May, June & July

So.... I guess I'm a little behind on this blogging thing.

Time for a some catch up - Get ready for a long post with a lot of pictures!

May

He always has his hand above his head.
Clayson sleeps like this every night.

First things first: We're having a boy!

We made them take the ultrasound early because I turned 26 and got kicked off my parents awesome insurance. 

That was sad.

Alyssa and I have birthdays one day apart. We went to Buffalo Wild Wings at work to celebrate.

We were in Burley for Mothers Day and they gave all the mothers flowers. I got a few extras to plant my first "garden". 

I learned that gardening is not my strength. These flowers are completely dead now.

Alyssa and I went to Denver for a work conference. 

This is the hotel lobby that we stayed at. It was nice.

Dr Cannon got me dried pineapple! 

For breakfast we would go to the hotel restaurant. I would get oatmeal (the cheapest thing on the menu, but so delicious) and Alyssa would bring her own fruit and breakfast bars. We had the same waitress every day and she was so sweet. I think she felt bad for us and the last day she bought our breakfast for us. We left her all the cash we had for a tip and wrote her a thank you note on random pieces of paper we could dig out of our purses. 

She was the best waitress  :)

Also in the month of May, we went on The Heber Creeper with family to celebrate Memorial Day

June

I went to the doctor and he told me that I needed to gain more weight. 
He recommended ice cream. 

I think I can handle that!

I realized after I came home from the doctor that I had forgotten to tell him I was sick the previous 3 days and was pretty much living off of honey water. So yeah, I had probably lost some weight, but I don't think it was as bad as he thought. 
But if it gets me ice cream, I'm good with that! 

Maternity Shirt!
23ish Weeks

Now my weight is, in his words, "perfect." 

It's good to hear that sometimes.

We had a full house for the month of June! My brother Griffin and Clayson's cousin Taylor both stayed with us. It was a party every night! We watched a lot of Star Wars and basketball and played a lot of Coup (a really fun card game). 

I was definitely out-numbered by the boys, but Clayson keeps reminding me that I should just get used to it. I guess he's right!

Supporting the Jazz
20ish Weeks

Next time we need some girls to stay with us so we can watch chick flicks and paint nails. 

Any takers?  :)

Reading - Clayson is definitely the favorite

My parents offered to watch my brothers kids for 10 days while they celebrated their aniversary. 

We went to Rexburg the first weekend to help my mom out a little.

Picture Credit: Evelyn

I always love spending time with these kids!

We took a trip to Bear World! 

They had baby bears, but no one was watching them because this peacock was across from them.

I always thought bears were more exciting than birds, but I guess I was wrong.

The petting zoo at Bear World

The highlight of the day was the rides!

We all had a good time at Bear World!

Evelyn had fun with my phone.

It was a busy and fun trip!

Clayson says we might just have two kids and call it good. 

So much for his starting line up for his basketball team  :)

July

The whole Searle family

We went to Burley to pick up Clayson's brother, Zach, from his mission.

We crammed 16 people into a 12 passenger van. Good times  :)

All the Siblings back together

We also celebrated the 4th of July in Burley!

We spent the day at Dirkes Lake swimming and cliff jumping. 

Clayson working on the farm

Clayson always gets some farm work in whenever we go to Burley. This time, I joined him for some of it!

His siblings call him "City Boy" but he's still a farm boy at heart  :) 

The next weekend we were back in Burley for Zach's homecoming talk and a family reunion.

This is me trying to get both Savannah and me in the picture. 

I've never been good at selfies. 

Now we are home again and finally starting to get ready for baby boy!
 

Every kid needs a penguin pillow. Right?

Way to make it through 3 months of catch-up!

Now I'll hopefully stay a little more up to date on this blog. 

Life is good!

That One Time in June....

Remember that one time when we went to see Ryan Hamilton and I said I was going to make a video of it? 

Well, I finally made it!

Staring: Clayson fighting with people and Jana bobbling her head

Supporting Actors: Allison, Abbi & Jared, Carlie & Tyler, Ellen & Brody, Karissa, and Courtney 

(and Ryan Hamilton's ear)

It was really such a fun trip though! Before seeing Ryan Hamilton we went to Cafe Rio and then we all stayed at Carlie & Tyler's that night. 

So, while this may not be that exciting for most people to watch, it was our last big hurrah before we all got married. I love all these people!

Enjoy:

Thanks for watching  :)

Once upon a time....

We went on a walk!

Yes, this was back in May-ish.

It's fine.

Labor Day Weekend

Climbing

This year I have gotten really in rock climbing.
As it has gotten warmer we have been going outside, but I am not the biggest fan of the limestone that is in Logan.
I have been craving granite!

I went to Rexburg this weekend (sorry if I didn't get to see you!) and I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to climb on granite. 

I rounded up Porter and Whitney (who had stayed most of the weekend with me and we had so much fun!) and we were off!

Long story short:

- Whitney and I almost got lost twice on our way there

- We almost died once (although Whitney would say it was more)

- Porters car sounded like it was going to fall apart and we were all a little nervous.

- We forgot an ATC so we "made due" with a cool knot (Porter has way too much trust in me)

- I'm not sure who got the better work out: Whitney jumping up the rock, or Porter pulling her up.

- Whitney got blisters / huge boils from the heat of the rock on every finger

- I got heat exhaustion about four moves into my first climb and almost passed out / couldn't see anything on several occasions.

- None of us brought water

- For some reason, we thought it would be a good idea for the girl who was about to pass out (aka me) to belay Porter as he took the climb down.

Yeah, NOT a good idea! (I had Whitney holding the rope just in case, and it was a close call.)

- On the way home I was blinded by the sun, so Whitney stuck her head out the window and literally guided me as I drove.

- I had a headache for the next 24 hours

And we all survived to tell the tale!

Between Porter taking care of my heat exhaustion (ready at any moment to catch me if I fainted and dipping his coat in the river to put on my head)
and bandaging Whitney's blistered hands, I'm pretty sure he never wants to take us climbing again. Ha!

Thanks Porter!

It will be better next time  :)

(We have pictures and even a movie, but there have been some technical difficulties in getting them. So sad.
Hopefully I'll get them up soon, so check back)

Bishop & Sister Forbush

Whitney and I visited Bishop and Sister Forbush. They are seriously the best! I loved just hanging out with them and catching up on life.
It was just like the good old times. It seems like only yesterday we were there going hot tubbing, singing karaoke, cutting our fingers with sharp knives that poor college students aren't accustomed to, playing in their amazing back yard, and just hanging out.

 

Family

Fun times with mom and dad just hanging out, talking, playing speed scrabble and taking walks.
It's good to go home.

Moving Day!

Labor Day was spent moving into my new apartment! I cannot say thank you enough to my parents and sister for all their help.
I am so grateful for them! It made the day so much fun to have them with me in Logan. They are the best! 

I will miss Chelsey, but I am moving in with some amazing friends and am excited for the change!

The bad part is that I hurt my back somehow in the move. I feel like an 80 year old woman.
Good thing I work at a chiropractic office! I might actually have to get adjusted  :)

Taking Over My Life

Last year I made a movie of our family reunion and it turned out really cute, so I decided to make one for this years reunion too.

It is taking over my life!

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love doing it.
Sometimes I wonder if I love it a little too much.

Here's a sampling of "the kid section" for your enjoyment:

I'm pretty sure I have the cutest nieces and nephews ever. 

And I am not biased at all. Just stating the facts  :)

I'm still having withdrawals from being away from them.

Warning to my family: This years video is going to be long. I mean, really long. Like we could probably make a full length film out of it.
I guess that's what happens when the kids start getting old enough to say funny things, the adults get better at using the camera, and we have way too much fun packed into one week.

I don't think it's such a bad thing.

In Loving Memory

The 24th of July started out like any other day. I had decided to float the Oneida River with some friends. 

the group

I had been hearing about floating the Oneida since I moved here, and I was finally going to get the chance to experience it for myself!

the tubes
(mine in the cute one - it was on sale!)

I was afraid of being left alone on the river, so a group of us (probably about 8ish) tied our tubes together as we floated down. 

I was put in charge of keeping the sunflower seeds dry. It was an excellent job with great benefits
(i.e. no one would flip me over and I had free snacks whenever I wanted)

With Tyler and Jordan who put me in charge of the sunflower seeds
(Heidi should be in this picture too, but she opted to take it instead)

Everything was going along smoothly, until we realized we were heading straight for a rock!
The current was faster than anticipated, and we were suddenly on top of it (literally). 

Actually, Heidi was on top of the rock. My tube went on top of Heidi's and before I knew it, I was in the water.
(Somehow, Heidi managed not to flip!)

my lonely sandal

My first thought (after realizing I was in the water) was for the sunflower seeds. I had failed! My second thought was for my beloved sandals, which had been loose in the tube. I found one in the water, but alas, the other was lost forever.

in mourning

I was pretty devastated.

I wore black to the fireworks that night, in mourning for my lost sandal.

At the fireworks - Kalli, Jana, me & Carlie
This picture is mainly in here so that Kalli can be officially represented on my blog!

On the bright side, it made a nice object lesson for my Gospel Doctrine class on Sunday!

.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

I have been through a lot with those sandals.

They are my go-to shoes, and have been on adventures of all kinds, big and small - rivers, hiking, camping, traveling, work, and even church!
They pretty much work for any and all occasions.

- England -
top left is the St Pauls Cathedral ("feed the birds" steps)
bottom left is the London Bridge

- France -
bottom middle is Mt Saint Michel

- Italy -
Venice!

- Austria -
The crazy house that I don't remember the name to, but it's cool

- Spain -
most of these are at the Alhambra
also, the top left is the best kebab (the only food I had twice while in Europe. i still crave it on occasion)

bike ride!

riding horses!

swimming!

rafting!

fun times with friends - shoe stealing wars!
(they are the ones still on my feet, in case you were confused) 

more fun times with friends - four wheeling (or at least pretending)

hiking!

redwoods!

my sandals

So long sandals.

You are missed.

<3