Rearranging Furniture...Already

So we've been here a whopping 3.5 months now, so I guess it's time for a change, right?  Ha. The trouble with not seeing your new place until the night before the movers come is that you don't have time to figure out where you really want everything!  The other night I was saying to Jeremy how I kind of wish our table was in a different room, or at least I wondered what it would look like and he said, "Well why don't we just move it in there and see?  I'll do it".  Huh!  What a thought! So we did, and we liked it, and now we've moved all sorts of things around.

Which leads me to some pictures!  I took quite a few pictures of our house a couple months ago, but realized I never put them up so now there is documentation of what our house looked like then and now.  We're only going to be here 8 more months, so this is probably all I'll do in terms of decorating - which is not much - but it is what it is.  We're lucky to have such a great house.  Of course it's not perfect, but it's pretty darn awesome.

So...here we go.

This is when you first walk in the door and you look to the right.  This is how it used to look, with our table in the dining room.  The "problem" is that this house really is too big for us, so we have some empty spaces, but that makes for great spots for the boys to play soccer when it rains for days on end, like it's been doing since Friday... :)

 Lovely windows.

And this is what it is now.

 Not very aesthetically pleasing, I know, with that giant empty space, but it's very functional.  We've created a little playroom where the dining set used to be and I love it.

And that doorway leads into the kitchen so the kids can play while I do dishes/cook and it's great.

And the kitchen!  I love love love love the kitchen.  Our counter space in Pittsburgh was a joke so this is cooking heaven.  Of course the cupboards and appliances are very out of date (they remind us both of the homes we grew up in - hello 80s!), but as I said before, it's very functional.  I can fit all my dishes, pots, pans, appliances, and a lot of food.  It's a miracle!

 (All these pictures were taken before we rearranged everything)

I love the large "L" counter.  I use that the most and I can look out at the backyard and it is awesome.

So above is what it used to look like in our kitchen nook.  We also had Anna's swing in there most of the time.  It was great, but since these pictures were taken, we took the swing down, moved the desk out, and put our table in here.  It's a little tighter - especially when we expand it - but it's nice to have it in there, especially with Anna throwing eating food now.

And the family room!  The only thing sorely missing from this room is an overhead light!  Sigh.  We have 2 floor lamps that do an adequate job, but with the sun going down earlier these days we are missing the light.

 Above: This is looking from the kitchen nook/back slider. Below: from the entryway.  Again, the house has great windows!

 Don't you love the brass on the fireplace?  Hahaha, rrrright...we are excited to use the wood fireplace this winter though.  It's been getting chilly lately!

And here are the kids' rooms.

Totally boring I know, but they are perfect little rooms for them.  We also have TWO bathrooms AND a laundry room.  This is our first time having a laundry room and I love it so much!  You walk through it to get out to the garage and I just think it's the greatest thing ever.  It has a sink AND cupboards AND a closet.  Amazing.  And of course we have a bedroom too - with a walk-in closet and master bathroom - but I didn't take any pictures of it.  Sorry.  Deal with it.

And not to be forgotten, our garage!  We were pleasantly surprised to find out how awesome this garage is when we got here, since we didn't know anything about it other than there was one.  It is extra wide, deep, and tall, so it fits both of our cars plus a ton of other stuff very easily.  It has lost of cabinets and shelves and the boys can ride their bikes in there when it's raining. :)

That's it!  I put pictures of the yard up a few months ago.  We love it too.  It's nice living in so many places because I feel like by the time we're ready to buy a house again, we'll really know what we do and don't like. (i.e. yes on the disposal, no on the pink bathtub).  I can't believe we have to leave here in such a short time, but I try not to think about it too much.  For now we're enjoying feeling more comfortable and actually having a few friends.  It's a good life.

Ah, Normal Life

I haven't blogged lately because we haven't done anything extraordinary, but I guess doing normal things is a bit out of the ordinary compared to the summer we've had.  So, here we are!  Back to normal life.  It feels good to be getting into a routine again.  Nobody's in school, but I feel like our "summer of fun" is over and it's time to get back into a groove.

So nice to be able to look out at everyone while I'm making dinner!

We've all started getting up a little earlier this week so we could read scriptures as a family and have a prayer before Jeremy goes off to work in the morning.  It's something I've felt like we should do for awhile - rather than reading at night - but I've been neglecting the thought (that never works out very well, does it?).  So we started this week!  I had missed being all together in the mornings, even if it's only for a few minutes, so it's been nice to start our day that way.  And because of that, we've also been getting everyone to bed earlier (including ourselves), so that's been nice too!

Jeremy is working hard and learning a lot.  He's also trying to figure out what he wants to do for his next assignment.  He has about 6 months to figure it out.  No pressure!  I am trying to be on the computer less (except for when I'm doing something incredibly productive like blogging! haha) and read more, so that's been fun.  I also finally went to choir practice on Sunday, so that was also fun.  Our choir director is actually really great and she has a lot of energy and keeps things movin', which I like.  It should be a good way to get to know more people too.

Eli, aka Mr. Inquisitive, is probably the only 4 yr old left in America who doesn't go to preschool, but I think he'll still turn out okay ;).  We've been doing reading lessons everyday together and he is eating it up.  He also loves me to drill him on math, and loves doing art and science projects and, of course, playing with his legos.

 Showing me his crane that lifts beams - made all by himself.

He also has a lot of little friends from church that he plays with every once in awhile too.  He loves it, but poor little Connor always feels left out when Eli goes to a friends' house or we have a friend over, so I try to distract him a lot whenever that happens. :)  Eli and Connor really are best buddies, so I feel so grateful they have each other to play with all the time!

Connor still loves to do and say everything Eli does/says.  He's a parrot.  He speaks so well and half the time I think he doesn't even know what the things he says mean, but he's so good and repeating whatever he hears.  He loves to swing on the "baby swing" outside and would be perfectly content to have me push him all day long I think.  He also loves to play ball - any kind, and I wish I had more hands so I could play with him more often.  He also has the sweetest tender heart and gets very concerned when he thinks anyone is hurt or in danger.  I was feeling dizzy on our hike while we were camping a couple weeks ago and had to put my head between my legs for a couple minutes and he burst out in tears, "Mommy!" and was so worried.  He also gets really nervous when Eli pretends to be fighting dragons or something, because he doesn't quite understand they aren't real.  He's a sweetheart.

And little Anna is growing up way too fast!  Weighing in at almost 19 pounds and measuring almost 27 inches, this "little" girl is not going to let anything get in the way of keeping up with her brothers.  She is sitting up very securely, rolling everywhere, rocking back and forth on her hands and knees, and just started army crawling this week!  It won't be long before she's full-on crawling (AHH!!).  Her current favorite activities include picking up everything and putting it in her mouth, and making her way over to the recycling bin to dump its entire contents all over the floor (and then, of course, putting them in her mouth).  It's a party over here! :)

And, speaking of our cute girl, I realized I didn't have very many pictures of her lately, so I've taken a ton over the last few days.  Enjoy!

 Her cheeks are out-of-control kissable.  She's also modeling an outfit I bought awhile back thinking it would fit her around Christmas time...or not!

 Just doing some light reading. :)

 Weeeeee!!!

 Someone else likes the swing too!

And last but not least, my brother Steve is engaged!  He is engaged to an awesome girl, Yihua Shi. She's from China and is in the same program as Steve at UCSD.  We've met her a couple of times and love her!  It will be fun to get another [much shorter] sister, hehe.  We're excited to get to know her more and really excited for Steve!  Being married is the best. :)  We love you guys!

(Steve and Yihua with my Grandma last Christmas)

Silver Falls State Park

Warning: EXTREME picture overload!  I have problems!

Another adventure!  This weekend we went camping at Silver Falls State Park.  It started out as a bit of a disaster, but ended really well.  Jeremy was all set to take Friday off of work and we were planning on leaving Thursday afternoon.  He had a lot going on at work, so we changed our plans to leave Thursday evening.  Then it started raining... Before a couple days ago, it had hardly rained at all since we'd been here, and when it did, it was very light.  Well I packed up everything and picked up Jeremy and it was like a torrential downpour.  There were rivers running through the freeway and it was crazy.  So after driving for awhile and calling the campground and hearing it had been like that for several hours there, we turned around and went home. :(  We were so sad!  But it turned out to be a very good thing.  The boys handled it really well and we were able to get a decent night's sleep.

So Friday morning it was raining lightly, but we got packed up again and headed out around 9am.  We got there at 10:30am and it was only slightly drizzling.  Unfortunately we got to the campground though and discovered that it was not what we had hoped.  So many people recommended this place to us, but we're thinking maybe they were just recommending the state park, not the actual campground.  The facilities were great and everything, but the sites were teeny tiny and crammed together.  We got to our site and saw it was hardly more than a parking space and would in no way fit our big tent.  So luckily we were able to "upgrade" to an RV site for $5 because they had more space (which makes absolutely no sense, but whatever).  We still ended up putting our tent on the parking space, but at least we could fit it and a few chairs around the fire.  It was also a site right next to a nature trail, so it gave us the illusion of having a little more space (along with a lot of people walking by).  Not exactly ideal, but it worked.

And we certainly can't complain about the beautiful scenery!

Luckily that was the last of the disappointments though.  We set up our camp and got everything ready.  I had an idea to tie up our tarp to make a little rain shelter over our table, and of course Jeremy did it beautifully.  I told him he makes all my dreams come true. :)  I have lots of ideas and luckily he knows how to execute them, because I sure don't!  Haha.  What a pair we make.

Anyway, so we set up, had lunch, had Connor and Anna take a short nap and then went on the little nature trail in the campground.

 Giant ant hill:

 Red fungus:

That night we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows and enjoyed all the usual camping fun.  We talked to another camper who said it rained hard for 12 hours straight the night before we came, so I think it was a good idea we didn't go that night!  We actually didn't see any more rain the whole time we were there, so it was perfect.

 Fire-man Jeremy helping us stay warm!

 There isn't much left of this s'more, but let me tell you, it was amazing!  Ghiradelli dark chocolate squares - I highly recommend them. :)

The next morning we had some delicious breakfast burritos...

 I made them at home and then we just warmed them up over the fire.  We decided investing in a tent and sleeping bags and pads for the boys was enough to spend on camping equipment for one summer (yikes!), so cooking equipment will have to wait!

Then we headed out to do some hiking!  This was the real reason we wanted to go to this place.  Everyone said it was gorgeous and it certainly was!  There is a "Trail of Ten Falls" you can do that is 8.7 miles and takes you to 10 different waterfalls and you can walk behind 4 of them I think.  We obviously didn't do all that with our 3 kids, but we were able to do over 2 miles (and 2 waterfalls) and I was so proud of Eli and Connor!  We knew we'd make it to the first waterfall, but we weren't sure how they'd do all the way to the other one, but they were champions.  Eli walked the entire way and Jeremy only carried Connor on his shoulders for maybe a quarter of a mile.  They did awesome.

 On the path to the first waterfall.  This was a short hike, mostly paved, and after that it was dirt/rocks.

 South Falls - 177 ft. waterfall.

 You can see the fence of the trail that goes behind it:

 Behind the waterfall!  Eli was really scared at first, but once I explained to him that we're just going behind it, not in it, he was okay. :)

 And blue skies!!

 It's a waterfall, Mommy!

 It was so gorgeous!  Of course everything was just lush and green and beautiful.

 The key to our success with the kids - lots of breaks and lots of snacks! :)  Going at our own pace was nice.  Most of our hiking in the past has been at family reunions when we're trying to keep up with the big kids.  The boys did great when they weren't constantly being rushed, and we actually kept a pretty decent pace.  I also talked it up a lot beforehand - telling them we had to be brave and cheerful so it would be fun. (aka No whining!) Connor kept asking me all weekend, "Mommy, you going to be brave at the campsite?" Yep!

 Oooh, a tree stump to hide in!

 And a tree stump chair!

And here we are about to go down the 185 steps to Lower South Falls - a 93 ft waterfall.

 Lower South Falls:

 We were able to go behind this one too.

 You can see the railings of the steps we went down.  I'm also really glad we did the loop the way we did it and not the other way.  Stairs are much more fun to go down!  Of course we had to hike back up hill eventually, but it was a better design.

 Connor getting a ride:

 And Anna getting a change of scenery going on my back.  She loved it!  And then she fell asleep with her head flopped over.

 We did it!!!

Like I said, we were so proud of our boys.  That is definitely the longest they've ever hiked.  Jeremy was probably the most tired though, packing the backpack and Anna most of the way.  Thanks babe!  It took us about 2.5 hours and then we headed back to our camp to eat lunch and pack up!  It turned out to be a great trip.