Strawberry Picking

We went strawberry picking with Ashlyn's preschool a few weeks back. It really wasn't the experience I was dreaming of. Ashlyn was excited to go, but 5 min in her bucket was "too heavy." She was more interested in what her friends were doing.
Corbin was more interested in the mud.

Kamryn usually hates been strapped in her stroller. However, strawberries happen to be her very favorite fruit. Luckily at Hunt's you can eat as much as you want. That is exactly what she did. Of course the pictures doesn't quite show ALL the places I founds strawberries. She could have stayed all day.

We took them home and made freezer jam, strawberry ice cream, yogurt parfaits and smoothies. Divine!

A 3 Loaf Day

Today made me miss the snow, because it was fun, but I also realized there are a few more pluses of southern living:

1. IF (did you see that- if) it snows it isn't much- NEVER enough to actually shovel and boy do I hate shoveling!
2. Everyone stays home even if it is just one inch- Connor came home half day cause no one was at work
3. The stores were EMPTY - half of them at the mall didn't even open today and the other half where barely staffed because "no one could get to work."
4. They cancel school- wait for it, wait for it- the day BEFORE they are expecting to get a FEW inches of snow!!!!!!

Isn't it great- who wants to come live here???? This is the exact opposite from Cleveland! In Cleveland we would get so much snow we can barely dig ourselves out, yet school is still on and work is too!

So around here they label their winter storms by how many loaves of bread you will need to "get through it." So this was rated a three loaf storm. What can I say????

The snow was irresistible and we finally got out to play in it with the last hour of light left. As you can imagine, the snow was not great. All powder, can't make a snowman, can't make snow balls, can't sled, so what do you do????

Play on the Trampoline!! Boy am I glad I haven't listened to Connor tell me a million times that we should take it down. Did you know that you can make a snow angel on the tramp, then jump a little and it evens out the powdery snow again so you can start fresh for a new one??? Then we ended up getting our fill of sledding!!! I was surprised that my little Ashlyn was the tough cookie here. She would have stayed out forever and the cold snow down her neck and on her face didn't seem to phase here, while Dylan screamed bloody murder at the smallest speck of snow on his face (and of course he was the one dishing the snow balls!)

So here is a video our our kind of sledding (as you can see NC would never get enough for real sledding):

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Here is a funny video, excuse the coughing child and the darkness, it is still worth a look:

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

And we had to make our way to the kitchen for hot chocolate, where I found this:

Another generation of a chocoholic! She is stealing my birthday chocolate!!! She moved her chair over and stole it.

Could We Ever Get Sick of The Park?

We have some great parks here that we frequent often because of the great weather. Here we are at one of them with our friend Lydia. Her and Dylan have become great friends. They love this...

Dylan is really good at pushing it and going...

But usually ends up here...

All because he is going way too fast (all of you who know him, know what I mean.)

And here he is mastering the monkey bars. I can't tell you how many times he cried over the monkey bars. He wanted SO badly to get all the way across and all by HIMSELF. If I even took a step close to him he would insist he had to start over. And then when his hands got all sweaty and slippery, well he fell apart! But he did it! Funny kid!


Any my cutie (with her booboo nose), who is to brave at the park...

Here she is swinging before she goes down the slide... (she also hangs on all by herself on thos zipline things.)

And just another picture for my benefit- aren't they adorable!!!

"A Hurricane's a come'in"

For all those Little Mermaid fans!!

Hanna has hit and we have just experienced our first hurricane. Now we are preparing for Ike. It really wasn't that bad, just a lot of rain. Just seemed like a regular Cleveland storm. But it didn't have a high category rating either. Ike is a 4- so I will tell you what that is like. I even went out with a friend for a run this morning. We joked that we were "running in the hurricane." So I can put that on my bucket list!

We also had our first ward social tonight- a "Pig Pick'in"- a southern barbeque. Quite interesting. They barbeque a whole pig and top it with a vinegar based sauce, with a side of deep fried bread (hush puppies), which are delicious. Then there were games galore for the kids.

Raleigh in Three Weeks

We have only been here three weeks, and yet it feels like much longer. Thankfully we have a great ward and Southerners are very nice (granted I can barely understand those that have a real thick drawl.)
A lady a few blocks away took us to this very cute park downtown. Each ride was $1
Here is Ashlyn on the boat ride

Here is our new friend, Grayson (who's dad is the local weather man) and the kids on the train

And finally the carousel

Grayson and his mom also took us the the science museum- we could have stayed forever!
I was also able to catch up with our good friends, the Coxs. They were in our ward in Holladay. It has finally paid off to have moved so much. We are getting back some of our friends! Ashlyn fell right in love with Kendy!

We also took the kids bowling as our "family time with no boxes." It was Ashlyn's debut as a bowler. She loved it.

Luckily, I met a woman in our ward who recently moved in as well. So we both need a friend. She has a pool at her town house and we have been spending all of our "feels like over 100 degree" days there. This humidity is tiring! But it will be worth it this winter!
I am also loving:
1.my flat surfaced stove top with a large microwave and fan above
2.no more squeaky doors and floors right by the babies room
3.a running/bike trail a few blocks away (Dylan is in heaven and I don't have to worry about cars
4.the washer and dryer in my eat in kitchen, making multi tasking perfect
5. my BJ's (wholesale club) membership happened to transfer and they even have BJ's gas!
6.more than one bathroom (so Dylan doesn't have to pee at the same time as Ashlyn when he is dying to go) But then I have to clean them!
7.almost every store I need is with in a 5 mile radius (this actually could be bad)
8.my master bedroom, closet and bathroom! what a treat.

A few strange things:
1.most neighborhoods only have a side walk on one side of the street
2.basements are rare, and you are really lucky to even have a garage, let alone a two car garage!
3.real grass is even more rare
4.preschool costs almost triple what it did in Cleveland
5.all pools are for either members (paying a $600 fee) or for the public with punch cards. There is no such thing a season pass