and most of it was beautiful scenery.  We finished off Missouri, which included going right through the heart of St. Louis where we saw the Rams stadium and the big arch.  After that we covered Illinois end to end and then into Indiana, and finally over the Ohio River and into Kentucky.  Kyle was so excited for us to get there that he was in his car at the entrance of our apartment complex waiting for us to get there when we pulled in.  I'm not sure if he was more excited to see me or all of his stuff :)

The next 3 hours we spent unloading. We live on the second floor which made it a little more difficult because we had to get up a flight of stairs.  Thankfully Kyle and my dad were up to the challenge and got it done without any problems.  That was a pretty overwhelming night to say the least. I couldn't believe we had actually made it and that we were supposed to live here now! But it has all been a very smooth adjustment and we got rid of our last box today!

Kyle and I in our new place after everything was finally unloaded. Yes, that's sweat!

My dad and I ready to start driving!

The boys all sweaty after three hours of unloading!

Welcome to our Blog!

Well Kyle and I have finally cracked and decided that it would be a good time for us to start a blog.  Now that we live so far away from everyone that we know, we decided people might actually be interested in reading about our lives now since we won't be seeing everyone as often as we used to. So here we go...!