Downtown Disney

I feel like people must just hate us reading about all of these fun things we've gotten to do lately.  We sure feel like we're spoiled.  

Michael has been doing a lot of traveling with work lately.  Luckily he's close by the rest of the month, but he had the chance to go to New Orleans this past week. For the most part he was just in court and the airport, but he got to wander around the French Quarter a little bit.  At a restaurant he ordered some type of meat and they asked him if he wanted it as a po' boy.  He said rather than try and figure out what they were talking about he just fessed up and told the server that he had no clue what she was talking about.  :)  Turns out it's a traditional Louisiana sandwich, filled with any variety of meat, usually fried.  Exciting stuff. According to people we've talked to since he got back he also should have sought out pralines and beignes. Next time.

The French Quarter

 

We've decided to make Saturdays our field trip day.  The kids have been bugging us about going to Disney World since we pulled into town, but we wanted to take some time to ask around and figure out what really is the best way to do it (season passes, black-out dates vs not, etc).  We decided to start out with one of the few free things to do at Disney World - Downtown Disney.  For the most part it's just a bunch of shops and restaurants, but there were a lot of other fun things too.  There was a LEGO store with life-size Lego sculptures, even a huge dragon in the water.

Outside one of the shops Jessica and I posed with some princesses.

The boys found something a little more manly to pose with (Jessica had to pop in too).

Inside parents could spend $250 at the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique to have their little girls get their hair done and dress up like a princess.  Yeah, we didn't do that one.  :)  Jessica was happy just to pose with a few things inside (she has a very long wish list now for her birthday and Christmas).

They had just a couple of simple rides for kids that we went on - a train and a carousel.  Chandler was in heaven on the train. He's still pretty much obsessed with anything train-related.

The poor little guy was NOT a happy camper when he had to get off.

But a ride on the carousel helped calm him down a little.

 

Jessica loved it too.

We went into the Rainforest Cafe and T-Rex Cafe to look around.  They had some fun displays.

Jessica is pretending to be scared of the dinosaur behind her.  Chandler really was kind of scared of the dinosaurs so he and Michael went back outside for a bit.

On our drive back home it was around 100 degrees and we were melting.  But it didn't take long for clouds to start gathering and by the time we were home we had a downpour and dime-sized hail.  We were just happy for the quick temperature drop... and the fact that the hail didn't dent our cars.  Apparently it just gets worse as hurricane season gets closer.  I love thunder storms, so no complaints from me.

 

And that was our fun weekend.  Don't hate us, just visit us.  We'll play with you too.

Beach Bums

I feel like we are permanently on vacation here.  No complaints.  :)  The kids and I spend most days hanging out by the pool or just having some warm summer fun.  We spent this past weekend at Cocoa Beach.  Jessica is still talking about the massive surf shop nearby.  She wants a boogie board and Chandler is already asking for a green surfboard (his favorite color). 

Jessica is looking sad because she had just tripped and really scraped up her knees.  But she insisted on going on into the shop.

Earlier this week Michael had hearings in a couple cities down south.  He booked a hotel in between and we came along for the fun.  I'm going to be sad once Jessica starts school and we actually have to be a little more home-bound. And I suppose this upcoming baby might change a few things.  :)  The beach we played at this time was in a town called Juno Beach.  SO fun!  They had markers all over so people knew that there were sea turtle nests in certain spots and the beach itself was COVERED in shells.  Jessica was in heaven.  She and I spent a good chunk of the time collecting while the boys went out and body-surfed. Chandler is quite the brave little fish when he's with Michael.

These are from the night before when we went down to look around.

We're here

Wow! What a month it's been!  We made it across the country in one piece and we're just about moved in.  Maybe I'll post some pictures of our new place down the road, but it's pretty bland at the moment. 

Since our last post...

~ Michael went to North Pole, Alaska for work and visited Santa's workshop as well as some museum he thought was really cool. The kids loved the candy canes he brought back.

~ Jessica had preschool graduation.  We barely got to attend this as we drove out that night.

We have just LOVED Miss Kris and we're sad to be leaving her and all of Jessica's good preschool friends behind.

~ We packed up (thanks Adam!) and took one last picture in front of the house.  I was surprised at how ok I was with leaving our first home behind.

~ We hit the road for a few hours so the next day wouldn't have to be a crazy drive.  Michael's new firm was kind enough to give us lots of time off for the move itself.  It meant we could keep the daily travel time to a reasonable minimum.  We wanted to take a picture of ourselves at the hotels each night, but we never made it past night #1.  Here that is. Goofy little cuties.

~ We discovered that Carl's Jr. is not Carl's Jr everywhere.  Start heading east and all of a sudden "Hardee's" appears. Who knew?

~ The kids and I were able to take a ride up into the Gateway Arch in St. Louis.  Michael had wanted to come too, but there was no parking for a big old moving truck anywhere nearby.  Poor guy.  It was a long wait for a pregnant lady with two restless toddlers, but I'm still glad to say we went.

(See? I was there too.)

(I think this was supposed to be a pirate face, but I'm not sure why.)

(They had a section talking about the river boats. Jessica loved pulling on the boat whistle)

~ We got to stay with Michael's sister Carly and her husband Michael in Tennessee.  The kids LOVE these two and were sad to leave the next morning. We're excited that they're having a little boy just after us - hooray for cousins!

After getting to our new place things have been pretty crazy for Michael in terms of his work schedule.  For the most part he'll just do hearings around this part of Florida, but the firm kind of had to fill in the blanks with him for this last week since the local stuff was already scheduled with other attorneys.  He's been in Alabama, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Miami, Texas, and Louisiana just in this last week.  Luckily he's back in town Thursday and will be around most of the time after that. While he was in Miami this past weekend we drove down to see him and play.  

The water was crystal blue and 80 degrees.  I could get used to this.

So other than daily trips to our apartment complex pool, that's what we've been up to.  We're loving our new place and we're ready to welcome Michael back to it.  We're also ready to welcome any other visitors that want to come and play!

Good-bye Nashunda

A couple days ago we said good-bye to Nashunda, our trusty Camry. I got Nashunda from my uncle back in the summer of 2003. It was 9 years-old at the time and I thought it was old back then. I wanted a Maxima, but since I wasn't paying, I didn't have a real choice in the matter. Little did I know that this would be the best possible car and that it would serve me, as well as my future family, for another 8 years. I put an additional 81k miles on it, bringing the total to 208k miles.

Unfortunately, with the move to Florida and the new job that will require near constant driving, Nashunda just wasn't going to make it. A kid from down the street needed a car to get to school and back and his dad thought this was the perfect car for him. It was painful handing over the keys. This car got me through BYU, the trip to Zion Nat'l Park where I proposed to Laura, law school in San Diego and Idaho, and through the first two years of my career.

I just reserved an Altima in Florida that's ready for me to pick up when we get there in 2 weeks. I'll pick it up and immediately have to take it on a road-trip for some case I'll be doing in other southern states. Hopefully it'll be as good a car as Nashunda was.

Our Little Man

We went in for one more ultrasound this past week so they could check a few more measurements on our little guy.  I was so happy at the end when they gave us a couple 3-D pictures as well.  It's amazing to already be able to see what this kiddo looks like.

Families Can Be Together Forever

My big brother got married this last weekend.  At the luncheon the older nieces and nephew sang "Families Can Be Together Forever."  Too cute.  Enjoy!

Big Changes

I guess our future has finally solidified enough to announce all of the big changes coming up in our family.  Really big changes.

A few weeks back the law firm Michael was working at announced some big financial strains and decided to lay off all of the salaried associates.  Michael was included in the group.  It was crazy, scary, and humbling, all at the same time.  We have been so incredibly overwhelmed by the love, support, and generosity of friends and family.  I hope all of our friends who took time out of their schedule to help us in the job search know how extremely grateful we are to them.  Because of one of these great friends who was happy to pass on a resume and a recommendation, our unemployment period lasted all of 1 1/2 weeks.  Whew!

Michael has been offered a position with a law firm based out of American Fork.  They only do work in federal courts, so luckily we won't have to take another Bar exam (something we had been seriously considering).  He'll train for about 6 weeks there in Utah, while staying in the basement apartment of an old mission buddy (again, we have SUCH amazing friends).  I'll be holding up the fort here in Idaho while we try and sell our house.  This is one of the few big stresses remaining - trying to sell in this market.  We're optimistic, but who knows.

After his 6 weeks are up it's off to ORLANDO, FL where we'll be long-term (whatever that means in "Hales time").  We are SO excited about this fun new adventure!  Warm and sunny will be a big change for us compared to the 9 months of winter we've been dealing with lately. :)

So that's our excitement.  Despite the way it all came about, we're SO excited for this new chapter in our lives.  And we will absolutely be taking any visitors that want to come play in our (soon to be) new hometown!

It's a...

BOY!!!

First off, I was 100% sure this little man was going to be a girl - like no doubt whatsoever.  This really threw me for a loop.  It's not as though I'm at all disappointed, I just have to completely rearrange my perception of what this little one would be.  But we are THRILLED!  Well, three of us are thrilled.  Jessica literally almost started crying when we told her.  Poor thing.  So far everything is looking great and we can't wait to meet this little guy in person!

 

He was sucking on his fingers the entire time.  Too funny.

Don't you just love the teeny little feet?