Road Trip!

D.C. temple

Jayme, Trent and Lucas at the Nationals game

Me and Tbird

Most amazing farmers market. My dad would appreciate this!

Riding a bike! HAHAHA

Sister Belliston and I at the harbor

Tbird and the Missionaries!

Don't they look cute in missionary attire!

Eating on the Pier.. happy 6 year anniversary! I love you TBird!

Gotta love the beach! Nothing better!

Eating his Philly!

Crazy vendor guy with NO TEETH! but the food was good.

Us at the independence hall, upstairs.

Me where our country began!

Outside Independence hall

Supreme Court Room

Liberty Bell

Life is pretty tough on the mission, the entrance to their neighbor hood.. can we say upgrade!

Exit! Yahoo we made it!

Nauvoo Temple!

Mississippi River!

We missed out on this place... let us in, PLEASE

So this last week Trent and I went for a little road trip to Baltimore, Maryland! His parents are there on a mission, and asked if we could drive one of their cars out to them. We were both pretty excited. We ditched our boys, Pierce went to Uncle Brady and Aunt Sasha, and Lumpy went to my parents. We left Tuesday about 12:30. We started cruising along.. jamming out to all our favorite tunes and laughing our bloody heads off. Trent kept telling me the whole trip that I was like a 14 year old at a slumber party. It has been a while since I laughed that hard. Our goal the first day was to make it all the the way to North Platte, Nebraska. Trent really wanted to go to this steak house and eat. He has been raving about it since his last across the country road trip. We thought we had plenty of time until it dawned on us that they were in central times zone. So sad.. we were so close and missed it by 3 minutes. I bet you can imagine the pain Trent was going through, especially when he had to settle for Applebees! We spent the night in a crummy motel in Lincoln, Nebraska. Nebraska was a beautiful place with all the corn fields.

The next morning we got going early and headed a little of the beatin' path down to see Nauvoo and Carthage. I have never been there and have always wanted to. Wow, is all I have to say. It was great to actually put an image to what I have learned all my life. Made me really appreciate all that Joseph Smith did! We made it that night to Indianapolis, Indiana. Sorry if I offend you but, honestly that city was not my favorite. It needs some help. We stayed in a way worse motel that night, Trent and I could hardly stand the stench and the toilet ran all night long! The name, Dollar Inn, should have been the first sign!

The next morning we got out of there ASAP! Our goal was to make it to his parent's house. We journeyed through West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and then Maryland. This was by far the best part of our drive. The scenery was amazing!
Once we got there things didn't settle one bit. We ate, then met the missionaries. They introduced us that night to some amazing Italian ice from Ritas! Highly recommend if you ever take a trip out there. We went sleep. It was so nice to sleep in a nice place after spending a couple of nights in the crappiest motels ever!
The next morning we drove up to Philadelphia.. it is amazing how free you feel with no kids a 3 hour drive feels like nothing. You would think that we would be sick of driving, not yet! We saw the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. Philadelphia wouldn't be complete without a Philly cheese steak! Yummy! I loved the old cobble stone streets and cool buildings. I became fascinated with the row houses too. I think it would be fun to live in one for a little while, just to get a feel for it! We then had another wild idea to drive up to Atlantic City. We were expecting a trashy place, but it really was quite nice. We did some shopping, hung out on the beach, and ate some yummy food at a place on the Pier called The Continental!
The next morning we got up and spent the morning with Trent's parents at the Baltimore harbor. Had some more Ritas and Tbird and his dad had some traditional Baltimore Crab Cakes! After this Trent and I drove down to Washington, D.C. and met his friend Jayme Blakesley and his son Lucas. We walked around this awesome farmers market and then went and ate at a swanky Italian restaurant. After dinner we went to the National Portrait Museum, that was pretty amazing, we were trying to kill some time before we went to the Washington Nationals Baseball game. We got rained out in the 2 inning and gave up after waiting 2 hours to see if they were going to start the game. We headed back to the Blakesley House and met Katie there for some ice-cream and good laughs. It has been so long since we have seen them. We had such a great time.
Sunday morning we got up and went to church with Trent's parents and then went for a drive. We had dinner.. the biggest hamburgers I have ever seen. Their back patio was amazing and full of scenery, after all the back yard is practically the woods. We saw foxes, blue jays, cardinals, and orioles. I loved it there. Trent and I drove down to see the D.C. temple. It was pretty neat. I loved the out it just jumped out at you on the freeway. It was breathtaking.
Monday it was time to get ready to come home. We spent the morning cleaning up the car. There were so many bugs on the front! Hard work. We hated this coming to the end, but we were in all honesty missing our boys just a little. I cannot wait to go out there again.. maybe next time we will fly!

surviving the heat

Pierce jumping in the pool!
I know all of you out there that live in warmer climates are thinking I am a huge wimp when I say that It has been a scorcher.The boys absolutely cannot stand being outside for more than 5 minutes without complaining that it is hot! We filled up our pool and took a dip. It was sure refreshing!

Brock in his birthday suit in the pool. I cannot keep clothes on this kid! The water was FLAGGED!

Having so much fun together! I love these BRIEF moments when they actually get along!

This is usually the case.. Brock tormenting his brother!

Happy as ever! They loved every minute of it!

Howard Family Reunion 2009

This last week was filled with fun. We spent time with our Fun family= The Howards. These reunions only happen once ever 2-3 years.. but they are so fun. This year it was Aunt Darlene's family that was in charge and they did a great job. They had lots of fun activities to keep the kids and kids at heart busy! The company is great too. We also had some great food. Above is a picture of the boys making wooden cars with Ninny and Grammy.. Pierce wanted to make "Funny" faces at the camera.

Here is Lumps making his car.. I think he had more paint and glue on him than the actual car!Thanks Uncle Jusy for your help!

Funny kids

Cute Tyden!

Pierce on the swings.. we did a lot of this!

Quite Possibly the cutest baby.. my camera was naturally drawn to him. Jace is so happy!

Boys on teeter totter! I love Brock's face.

He thinks he is so big!

Canoe rides... Pierce begged all the time for these!

Haircuts all around...

There is a new haircutting place in Layton. It is called Snipits! It is a kids haircutting place that tries to make it fun to get your haircut! They play movies while you are getting your hair cut and have dispensers all around with free cereal and cookies. Brock found those pretty quick and mastered turning the handle to get them out! Originally I had just taken Brock to get his haircut but Pierce saw how fun it was and wanted to get his done. This is very unusual! They both did great and at the end they get a card to put in the machine for a prize. I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND this place!

Watching the movie..

After the cut!

SO happy! no wiggles either..

Cute boy in a cape!