Long Way Round

About 2 years ago Eric saw the documentary The Long Way Round and got obsessed with the idea of going on a long motorcycle trip like Ewen McGregor. I just liked watching cutie pie Ewen. Last weekend he went on his first one with his friend Heath (Eva calls him Heaf). They left Boise heading west on Highway 26, the scenic Oregon Trail route passing Mount Hood. They got to Portland that friday night after a long day of riding and met up with another high school buddy, Dusty Wickham. After crashing at Dusty's place, he was gracious enough to be their guide on saturday to show them Multnomah Falls, a fish hatchery with sturgeon, Astoria, Cannon Beach, Ecola, and then finally back to Portland that evening. The last day of the journey they saw the spruce goose at an airplane museum, traveled through Oregon wine country, through Sisters, Bend and then finally back to Boise sunday night. Check out the pics above.

Meanwhile, Eva and I had a nice girls weekend. We went to the zoo with our friends the Jarvis' and shoe shopping. We were happy to have the boys home safe.

Baby Brudder

If you ask Eva what kind of baby is in mommy's tummy she will tell you "baby brudder." She has said it all along. And we found out that she's right! We are thrilled with the news and excited to meet this little guy. It always helps me to visualize and feel closer to the baby when I find out what I'm having. So I'm one of those annoying patients that is begging for an ultra-sound at 16 weeks. My doctor let me come in at 18 and it was pretty clear. I think this baby wanted to make sure we got rid of all the pink in his room.

Eva likes to kiss my belly and say, "Wub you baby." It's really cute, until we are in church and she is trying to lift up my shirt! I am so glad that she is excited. I know she will be a fabulous sister...a little overbearing, maybe, but a loving one.

Easter

Easter weekend was spent in St. George, UT this year. Well, actually in Hurricane (Hurricun is how they should spell it if they are going to say it like that). The Ballou's bought a beautiful home there so we all decided to meet and check it out and enjoy Easter/ General Conference together. We had fun in the 70 degree weather and playing on the fake grass. That stuff is awesome! I wish we could put it in our yard but I think we would stand out too much in our neighborhood. Anyway, the Easter egg hunt was great and pretty funny to watch. Eva would get interested in the first egg she found, try her best to open it to get the candy out while Brenner ran like lightning to get the eggs. He was so cute because he still let Eva pick up her share of the eggs. What a relaxing weekend! The drive wasn't even all that bad.

Who is the man in this picture? Eric and I went on a hike right outside the back door. It was awesome having all that red rock to climb on! Eva bossing Clark around

I'm not fond of me and the belly in this photo but I couldn't pass up the cute loves for Uncle Travis

The Puffy Coat Dance

Last weekend our friend, and Eric's high school buddy Heath came to town with his friend, Sara. We took them to McCall and did some cross country skiing there. Eric, being the handyman that he is, constructed the perfect little sled to pull Eva behind in. He gathered some foam pads and camp pillows and made the most comfy little seat. Well, she only lasted a few minutes being pulled behind in the sled. I don't know if it was because of the monotonous way the sled jerked back and forth or if she simply wanted to run around and eat snow. Since I was enjoying myself on the skis, Eric kindly took Eva to watch a special olympics race that was going on while the rest of us skiied on the trail for a while. As you can see, she liked the excitement of the race much better than the lame trail. There was music to dance to and "kids" and people to watch her dance moves.

Come September...

This little person will be coming to our family! We are so excited to have a tiny baby again. Eva has been kissing my tummy so I think this baby will get lots of good kisses from big sister.

Happy 2nd Birthday Eva Joy!

We had a busy couple of weekends around Eva's birthday that made it fun to celebrate. The weekend before we went to Island Park with the Ballous where we enjoyed snowmobiling, sledding and as always, eating and hanging out in the lovely cabin. Eva got to have a chocolate birthday cake with the fam!

The next week, we flew out on her birthday to Scottsdale, AZ where Eric had another dental conference. We took her along this time and had fun in the sun. She and I hung around the hotel most of the time chasing bunnies and swimming. She would say, "Bunny, come 'ere." Then she couldn't understand why they would run away. There were a lot of little wild rabbits running around. A highlight of the trip was seeing our good friend from dental school, Kathryn and her two girls, who met us to go swimming. Thank you Kathryn for coming! The night of Eva's birthday we went out to dinner with some other dental folk and Eva did great, especially when they brought out a little chocolate surprise with a candle for her!

We were excited to get home because Eva could test out her new birthday prize: a bike! I think she looks pretty cute riding it. She has just now learned to pedal but we are working on the steering part still...

She was happier than she looks, I promise!

We love you Eva. You brighten every day with your smile, dancing, your little voice, and your friendly nature.

Say goodbye to your dance floor, Eva...

This is what we have been doing a lot of since we moved in October: sitting on the floor in our kitchen and living room. We don't have a good excuse since we have perfectly fine furniture. We just decided it would be best upstairs in our bonus/ guest room....Oh and I guess we do have a couch in our bedroom which is kind of wierd. So I'm not saying, "poor us" by any means. I'm just thrilled for our new open living room and kitchen and for some furniture to make it cozy! We wanted a more open feel in our kitchen and living area and there was an unnecessary wall in between them. So Travis came and did the demo. He did a beautiful job as you can see the pretty white trim and new wall. It was really fun having him, Emily and the boys here too. Thanks Trav! And thank you Emily, Brenner and Clark for driving here and keeping us company.

Uncle Chuck, you're the best.

My sweet uncle Chuck and aunt Bonnie gave us a tremendous deal on furniture through Ashley Furniture and then they actually drove it up to us from Salt Lake. Wow! I'm glad Eric was able to do some work on their teeth. We had a fun time catching up with them and showing them around our town. Thanks you guys. We love you!

Oh, and I have to thank myself for getting the perfect color of pillows. The red orange ones.

Eva doesn't seem to sad that her dance floor just got covered. If furniture never came we had a plan B thanks to Dad. It was going to be Eva's roller skating rink slash dance floor. I think this is better though.

Okay, this one doesn't really go with the story, but I had to add it. It is my little artist that I am so proud of. She asks to color all of the time and I think it is so cute. We have Grandpa Ballou's awesome old desk and call this room "the art room." You can see my eisel in the corner. I actually got to use it during Christmas time for a couple of paintings! More to come I hope...