home again

we headed to Twin falls to stay for 4-5 days and my parents were able to come and visit. We helped clean their home that they haven't lived in for over a year and mow their lawns. Of course David went fishing but they had to stay there an extra hour so David could catch a fish...and we went down to the river. The little kids loved the tube. Even eliza wanted to keep going. I think she is a speed seeker. She loves to go faster and higher.

Lava Hot Springs

After our trip to Washington we didn't get much rest before we headed to Lava Hot Springs in Idaho for a chance for the Hirschi family to be together. It was great. We had a little home and then 2 hotel rooms for us to be in. the home had a fenced front yard and a few hotspring hot tubs in the back. it was perfect for a ton of little kids to play around in. we were right near the park and the local canal that everyone tubed down.

The main attraction was the local pool which was quite large with 2 high dives and 3 tiered platform diving board, the tallest being over 30 feet.

We had a great time swimming and David went off the very high dive. He was so manly, while I went off the lowest of the platforms, yet it was still a feat for me. My big accomplishment was that I didn't even hesitate. I usually take 20-30 minutes to cliff jump this time I just ran off it.

Eliza had the time of her life with a bunch of little friends running around. She loves her cousins.

Milo cooked most meals on his BBQ and they were delicious. Each night we stayed and played games.

We tubed down the river and all of the little kids loved it. I went with Eliza and she was a little apprehensive but she did great.

Again through all of this vacation and family came the problem with trying to get our visas. stay tuned....

Washington

After our Carter Reunion, we headed up to Twin falls for a night and then up to Washington to visit with David's grandparents. It was a long 8 hour drive but the kids did well. That night was Grandpa and Grandma Hart's 60th wedding anniversary and most of the family came in to town, in Wanachee and had dinner. It was in Leavenworth, a cute little town in the mountains that was modeled after a Swiss German town. It was nice to meet David's aunts and uncles.

We spent the day there and enjoyed the great weather.

David's sister Michelle came with us on this trip to Washington and she had a competition with her sister of who could run the most miles during the trip. I got up with them one morning and decided to run with them. Mind you I had been running on the tread mill about a month and a half ago and I thought I was doing well when I ran 20 minutes. When we began they asked me how long I usually run for and I told them my usual 20 minutes... they looked at me and laughed, they usually run for an hour, up to 5 or 6 miles. I knew I was going to die, and die I did. Wanachee is very hilly anyway which didn't help anything. I ran my 20 minutes and did ok but they just kept going and going and I was hurting. About an hour later with me walking and jogging intermittently, we arrived at the house and I came away with only 5 blisters on my feet. Needless to say I was not ready for that run and neither were my feet.

We headed down to Othello and visited the Hirschi's. Fenton was named after grandpa hirschi so we wanted some pictures. We had a bbq with them and visited some of David's friends. It was a lovely visit.

Although in the midst of it all lurked an ongoing battle with trying to get our visas for moving to England. This began in Bountiful and continued through our whole trip.... .

here are some pics of the grandparents.

Carterstrong

We had a Carter family reunion in Park City, Ut. It was so great to be with my family. Blake planned the whole thing. The theme was Carter Strong. We wanted the kids to know that they were Carters and they can do hard things. We are strong. We got shirts that were black with a yellow band across it that said "Carter strong". it looks much like "livestrong" even now when eliza sees the shirt she says "carter strong". it is great.
We rented a boat and went to Jordonelle and skied and wake boarded and the kids just loved to play on the little beach. We loved just being in the sun and talking. We had a tennis tournament everyday. I was so impressed with all of my nieces and nephews, they have really started to grow up and play well. The older kids went to a movie, grandma put on a tea party and gave all of the little kids a pedicure. Every morning Grandma had a game or activity for the little kids like painting or bubbles or Popsicles or bingo. Grandma has won the heart of many a grandchild. We had an evening with skits and songs. My family did a mock synchronized swimming with the kids. We got a laugh out of it.
We took family pics with a wonder background.
I wish I took more pics but I rely so much on all of my very talented sisters to take pics. here are a few.

A long summer

This has been a very eventful 6 weeks so I will try to have a different blog for all of our adventures.... the first is to start in Washington DC. We moved from Charleston on July 10, packed up all of our stuff in a container on the side of our house and left with 6 suitcases and 3 carry-ons. We drove up to Washington DC with our friends the Kimes and we spent a day touring and visiting the sites and museums. My brother Blake was in town so he stopped in for a few minutes to have lunch with us. We had a great time. We stayed the night in a hotel and then drove back to Richmond to stay with my cousin, Matt and Erin Blake. We picked blackberries and blueberries and really enjoyed their company.

We headed back to DC to catch our flight from Dulles to SLC. As we were driving I checked our flights to see the exact time... and as I looked at it and it said we were flying out of Baltimore.... what!?!?!?!? I swear I booked them out of Dulles, not too bad because they are only 45 minutes away and we were 8 hours early. we had to return our rental car... which adds the complication, we got our rental car from Dulles but had to return it to Baltimore. I made some phone calls and for a few $$ more we returned our car to Baltimore, but it had to be before 11:00 am, which is when we rented it. the sad thing was that our flights didn't leave until 5 that night. we had 6 pieces of luggage and we weren't allowed to check it in until 4 hours before. What were we going to do with all of this luggage and 2 children in an airport (mind you we couldn't actually go past security because we had all of our luggage so we were confined to this side of security), luckily we found a subway to eat and we saw an observation deck. It was great. Several play things for the kids to run around with. Little kids also playing, the view of the tarmacs and planes. We put on a movie and the kids took a 2 hour nap so it turned out great. We arrived in SLC later that night and then began another adventure.

England, here we come

For the past couple of months David has been applying for med-school, DO school and also has applied to the Caribbean med-schools. He applied to 4 Caribbean schools but he had his top pick. He has interviewed at all of them and we waited patiently for the answers, especially from St. George in Grenada. He received his answers from the other 3 schools and was accepted but he wanted to go to St. George, so over 3 weeks after his interview he received a phone call and he is accepted to St. George... yeah!!!! we are going to Grenada.... how fun, beach and sunshine, I was all set. I was mentally prepared for 20 months on the island. The university said they would FedEx our stuff so we could start on the visas and housing and such. I received the package Friday afternoon and all I was reading was housing for England, visas' for England, living expenses for England. What!!!???? so I called up David and he called his advisor. Apparently David applied for a study program that allowed the student to study 2 semesters in New Castle England and then the last semesters in Grenada and David was accepted to that program.... so now we are going to New Castle upon Tyne, England. He is still going to St. George, all of the curriculum, teachers, tests, everything is from St. George, but the campus is in England. It is at the Northumbria University.
So we are moving to England on August 8. We will store all of our stuff here in Charleston and go back west for a short time to be with our family then head to England for 9 months then on to Grenada. Crazy but exciting times. I look forward to the adventure and experiences that await our family.

I turn 30

yes, it is true. I have joined the 30 and older club. I can't believe it. Usually birthday's come and go and I am really not phased by it but this one seemed to have significance for some reason. I felt like it was a defining time, "what have I done before 30" I felt like I should be running a marathon or participate in a triathlon to feel like I am accomplished at 30. Well none of those things happened but I realized that I had already accomplished a lot in the decade of my 20's. Why try to cram one more thing in just to do something for when I am 30? I will do a lot during my decade of 30's, maybe run a marathon, triathlon, or maybe even move to the Caribbean.;) So I didn't do anything spectacular for when I turned 30, but I did have a great time.

David was scheming all week and I knew nothing about it. To pre-empt this story, when my sister Tiffany turned 30, I drove down to Orlando and surprised her and then her friends threw her a "wigging out" party in which we all wore wigs and our pajamas and went to Uno's pizza and got dessert. i thought it was the coolest thing.

Anyway, Wednesday night David got a call at 11:15 at night and it was our friend Paul. David gets up and tells me that he has to go help Paul get raccoons out of an apartment downtown. Now Paul has been notorious for calling at random times for random things, but this seemed to top it. I couldn't believe it that David was leaving at 11:30 at night. I kind of thought he was up to something but I couldn't figure it out. Was he decorating for me, maybe shopping... I didn't know but he was gone for over an hour and I started to get more and more curious. It started to rain and a huge thunder and lightning storm came it so my nerves were on edge also. All of a sudden I hear a girls voice and little kids voice and I was even more confused, then walks in my sister and her three kids from Kentucky. they had come down to surprise me for my birthday. So my sister came and we played at the beach and I, unfortunately had to go to work for a few hours but when I came back there was a party waiting for me. A few of my friends were there to surprise me. It was a great party. David had done so much scheming and planning but it was awesome.

I had a great time with my sister and her family and I was blessed to have them miss their flight and they stayed an extra day. Thanks TIFF !!!!!

Here are a few pics of the party and notice that the "wigging out" wig has been passed down to the next generation... watch out David you are next.