Gardening at its best!

On August 25th, we celebrated a year since Aaron's mom had passed away from Lymphoma. The past year has been extremely hard not having her around, but we have been able to celebrate her in a variety of different ways. One of Jane's favorite hobbies was gardening! Aaron has taken it upon himself to carry on her love and joy for gardening! By looking at our yard, I think he has done an incredible job of carrying on her legacy. We thank God for Jane each and every day and our yard is an incredible reminder of the joy she brought to our lives as well as so many others.

Re-cap of the summer in one blog post!

We have had one BUSY summer, therefore I have not had time to post any of our summer happenings. Without making this too long of a post, I will try and re-cap our summer in one post. The beginning of summer was much slower paced than the end of our summer. We were able to enjoy two wonderful weeks at the family cabin on Hayden, hang out with friends, be a part of a close friend's wedding, celebrate our 2nd anniversary, and make a quick weekend trip to Seattle. Then the end of July came and our schedule was packed. We had the opportunity to go to North and South Carolina with my parents, our dear friends Brice, Julie, Will, Jan, and Carroll. We got to experience "their side" of the United States. We were able to see many historical places, spend time at the "warm" beach, take a helicopter ride over Myrtle Beach, and spend a few days at a gorgeous mountain cabin. After coming back from 1.5 weeks there, we had one day at home before we drove 20 hours south to Visalia (Aaron's hometown). Not only did we drive the whole way, but we had Cooper in the back seat. He gets the award for the best traveler. He slept the whole time and never made a peep. Who knows if we will make that drive again, but we enjoyed it much more than we would have thought going into the drive. :) All together its been a great summer, but we hope to take a few more weeks next summer to relax! :)

The "Carolina" travelers!

Wine tasting at the Biltmore Estates in N.Carolina

A nice visit to Idaho from the Drake side + Tamara & Brett

Celebrating two wonderful years with my amazing husband!

A great week at the cabin with my family

Congrats to Mr. and Mrs. Carter!

Father's Day at the Mariner's game!

Thank you Dad for...

• providing for our family
• being a man of God who loves your family unconditionally
• supporting me in all that I do!
• being a hard worker, but being willing to put down work if it involves family
• having a great sense of humor
• still treating me like your "little girl"!
• all of your hugs and kisses
• showing Aaron and I what it means to be an incredible husband, dad, and "pops"
• being a great listener
• putting up with two "high-maintenance" ladies in your life!
• being the best dad in the world!

Justin met us for the game!

We spent the weekend at the Brice and Julie's before heading to the game!

Our "new" car!

I think we may have beat the world record for the quickest time it took to sell an old car and buy a new car. We placed our car on the lot and 5 hours later it was sold. After going to bed that night, we woke up in the morning, went to the bank, and bought our new car by 11 a.m the next morning!! Right after purchasing our car we drove to Seattle. The drive was smooth and very enjoyable after having bought a new car. :) We are happy car owners!

Our "new" 2005 GMC Envoy

A beautiful weekend at the lake...

Our weekend at the lake involved dad, Glen, and Aaron working hard to paint the boat house, mom and I watching the boys and keeping them busy, Dylan and Seth being busy playing by the water, and Cooper enjoying every minute of "dog heaven"!

The cutest nephews in the world!

Aaron and his dad relaxing on the boat

The newly painted boathouse!

Cooper was in dog heaven!

Cooper has a new friend!

Last week we had a "dog party" at our house. Ryan and Ali brought Lola, Kurt and Les brought Eko, and of course Cooper was here ready to play with his new friends! Kurt and Les just got Eko a few weeks before us. All of us "newlyweds" are in a new stage of life of having puppies! Cooper and Eko had lots of fun together. :) Cooper is growing bigger and getting smarter by the day.

Blessed to be an Aunt!

This weekend we were able to spend it doing two wonderful things: going to the cabin for the first time this spring and spending the weekend with my nephews! Dylan and Seth are a complete joy to be around. They loved meeting Cooper for the first time and they definitely wore him out!

Dylan fell in love with Cooper!

My adorable nephews!

Cooper's first trip to the cabin!