For Cousins

Hi cousins. Jacob and Miriam sang such a beautiful song for us on their blog, so we wanted to sing one for you and all the cousins. Eden isn't as loud, but her heart is pure. We hope you enjoy this song:

Summer is over

This was an exciting summer. Usually we will stay home and just go camping or something small for a day, but this summer we went all over the place! As a family we went to Las Vegas to visit Karla's grandma, then Karla went to Oregon for her uncle's funeral, then we went back to the Oregon coast as a family then one last time to St. George to swim. It was very exciting, but a lot of work. In some ways it has been nice to get back to our normal routine and Aaron to get back to work. Here are some memories from our very adventurous summer:

Las Vegas and Karla's Grandma

Oregon for Uncle's Funeral
Karla with her two of her sisters and her three cousins (on her mom's side)

Aunt Karen, Loretta (Russ' wife) and Karla's mom

Oregon Coast Trip

St. George Trip
Spending every moment in our swimming suits

Aaron and Nate at the pool

Oregon Coast

We finally took our long awaited family trip to the Oregon coast, and it was a lot of fun. Aaron has been taking math classes this summer so we weren't able to stay too long, but even a brief weekend was a lot of fun. We went with my mom and sister and her kids. We first stopped of at the waterfalls:

This is Multnomah falls

This is Horsetail falls,
(Aaron and Eden are in the bottom right corner)

We stayed at a house that overlooked the beach just north of Newport, Oregon. Since we were so close to the area we stopped in Tillamook and toured the cheese factory and sampled the cheese and of coarse the ICE CREAM!!

This was by far Eden's favorite part of Tillamook!

Enoch of course had his fair share too.

Then it was the most anticipated moment: THE BEACH!! We were so excited to go to the biggest swimming pool and play in an endless sandbox. We learned that the Oregon beach can be a little chilly. It was about 65 degrees and the wind was strong. The first day we were blown away from the wind and didn't get much beach time. The second day we dressed up a little more and got our feet wet. It wasn't as windy so it was a little more enjoyable, despite the cooler temperature.

Eden really enjoyed all of the nice fine sand, much better than her sand box at home.

Even though the water was cold, we were not going to let that hold us back from getting our feet wet.

We then went to the Aquarium in Newport, this was a lot of fun for all of us. We saw sharks, seals, crabs, jellyfish, otters and so much more!!

The seals and sea lions just swam right by us, enjoying the afternoon sun.

Eden touched a starfish for the first time.

They have tunnels that you can walk into and have fish and sharks swim all around you!

Our trip to Oregon was fun, we enjoyed being outside of Utah and the heat, we also were able to see friends and family that live in the area. We decided for our next trip to Oregon that we need to have more time there. That weekend sure went by fast, so next time we'll spend a whole week on the coast! It was sure beautiful and worth the trip!

Family Pictures

It has been two years since our last family pictures. Eden is much older and now we have a little boy, so we were due. We had Jared and Kathleen Smith take these for us, and they were very cute! Eden was adorable, and Enoch looked handsome in his matching tie:

Here is the Smith Family...

our two precious jewels...

the handsome boys...

a little man...

the princess...

and don't forget the girls.

Summer Swimming

We love to be outside and to get wet. We filled up our small pool and let the kids play one afternoon and it was nothing but pure joy for Eden:

We never let her splash everywhere in the bathtub, so what an opportunity it was to splash water everywhere without getting in trouble.

On the other hand, Enoch became a victim of Eden's constant splashing. If the pool wasn't outside in the open air, he might have been really upset, but he is a very patient brother and just enjoys outside and water. Maybe he would have smiled more if the water wasn't cold, but he never cried once.
Later we dried off in towels and I gave Eden a Popsicle. I let them relax for a moment and when I went back to check on them, I found that Eden was so kind to share her purple Popsicle with her brother, which he enjoyed very well. None the less, it was very fun and we will have to repeat this often this summer.

Too much fun to let go

Enoch is now 6 months old so it was time to pull out Eden's old baby toys and let Enoch have fun! He loved to have his own toys that he could chew on and enjoy...so much so that he could not even let them go to take his nap.

It's the simple things that bring us joy!

Our New Home

We moved just over a month ago, but I never have taken the chance to show it off. I was waiting to unpack all the boxes and get all the pictures on the walls, but then I learned that it takes a while to put everything in its place. So here is a tour of our house...in two parts. We hope you enjoy it: