The kids are enjoying their new neighborhood and all the kids that live there.  There is a slight hill to our right which the kids have learned to love going down...

My mom came out a few days before we left and therefore she was able to help me celebrate my birthday.  She even brought a cake all the way from Wisconsin...

Blake asked me to take his picture Sabbath morning...

Vacation Day #2

Day two we visited Cohoes Falls which was extremely high due to the high levels of rain that the area has had.  It is the second largest falls in the State of New York.

From there we visited Saratoga.  We enjoyed seeing the large old mansions, the horse track and Broadway street which is filled with shops and restaurants.

Travis and I have the opportunity to be in New York for vacation/business.  Travis has a conference in St. George so we left early to take a few days vacation before hand.  Here are some of the clouds we encountered on our flights out...

On Monday we visited the Franklin Roosevelt house and museum.


FDR Grounds...

FDR House...

We ate lunch at this great little diner...

After lunch we visited a Vanderbilt mansion.  This is the smallest and least ornate of all the Vanderbilt mansions...

They built the now guest house first while the 350+ craftsman were working on the main house...

We ended the day at Eleanor Roosevelt's retreat...

Samantha had been complaining of her eyes bothering her off and on for longer than I'd like to admit so I finally made an appointment with a pediatric optometrist to have them checked.  I tried preparing her as much as possible and she brought her Samantha bear along to help her get through it.

She did awesome!  In fact, the doctor said that she was the best 4 year old she had ever tested.  Samantha had a complete eye exam with dilation and had to wear sunglasses afterwards.  Of course, Blake had to get a pair to.

The doctor said that her eyes are great and if anything, just a bit dry which is causing her eyes to burn.  The  doctor suggested we use artificial tears to relieve her eyes.

Hide-and-Seek

The other day Travis was playing hide-and-seek with the kids.  This was the first time Blake did the seeking and he was having a BLAST!  You can check it out below...

As soon as we arrived back from my parents we hit the ground running.  We were to close on our new house that Monday.  Due to some problems we were unable to close until Tuesday afternoon and finally got the keys Friday evening.  During the week we were busy packing, cleaning, running errands, etc.

It was an off week for us and one evening Samantha asked to fall asleep in our bed.  We said that was okay and then Blake wanted to sleep with us to.  Samantha said that there wasn't room on OUR bed for him.  She doesn't spend THAT much time in our bed.  In fact, now that she's moved to her big bed she hardly ever sleeps with us (hooray!).

The kids were absolute troopers during the packing.  They helped out and did well without their toys.

We were blessed that so many people helped us move, despite the extreme heat.  My parents came into town along with Travis' parents and his aunt and uncle.  Our friend Drew brought his family and Jason brought lots of packing blankets for us.

My mom came to our new house and cleaned up a bit and then started unpacking our kitchen.  That was  HUGE help and really got us settled in.  They stayed through Monday morning and helped me unpack more things.

Poor Travis had to leave Monday morning for a business trip and when he got back I had most of the boxes unloaded.  Blake put him to work though painting his pink room blue.

The kids are excited that there are other kids nearby to play with and they love their rooms.

The kids dressed up one morning...

Helping me pack...

We made labels for the kids' boxes...

Boxes, oh boxes...

We found good use for the packing paper...

The kids found that empty cupboards are fun to play in...

Moving day...

The kids watched a couple of movies while I unpacked...

Progress so far...

We could have never done our move without all of the help.  We don't know how to express our appreciation enough.