SUMMA Tiiiime!

We have done lots of fun things this summer!

Safari Drive-thru- Fun little zoo that lets you drive along a trail being about to be close up to Buffalo, long horns, and Zebras (to name a few).It was a lot of fun and our first real family adventure out since moving to Arkansas. They had a tiny baby Bamboo and Addi got to pet it.

Nauvoo and St Louis- This place was hottttt! I was dying of heat the entire time! We had a horrible Hotel experience that I pray Jake has learned from (cheap hotels are never worth it).
We went to Carthage Jail which was really neat! Then took a long drive to the arch in St Louis. NIGHTMARE! The Arch is the scariest thing I have ever done in my life! I will not do it again... sorry!
We ended up watching fireworks over the mississippi.. It was pretty neat.

Splash Pad- With the heat here it is a must! The kids love it and it is in such a cute area!

The Art Museum- This place is free! It is air conditioned and you get to see beautiful art and feel educated!

Big cat refuge- Has Lions, Tigers, Bears OH MY! Seriously does though, they have all the big cats! You can see them actually get up (lazy Hogle zoo animals) and be active. Beckem loved it! He would growl at them! Addi... Well you can tell by the pictures of how she felt about them.

Eureka Springs- Such a cool old town! We like to people watch and look through all the fun little stores.

We also flew my little sister Elizabeth out for a week!  She even watched our kids so Jake and I could go on a date! I enjoyed showing her around and just having her here was so nice! Can't wait for more visitors ;)

We have explored lots of trails and small lakes/ponds

Addison has been begging to do this tramp thing every since she saw it at the mall. We finally let her and it was worth the money! She loved it and it was entertaining for Jake and I to watch.

The BIG Move!

Back in the end of February Jake's company asked if he would be willing to move out to Arkansas.
When Jake told me I laughed and said um no (it was probably a little more PG 13 than that.  I wanted to stay close to family and friends! Utah was my home and I loved it there for the most part.
Well his company flew us out the beginning of March to check things out.  I still wasn't for it and would pray every night that Jake would realize it wasn't a good idea and would back out of it.  Well that obviously never happened!
I can honestly say I love everything out here! We moved to such a pretty area... lots of trees and wild life! The ward is great... I have never felt so welcomed into a ward before! The people (strangers) here are so kind! We have already done lots of fun things here.
I was afraid of getting homesick but that has yet to happen. Everyone in our ward basically works for WalMart since we are by the headquarters, which means most people here are transplants.  Not a lot of them have family here so the ward really becomes your family.  It really is such a great place to live!

On June 7th we left Utah on a long journey towards our new home! Luckily Jake's company paid for a our stuff and Jake's car to be shipped so we got to drive together.
It took us two days of driving all day to finally get to our hotel in Arkansas. We were suppose to be close on our house the next day but that ended up taking another week and a half! Yep, we lived in a Hotel for that long with two kids and a weeks worth of clothes.  Someone in our new ward took our dog for us (such lifesavers) and took great care of him.  Well on June 18th we finally closed and moved into our beautiful home! I love our house and the neighborhood... I actually feel safe and we don't hear dogs constantly barking in the middle of the night! Hahaha I don't miss our old place at all.  Sorry.
However, I do miss our friends back home and my family! I miss my mom... Having her so far away is hard.
I miss my OB...  HAHA Let me explain. I had a great OB back in Utah who delivered both my kids! Well in this new ward it seems like everyone is pregnant (no joke) and every Sunday they announce someone else has had a baby so you can imagine how baby hungry you could get here. No, we are not having another one anytime soon but it just makes me scared to think I wont have my next baby without Dr Spencer.
I miss Zupas... I miss the Mountains, and I miss Tucanos...Need I say more?

The first half of our drive! 

Hotel sleeping 

Looking at the outside world... 

We ate out way tooo much while living in the Hotel

Our House

California Vacation! May 7-11 2012

In the beginning of May we went to California with our friends the Loves.  We went to the Beach, Sea World, Universal and Disneyland! It was great cause our kids are the same age.  Addison loves Tyce! Plus she always is saying she wants a baby like Rylee (you would too, she is a doll!).
We brought my little sister Katie who was a great help!

It was such an awesome time and I am still having withdrawals!!! Sea World was great! The kids loved the shows and sea creatures. I liked the shows and getting wet.  Universal was super fun! They have some awesome new rides. We were there when they were testing the Transformers ride, it was seriously such an awesome ride... best part was being able to walk on it every time!

Disneyland was my all time favorite! It really is the happiest place on earth, even if you have a whiny child.  Addi loved all the characters and posing in pictures.  Luckily for us Addison was tall enough to ride all the rides except for Indiana Jones.  She got pretty scared on all of the big kid rides but said she loved thunder mountain, space mountain and splash mountain but not when you get splashed.  Her all time favorite ride was the Little Mermaid (of course). We did take her on the tower of terror and lets just say it was terror for her. However she still talks about it and acts like she loved it.

Beckem was a good baby the entire trip! He loved just seeing all the sights and hearing all the fun music! Plus I think he liked his new drink (whole milk) I stopped nursing on this trip and it worked out perfectly! I highly recommend planning a trip to Disneyland when you plan to weaning your babies from nursing. I actually did the exact same thing with Addi and it worked out great!

All in all it was a great time with great people and I can't wait to go back!!!

THE BEACH!

 The cute sun bathers 

 Tyce and Addi

 SEA WORLD! 

 Checking out the sea turtle

 Innocent bystanders

 UNIVERSAL STUDIOS

Dora

 The Tram ride

 DISNEYLAND!

 World of color is amazing! Disney has outdone themselves yet again!

 He loved Snow White

 Her Idol

 LA JOLLA BEACH

The prettiest beach I have seen in California

 I think it was under the water in this photo but a sea lion would swim up real close and watch all the people on the beach! 

 End of a amazing trip!