4th of July Weekend

Since both Kris and I had July 3rd off from work we decided to take a little road trip to a place called Highlands about 70+ miles south of Asheville. We had been told it was pretty so after a bit of research we decided it would be a great place for some hiking. It took about 4 hours for us to drive there. We originally thought we might try to stay over night but when we arrived and saw how busy it was we decided that we'd probably just drive home in the evening. This first waterfall we stopped at is called Bridal Veil Falls. It doesn't really compare with the one in Provo but it was pretty and kind of cool that you can drive under it.
Our first hike was Whiteside Mountain. It is a landmark along the eastern continental divide. It was a 2 mile look and you wouldn't believe how many funny looks I got for being out hiking with this baby in my tummy. I heard several say "oh my gosh" and "did you see that pregnant girl?" etc. It was fun and the mountains were quite pretty. This isn't quite into the Smokey Mountain National Park but they do consider it as part of the Smokey Mountain area.

Then we went on a little jaunt to the Whitewater Falls. It was 1/2 a mile from the parking lot to this view point. This waterfall is the highest east of the Mississippi River at 411 feet tall.
We had a nice little family take our picture after going down some 100+ stairs to this next view point. The little girl in this picture said to me "you look like you are going to have a baby." To this I replied "your right, I am." Then she wanted to be in our picture so of course we let her. Who wouldn't want to be in our picture;).

She also wanted to continue hiking with us. Her dad said no and of course she was very disappointed until her dad said they were going to the boat. Well, needless to say, I didn't think that 1/2 a mile was far enough of a hike since we had come all this way so we decided to hike down to the river bottom, a "strenuous" 1 mile.

It was kind of steep and there were quite a few roots and some stairs along the way but it wasn't bad going down. We were told to remember that we had to come back up though.

At the river there were other stares but it was sure nice to put my feet in the nice cold water. The hike back to the top wasn't as bad as people made it out to be. I just went slow and steady and it only took us about 35 minutes to get back to the top, even with stopping a couple of times for water. It was well worth the effort.

This was called Dry Falls. It was right off the road. Here's another belly shot for those who like that sort of thing. I was 32 weeks and 2 days here.

Back in Winston there was an Independence Day flag football game where families were invited to come watch. This group of guys gets together every Saturday to play. This was Kris' first time going and he got some pretty good battle wounds. Afterwards we went to our friend's house and had a barbecue. Kris made good ole Sanpete turkey barbecue. It was tastylicious.

Our final destination was Lewisville for the fireworks. There were a bunch of people from our ward who met there so we joined them. You can't tell from the picture but we had a giant tree blocking our view at first. It's to the left of this firework. All in all it was a great weekend.

Winston-Salem Dash

Well, what summer is complete without a little baseball. We decided to go to the Dash game even though the forecast said there was a 20% chance of rain. 20% isn't that bad right?

We got to the game about the 3rd or 4th inning and our new team was really having a great night. The score got to 12-1 I think.
Then in the top of the 7th inning, just moments after they did a "no rain" dance...
Fortunately everyone decided to leave when they saw the dark clouds so we were able to get under the spot where we wouldn't get wet to see about waiting it out. Well, it only got worse so we left too. We didn't own umbrellas at the time so we got a bit wet heading to the car but it was a good time and we might consider going again.

Salem Lake

A few weeks back we were looking for something fun to do but not too far away so we ventured out to Salem Lake again. You can rent canoes there for $4 an hour so we thought that would be fun. It was a beautiful day. I just thought this bridge was cool.

It was fun to be in the front, I didn't have to work as hard as Kris to keep us going straight;). This was shortly before I got him pretty wet.
I guess the only bad thing was that the lifejackets were a bit dirty and so my white shirt (already previously stained) was stained from the "brown" stuff on the lifejacket. Oh well, that's why I picked that shirt and not a nicer one.

Utah part 2

Here are just a few of my cute nieces and nephews. I think that they really like the camera.

This is me and Carver.

Carver making faces.
Maddie & Carver
Russ and Oliver
New baby Nicalee (p.s.-I made the blanket she is laying on)
Maddie
We spent one night down in Provo up at South Fork park and had a delicious dutch oven dinner and peach cobbler. Here is Jason & Josh.
We also got to go to "Treasure Island" at the Hale Center Theatre because they decided to add an extra row of seats at the top. My cousin Skyler had one of the main rolls. It was awesome!
Here is a shot of the back side of Timp and Deer Creek reservoir taken from the car while we were out and about enjoying the beauties of Utah.
We had a great time at home and I'm glad that we could come. It's never long enough when you go somewhere to visit. Sorry for not being able to visit with everyone and seeing others longer than we did. I guess we'll just have to come back again sometime.

Lake Powell '09

Now for some of out vacation to Utah. We were able to make it for the annual Holman family trip to Lake Powell. It was great! Of course it was a bit chilly in the water and it rained some but all in all we had a great time. Here is a pic of Paul after he busted the wake board in half. Yeah, it wasn't the best quality but who would have thought it would snap like that.

Here is some crazy pregnant lady who thought it would be cool to do a bit of wake boarding herself. Too bad the life jacket was so big, you can't even see how much fun Little Foote was having.
We went on morning walks to see what was on the other side of the mountain...some more of the lake. This is looking into Halls Bay.
Ahh, the Graylady. So many wonderful memories.
Oops, we went for our usual Sunday boat ride and we came across this boat that didn't see this sand bar and got stuck. Yeah, I know, we are rubber neckers but who can resist a kodak moment like this.
This pose is for all those who want to see that I really do have something growing in my tummy.
Here is Kris showing his skills.
Thanks Dad for taking us to Lake Powell every year. It really is my favorite place on earth. I don't think I'd like to live there but I sure do love to visit.

Mt. Jefferson & The New River

This is a the New River state park. This is supposedly one of the oldest rivers in the world. It was pretty and we did some research about some cool things we might be able to do there, like canoeing and canoe camping. Probably once Little Foote makes his appearance. We decided to do a small hike while we were there that said that you could get a spectacular view of the river. Well, after the whole mile hike, we were greatly disappointed. We only saw a small piece of the river at the very end of the hike and it wasn't very spectacular. I guess there isn't a whole lot you can do when there are so many trees in the way.

Here is us at the top of Mt. Jefferson. We did have to hike a little to get to this point.

Mt. Mitchell & Ashville

This is in Ashville. We didn't know what kinds of things to do there because we didn't feel there was enough time to go to the Biltmore mansion so we went to the visitors center and they said there was this walk through downtown where you can see some sculptures. Well, we didn't see very many but this was the last one on the tour so I just had to join in on the party.

This is at the top of Mt. Mitchell, the highest point east of the Mississippi. We didn't even have to hike it. We drove nearly to the top and then got to walk a few paces to get to this point. It was probably a good thing because it was only in the 40s and I was wearing shorts and a small jacket.
This was on our way to Mt. Mitchell. They seem to have some funny names for overlooks. That log was tasty! The one good thing about this lookout is that it was actually where you could see something more than the tops of the trees.

Race for the Cure

At the beginning of May we did the Susan Komen Race for the Cure here in Winston-Salem. There were over 10,000 participants! It was crazy cool. Even Hoda from the Today show was there. This is Kris and Garrett pushing the kids while the moms ran the race. It was cool to see all of the support for such a great cause. I haven't had any breast cancer in my immediate family but I know that it effects a lot of lives.

These are the just some of the girls that are in the Better Halves group (+ some other friends) that supported the cause.

March of Dimes walk for babies

One of the ladies I work with had a baby at 29+ weeks about a year and a half ago and now her baby is the spokes baby for the local march of dimes. So, a bunch of us from work and some of her family and friends got together and did the march for babies in Elkin, NC. It was about 4 miles I think and it went all through town. It was a nice day and fun to get out and support a good cause. I didn't get many pictures but Miranda (the one I work with) is on the right pushing her baby in the stroller.

Wings over Wayne Airshow

Well, I know that I have been a slacker in keeping up on this blog thing. So, be prepared for a plethora of postings in the next few days. I've uploaded all the pics, now I just have to do the writing part. Anyway, back in April we went to this air show in Goldsboro at the Air Force base there. It was so cool. I've never been to a military air show but Kris has. He said that now I've been spoiled and I won't think the smaller air shows are as cool. He's probably right. They had the Blue Angels that flew together - they are part of the Navy. There were tons of other great planes too. Kris knows the names but there are too many for me to remember. I just know that it was fun to be there and that my neck was tired afterward. The Blue Angel planes are F-18's.

This is an F-15

This is a helicopter in the Coast Guard.
I don't know if I can explain this picture. We didn't get to see the front but this made us chuckle a bit.

Outer Banks, NC

Since it was Easter weekend and we are in a place that celebrates Good Friday we decided to take advantage of a day off of work and school and head to the Outer Banks. We went to Kitty Hawk because that is where the first machine powered flight took place thanks to Orville and Wilbur Wright. We spent some time at the museum and this rock is to mark the spot where they took off. The first flight lasted 12 second going about 120 ft. They did a few more and the 4th one was 800+ feet and lasted for 59 seconds. 

This is a full scale model of the first plane.
We got to the museum late in the afternoon on Friday so we went back Saturday morning. We walked through a display that shows how far we have come from the first flight. It's pretty amazing to think that what the Wright's did lead to so much air travel now and to space. Kris looks very squatty in this pic. 

This is one of the monuments at the park. It has their names really big on one side. There was also a bronze replica of the flyer and the 5 people that were present at the first flight. After hanging out here we went to the beach and picked up some shells and just enjoyed the walk.

We went to another state park called Jockey's Ridge. It is a bunch of sand dunes. They had a hang gliding school there that looked kind of fun and there were several people flying kites. We looked at the kite store but decided to wait on purchasing one for now. 

Here's my first pregnancy pose. I guess I'm really starting to look the part.

One of the other things we did out there was visit one of the light houses. This one is the light house at Bodie Island. It was built in 1872. You can't go up into it but it was cool to look at and it takes good pictures. The Cape Hatteras lighthouse was too far down the coast for this trip. I guess we'll just have to go back. 

20 Week Ultrasound

I guess no more explanation is necessary. We are very excited to know that "Little" Foote is a boy and to know that everything looks normal in there. I've started to feel some movements so that is cool and I noticed today that my belly button is getting really shallow and stretched out. Hopefully if it becomes an outy it will return to its normal inny status after all is said and done.