Florida for the New Year

So, when I said details on our trip to Disney were coming soon, you knew that meant in about a month right? When it seems I have all the time in the world, suddenly it's a month later and I have not been able to share the experiences we've had on our adventures. Just remember for next time soon=a month or so...oops.

Well, our time here in north Carolina has been nothing short of a grand adventure. We've really enjoyed every minute of being here. We've been able to meet amazing people, have great experiences, learn tons of history, and have been so grateful for all that we have been blessed with. Sometimes it may even make us sad for when our time here is up. Don't worry though Utah friends, we still miss you all the time!

So let's get down to business.... Our weekend trip to Disney world was so much fun! Memories we will always have of first roller coasters (for Jason), being able to be a part of special events in our friends' lives, feeling a little red neck (if that is what you would consider going to an alligator farm), meeting family for the first time, and creating memories that will always be with us. It was our best adventure yet!

First off, Disney world. Jason decided as one of his birthday presents, we would go to the Animal Kingdom at Disney world. We were already headed down that way to visit Jason's brother, and so we thought why not. Who knows when we'll get this opportunity again, so off we drove to Orlando Florida. Animal kingdom was awesome! We saw cool animals, saw amazing live shows, went on fun rides, got wet, and loved the 80 degree weather in December! There might have been a few laughs, a scary moment with crying for Carter, and one exhausted family afterwards. When we first made it to our hotel, we put sleeping Carter to bed without changing him into pjs and had a quick sip of sparkling cider before midnight. It was a great day!

The parking lot.

Riding out of the parking lot to Animal Kingdom

Carter would have been happy riding all day

We got to ANIMAL KINGDOM!!!

Carter and I on the safari

At the kids zone, having adventures.

Dinoland riding the rides :)

This man made mountain was a hot spot for pictures

The Tree of Life.

Pre-Midnight toast... yes I had just woken up.

The next day, we got to start off our new year with seeing old friends, and being a part of a very special day. Our little friend was baptized a member of the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints. Not only that, but I sat next to Abe Mills from Jericho Road! Ahh it was amazing (the baptism was too of course ;) lol). In all seriousness, we were so happy to be a part of such a special event. The best part too, was that we got to spend the next couple of days with an awesome family. We loved it, and Carter was so sad to say goodbye to his friends when the time came. The mention of going to see alligators might have helped him leave with out too much of a fight.

Go glad we could be a part of her special day!

He was so sad to say goodbye to his friends

The alligator farm was our next stop, and I must say I never thought places like that existed. In st. Augustine Florida, there is a fascination with alligators and in fact a farm with hundreds of them. They don't do much, so watching them move was an exciting event. We were even there for feeding time, and boy was that an experience lol. We got to see many other animals as well, but we left with a little boy that was happy he got to see his gators ha ha.

Alligator Farm fun.

Carter thought this gator was real.

He had to see everything. Even the little fishies.

My little alligator wrestler. He had the time of his life at the Alligator park.

At the Alligator Farm. Not a good pic, but there are 350 alligators getting ready to eat.

After the alligator farm, we made our way north and visited Jason's brother in Jacksonville. It was the first time for me to meet any of Jason's immediate family members and only the 2nd time Jason had ever seen his brother. We had a wonderful night of a delicious dinner, lots of talking, and plans to meet up again soon. Carter even made a friend and cried when we had to leave. I cannot tell you how thankful I am that we were able to make that trip. It was so good to meet Scott and his family! We were major failures for not getting a picture! 

We stayed in Georgia that night and drove back to our north Carolina home the next day. We really wanted to visit some historical places and visited Fort Pulaski. It was really neat, and Carter enjoyed stretching his legs and walking around "the castle". As we walked around the outside however, we met some not so nice bugs and ended up racing to our car. I never thought I'd say we got eaten by mosquitoes in the middle of winter, but we did. It made for a not so comfortable ride home, but we still had smiles on our faces.

Since that trip, we've seen north Carolina in the state of emergency over 8 inches of snow, had church cancelled for the second time we can ever remember in our married life, have been to a few dozen story times, a few new museums, and can't get enough of our 70 degree winter days. I have had moments when I can't breathe because I miss our baby girl so much, but I think this trip out here has been exactly what we needed at this time. We've been able to heal if only a tiny bit, but it has been good. Our next big trip will be in a week and a half. We will be making a trip back to Utah for my little sister's wedding, and we are getting pretty excited about seeing our awesome friends! Until the next time I finally have a few minutes to relax :) happy reading.

And now.... a state of emergency!

Carter at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences

Story time, getting to play B-ball at the convention center. He wanted to play with everyone else, but me.

65 Degrees, at the park, and he always finds lots of friends.

Christmas in North Carolina

Today is December 27^th, 2 days after Christmas. What a wonderful Christmas day! Not just yesterday, but those thousands of years ago. This year Christmas was a little different for Jason and I. We saw it in a different light, and I’m so thankful for that. The days leading up to Christmas were pretty eventful as well…

Jason started working some crazy hours and so the week before Christmas, we got him in the morning for a couple of days. It’s amazing how fast mornings go, and then he’s off to Virginia to “make us money” as Carter would say. Carter and I made the best of our nights together though. Many of our plans to go somewhere or do something were vetoed by Carter and we watched a Christmas movie every night. During the day, we did lots of shopping, lots of story times, and trying to keep ourselves occupied and happy. By Thursday however, Carter woke up hacking up a lung and I understood why he wasn’t being as adventurous. I felt so bad that he would be sick for Christmas.

Carter and Daddy got to go to a Duke basketball game!

Story time with this silly kid

The Greensboro Science Center

The Greensboro Science Museum. He had his own baby he carried around.

At the Children's Museum in Raleigh

I love this little boy

On Friday, Jason had the day off and we had some errands to run in Raleigh. Our rental car was coming up for auction, and so we had to drive all the way to Raleigh, just to switch our car for a new one. Well, at first I thought it was ridiculous and a waste of our time, but turns out after all was said and done… we drove away with a 2017 Chevy Cruz with only 3 miles on it! That might not be a big deal to some people, but to us… we’ve only ever test driven cars with that low of mileage!

While there, we decided to go to the coolest, most massive, most inexpensive museum we’ve ever seen! We visited the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, and it was completely free! 4 floors of all kinds of things about North Carolina! There were dinosaurs, fish, animals, reptiles, bugs (YUCK!), and a discovery room with all kinds of things for kids! It was crazy to think that we saw everything for FREE! If you’re ever in North Carolina, you need to check it out!

In our new car!

The North Carolina Museum of Natural Science

Saturday was our big day full of Christmas traditions. We woke up, hit the gym, and got ready for a fancy lunch at our favorite restaurant. This year we ate our Christmas Eve dinner at The Cheesecake Factory! I can’t believe we forgot to take a picture of our amazing cheesecake, but everything was perfect and delicious. I’ll have to wait another 6 months to go for our anniversary.

Waiting for our Christmas Eve dinner

Carter wasn't very happy.

After eating way too much, we waddled our way home. There we wrapped gifts, tried to play all of our lunch off, and I got to take a tiny nap. It was perfect. Then off we were again to Winston-Salem North Carolina, where a park named Tanglewood does the most spectacular festival of lights. It’s a park that is forever long. I think after about 2.5 (maybe 3) miles we were done. There were so many neat lights, music, and even a village named Smore’sville where you could stop for some photo opts and a bite to eat. We were still so full of our lunch, we had to skip the little village. The craziest thing about the drive through the lights, was that it was completely dark and 50 degrees outside! We had our windows rolled down for most of the ride.

The lights were amazing!

When we got home, it felt like it was time for bed. With it only being 7pm, we opened our Christmas PJs and watched The Nativity Story. We talked to Carter about the story all through the movie, and silly little kid didn’t really get it at all. Surprisingly he watched the whole thing. We skipped the cookie making for Santa before bed, since Santa already got his sugar fix for the week, and we all went to bed.

Christmas Jammies

He loves his PJs

Christmas morning, the first thing we heard was… “Mommy! Daddy! There’s a bike in here!!!!” by one very excited little boy. He was pulling us out of bed at a super early time of 8:30. Then the rest of the morning was filled with seeing what Santa brought us all, eating our favorite cold cereal for breakfast (it’s a tradition, and we all get our very own box we don’t have to share!), and rushing to get ready for church and out the door. We had a fantastic program at Church, and then hurried home quickly for present opening and visiting family via google chat. It was a wonderful day, and by the end of it we all had huge smiles on our faces, full tummies from our Christmas dinner, and exciting plans of playing with all our toys again.

He loves his helmet too!

He got Pjs from his Aunt. He likes them too!

He got a surprise present from Grandma and Grandpa

Christmas was wonderful, but I think it will forever be different at our house. The whole day I thought of our little Shanna. I thought about this being her first Christmas, and wondered what I would give to her. I thought about the cute little Christmas Jammies we’d get for her, and the cute pictures we’d get of Carter with his baby sister. Then I thought about how Christmas is all about a little baby. A little baby that was prophesied to come to earth to be a Savior to all people. I thought about how scared Mary was and about how she had to say goodbye to him when he was a lot older than Shanna. I thought about Heavenly Father, and how he loved Jesus and watched him go through all that he had to. I thought about how Jesus had to go through so many things alone. I thought about how this all affects me and my eternity. Because of this little baby, I will be with my family forever. Because of this little baby, I can be forgiven of the mistakes that I make here on earth. Because of this little baby, there is nothing I have to go through a lone. Because of Him I have been blessed far more than I could ever imagine. I will never be able to say that I am thankful Shanna passed away, but I am so thankful for the way it has helped me to see things differently and be more thankful for the things that I have been given.

Well, the rest of the week has been filled with lots of bike riding (well kind of, Carter has been a little scared), being outside in 70 degree weather, exploring new places, and enjoying every minute of being a family. We’ve really liked being here in North Carolina. 

Riding his new bike

loving the weather and being outside

My boys, taking a rest from our long walk/bike ride

Life in the Carolinas

Today my little Shanna girl would be 8 months old. It's never the month anniversary of her death that makes my heart hurt, but the month anniversary of her birth. It makes me think about what could have been, and sometimes that is more haunting.

For some reason I thought moving out to north Carolina might make things a little easier. That maybe being around people who didn't know what happened in our family would help us not remember as much. Now I always think in my mind, if only they knew... If only they knew our sweet baby girl. If only they knew what she went through and why the 17th of every month is so hard for me. If only they knew.

My sister visited her grave and decorated for Christmas. 

His faces always make me giggle

I thought the 8 month old babies would make me cry now. I was wrong. It's still the new tiny ones that make me think of Shanna. I have seen pictures of so many friends with their sweet baby girls, and sometimes it stings. Sometimes I think, why couldn't that be us? Why can't our family have our Shanna? Why couldn't she have been healthy? Why did she have to leave us so soon? Why was I never able to hear her laugh, see her roll over for the first time and sit up? Why was I never able to dress her like a healthy baby and always have to look out for wires and cords? But then again, why was I chosen to be a mother to a dear sweet baby girl who was too pure to live in this world? Who was needed in heaven much sooner than I wanted? This whole experience has taught me about a God in heaven who has given me all that I have, because he loves me dearly. He loves me so much that he blessed me with a baby girl who was far more special than I could ever dream of. He blessed me with being able to meet my angel before she was called to where she needs to be. He blessed me with a husband I could not dream of being without. With a little boy who takes the pain away and makes me smile everyday. With a beautiful family that will be mine forever, and all because this loving God gave me His son. When I think of all that I don't have, I realize my blessings are far greater. I realize what a wonderful life I have. What a loving father in heaven I have, who knows exactly what I need.

Sorry to always start on the sadder side of things, but I promise to make you smile by the end. North Carolina has been great! I am so glad we get to be here, but then return to our family and friends we miss so much. We've only been in North Carolina for 2 weeks and I already feel as if I have an accent. Here are our north Carolina adventures.

Jason

Working as hard as ever! He is really not liking the long commute, and we hate that he gets home at 6 pm every night, but he has a job and we are grateful! Carter is always so happy when daddy comes home to play, dads are so much more fun to play with! I love it when Jason comes home too!

At the science center today

At the science center with the sting rays

Carter

Carter misses his friends dearly, and is adjusting to being in an apartment. I think he loves the fact that we leave to go do something everyday. We've been to tons of different story times (there's 8 libraries in our city), hit up the Greensboro children's museum, went to a trampoline park and jumped for hours, experienced the Greensboro Science Center (zoo,aquarium, and children's museum in one), and have met so many new friends. To say the least, I think he's enjoyed himself here.

Our favorite day at the trampoline park

My cute little monkey

Carter being a doctor at the Children's Museum

Playing at the Super Market

I think I've managed to wear him out just about every day

First time at the trampoline park

driving the train

Didn't you know stickers on your face was a new thing?

Clarissa

I was expecting it to be a little warmer than it has been, but I haven't let that stop us. I am always so excited to get in our car and go see the next thing. I have already met so many people, and I love that no matter where I have gone, someone always stops to say hello to us. We have been doing the 12 days of Christmas to a family in our complex, and I've loved being able to be creative and think about what we;re going to do next. Now that we are not doing joy school any more, it has been fun to continue teaching Carter and helping him continue to learn.

How can this face not melt your heart <3

I must say that the most interesting experience we have had with living here, is that we have house keeping come every two weeks. So... We left the apartment on a grand adventure, hoping it would take us all day. I felt very weird leaving our house a disaster, and then thinking... that's ok, house keeping in coming today... and off we went. We had so much fun at the trampoline park. We met new friends, made future plans to meet again, danced like crazy, and played a mean game of dodge ball. It was mostly just Carter and I chasing after each other, but we loved it. Afterwards we ate lunch at a park (in our car because it was way too windy), did some shopping, explored the area where we live, and I thought for sure the house keeping people had to be done. 2 hours later, we were still locked out and watching Christmas movies in our car. It was lovely... but I think I would have liked it if I didn't look like a creeper in my car lol. 

Well to all of you, I hope you are having adventures of your own! You have to be with all that wonderful cold weather and lots of snow right? We love and miss all of you! Happy reading!

We got a real tree!!!

A wreath I finally was able to finish

Part of the 12 days... I wish I took a picture of every night

Another 12 days creation. There's a real candle behind the paper one...