First Days in Florida

We were able to go the beach within the first couple days here. It is over a beautiful bridge across the Indian River and then you reach "The Island."  We looked at living on the island when we were looking for houses, but we just didn't feel good about it.  "The Island" is about 10 minutes away and our house is about 7 miles from the ocean.  The sand is very white here and there are a ton of seashells for Adelyn to pick up.  The Atlantic Ocean is much warmer than the Pacific Ocean so you can go there almost year round.  But those on the beaches in the Winter months are almost always vistitors.  I am excited to have the beach so close to us.  The other pic is just of us hanging out in our house.  Love the picture of the footprints.  Those are Travis, Adelyn, Boston and my footprints in the sand.  

Finding our new Home Part 1

This is where we stayed before we got our house in Port St. Lucie

The front of our house

This is Stacey Rodolico... our realtor and friend

Living room view into the kitchen

We stayed in Port St Lucie for the next 4 days. We were able to stay in a Hilton Garden and Inn where all the golfers stay and get up at the butt-crack of dawn to golf. It was beautiful though as you can tell by all the pictures. We had got in contact with a real estate agent from the ward in Vero Beach, Stacie, who we ended up being good friends with her and her family. We went house shopping this day, and found the house we wanted in an area we wanted. The next day we went to sign the contract on the house, and I just got the worst feeling about it. I dont know why because I was totally in love with the house. But when we met the property manager she seemed shady which added to my anxiety of signing the contract. We called her right before she got the lawyers to write up the contract and told her we needed the weekend to think about it. She was not excited about it. But I just did not feel good about the contract. Anyway, we called her back on Monday after deciding that it was ok to get the house, and someone had put a deposit on the house the night before. I was relieved honestly. We had looked at a house one street behind this house and we figured we could get that house which was in the same area. We loved the area. We got the paper for that house on Tuesday morning and got the keys to the house that day at 2:30 that afternoon. The real estate guy said he had never had a house go through that fast. The truck showed up at our house at 3:30 with all our stuff. It worked out perfectly. The house is newer and nice, but had not been lived in for a while so we had a little cleaning to do and a couple things to fix. But we love it and I feel so good about taking this house instead. I feel truly blessed!!!!

Bostons 1st Birthday

Holdin his boy

Best Friends 

His 3rd cake..... an ice cream cake

Lovin my son

Boston is just the most lovable boy in the world. He is such a boy loving all things boy... trucks, tools, playing catch, getting in the light sockets. It really seems like Boston has always been a part of our little family. He and Adelyn are best of friends and will spend the day just laughing and playin with each other. Boston is full of personality and you can read everything he thinks on his face without him using any words. We just love him so much and we feel so blessed to have him in our family.


He is starting to walk now at 13 months. He will walk all along the walls or anything else he can hold on to. He is up to about 10 steps by himself. He makes more sounds for words, but he blabs baby talk all the time. He has some pretty unhappy looks to let you know he is not pleased with you. But his smile can melt the hardest of hearts. He said Thank you today. He also says mama, dada, baba, addy, addy, addy, i get you, grandpa and grandma. He talks a lot so he says a lot of other things, I just dont have the code to crack what he says yet. He is so chill no matter what he doing, unless he is throwing his newly developed tantrum of throwing himself on his belly and laying down while crying. He also will stick out his lip and it quivers. Its the saddest cutest thing in the world. He adores Adelyn and will follow her around all day. She likewise loves him so much and they get along really well. He usually wrestles her and she lets him. So cute. He is just growing up so fast!


We celebrated Bostons birthday in Port St. Lucie! We were still looking at houses, but we were determined to not be in the car all day since by this time the poor guy was so SICK and TIRED of the car. We went to the hotel after looking at some places and then we had a little birthday party. We ordered in Pizza and ate it at the hotel. We had gone shopping and Boston a couple outfits and some swim shorts earlier that day, so we decided to go swimming. Boston LOVED swimming. Addy was still afraid of the alligators (courtesy of her mother)so she was more reluctant to swimming. Boston on the other hand was laughing and playing the whole time. After about 30 minutes of swimming and getting a darker, colder, and closer to bedtime, we went back to hotel. We bought a cake, and sang happy birhtday to boston. He blew out the candles and then ate a little bit of his cake. We then went to bed.


Boston opened presents from Aunt Dee, Grandma Janet and Grandma and Grandpa Darrell this day. He got he cutest little car. He loves it. Thank you all for the gifts and the phone calls.


We had celebrated Bostons birthday with my family with Brennans birthday the week before we left. I made him the cutest cake with little yellow constructions trucks on it and oreos to look like rocks and chocolate icing to look like dirt. Unfortuately I am horrible at taking pictures and never got a pic of the cake. So family members, if any of you have a pic of it and would shoot it my way I would LOVE it.

Cross Country Part 4

FLORIDA finally!!!!! We drove about 13 hours because I would not stay in New Orleans or surrounding areas for the night with my kids. We ended up at Pensacola, Florida. It was so late and foggy that night, that we weren't sure where we landed other than at a Hampton in Florida. When we woke up in the morning, we got to see the beauty that was Pensacola. The white sandy beaches were such a calming welcome to a very long trip. The people at the hotel adored our kids (because most of them were grandparents and we would soon find this is Florida in general). Pensalcola was beautiful and a great vacation destination. Anyway after spending a short walk on the beach, we got back in the car. We found a walmart and got some flip flops for Florida so we could leave the winter clothes behind. We drove across Florida from Pensacola closer to our new hometown. We ended up staying in Port St Lucie.

Cross Country Tour Part 3

This was by far the WORST day of the whole entire trip. We left Witchita Falls, TX(again early in the morning... Boston was sure to get us up and going early. This day we drove through the rest of Texas, Lousianna, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida. The travels were going really well until we hit Lousianna. Ok, so this is just my opinon on Lousianna.... sorry for anyone who lived there or is a fan. I think this place has got to be the airpit of the earth. You just get the worst feeling driving through this state. The land is completely marshy, foresty, and dirty. There is no room for any vegatation. I felt dirty driving through it. We stopped at a Long John Silvers by Shreveport to let Addy go potty, and I would not get out in Lousianna again. Although the bathroom itself was clean, I was worried about how dirty the people who had used that bathroom before were. There is just nothing but tons of large trees in muddy rivers alongside the road on the both sides. Just nasty. I HATED HATED HATED being in Louisanna. We did have to stop and change Boston, so we tried to find a Borders bookstore (thinking it would be clean and we had a better chance of clean people being there). It was better. We got in car and drove through New Orleans. We were not able to see a lot of the Hurricane devastation, but the areas we were previous in looked poor and you could definately see how horrible it would be for these poorly built areas and poorer people. Anyway on our way through New Orleans we looked down from the road to find about 30 police cars at a gas station below us. I have never seen so many police cars in my life. Needless to say, I would be ok to NEVER go back to Lousianna again:) From there we drove in the FOG for about 2 hours through the rest of Lousianna, Alabama, Mississippi, and then finally the tip of FLORIDA!!!!

Cross Country Tour Part 2

From New Mexico we drove to our destination in Texas. We left our hotel early in the morning and hit the road fast. At the New Mexico/Texas border there was the coolest gas station I have ever seen. Addy and I went in for a potty break while Trav was putting gas in the car and checking oil. Inside the gas station was a mini car show with about 20-30 vintage cars in perfect condition, along with authentic pics of Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, John Wayne and old coke bottles along with other "old treasures". We spent quite a while in there. Addy was so glad to be able to walk around, and Boston was so glad to not be strapped in his car seat. Texas was a beautiful place. We stopped and ate at an Applebee's in Amaillro. The people were friendly, the city clean. I learned there that I could probably live in Texas. It was beautiful. Today was the last day I would see any mountains also as we headed to the East side of Texas. We got to Witchita Falls about 11 pm and got in our Hampton Hotel.

Cross Country Tour Part 1

We stayed at my moms house for a couple of days and then headed on the road on the February 13th. The first day we drove we drove to New Mexico and we were able to see Sarah and family. It was wonderful to see their adorable kids and their nice house, and the company wasn't bad either:) They made us feel so welcome. The stay was very short, but it was so wonderful to see them and see them doing well. We left their house around 7:oo pm and drove to Albuquerque to stay the night. We were going to stay in a hotel, but when we went in the room, the floor wasnt vacuumed, the sheets were stained, and the OCD girl in me just couldnt do it. So we drove literally across the road and stayed at a Hampton Inn. We decided then that we would try to stay in Hampton hotels the rest of the trip because they had a good reputation for being pretty nice.

Our trip to Florida

It took us a total for four driving days to get to our new place in Southern Florida. Both Addy and Boston were stellar travelers (thank you to the DVD player). Toward the end of the trip Boston would go stiff as a board when we would put him in the car, but as soon as we would get going he did awesome. So we said goodbye to our house we had known since Addy was 4 months old and the only home Boston had known on the 12th of February. I thought I would be horribly sad to leave, but I think I had been preparing myself for quite some time and the timing just felt right. We were very sad to leave our many friends in the neighborhood and our families but so excited for our new adventure in life!

Saying goodbye

My helpers packin the house

On the floor of our old house

Still dancin.... love this quality about her

Empty house.... full heart and many memories

Addy standing on our porch for the last time

In front of house

BFF's

The Rowleys the morning before we drove away

We said goodbye to our great home and neighborhood in Cedar City at Sunset Ridge.  We will definately miss our friends and the good life we had while living here.  We are also so excited for our new adventures in life.  We feel like CC is our home base and we know we will be back to visit.... but it will never be the same.  Life here was good!  We celebrated Bostons birthday with Youngs and told them goodbye... for now.  We had a celebration for Boston's first birthday and said our goodbyes to our family in Parowan on Sunday.  So many family came down for our going away party.  We are so thankful for both of our families love and support.  Here are pics of the old house, where Addy spent the first 4 years of her life, where Travis and I struggled to get through school, where we came home from after each day of work for both of us, where we brought Boston home from the hospital, where we made many life long friends and a million of memories!!!

Family Pictures February 2011

These were our "free" family photos I won from a girl in our ward who is trying to get into photography. Loved the pictures of the kids, and of course my handsome hubby, but the pictures of me don't really look like me (aka I look horrible). This is Boston at 12 month and Addy at 4. I am so late getting them up because I lost the CD she gave me and have been searching aimlessly for it. Still have not found it. Bummer.