October

October was a BUSY month for us!  Actually, it seems like we've been busy ever since we moved to Utah.  We've gone home at least 4 times already and have plans to go home again in a few weeks.  We love being so close though and it's fun to get to see Declan interact with his grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousin so often.  The first weekend in October we went home so that I could help host a baby shower for my close friend, Ashlie.  We've been friends since high school and it's weird to think that we're old enough to have kids of our own.  Ash and Brent are going to be awesome parents and we are so excited to meet their little girl!  Thank you mom for letting us crash your house! :)

Ashlie, Me, Rozalynn, and Summer

The next weekend our good friends, the Stites', came to visit us from Boise.  Kiera and I were friends in high school, college roommates, mistaken for sisters, etc.  We used to hang out with Kiera and Brian all the time when we lived in Rexburg together.  We hadn't seen them since last Christmas so it was awesome to catch up.  Their daughter Kambri is so cute and so smart!  They have a son, Cohen, who is just 6 weeks younger than Declan and he is one of the happiest kids I have ever seen.  We went to the Gateway and to a farm and rode on a wagon and went through a pumpkin patch.  It was so fun just to talk to Kiera again.  It reminded me of when we were college roommates and we used to go on runs/walks late at night and then we would just sit on the grass outside of our apt and talk for hours.  We liked to confuse people who met us in college also by asking who they thought were sisters in our apt (Kiera's real sister, Kirsten, lived with us) and without fail they would guess Kiera and I right off!

It seems like Declan was sick almost the whole month of October also.  We just kept passing it around in our family but one night we Declan woke up a few hours after he had gone to bed and he was throwing up!  I didn't think I would have to experience my kid throwing up for at least a little longer but he definitely had some sort of bug.  He threw up 8 times in 4 hours and Zach and I both got to experience him puking on us.  Don't worry though, I don't have a picture of that. :)

We went back to Idaho last weekend to celebrate my father-in-law's 50th birthday!  I drove up with my parents on Thursday afternoon and spent the day with them Friday.  Zach came up after work on Friday and as soon as he got there he was put to work setting up my dad's new mac.  We finally converted him. :) 

A few days before we went to Idaho we found out that a friend of ours who we worked with at Melaleuca was in a car accident and was killed.  She was almost 6 months pregnant and the baby didn't survive the wreck either.  We were able to attend her funeral in Driggs on Saturday and I am so glad that we went.  It was an amazing service.  There were many speakers including her mother, father, sister, sister-in-law, father-in-law and even her husband.  Her husband spoke so well and told the sweetest stories about Angela.  We were also able to see a few other friends at the funeral that we haven't seen in 3 years.  

Afterward, we went to Idaho Falls and had a party for Lyndon.  We always have a lot of fun with Zach's family!  I made Lyndon a nice over the hill birthday cake.  All the kids and Ann went on a new set of irons for Lyndon's birthday present!  I think he was excited about them. :) Declan learned to dance while we were there.  He was totally rocking out to rock and roll Elmo!  Zach's cousins, Jedd, John, and Kelly, came also and Declan had a blast with them. 

Finally, Halloween!  We had a hard time deciding what Declan would be this year.  He won't keep anything on his head and every costume has some sort of hat or mask or something.  We finally came to the decision that he could be a skeleton because even if he didn't keep the head piece on, people would still know what he was.  On Friday my parents drove down in the afternoon and we went to my Aunt Di's house for a Halloween party.  My cousin, Kyle, has two boys - Kaden and Tyse.  Kaden and Declan are good buddies and it's so cute to see how excited Kaden gets when he sees Declan.  My Aunt organized a scavenger hunt outside for the kids and then they went trick or treating around the rooms in her house.  It was a lot of fun!  Thanks Di!

Yesterday we carved our pumpkins finally and then headed over to our friend's Tex and Whitney's house for dinner and trick or treating.  Whitney made the best creamy potato soup and served them in bread bowls shaped like pumpkins.  I should have gotten a picture of it!  Tex and Whit have a little boy, Luke, who is 4 months older than Declan and they are best buds.  Whitney made Luke's Elmo costume - it was so cute!  Declan's favorite candy that he got was a sucker!  :)

Wow, that was the longest blog post ever.  I really need to do a better job at updating more often so I don't have to do a super long one again.  If you read it all, I'm impressed.  Oh, one more thing, I must brag about my awesome husband.  He found out earlier this month that he won the top clinician award for 3rd year at his school!  Go Zach!  I guess all his hard work is paying off. :)

We're alive!

We made it to Utah and we are enjoying our time out here.  I realized that I never posted any of our family pics that we had taken before we moved from Memphis.  You can go here to check them out.  Shanda did an awesome job and we are totally happy with how they turned out!

ramblings

Our move from Memphis is approaching in 1 1/2 days and all I can think about is how much I don't want to leave.  I have not fallen in love with Memphis but I have fallen in love with many of the people here.    Memphis will always hold a soft spot in my heart.  Our marriage grew more than I ever thought it could while here and we had our first child in Memphis.  When we were trying to decide where Zach should attend optometry school Memphis seemed like the craziest place for us to move but we soon realized that it was the place we should be.  It didn't take us long to figure out why we felt like we should have moved here.  There are too many reasons to list and many of them too personal anyway but I know that God definitely knew where he was guiding us.

I'm going to miss the amazing friends we have made while living here.  We have had some very fun times the past 3 years and I can't imagine my life without any of them in it.  It's funny how when you first meet someone and you think, "I probably won't be very good friends with that person." and then that's the person you end up being the closest to.  You know who you are...Marissa. :)  I never would have survived this Memphis journey if you had not been here also.  Thank goodness we didn't judge on first impressions (ha ha), had a race to get pregnant (I won :), and have raised the first year of our kids lives together.  I'm kidding about the race by the way in case anyone took me seriously.  Thank you for being such an amazing friend.  You really have always been there for us, especially during all of our crazy hospital adventures these last 3 years.  Just remember to always watch out for snakes while you're walking. :)  Hopefully life brings us closer together someday.  California?  Declan and Emery get married?   I'll miss you and Emery like crazy...and even Jesse, heck, I'll even miss Riley!

Trolley and Peabody Ducks

We were able to cross two more things off our Memphis bucket list this past week.  Last Friday we took Declan on the trolley downtown and went to a few art galleries.  It was fun but very hot.  We also ate at one of our favorite places, Fino's, and we found out that Declan likes salami.  Weird.

Declan LOVED the trolley!  Except when it would stop to drop people off or pick people up.  Then he would immediately start crying and wouldn't stop until it started to go again.

On Tuesday Zach took the day off and we had big plans of taking Declan to the zoo but the weather was not on our side.  With the heat index it felt like 120*.  Way too hot to walk around the zoo.  So, at the last minute we decided to go to the Peabody hotel and watch the duck march.  Every day at 11:00 and 5:00 they have a duck march and it is quite the production.  They have a duck master and the ducks march on a red carpet into the fountain in the hotel lobby.  I couldn't believe how crowded it was.  You can kind of tell from the picture but there were so many people there!

Declan loved the ducks!  He was one of the first kids that raced to the fountain once they were all in.  It was really cute.

He pretty much just loved the hotel in general.  There was lots of room to walk and a lot of new places to see.  He even made a few friends. He's not shy around other little kids.  He will walk right up to them and start playing.  

Don't worry, I didn't let him dump the fake grass all over the nice carpet.