"Things have been pretty quiet with our lives lately.
Mike finished his first year as a doctoral student and is feeling great about that. He likes his job at the nursery and has been learning a lot about different plants. We even got some lemon thyme and french thyme to start to use in our recipes. It's been really fun!
Mike finished his first year as a doctoral student and is feeling great about that. He likes his job at the nursery and has been learning a lot about different plants. We even got some lemon thyme and french thyme to start to use in our recipes. It's been really fun!
We've been enjoying time with family before this little one arrives."
That was the last draft I have for our blog... whoops! So much has happened!
So, we went to Idaho for the summer.
Mike didn't mind his jobs in Garden City last summer and it worked out for us to head to Idaho, so we did. This summer Mike ended up working at the nursery, which he loved.
O and I headed to Idaho a couple weeks before Mike so I could meet with the doctor that would deliver Elliott and we could get settled in. The trip was the LONGEST plane trip I've ever made. We were delayed in Denver twice, once on the plane we landed in and then again on the plane we boarded. Keeping a 2-year-old seat-belted in a plane that's just sitting on the runway is so tricky! Not to mention keeping my own 9 month prego body still for that long. It was long, but we made it. We were supposed to get into SLC at 11pm, but instead made it around 1am. When we stopped to pick up our stroller in the tunnel, a man went to look for it and couldn't find it. He said, "Sorry about that, they can probably give you one at the desk at baggage claim." to a 9 month pregnant woman carrying not only her and her toddler's bag, but also her now bawling toddler. Awesome, thanks for all your help. I'll just drag my exhausted body down there and attempt to not go into labor on the way. The good news just got better when we got to baggage claim and they had left our luggage, including the car seat, in Denver. Sweet, this is exactly what I wanted to hear at 1:30am. Thankfully my amazing parents had patiently waited for us to get in and had gotten us a hotel room so we could collapse into bed. I sent this picture to Mike at 2am before I crawled into bed in my jeans.
In the morning, we stopped at the airport again to retrieve our luggage. Frontier Airlines was kind enough to give us a voucher for free luggage if we booked a flight in the next three months. Woohoo, go Frontier and your impeccable customer service!
After that we really did have fun catching up with Nana and Papa and making our way to Montpelier.
After we got settled in, O had so much fun playing with Aunt Lindsay and making Baby Kirra giggle. It was so cute!
They had a lot of fun at Lindsay's fun run for her school...
They helped Papa fix the dishwasher at Grandma Fisher's house...
and even had a couple tea parties.
I was busy prepping for the baby to come...
and starting a blog with my sister!
Check out Motherhood With a Sparkle
Then the day finally arrived for our little Elliott Dan to come and it was perfect.
I posted his birth story on our blog, so please check it out!
Baby Elliott: A Birth Story
Here are some more pictures of our sweet new family member when he first came...
Lil' O was pretty spoiled while Mama was in the hospital having brother, so he didn't mind missing her too much. He got to go swimming a couple times, out to lunch a couple times, and all sorts of other special things. Plus, he got to sleep in the big bed with Dada and it just doesn't get much better than that!
First sponge bath.
Brother and Dada snuggles.
Our sleeping boys.
...and Mama.
O got his very own fishing pole this summer and he loves it! He learned how to cast it pretty quick, too.
This is how we fish in the house with Aunt Lindsay's pole.
Since Elliott was only a week old, we had to skip the Beal Reunion. This is my Grandma Fisher's family's reunion and it's one of my favorite parts of the summer. We've gone camping for the Beal Reunion every summer for as long as I can remember. I've only missed a couple times, but a newborn baby seems like an ok reason to miss out.
Lindsay had a blast at the carnival they do at the reunion and was sad O missed out, so she and my grandma went around to every game and won an extra prize to take home for O. When she got home, she and my parents put on a special carnival just for O, so he could win his prizes. He thought it was the best!
O learned to play croquet... sort of...
Dad and Mike went fishing and we met them later in the day. We had fun eating lunch on the beach and cruising in the boat.
It was Elliott's first time and he obviously loved it...
O loved casting his pole at the beach!
Then it was Elliott's first bath!
He didn't love it so much.
Aunt Lindsay got a new swimming pool this summer and she and O loved swimming in it!
This summer had some firsts for O, too!
Here's his first big boy bike ride.
Here's O's first time loving the water at the beach and Elliott's first time at the beach.
Thanks for the cute striped outfit Nana Joyce!
The 4th of July was fun. Austin was in the Patriotic Program Choir and sang a solo, it was fantastic! Then we enjoyed some lunch and the parade before heading home to relax until the fireworks.
Thanks for the cute hat Aunt Tauna, O loves it!
Lindsay was in the parade. O loved watching for her and catching some extra candy to share with her.
Some pictures of our two sweet boys!
Elliott loves his shark outfit, thanks Nana Shirley!
They look so cute in their matching outfits, thanks Aunt Tauna!
Here we are on our family date to Logan. Doesn't Mike look like his dad when he has a mustache?!
Mike's birthday was so nice! He spent the morning fishing, then he and I went on a lunch date to the Mexican Restaurant(our favorite!), then we had some rhubarb pie and games in the evening. The kids really wanted to decorate and have games, so they worked all afternoon on decorating the living room and making up some games, it was so sweet and the games were so fun!
Mike learned a ton while working at the nursery this summer! Here are some pots he planted and part of the nursery where he worked.
Elliott at 1 1/2 months.
On the 24th of July we headed out to my Grandma and Grandpa Fisher's ward in Bennington for their annual Pioneer Day Celebration. O got to be in his first parade with Nana and Papa and Aunt Lindsay. He rode his bike the whole time with Lindsay, they were so cute!
Next came raspberry season. The bushes at my parent's house were loaded this year! We picked several gallons worth every other day for a couple weeks, it was crazy!
O loved it! We would find him snacking away in the raspberry patch all the time, silly boy!
Here's another fun day at the beach and Elliott's first time in the adorable swimmer Aunt Sarah got him.
Then came huckleberry picking, which I love! It's so fun to head up into the mountains for the afternoon to scout out a good huckleberry patch and work together to get what we need.
Everyone was kind of burnt out on picking from the raspberry patch, so it ended up just being me, Austin, Dad, Linds, and O. We had a great time! :)
A couple more cute videos of the kids...
Elliott was smiling so big when Linds started doing this, and then we couldn't catch it!
One of our last big adventures of the summer was Raspberry Days.
It was so fun to head down to enjoy some good food, wander through fun booths, and watch the kids play on all the bounce houses!
Mike and Austin even climbed the rock wall!
The week we headed out, my mom's family was having a reunion at Ideal Beach at the bottom of the lake. My family had a condo rented and we got to stay and play a couple days before we headed out, it was great!
We even got to see my Aunt Tauna, Uncle Steve, and Jess and let them meet Elliott!
While we were there, Mike's Grandma Leah came with his sister Zauni, two of our nephews, and a friend to meet Elliott before we headed back to Louisiana. It really meant a lot to us that they would make the effort to come! It was a fun visit!
Phew, as you can see, it was a busy summer, but so good!
Now we're back in Louisiana, and I'll keep working on getting a couple more posts up about what we've been doing and how the boys are growing!
