Last week in Fayetteville North Carolina

Wow it seemed like our time in North Carolina went so fast. We were there for four months and it was so wonderful. I love North Carolina (not so much Fayetteville) but I love the state. It was completely our friends that made us love it in North Carolina. We made some wonderful friends from church, and our neighborhood. Ryan and I were the Sunbeam Teachers in church. That was a lot of fun together. Ryan worked six miles away so he was able to ride his bike every day. We had our indoor pool and outdoor pool at the complex so we swam ALL the time. Both kids can swim very well now because of us living there. We were able to go on lot's of bike riding and both of us picked up running a lot more here. I also can say that I had my true "conversion" to the church in North Carolina. I will never forget my learning experiences and wonderful insight and faith building times here. The Lord directed us to North Carolina for many reasons but if I had to pinpoint it it would be to find my own true testimony, and learn what real missionary work is all about. It was a wonderful experience for our family. Our family picture is in front of our patio at Kings Cross Apartments. It was kind of exciting to live in an apartment complex. The only other time I've done that was in college. So it was actually a fun adventure for us. And it's funny how safe I felt knowing there were people completely surrounding us. It was a nice place to live.

 This is Raiyah with her closest friend that she made in NC, Luci Vantruess. I wish I had a picture of her whole family because we loved them all very much and enjoyed getting to know them.

 I can't say enough about how much we love Juliana. She lived one apartment over from us with her Mom and Grandma. She was at our house EVERY day that we were home. We grew to love her dearly and hope we get to see her again in the future.

 We were pretty excited the week we moved Elder Dalrymple was transferred into our ward. We were able to have him and Elder Segundo over for breakfast that morning so we could see him before we moved. He is from our home ward in Centerville Utah.

 Our ward boundaries were huge so it was pretty fun when one of my dear friends lived right up stairs from us. Her husband is serving in Afghanistan right now so I knew how she felt from my experience with Ryan in Iraq, and we had a lot of fun together. I was so grateful she lived so close. And we loved her boy Jayden. Him and Malakai loved hanging out together.

 These two cute boys Ryan and Jaden belong to Solly who is pictured at the end. The first week of church Raiyah came home and said, "all the kids are crazy in my class except one boy, his name is Ryan. He is very nice." They were wonderful friends. And as you can see Malakai and Jaden just knew how to be crazy together, and knew how to do it well.

 The kids with Luci and Lily. I laughed when I saw how much Luci and Raiyah look alike (I didn't notice that her Mom and I look alike too until these pictures). They loved playing dress up and barbies together. Their Mom is Lynn below in the army sweatshirt. We both moved into the Fayetteville ward at the same time. We weren't aware of this which is funny because after church we both went looking for the other because we just knew we were going to be great friends. We connected immediately and I am so happy we got to spend time together.

 Our favortie girl Juliana again

Me with Solly (we just finished swimming). I'm so glad I got to know Solly too. We had a lot of great talks and connected really well. I was so blessed to meet such wonderful women in North Carolina.

I wish I also had a picture of Sister Campos. She is the Relief Society President in the ward. I've never seen someone give so much of themselves for the building up of the Relief Society. Without exaggerating I would say she served atleast four hours a day to women in the ward boundaries. We became very good friends and had a wonderful time getting to know each other.

Happy Birthday to me in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

 Isn't this a fun picture. Ryan took it of our hands at Myrtle Beach. I want to hang it up when I have my own walls once again. :) Can you guess whose hands are which?

 We had a lot of fun at the beach. It is funny how much it looks and feels like Virginia Beach. The only difference is there are old people EVERYWHERE in Myrtle Beach.

 A friend recommended the Sea Mist Hotel. It looks pretty bad on the outside but it was sooo fun and nice, and inexpensive. Our room was comfortable, it was directly on the beach, and also had eight swimming pools, and lots of little slides for the kids. They were in heaven. I would have paid the price of the hotel just for the water park.

 Once I remember the name of this restraunt I will put it here. But it was a very classy Italian restraunt. We really enjoyed ourselves and the food there.

 At our hotel enjoying the pools.

Oh did I mention Ryan sent me off for a massage which I haven't had since leaving Utah. It was heavenly.

Savannah Georgia and Tybee Beach

Happy Easter and Fayetteville Carnival

HAPPY EASTER!!! I will have to take pictures of the kids in their Easter Sunday Clothes because they looked beautiful. We had a lot of fun this year. The kids loved dying the eggs, and playing the easter games I had put together. We had a great Saturday Party. We figured that would be it, and the Easter Bunny would drop off their baskets in the morning. But they wouldn't stop talking about him hiding eggs in the morning. So as not to dissapoint Mom "heard" the Easter bunny outside so we ran to the door to look. The kids eyes just lit up when they saw all the eggs hidden around the yard. It was a lot of fun. We spent a lot of time talking about the true meaning and what the Resurrection is so I was pleased that this was more the focus than anything. We had a really great time this year.

 These guys are "our" missionaries. Living in Utah I never really got how people got attached to missionaries. But we really felt like these guys were our little brothers and we had to make sure they were well taken care of. Elder Sharod and Elder Segundo were great guys to learn from and get to know. We shared many spiritual times with them and learned alot through lessons, and missionary discussions, and "role playing how to be a missionary." And the kids LOVED them. They loved that Elder Sharod could juggle and Elder Segundo was from Brazil. They were great examples for my kids.

 Fayetteville Carnival. Why does anyone spend money at these things I always ask. But some how you can't refuse your kids begging to go after you've driven by it so many times. This was expensive as usual but I have to admit their rides were pretty good. Especially the motorcycle one.

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