San Diego

After being in Kansas for about 2 days we turned around and left for a family reunion in San Diego. It was great to be able to relax after making the big move. It was so good to see all the family on my mom's side. Many of them had never met Cade and I had never met some of the newer additions. Grandma and Grandpa were the main planners of everything and they did a fabulous job. Here are some of our adventures.

This was Cade's first experience with the beach. He was ok with standing in the sand and watching the water but he was a little nervous about the water rushing up around this feet.

We went to the San Diego Zoo. What an amazing place! My favorite was the monkeys. We saw a mommy monkey cuddling with her baby. So precious!

We also went to LegoLand! What a fun idea for an amusement park. Of course it would have been so fun to have a Cade a few years older but we still had a blast. Miniland was awesome-they had several major cities (DC, Vegas, New York...) all made out of legos. It was amazing.
Cole loves baseball and we were able to go to a Padres game. Cole loved taking his son to a baseball. We just had to dress him up like a baseball player.
Other activities included a bike ride along the beach, playing games in the hotel lobby, Cole went deep sea fishing, and touring the USS Midway-a naval carrier. They had old veterans there giving presentations on what it was like to be on the carrier. It was pretty fascinating.

This was a great time for us to spend time with lots of family before moving. Now the nearest family is 8 hours away. So if you are ever passing through Kansas feel free to give us a visit!

There's No Place Like Home

I have Internet! It is amazing how lost we have felt with no Internet. I am writing from our hotel in San Diego (a later post will tell about our family reunion.) Anyways, we made the big move to Kansas. Although it was stressful and busy (not to mention a really long drive with a baby) everything went smoothly. Thank you so much to all the family and friends who helped with packing, cleaning, and watching Cade. A big thanks to Cole's brother Brandon for driving our moving truck for us and then helping to get all the big furniture set up. We were there for only 2 days before we had to leave for San Diego but already other church members there have been so welcoming. Within the course of two days we had several men help us move in, a dinner made for us, cookies dropped off, lemon bars dropped off and lots of warmth and welcomes. So although we are a little nervous to live somewhere and not know anyone, this was a big comfort to us and wenare excited to get to know this new area. Here, we captured our first moment in our new home state-notice the gorgeous scenery. To get into the spirit of being Kansas-ans here are a few interesting facts about Kansas I thought I would share.
-It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which was named after the Kansa tribe who lived there.
-Kansas is one of the most productive agricultural states. Most years Kansas leads with the most wheat and sunflower production in the nation.
- Population -2,775,997
-Overland Park, a city in Northeastern Kansas, was voted the 6th best place to live in America in 2006.
-Famous people from Kansas include Amelia Earhart, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Bob Dole.
-Accomplishments and attractions include a Wizard of Oz museum, the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center (a smithsonian instituion), the world's largest ball of twine, and Big Well which is the world's largest hand-dug well. Looks like we are in for a treat.

Just So You Know

Hi! This is Shanna, Jenna's sister. She just wanted to let you know that her computer broke and so she can't make any updates for awhile. Thank goodness for our good friends, the Matheneys, who are trying to fix it but had to take her computer to Texas to get it fixed! So there will not be any updates for a little bit. Here is Jenna's sad face for her broken computer! But she and Cole are busily packing and getting things ready for thier big move coming up very quickly. We wish them luck!

Thanks Emily!

Earlier this week we had the chance to spend the day at Snowbird ski resort. Emily's family has a time share there and go up every year. She invited my family and Shan and Matthew to spend the day with her family doing all sorts of fun activities. I met Emily through classes at BYU. We were both in the Elementary Education program. In the program you are divided into cohorts of about 20 other students. You go through all your classes for the 2 year program with the same cohort group. Needless to say we were able to get to know Emily pretty well. Currently she lives in St. George and, with us moving to Kansas, this was one of the last opportunities to see her and her adorable little family. Playing tennis with Emily's siblings. Isn't that background gorgeous!?Emily's little girl, Mylee, crawled into Cade's car seat and was so proud of herself. I thought it was adorable.Mylee and Cade playing.Cade swinging and playing in the park.Here is Emily and I coming down the Alpine slide.

We had so much fun!! Thanks so much to Emily and her family for letting us join them for the day! We will miss seeing you Emily!!

The 4th Weekend

For the 4th we went up to Cole's parents cabin again in Scofield. Most all of his family and extended family were able to come. We went up on Friday afternoon, slept over and left Saturday afternoon. It is in a really beautiful area and we really had a fun time. Friday afternoon a bunch of us got on the 4-wheelers and went up to Skyline Drive. Once you get to the top, it is miles and miles of trail atop the mountains with incredible views. It was a lot of fun.

Later that night we had a great dinner along with delicious homemade ice cream made by Cole's mom. After dinner Cole and I and Cole's brother and his wife went fishing. This was a first for me. I was a spaz at casting! I enjoyed the experience although it was very anti-climatic since we didn't have anything close to a nibble! I don't have any pictures-probably because we were so bummed with not catching anything. Cole and I got up early Saturday morning and took the same trail to Skyline drive to see the sun rise. The sky was amazing. It makes me miss the big Texas skies back home!

Mega Post

Here is a update of what has been going on the last little bit! (get ready-it is kind of long!)

Birthdays and Half Birthdays
Yesterday was my 23rd birthday and Cade's first half birthday! For my birthday Cole made me breakfast in bed (french toast-my favorite), I went shopping, we went to dinner and then to a movie. Thanks Cole for a great birthday! Thanks to all my family for the gifts and visits-it was a great day!

Cade had his 6 month appointment yesterday. He is 16 lbs 10oz and is 26 inches long. Last week he got some type of viral infection and was really congested and coughing. We took him in and when the doctor checked his breathing he said he was wheezing a lot. He said if that continued to be a pattern then he could be diagnosed with asthma. But at this point it is to soon to tell. He was prescribed some asthma medicine. We had to put this mask on him and let him breath in the medicine to open up his airways. It was really sad but Cade was a champ! So anyway at the appointment the doctor said his breathing was perfectly clear! He got his shots and only cried for a minute after they were done. It was so hard to watch but what a trooper! Here he is waiting for the doctor.Cade has recently learned to make spit bubbles. It think it is the cutest thing when he just sits there making spit bubbles and babbling to himself!

Texas Trip
A couple of weeks ago we went back to my home for Ciera's graduation. There were 1300 graduates!! She will be here going to BYU in the fall. I am so sad that we won't be living here anymore and will just miss her. That would have been fun to have her living so close. I guess Shan and Matthew will have to watch after her. This is a bad picture but she is in the lower middle waiting in line to walk across the stage. Congrats birdie!! Also while we were there my cousin got married. I was so excited to go to her sealing since the only other one I have been to was my own. They look so happy to be together-Congrats Katie and Jason! We got to spend a lot of time with her family which was so much fun!The night before the wedding we went over to my Aunt and Uncle's house to eat, mingle, and swim. This was Cade's first experience swimming. At first he didn't like it but then he got in later and was ok.

This is a picture my cousin took of Cade and the other is her little boy, Ethan. They look so similar! (and Andrea is great at photography!)














Cole had fun playing with Andrea's kids in the pool and I definitely got thrown in! Thanks Cole! (but it was fun!)


Here are some family pictures we took.I wish I had more pictures of the family doing stuff but I don't. It was really good to see my family and spend time with them. It was fun to see them play with Cade and all the sisters were really good with him. (although they do need practice changing a baby BOY's diaper-that was new for them!)

Summer Fun
A few other fun things we have done:

We have done some fun hangin out with Shan and Matthew. We will be gone soon so we are tyring to get it all in now! Here we are playing rock band and my house and then we are playing games at Shan's house.
Cole's family just got a cabin up in Scofeild. We met his family up there and had a lot of fun. Here are some pictures of us riding the 4-wheelers. Needless to say-we got filthy!

Question

Isn't this one of the cutest pictures you've ever seen?! I guess I am kind of biased ;)
A posting of our trip to Texas coming soon! (I am just waiting on some pictures.)