Man of the House

Let's talk about George, the #1 papa & husband! He's been working at Bristow for well over a year now. This job has been a blessing and is his 'foot in the door' to the helicopter industry and building those first crucial '1000' hours. The first 6 months were sloooooow, and he wasn't building hours very fast. It was frustrating, but we were thankful that he was on salary and was still getting paid no matter how much or how little he flew. Fortunately in the past few months he's been getting in a lot more flight time. A few months ago (I'm behind on my blogging!) he hit a benchmark in his career and hit 500 hours!! Plus, I just wanted to show off some photos of him in uniform :) Such a handsome pilot! He works so hard for us. We feel so blessed to have such a hard working man taking care of us. He provides for our family so well and does it with a smile on his face. I love his positive attitude! Even when that means getting up at 4 in the morning (most of the time he has to be to work by 5:30 am) so that he can bike to work so I can have the car for the day. (I wrote that a couple months ago - now George is working night shift, equally hard, or maybe harder? But pretty awesome that he is using night vision goggles.) And since I'm way behind on blogging George is back on morning shift again! Haha, is this getting confusing to read? He recently started his Bell transition, which means he's learning to fly turbine helicopters now. This is awesome and big-time excitement for a pilot (and his wife!). He did ground school for it last week, and this week has been flying the bell. This is such great experience for him, and looks good on the resume when it comes time to move on. We love him. We respect him. And I hope Sawyer & Jack want to be just like him!

Jack loves to pull all the velcro patches off his flight suit when he gets home.

George's official whites and stripes - he only wears this if he's not flying that day.

"Ready for take-off"

Sawyer enjoys pretending to be a pilot with papa's gear.

It'll be interesting to see if the boys want to follow in papa's footsteps and become pilots. Maybe just recreational pilots? Who knows. For now I think it's safe to say his boys want to be just like him. I couldn't ask for a better example for them.

I love this shot. 

While we were gone George fixed up the backyard. The boys love it!

Exactly a month late today to be posting this on the blog, but Happy Birthday to my Hover Lover! You're the Rhu to my Barb. Thanks for supporting us and working so hard while we played out west.

B-town

After Cedar City we headed north to meet the moving truck in Boise. En route we stopped in Bountiful to visit my dear friend, Aly, and her adorable little ones. She's always so wonderful to take us in last minute (I usually give her 4 hours notice, haha!) They recently moved to a new house, so it was fun to see where they spend their time and get a glimpse of their lives.

Sawyer and Ben! Ben was a good example for Sawyer, urging him to listen to my directions :)

Splash park! Miriam and Jack are the cute little people dancing in the water. Crazy that they are the same two cuties that we held in our laps just a little more than a year ago.

We've multiplied!

It was so fun to see Aly and to give our kids the opportunity to play together. We had a great time relaxing and playing in the water. She makes stay at home mommy-ing look like a breeze. Her house is clean, her food is delicious, and her kids are happy...and she's not frazzled a bit! Unfortunately I didn't figure out her secret while I was there. She's always a great example for me and I love visiting with her about everything. I also got to see her parents which was a treat too. I'm so happy we met each other in Hawaii. Great friends are priceless!

I have to apologize, there were a lot of people that I would have loved to see in the area. Honestly I was exhausted and kind of on survival mode. Aly was nice enough to let me crash at her place (half way point between Cedar and Boise). Maybe our next trip back west won't involve so much packing and moving and driving!

When we left Aly's we buzzed up to Pocatello to meet Alethea to switch cars. The main reason we drove out from Florida is because she had us buy a car for her in Florida. Did you know cars are way cheaper to buy out east? Anyway 2 months after buying the car, she finally got to see it and drive it! We met at a park for a picnic dinner to make the exchange. We found silly string that I had tucked in the glove box for emergency fun. Sawyer had a blast attacking Alethea with it.

He even got it in her mouth, yuck!

After that break we were back in the car again and made it to Boise without missing a beat. At that point, the boys and I had logged over 3,200 miles in the car. Thankfully, they were champs.

We got to Boise and the truck was unloaded and the kitchen was even all unpacked and functional. Food first :)

Reading books with Aunt Sara before bed.

Steph we've outgrown it, we're sending it over for the new babe!

Sawyer working on papa's birthday card. We were sad that we didn't get to celebrate with him in Florida, but we did manage to mail him a little package.

Out for a hike in the mountains outside of Boise.

Our gang taking a break in the shade - Abbie snapped this photo.

Aunt Abbie started a new tradition - story time drawn out on the kid's backs. They loved it and laid there mesmerized by the stories getting drawn out in finger on their backs. One story I happened to overhear involved dinosaurs and fairies...quite the range :) The kids would beg her for these 'back stories' pretty much any chance they had.

We found the perfect spot for the kids down by the Boise River. It was a small stream that fed into the river.

Seriously perfect...shade and all.

Catching little fishies

River stick construction

Oh Jack. Please don't clock Kaden in the head with the huge rock you have in your hands. That kid LOVES to throw rocks.

Sadie jumped right in and doused her head first thing.

We hit up some form of water every day because it was roasty in Boise. This splash park was just outside the restaurant we ordered pizza from...perfect. Did you know wasps/hornets are carnivores? I learned that as we tried to enjoy our pizza at a park and pretty much got swarmed back to the car.

I'm so glad we got to see where Joe and Sara spend their time now. They live in a great neighborhood that is very family friendly. They have a large park a short 3 minute walk away, and Sadie and Kaden get to go to the same school and is just a 10 minute walk away. I'm sure it'll be an adjustment to be in a city, but I think they'll love where they are. It's great for Joe since he travels so much for work, now he has a bigger airport to fly in and out of and it'll hopefully cut down on his driving time. We're excited to come back and visit you guys! Thank you so much for letting us join in on all the chaos, it was fun :) 

Cedar City and Beyond

A quick picture with Mac & Steph in Grand Junction. They're expecting a baby in January, weehoo! It was a short visit with them, just a few hours.

As I mentioned before, we arrived in Cedar with lots of work to do. First up was a HUGE yard sale at Sara and Joe's house. You can accumulate a lot of stuff over 8 years. Once that was done there was still a ton of packing/loading to do. I pretended to help while the boys tore apart most of the packing that was done. I kept meaning to take a picture of the moving process. The yard sale alone was epic. The packing of the truck was an art. I never did quite get that picture though.

Amidst all the packing we played too.

George and I got up early one morning and hiked the 'C' trail. Just over 4 miles with 2200' elevation change. A good little hike for some weak Floridians :)

The start at 6:30 a.m.

The top of 'C' mountain, less than 2 hours later.

When I took George down to Vegas to fly out, we picked up our niece, Chelsea, and brought her back to Cedar to stay with us for a few days. The boys loved playing with her! She's getting married in January, woot woot!

Breakfast time - the boys vying for Grandpa's attention.

Jack cleaning up after ice cream. He actually does a great job cleaning up when I give him his own wipe.

Sawyer & Dean rollin' in the barbie jeep. 

Cedar City has more parades than any other city I've seen. This was the boys' first parade. They LOVED it. Sawyer still talks about how he saw the tractor at the parade. In this pic we have Sue, Sara, Sawyer, Grandma, Mark, Jack, Hanna, Allie,Carter, Kaden, and Sara.

We hiked up Kanaraville Falls. That's the same hike where George proposed to me 5+ years ago. Time flies.

Papa giving out free rides.

We met the Hansen's up Kanaraville Falls. The kids enjoyed cooling off in a creek crossing. A thunderstorm chased us back to our cars shortly after this photo.

Sawyer with his cousins - milkshakes and a movie!

Cedar got a new park since we've moved. Sawyer's favorite was the spider web. The boys are both big time climbers. I feel like I'm holding my breath a lot hoping they don't fall...luckily they are great climbers and we haven't had a big fall yet.

The Melling (Sara's in-laws) reunion was going on so Abbie, the boys, and I snuck up to spend a day with all those fun people! It was a splendid day. It was up on Beaver mountain. I love (and miss) the mountains so much!

Cute kids showing off their candy necklaces. I believe Sadie was responsible for coming up with this craft.

Soccer!

Aunt Sara and Sawyer

Sadie and Abbie playing big time frisbee.

Jack was not impressed with the life jacket.

So fun to have Abbie down from Alaska :)

Kyson is getting so big! He turned 12 while we were there. Sheesh. Why don't kids listen and stop growing?!

Success! Both boys napping in the same tent. It took a while to get to this point.

Jack throwing rocks into the lake. Pretty much his favorite pastime.

Kyson - 'bow-fishing'

Aunt Abbie took Sawyer out in the canoe. I was so impressed with how still Sawyer stayed. Such a good 2-year-old :)

Although it was a busy time during our trip, it was nice to catch up and play with friends and family. It's strange to think we don't have family in Cedar anymore. We have lots of good memories of Cedar over the years!