Riding Bikes

Last night we went for a bike ride with my sister Natalie and her family. They are here in Utah for the summer.We went down and rode on the Provo River Trail in front of Bridal Veil Falls. We have never ridden on that part of the trail before and it was so pretty. You ride right by the river and the falls. It is in the shade and it was nice and cool in the evening. JJ got the best workout because he pulled the the girls in the trailer. It was a fun evening and we will have to go back and ride that part of the trail again.
Lucy and Olivia (Olivia will be 1 at the end of June)

They had a fun time riding back there together--at least most of the time.

Waiting for Dad and Watching the Bugs

JJ comes home everyday to eat lunch with us and Lucy loves it and can't wait for him to come home. She loves to go outside and wait for him to come home. While we wait outside we will always see bugs on the sidewalk and Lucy is fascinated with them. She squats down and looks at them and follows to see where they go. She thinks the rolly-polly bugs are a mystery because they roll up in a ball and then she is like what happened to them? When Lucy see's JJ pull up she will usually start saying HI the minute he comes around the corner and wont stop until JJ says HI back. She also waves and runs toward him. What a wonderful way to be greeted.
She loves to laugh! What a happy little girl she is.

Good Things Utah

Today I went with my Friend Jenny Stanger to a local TV morning show to promote her cook book. The show is called Good Things Utah and it airs here in Utah in the mornings. They have different segments such as crafts, gardening, local businesses and they always have a cooking segment. Jenny has been on before promoting the same cookbook and had a wonderful response and they asked her to come back today and show how to make her Chicken Cordon Bleu. I helped her set up the kitchen and get everything ready for her part of the show. It was so fun to see how things are behind the scenes on a show. We got to set up the demo plate for the shot of her finished product and just see how things work. She was able to promote the cookbook and say all the things she needed to say to help sell her book. She did a very good job and seemed relaxed and all the hosts loved it. She made some and they all got to taste it. They even talked about how yummy it was at the end of the show. Way to go Jenny!! She had a great response last time she was on and sold tons of cookbooks, hopefully it will be the same this time. The name of her cookbook for any of you who are interested is Fantastic Freezer Recipes. She has over 100 recipes that can be frozen for later use. They are good for 3-6 months and can be taken from freezer to oven. She saves so much money on her groceries by buying in bulk and just taking a couple of hours to assemble a bunch of meals for later on. She also teaches cooking classes at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi, UT and Ace Hardware. If you would want to look at her cookbook here is her web page. http://www.freezerdinner.com/

Here we are in the Kitchen getting everything all set up
Jenny all ready to go !
Me, Jenny and Jenny's aunt with the 4 hosts of the show. They are all so nice and it was fun to meet them in real life.

Jenny with the kitchen coordinator Carol.
The set of Good Things Utah. Right in the front is where they do the news. It seemed so small compared to how big it looks on TV. Everything was just right there, the news, Good Things Utah, sports and the weather. They just move things around during the commercial breaks. What a fun day and a great experience for Jenny. Thanks for bringing me along Jenny!

Back to Reality

We are back from our trip to St. Louis and Memphis. It is weird to just be thrown back in to real life. Yesterday we were just relaxing and hanging out with family. Today it was back to work and daily chores at home. When we were out there it was so easy to forget about our life we have back here in UT. So I just got done posting all the fun things we did and all the pictures. So hold on tight because there are alot of them to look at. Sorry there are so many but I tried to break them up into days and the different things we did. We had a blast doing so many fun things with everyone out there. We are glad to be back and get back into the swing of life. We were able to get a good feel for moving to Memphis and now can look at renting our truck and planning our move here soon. Enjoy all the fun pictures.

Sunday May 25

Sunday we went to church and then packed up our bags. We had a nice dinner with everyone before we headed to the airport. Lucy was able to run around with Jordan before we put her in the car. It was so hot and humid Sunday, it was like a steam bath out there. I guess we will have to get use to it when we move out there.

Lauren, Me , Kelsey and Courtney
Dad, Mom , Me, Lucy and JJ
Lucy just loves to watch airplanes. She learned how to say airplanes when we flew out to St. Louis. She has been fascinated ever since. She watched them come and go and when they would fly away she would say bye!!

--Thanks Mom and Dad for having us out to visit. We had a blast doing so many fun things with everyone. We will see you soon!

Saturday May 24

Saturday morning we went over and saw Christy and Bryans new house. They are so lucky to have found such a great home so quickly. I think they will really like this house and will stay there a long time.

After looking at the house we went to the Zoo. We braved the cold rainy weather and went. We rode the train and Lucy learned to say Choo-Choo.

One of our favorite things to see when we go to the Zoo is the penguins. I think it is such a great exhibit because you can see them so close. Lucy really liked it and thought it was fun to see them swimming in the water so close.

Inside the exhibit
Lucy riding in the stroller with baby Sarah
The bears.

Friday May 23

Friday we went up to Christy's work and had lunch with her. It was so nice to finally see where she spends her days at work. I always hear about things going on there and it is fun to see where she is.

Here she is in front of her department sign.

"Research and Product Management"

At her Desk
Lauren doing some work for her

We all had to get visitor passes to come inside. Christy was our escort. It was fun to have a visitor badge.

Christy walking with Lucy out of the office

Lucy loved to play with the microphone and sing us songs. She thought it was so funny. She is such a ham singing and dancing for all of us.

Thursday May 22

Lucy loves the dogs at Grandma's house. I am sure they are happy that we are gone and they can take naps peacefully again . She especially likes Jasmine because she is nice and small.


Thursday Grandma Rahm came over to visit. It was so good to see her and visit with her. It was so nice of her to drive out to our house.
We are all posing like Lucy, she always puts her hands up like this for pictures.

Thursday evening I took Jordan to the Dentist, where I use to work. It was fun to see everyone there and visit with them. When we got back the boys went and played paintball. They had a blast.

Wednesday May 21

Wednesday we got home in time for dinner and my little brother Jordan's graduation from middle school. He is growing up so fast. I can't believe he will be in High School next year. I was amazed at how grown up all of his classmates looked. I use to babysit some of them! Time goes by so fast. Congratulations Jordan on moving on to High School.

Monday May 19-Wedneday May 21

Monday morning we drove down to Memphis. We really lucked out and our Brother in Law let us take his company car. He is a sales Manager for the Acura dealership. So we really got to travel in a nice car and were really appreciative of the navigation system in it! Lucy was pretty good in the car. It was a nice drive down there and I think southern Missouri is pretty and is so green! They speak a different language---they all have really thick accents. I am sure Lucy will pick it up quick. We spend all of our time driving around looking at pretty much all the apartments. We saw alot of ghetto places that we crossed off our list very quickly. We got alot of looks from people because we were white and we were in a fancy car. I really didn't see anything that I loved. I never thought --this is the place we should live. I only got that feeling about the Mississippi location. We liked it down there alot better then in Memphis. It was more small town and really growing. There are alot of new shopping centers and just alot of new houses. We stayed with some friends who live down there in Southaven and they love it. There are alot of students in the ward at church and there are alot of other couples from BYU who plan to move down there as well. I think the biggest thing is I have been spoiled my whole life with having a huge yard to play in . We have a yard at our apartment here that we can go out and play in whenever we want. There are plenty of nice apartments there to choose from. They are all new and have wonderful amenities. BUT they just have this small balcony or patio that would be ours to go outside on. If we wanted to go out and play we would have to walk over to the complex playground. So I guess we just need to pick one that we like the most and live with it!. So there is also a duplex community that I think we are leaning to a little bit because they are single level duplexes and everyone have their own little patio and small yard area. That was another thing-- I don't want to have people above or below me. I can't explain that anymore then I just want it. So here are our 3 choices I think we have after being down there . The 2 complexes are probably just our 2 favorite, but there are plenty more just like it. Then there are the duplexes.

This is the Civic Center East

-2 years old

-good school district, I think Lucy will be in Kindergarden our last year

-not alot of 3 bedrooms available

-kinda expensive

This is The Hamilton at Truman Farms.-Our friends are living here-new and very nice-expensive-not alot of 3 bedrooms available, our friends are going to go with a 2 bedroom until one opens up-Good school.

This is the Westwind Town homes and Duplexes-looks like a subdivision-nice brick duplexes-quiet and they would put us in a cove-They would reserve one for us for August 1st-3 bedroom-1 level with private patio and some grass area-Small kitchen-assigned parking right in front of the house-good schools

Sunday May 18

Sunday was a nice relaxing day. The weather was beautiful! We went to church and then came home and relaxed and hung out as a family. We took a couple of pictures after church.

The family--Minus a couple

Me and my Mom and Dad, and Kelseys dog Jasmine.
JJ, Me and Lucy

Courtney, Me, Lauren, Kelsey and Jordan

Sunday evening JJ took Lucy for a bike ride with uncle Jordan. Lucy really liked this little bike seat on the back. After everything winded down for the evening we organized everything for our trip to Memphis on Monday morning. We packed and organized our housing list.