Chocolate World in Hershey Pennsylvania!!!

 The closer we got to Hershey the more excited Ryan got. It's been a childhood dream. His dad used to tell him stories of how the city smelled like chocolate all the time. I think Ryan still believed it as got off the exit. He rolled down the windows and told the kids to start smelling. I won't ruin the surprise for you if you haven't been, you can go there yourself to see if it smells of chocolate.

 There is a free ride inside the "store." We went on it probably six times. The kids loved it. It will sit in my memory in the same categoryas  "It's a small world" in Disneyland.

This was awesome. It told the amount of each candybar that had been made that day. Quite a lot of chocolate.

 The kids got to package a real package of hershey kisses that was going on the shelf. They thought it was pretty cool. The worker was great. He made the kids dance for about ten minuets shaking the chocolate to make sure it was just right.

If you are in the area I highly suggest visiting the Hershey Factory. The kids won't soon forget it.

Gettysburg Pennsylvania

We decided to take a road trip and visit some sites on the way to our new home in Rhode Island. We stayed with our favorite East Coast family, Sandy and Doug Banks in Virginia. As always it was a wonderful weekend and we loved spending time with them.
We then drove up to Gettysburg. Of course this has been on both of our "bucket lists" for travel.  It was spectacular. We thought we would drive through maybe spend about three hours. We were there for a day and a half exploring the whole region. Sandy had gotten us "Killer Angels" to listen to while we were driving there. I was so glad we did. That, and the driving tour made us feel like we truly could see the battles and feel the heartache of this scene. So many brothers, and friends fighting for what they believed was right. Truly incredible and life changing experience.

Gettysburg National Cemetary. What beautiful serene place. This is where Lincoln gave his "Gettysburg Address" but along with that it's just a peacful place to really feel the weight of the civil war; and ponder on the things we had learned, and seen in Gettysburg. I also love that our children have grown to enjoy cemetaries as much as Ryan and I. They've started to understand why they are important and how history shapes us into who we are.

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.