P H I L A D E L P H I A
After all of our unpacking we had to go do something fun with Jeff's mom before she left.

We went to Independence Hall. 

It was humbling seeing these places. It was a nice reminder of what the founders of this country went through and the sacrifices that were made. We're pretty lucky to live in the U.S.

Only one of us wanted to take this picture. 

We went to reading market and ate a philly cheese steak sandwich...it was amazing.

We saw Benjamin Franklin's grave. Apparently throwing a penny onto his grave brings you luck. Annually he makes about $750 from visitors who need a little bit of luck. 

We went to Valley Forge. I think this was my favorite. It was beautiful!

George Washington's quarters during the war.

N E W  Y O R K  C I T Y 

Luckily my Aunt Glynis lives about 2 hours away from NYC. She was nice enough to watch Garrett for us so Jeff and I could spend a day in the city. We drove into New York, which was a terrible idea. We spent an hour and a half trying to find a parking spot. Finally Jeff gave up and we ended up paying $37 to leave our car in a paid lot.

 We visited the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. The statue is beautiful and another great reminder of freedom.  

 We walked around the city looking at everything and loved taking the subway, because of the air conditioning. Jeff has never been to New York City and I was there for only 6 hours when I was 12....which doesn't really count, so it was pretty awesome that we got to go together. We were in awe at all the random stuff the city has to offer. 

 We went to the 9/11 memorial. It was so hot and humid, but when I was standing there thinking about that September morning I got chills. 

 We went to Lombardi's pizza. It was delicious.

 We walked around Greenwich village.

We got tickets to Les Miserables, and it was amazing. 

After the show Jeff and I went to Juniors and got some cheesecake and then walked over to the empire state building. Apparently it's open until 2am, and since it was only midnight we figured we had to see the city all lit up. It was so pretty. We could have spent hours up there. Sorry for all the pictures - my phone didn't really do it justice. 

We ate our cheesecake and enjoyed the view. It was a great way to end our long day. 

M O V I N G

 

We packed up the moving truck and headed up north to our new home. 

We made a stop at Duke. For some reason, their rare book and manuscript section of the library has a Book of Mormon that was published in 1830. You have to keep it on these angled blocks to protect the spine, but it was pretty cool to flip through the pages.

We got to our apartment in Owings Mills and started unpacking. Owings Mills is about 20 minutes north-west of Baltimore and is a nice, family friendly area. We kind of live in a ghetto apartment compared to other housing in the area (it's expensive!) and I may have had an emotional breakdown when we moved in. But our apartment is becoming more and more like home and I have to keep reminding myself, do I want to spend our money on furniture and a nicer apartment or do I want to be able to go see all of the cool cities and areas that surround us? I would love to have a home that looks like pictures off of pinterest, but traveling and exploring is more exciting to us right now.

These cute kids helped us unpack. We rewarded them with some zots and cookies. Now everyday the two kids on the right of the bookshelf come knocking on our door and ask for candy. Haha. It's pretty funny. They also keep calling Jeff, Dave (even though we've told them a thousand times his name is Jeff) and always ask if they can play with Garrett. 

We went to IKEA and magically fit everything into our car...we deserve a prize. 

I have a love-hate relationship with IKEA. 

We found an awesome italian ice shack by our apartment. 

It's our favorite, and Garrett likes to make friends there.

We also went to the children's museum and the aquarium to get season passes.

G loved it. 

Thanks to Melinda for coming out to help us move! You helped us out a ton! 

Bitter Sweet

Writing this post might make me cry all over again. We had an incredible year living in a lake house with a beautiful view. Jeff would build fires in the fire pit so we could roast s'mores and enjoy the "jungle" noises of the south. Every chance I got I would take Garrett out to our little beach area to play in the sand (mostly I would just play in the sand and Garrett would throw sticks in the water) or float in the lake...sometimes our floating adventures would only last 5 seconds, but it was worth getting in. My favorite was when Jeff  worked long nights and Garrett was in bed, I would go for a swim and take in the surroundings. We also loved when the fire flies would come out at dusk. It was seriously so magical. Jeff said it was like pirates of the Caribbean. We had a screened in porch, which was perfect for trapping Garrett and keeping him in a confined, worry free space. I loved that porch. It also had a swing and we spent a lot of time there reading, playing, climbing, talking, eating and just enjoying the view. Jeff also had a super awesome job; free food, great friends, awesome hours (except medicine). Needless to say we had a year straight from our dreams. We will never forget our home on Sunward Path.

 I'm going to miss this dock. We had a lot of fun swimming, star gazing and roman candle throwing off of it. 

 This is why we would only last 5 seconds in the water.

 He just wanted to dangle his feet off the side 

Lisa was pretty much my best friend and a wonderful next door neighbor. She would watch Garrett for me ALL the time. I loved going over to her house and so did Garrett, he wouldn't even look back at me whenever I dropped him off. I could go over there and talk with Lisa and Rich for hours. The day before we left we had spent pretty much the whole day packing and cleaning and we were exhausted, then Lisa calls and tells me she's bringing dinner over. She and Rich showed up with three pizzas, a table cloth with matching plates, napkins and utensils, soda, water, gifts for me and Garrett and homemade cookies! It was such a great surprise.

 This is Barbara. She is amazing and the friendliest person you will ever meet. The first time I met her she gave me a hug like we'd known each other for years, and was so excited to meet our little Garrett. Barbara loved all the little babies this year; she was lucky there were four of them! She kept everything in order for the TY's and was very patient with them. Jeff asked her what he needed to do before he left and she gave him a look a mom gives to her son when she's told him something a thousand times. It was hilarious.

Jeff met Dr.Monaghan when he was on his pediatric service, and she became Garrett's pediatrician. Monk and Suzanne would also watch G for us so Jeff and I could go out, it was awesome. Who better to trust your kid with than your pediatrician! They lived on the lake too and called us frequently to ask if we wanted to go out on the boat. 15 minutes later, we'd look outside and there they were. She was a die hard skier. It was crazy. She once went in her work clothes, because she didn't wear her swimsuit and the water was too good to pass up. 

I'm going to miss a lot of things about where we lived. One of them being this little abandoned country store/exxon station on highway 9. It was what I looked for every time I needed to turn down our road. My grandpa owned an exxon station/service bay in Columbia, SC and we loved going to visit him there - this one was a fun reminder.  

Thanks to everyone who made our year so great! We are incredibly grateful for the friendships and memories we've made. We love the South and who knows, maybe we'll come back. 

More of May

Garrett loved watching dad mow the lawn,

then he caught me taking pictures and thought that was cooler.

He played with his friend Oliver in the pool.

We were able to go to the temple for our anniversary. 

Growing up in Utah, I never realized how lucky I was to have 5 temples within thirty minutes of my house.

Here, in South Carolina, the closest temple is an hour and a half away. 

We have to put a little more planning when we go, but I think it makes it more meaningful. 

 We celebrated Jeff's birthday

 He was really excited about his paper shredder...and I'm not kidding.

 I made Jeff a book with letters from friends and family. 

 And drew pictures to go along with what I had written. 

 We picked strawberries from the neighbors. I love free berries.

 We went to the Biltmore. 

 We had a bbq and roasted s'mores one last time with all the TY's. 

 We will miss these guys

and Garrett talked on the phone.