A Bittersweet Surprise

Last Friday it became official, we are moving to Utah. It is soooo sad to leave our friends here!!! We have loved these past seven months in the Summit, NJ area. We love our friends and our ward so much. We have also enjoyed the beautiful parks and fun family activities in our community. We would love to return to the area in the not too distant future!

The good news is, Rob found a great opportunity that just happens to be in Salt Lake City. He has been wanting to change the direction of his career for a while now and we feel like this is the opportunity to take. He has to start his new job pretty quickly--so we will be moving in about two weeks!

James Is Getting Ready...

James has been helping out a lot...

Reading stories

Organizing the House

Helping with the cooking

Practicing good hygiene

Getting good rest (more in mom and dad's bed than they would like)

AND, preparing to help his baby sister, who is scheduled to arrive in August! We are so excited! (and proud of James) :)

A Bit of Dreaminess

In March Rob was miraculously able to get out of work for a long weekend and things worked out for us to go to St. Thomas together. It was such a blessing to spend time together again! We had so much fun!

So ready to play in the sun!

Magan's Bay: First stop at the beach



Our room ended up with a pretty view!

Our fun patio
The guys


Coral World Ocean Park and Coki Beach Snorkeling
Cool underwater observation tower.

There were windows two stories down to provide non-scuba divers great views.

Rob feeding a sting ray



James loved chasing the wild iguanas!

So nice to be together!!

We snorkeled at Coki Beach that afternoon and had the famous fresh mango smoothies there (yum= mangos, ice, and cream of coconut)

We found excuses to get dressed up at night, even if it meant an exotic trip to the gift shop snacks for dinner :)

Trunk Bay in St. John
St. John is a beautiful National Park Area...and Trunk Bay, a great place to snorkel! We tried pulling James around in an tube while we snorkeled, but it scared him! He had a lot more fun running into the water to Dad.



Father Son Bonding time. This was so precious!

Boat ride back to St. Thomas

Exploring Charlotte Amalie


Our last night we went to Havana Blue for dinner. It was amazing!


Our first time in the pool! The morning before we got on the plane! Ironic.

This is how we all felt at the end of our trip:
In love with the sun and my boys

Dreading heading back to the grind

Exhausted!

Happy Birthday James!

We enjoyed a 70 degree day at the park with friends yesterday to celebrate James's 2nd birthday with his friends. (His actual birthday is today.)

We had a Cars Birthday theme--James's favorite!!

James was the first to arrive--and he brought his favorite pals: Dad and "Snuggle"

We had James's favorite foods: Pizza, popcorn, strawberries, and juice

Basketball with the guys


Cake with sprinkles and Peeps

We are grateful James has such nice friends (and for their parents)!

Parents Night Out

It was fun celebrating Shauna's Birthday!! It was the first time a bunch of us got babysitters at the same time! We love you Shauna!

Lil Girl's Night

Bowling Jersey Style

Where's Brittany?
There she is!

Valentine's in the City

Saturday night Rob and I drove into the city. We went to the Manhattan Temple and got yummy take-out. I learned how much I LOVE driving around the city when you are in your own car, instead of watching the cost of your cab ride climb every few seconds. We just drove around and saw time square, the fashion week tents and picked up some of our favorite NYC treats:

Joe's Shanghai soup dumplings

Pinkberry www.pinkberry.com (their website makes me laugh)


While I was waiting at Joe's Shanghai for our order, a woman that looked a LOT like Nicole Kidman and her crew came in...One of the customers exiting just about fainted she was so excited to see a famous designer. Can't remember who it was...but it was just funny and so New York. ;)

Although I don't mind the train, I hope this won't be the last time we drive into the city. The key is just finding a good parking coupon online!