What a great summer....

Man!! I was just looking back at pictures that we have taken in the past 2 months and wow we have done so many things. I actually have been wanting to blog about each one seperately, but as you can see, Im not the best at blogging! :) But I have wanted to share some of the fun things we have done.

1. We went to San Francisco about a week and a half ago. It is about 3 hours away from Reno, so we figured since we are this close we had to go at least once. It was great! We went with Jeff and Hetti Gower. Jeff is in the pharamacy program with Nick, and his wife Hetti is what I would consider pretty much my only friend here in Reno. She's great! Anyways... it was a fun trip! 

Me and Sophie with the Ex con... apparently being an ex-inmate in alcatraz makes you some kind of a celebrity.



She was so tired!

In the Alcatraz Prison

Sea Lions at Pier 39

Golden Gate Bridge

Lumbard Street

Those hills in San Francisco are brutal!

2. Nick just finished up his 2nd rotation here. It was a Walgreens rotation and the lady who was in charge of him was going to be gone for Nick's last week. She was very very nice and decided to let Nick have off Wed.- Fri. So Nick surprised me and let us go on a little trip back to Pocatello (which for us isnt such a little trip, its 9 hours from Reno). We actually surprised my parents too and just showed up at the door. Well technically we set Sophie on the door step in her carseat, covered the car seat with a blanket, and rang and ran, My dad answered and actually thought some random person was trying to leave their child with my parents. You know, like in the movies kind of. Anyways... he totally blew past Sophie (who was crying) and came running out after whoever dropped the baby off. It was actually really funny! Im laughing just thinking about it, and he was way suprised when he saw it was us. I couldnt believe he didnt even look at the crying baby. Who does that?!
We were actually in Burley first, before we went to Pocatello, to visit Nick's parents and it was so fun seeing them too. Nick was way excited to be able to go water skiing, and golfing. And it turned out to be perfect weather for both of those. The river in Burley was as smooth as I have ever seen it. And Nick and I and Nick's dad all went golfing and Nick shot the best round he has ever shot,and he beat me by one stroke, which is quite the accomplishment for him, and a bummer for me because until now, golf was the only thing I had up on him. oh well! : )
It turned out be be a perfect week to visit Nick's family because Chad (nicks brother) blessed their new little baby Quincy, so the whole family was in town for that. We were very excited to be able to go to that and see everyone.
It also turned out to be like the worst weekend to visit my family. My parents had their 30yr highschool reunion that weekend and they both were involved with planning it. And Mandy and Bryson had a big tennis tournament that weekend also. It was still fun to see them, but we just didnt get as much time with them as I would have liked. Mandy and Bryson dominated at tennis though, and we watched their matches so that was pretty cool.

She loves the water!

Nick doin his thing on the water ski

Cool sunglasses huh! :)

Me... attempting to wakeboard. Ever since my fall on the motorcycle Im terrified of wrecking on anything. I was really scared to go wakeboarding, but Nick talked me into it, and it was pretty fun. Even though I suck! :)

You cant really tell from this picture but Sophie is waving too. She waves at everything... its so cute!

Grandma Sue, Sophie, and Mary on the boat

The Barker family!

3. With all of this time on my hands here in Reno ( ya right) I have worked on a few projects. I guess one of the advantages of being poor is that I never want to spend money, or rather I dont have the money to spend, so, I teach myself how to make things, and I think I prefer it now to buying stuff. I feel like I appreciate it a lot more, and its fun! I would definitely recomend it. And seriously if I can do it anyone can! I dont even know what im doing really, I just kind of start and hope for the best.
The first project is a new carseat cover. I made it because the original one on the carseat started falling apart, and to buy a new one costs a lot more than I was willing to pay, so... here it is...... before...

notice the duct tape?

And the rips?

And After.... what do ya think? Dont look too close. ;)




 I have also been working on a Quiet Book for Sophie for her birthday ( which is tomorrow, YAY!!!!) I dont have any pictures of it yet, but its pretty cute! It was really fun to make.


My most recent project is a curtain covering thing for our entertainment center. Sophie loves to pull out all the movies and fling them all over the room, so I am covering it so she cant do that anymore. That project is actually not finished yet. Hopefully soon. :)

 SO............ Like I said, this has been a great summer so far. We have really enjoyed our time here, and the summer isn't over yet! We still have more fun things ahead!  :)

~LateLy~

WOW! It is officicial I am SO bad at keeping up with this blog. I think about updating it all the time, but when I get time to sit down and do it, when Sophie is taking her nap and the house is somewhat clean,  I decide I would probably rather do somthing else, like read a book, or watch a show that I have recorded (DVR is like the best invention EVER! haha). So updating the blog isn't a first priority, but we have had some fun thigs going on, and I really wanted to put it in here. That way if I forget to write in my journal, then I can always come and look here at my blog. :)

Anyways..Nick, Sophie, and I have been enjoying our time here in Reno. Its fun being somwhere new, and different but I will admit we really miss our families. Nick's brother Jono sent Nick a picture of a fish he caught and Nick was so jealous!! He really misses fishing ( and Jono ;) and the rest of his family. I miss mine too, but this last week they came down here to Reno to visit us and it was SOO great having them here. I knew I missed them, but I think I realized it a lot more this week. After they left I was so sad! Its kind of pathetic actually, because this is really the second time I have seen them since we have lived here in Reno, and we have only been here since May.

At the beginning of June I was able to go to Pocatello and see my family and also a lot of Nicks family too. That was also realy nice to see them! I really miss Nick' s family too! Hopefully some of them can come visit us sometime.

Sophie Hallie and Grandma Sue playing in the park in Pocatello

Sophie playing with Kyler

Me and My parent when they came to pick me up from Reno, we were freezing if you cant tell!

The reason I went to Pocatello in June was because for mine and Nick's anniversay we got tickets to a Cake concert in Boise, so I went down a few days early ( my parents came and picked up me and Sophie here in Reno). Then Mandy and Bryson (sis and bro) drove me to Boise and we picked Nick up from the airport and headed to my aunt and uncle's house. They live in Nampa and let us stay with them while we were in Boise. Friday night was the Cake concert! It was really fun! We definitely recommend it!



Nick and I at the Concert



This is the lead singer for CAKE

So this last week with my family here we had a great time. They came the Friday before the 4th and my parents left on Tuesday the 5th and Mandy and Bryson stayed until Saturday the 9th! We went to Lake Tahoe one day, we played tennis, went swimming at the pool here at our apartment complex, went to a minor league baseball game, we also went to a ward breakfast on the 4th which is kind of a funny story... So the breakfast was from 7am- 9am well we were all like "7am! Thats too early! We will go around 8" Well we end up getting there about 8:30. Its at this park and everyone is stitting around listening to this speaker., and we all just kind of walk up, then after he is done with his talk they are like "Thank you all for coming have a nice 4th of July!" So ya... basically we missed the breakfast part, but since EVERYONE saw us come late, they were like "oh it looks like some people havent eaten yet,  raise your hand if you havent gotten food" So, of course, my Dad and brother Bryson raise their hands. I think Me, my Mom and Mandy about died from embaressment! We were the only ones who hadnt eaten and everyone was like getting ready to go. Anyways... we stayed and ate, but I felt so stupid the whole time, because first of all we are still really new in our ward and nobody really knows us, so they were all probably wondering who we all were,  second the whole breakfast was over when we got there and the only food they had were these pancakes that had been sitting out for and hour and an half, and anyway it was just embarrassing. Other than that though the 4th was fun! We went and hit golf balls at this really cool driving range and we looked around down town, then Nick made a really good dinner and then we went and watched the fireworks!




At the Reno Aces Baseball game!



They do fireworks after the baseball game and these are the sweet glasses they give you to watch the firewroks with.

the Boys with Tahoe in the background



The girls

The water in Tahoe was Freezing! This video got cut off before we all jumped in, but its still kinda funny!

The rest of the week we just kind of hung out and went to the malls and more tennis, and swimming and on Thursday we went to the water park here in Reno, and that was really fun! Unfortuatly we left the card that goes in our camera home, so I couldnt get any pictures at the waterpark. Basically the week was really fun! And now I miss my family! Its nice to have a clean house again though! :) 

Here are some pictures and things of Sophie now. She is 11 months old today!!

ridin'  the Kirby

I got her hair into a little pony tail for the first time today! :)

This video is from about 3 weeks ago, but its so cute! 

RENO AT LAST!!!

So we finally  made it here to Reno, NV. I say finally, because even though it only took us like 2 days to get here (yes we took it slow), but I feel like we are finally all moved in and kind of getting settled into life here in this new place. It took us so long because when we first got here the original apartment we moved into had some neighbors that just happened to be constant smokers. Honestly I think the only thing they did all day was smoke in their apartment, and unfortuately the smell came into our apartment really really bad. So Nick decided to go talk to the management and see if there was anyway we could switch to another place that we wouldnt get lung cancer from. :) Originally they told us that we would have to wait 3 weeks to move to another place, and that was a little annoying. But I think we bugged them enough times in those 2 days that they miraculously were able to find a place the following week. SO... that made me much much happier! Although, moving all of our stuff again was still a pretty big pain, but I am very glad we did it because this new apartment is very nice and best part is there is NO smoke! ;)

Now that we are all unpacked and everything, we have just been able to enjoy Reno a little bit more. It actually is a pretty nice city. There seems to be alot more to do here than in Pocatello (although i know that isnt saying much) but we like it so far. Nick and I were both really hoping that the weather here would be nice and warm, unlike Pocatello, but alas... I think the weather here is just about the same. Well its porbably a little bit warmer, but we were also hopeing to get away from Pocatello's wind, and I think Reno actaully is MORE windy! Oh well right. ;) 

I think Sophie likes it here too. She had a hard time at first with the move, I think mostly because she didnt know what was going on, and she was very very clingy to me for the first week or 2, THANKFULLY she is over that now. Her and i like to go on walks everyday, and for Mothers day Nick got me a jogging stroller, so I have been trying to go Jogging with her too. It is much harder to jog while pushing a stroller than just jogging on your own, so I will admit I thought I was going to pass out the first time I went. We live on a big hill and I made the mistake of running UP it the first time I went out running. I thought I was going to DIE when I got done. So ever since then I have decided to take easier routes.

Nick has been doing his rotations here at the St. Mary's hospital and I think he is enjoying it for the most part. I think he is just going to be glad when he gets to be paid for working instead of us paying them thousands and thousands of dollars for him to work. :)
ANYWAYS... basically we are doing really good. We are glad to be here, but we do miss our families. Unfortuately our camera got packed during the move so we were not able to get pictures of our trip here, or our first few days here, but I eventually found it so I will post some of the pictures that I have.

This is how we slept for the week we were in the nasty smoke-filled apartment

She looks like such a chub here!! :)

Oh ya... also did I mention that my hair is FINALLY starting to get long... im pretty excited about it! :)

*Life's good!*

Alright, so i feel like I have been kind of slacking on the whole Blog thing. Maybe its because I didnt feel like anything cool was really going on in our lives at the moment,  but then I started thinking about it and I guess you could say that our lives are actually pretty good right now. Nick is finishing up his last semester of actual school work, which is super exciting for us because that means no more tests, which means lots of less stress for him, which in turn means lots of less stress for me! :) Its good all around.
Also we are moving to Reno in 2 months almost exactly from today, which seems crazy, but we are pretty excited about it. For those who don't already know this ( and i may have already talked about this in my last post) we are going there for Nick to do his pharamacy rotations for his last year of school. We will be there until December, and then if all goes as planned we will come back to Idaho, and he will finish off his rotations in the Burley/ Rupert area. The good news is that we were able to find some girls to rent our house while we are gone. Im very glad we found some, I was really stressed about it, but I think we have found some good girls to live here. HOpefully they wont trash it. ;)

ALso, Sophie is now 7 months old! I cannot believe it! Time goes by so fast! She can sit up all on her own now, and its really nice for me because I just sit her down with some toys and she will entertain herself for quite a while. I love it! :) I can actually get some things done around the house now. She still hasn't rolled over or even tried. I know she could do it if she wanted, but I honestly dont think she cares at all. haha Same goes with crawling/ scooting. Suppoedly some babies are supposed to be able to do that by this age, and once again I think Sophie could, but I dont think she even cares to try, and to be completely honest, Im ok with her just sitting for now. :)
ME and Nick were also able to go to the temple for the first time together since we have had Sophie. It was so nice to be able to go. My cousin Tina watched Sophie for us while we were there. She took some pictures, and they were so cute  I had to put them on here. This First one is of Sophie with Tina's cute little boy Caleb.



Caleb apparently was really excited to hold baby Sophie! ;)


I Love this one!



This is Tina! Her and Sophie had matching "I love NY" shirts on. By the way Tina is 9 months pregnant here, but doesnt she look so good!!! :)

I also went to Boise at the beggining of March to watch my sister Mandy's basketball team at State. They took third. It was a fun little trip for me and Sophie. Nick couldnt come because of school. :( I stayed in a hotel with my grandma and we took Sophie swimming one morning and she LOVED it! I have pictures of it too, but for some reason it wont upload those ones.

This coming week is Spring break. We are going to be heading to St. George, UT with my family. We go every year but for some reason I am like super super excited about it this year. I think its going to be so fun to have Sophie with us this time. Plus I am in desperate need of some sunshine! So there better be some! :)