Aunty Tara...

Adam's sister, Tara, recently returned home from her mission in Argentina. She had never met Anniston before, so...as soon as she got home, she boarded another flight to Pennsylvania to come and visit us! It was so much fun having her with us! Thanks for the visit Tara...we miss you! We went up to Little Pine Creek State Park and had a barbeque with our friends the Nickle's. Here is Aunty Tara with Anniston and Janell with Chloe. (The two little ones are only 11 days apart in age and they love playing with each other!)
Here's our beautiful little one eating Spaghetti on her own for the first time! She did a great job and didn't make too big of a mess!

Niagara Falls!!!

A couple of weeks ago we went to Niagara Falls, both the American and Canadian sides...and it was Awesome! We woke up at 3:30 in the morning, met 2 other couples, loaded up in a 15 passenger van and started on our 4 hour journey! The kids slept most of the way there and back, so that was really nice. We spent all day there and arrived back home at 1:30am.

This is a picture of us standing in front of Horseshoe Falls...named that way because it looks like a big horseshoe (go figure!). It is located on the Canadian side of the border.
American FallsThis a different picture of Horseshoe falls...and that little boat down there - Yep, we went on it! We got a little wet, but it was amazing being so close to the falls and seeing them from a different perspective.
A view from The Maid of the Midst (the boat ride).
We also went on a little excursion called Cave of the Winds. We were able to walk down right next to the American Falls. It was a blast...we came out really wet, but it was worth it. Plus, we ended up getting these niffty panchos (which we threw away after) and some cool Niagara Falls water shoes.
We also went to an aquarium while we were there! Here's my hubby getting his head bit off by a mean and ferocious looking shark!!!
I thought this picture was so cute. It's all the kids in our little group. Chloe, Anniston, Avery, Jerom, Emilee and Joey!
Lunch Break! This is my only picture with the whole group. They are all so much fun!

Niagara Falls was Beautiful and we were able to do lots of fun things. For any of you that haven't been there...I would definitely recommend it!!!

Billboard...

While on our road trip we passed a lot of billboards, but this was one of our favorites...if you can't read it - it says:

"Keep using my name in vain, I'll make rush hour longer."

-God

So, for all of you that may use His name in vain, PLEASE stop! Not only is it one of the Ten Commandments - but I hate rush hour traffic!!!

RoAd tRiP...

Our road trip started in Utah on May 3, 2009 at 4:00am...and NO Anniston did not drive the car although I'm sure she would've really liked to!

After more than 10 hours of traveling we decided to stop in Nebraska for the night. Lucky for Anniston they had a swimming pool! Although it's not quite the Hawaii ocean water, it's still water to play in and Anniston LOVES to splash around!!!

We continued our trip early the next morning. About two hours into our drive we were fortunate enough to come across a cop car (ha,ha,ha)...as we passed him, we noticed that he instantly pulled out onto the freeway and I told Adam that we were BUSTED - however, that didn't make too much sense to us because we were only going over the speed limit a couple of miles. The cop came right up behind us and stayed there for awhile - then he pulled up next to us and stared into the car - it was so awkward. After about 5 minutes of this the cop exited the freeway and we Thought we were safe...

THINK AGAIN! About 5 minutes later, guess who's on our rear end again, but still not pulling us over --- Yep, Mr. Crazy Cop! He continued to follow us for a few minutes and then he finally turned on his lights and pulled us over. We honestly had NO clue in the world why he would pull us over - but he did. Well - to make a long story short - we got pulled over because we had a little yellow air freshener hanging from our rear view mirror --- LAME! Apparently in Nebraska it's called a "WINDOW OBSTRUCTION." The cop made Adam get out of the car and go sit in his car while he wrote out a warning. Yes, it was just a warning luckily, not an actual ticket, but it's still so dumb - who get's pulled over for that - I guess only in Nebraska!!!

While Adam was in the cop car, I pulled out the camera and took a few pictures! He wasn't too happy that I was snapping some mug shots of him at the moment, but now it's a funny story!!!

We continued OUR JOURNEY to Omaha, Nebraska where we stopped at Winter Quarters. This stop was a humbling experience because we were able to learn of the PIONEERS JOURNEY in crossing the plains. They had such incredible faith and always continued onward no matter how hard the trek. It made me realize even more how blessed we are and how grateful we should be for the many sacrifices that they made in our behalf.

Omaha Nebraska temple.

Our next stop took us to Liberty Jail (ironically named)- this is where the Prophet Joseph Smith and 5 other church leaders were held prisoners for over 5 months. This sacred place was also very humbling.

Elder Holland called it a "prison-temple" because of the great revelations that were received there. He then related it to our lives and said, "You can have sacred, revelatory, profoundly instructive experience with the Lord in the most miserable experiences of your life—in the worst settings, while enduring the most painful injustices, when facing the most insurmountable odds and opposition you have ever faced."

Next, we went to Far West...not much is there, but a memorial and 4 temple corner stones. It was a very beautiful area.

Our little family at Adam-ondi-ahman. At first I didn't want to go here because it was out of our way, but I am SO glad that we did. It was a very beautiful and peaceful place. It's amazing to think about what will happen at this place in the future.
Beautiful Nauvoo!!! We know a wonderful missionary couple here, the Crabtrees, and they let us stay with them for two days while we toured through Nauvoo. The temple is so beautiful!
Anniston loved all of the animals there!
This is a statue of Joseph and Hyrum Smith looking out over the Mississippi River. This would be the way that the saints would cross in their journey west.
Carthage Jail...On June 27, 1844 Joseph and Hyrum Smith were martyred here. The upper window on the side of the jail house is where the Prophet was shot and fell out.
This is a bullet-hole that went through the door where the four men were.

I do have to say that when we started our own 2,500 mile trek across the United States, I wasn't that excited. I didn't want to travel with Anniston in the car for that long, but she was GREAT - we really couldn't have asked for her to be better!!! Now, after the many experiences that we had while on our 7 day trip (I just listed a few), I am SO very grateful that we decided to drive and visit Church History sites along the way. Yes, it was long, but the memories we made were amazing.

Happy Birthday Anniston!!!

It's the Birthday Girl! Wow! We can't believe a year has already gone by! We love our little Princess girl and are so grateful she is ours!!! She is now walking, talking and eating a lot more! Anniston actually had 3 birthday parties! What a lucky girl! Because we weren't going to be in Utah over her birthday, the grandparents still wanted to celebrate it! This is a picture of the first one --- it was with our extended family and friends.

This was the birthday cake that I made for party number two with just our close family members! It's bright and colorful - and was fun to make - I' glad it turned out okay!

As you can see Anniston had no problem with shoving cake into her mouth!!!

This is a picture of party number three - here in Pennsylvania - and this time it was really her birthday! We had the Nickle's and the Harris' over for some cake and icecream! They are both great families that we have met here in Lock Haven!

Utah!!!

It was so great to be home again with family and friends!

We hiked Ensign Peak with Adam's Family ... it was lots of fun and a beautiful view!
Four generation pictures with with Grandma and Grandpa!
Besides Anniston's Birthday Party that's about all of the pictures that I took - sad huh! I really need to be better at photo documenting all of our happenings.

Leaving Hawaii

We miss this place so much!!!

On our last day in Hawaii we decided to wake up early and watch the sunrise...as you can tell from this picture, Anniston was still pretty sleepy!

Unfortunately, we were a little late for the sunrise, but it was still beautiful...although super sad at the same time knowing that this would be our last time at the beach for a long time.

We LOVED our two years that we spent in Hawaii!!!

Saying goodbye to our two amazing friends and RA's in Hale One! We love you Afu and Lyzz!!!