Congratulations Graduate!!!

My sister graduated from high school today!! YAY!!!!! I can't believe she is old enough to graduate!  It just blows my mind!  Congrats Chelsea!! I love you tons!!

(This is the only picture I could find that was recent. Sorry! :)

This past week

Week 5 and things are looking up!  Greg has been offered a job at Target, so he should be starting that soon!  I don't know if he is more excited or me.  Probably more so me because that means we will get a discount!  Whoo Whoo! I found a family in the area who is looking for a nanny/babysitter.  I applied for that, so we shall see how that goes! All 3 of us have been sick, but I think we are all finally on the mend. 

This is our week in pictures: (In random order)

Mommy was mopping the floor, and Deagan thought it would be more effective to dump out all the water instead of just getting a little bit here and there.  He then decided that it would be fun to swim in it!  Of course!

Expressionless...I think he knows this isn't a good thing

Expressionless again...this time with a little add in of mommy

He looks so sad :( He didn't really feel very good either, so I think that might be part of his lack of enthusiasm.  

Memorial Day was fabulous.  We watched a parade that was a on the road of our apartment. Kind of disappointing in the candy department I must say.  A family in our ward had us over for a BBQ that night, and it was so fun to be able to spend that day with friends!

We attended a memorial day fire to commemorate the end of the Civil War

This was just kind of a cool sun set!

Cute video

Quick update in words

We are entering our 4th week of being here and Greg still has not been able to find a job.  It is so stressful at times!! He has applications and resumes out everywhere, so hopefully one of these days something comes through!   We are in the process of applying for Medicaid/Food Stamps and it is so crazy how much harder it is to apply here compared to Rexburg.  We won't know if we are accepted for 30-90 days! That is a huge time period don't you think!  We definitely qualify at this point, so we are just waiting now.

We really love the area, and are always exploring to see what is around us.  There is so much history here as well.  It is such a neat place!  From driving around so much we are really glad that we are where we are.  Downtown Syracuse is not the nicest, so we are so glad that we were directed to Manlius!  

Deagan has been sick pretty for a few days now.  He had an ear infection but had a really high fever and was throwing up.  It has not been a very good week, but he is starting to feel better! It is kind of scary with him being sick and not having any insurance right now.  We are crossing our fingers that we all stay relatively healthy until everything comes through.  

We love our ward!  We have welcomed with open arms and feel so blessed!  Greg was just called into the Elder's Quorum presidency, so we will be able to get to know people pretty quick with his calling.  A family in our ward invited us over for Memorial Day celebrations, which was really perfect timing for me because I have been missing my family so much lately that it will be nice to be able to spend a holiday with friends.

We are training for another half marathon this summer, so we have been training for that.  We have a lot of down time right now during the job hunt so we have been able to spend a lot of time training, relaxing, exploring, etc.  It will be nice for Greg to have a job, but I really love the time that we have to spend as a family right now!

We hope that everyone is doing well! Hugs and Kisses from Manlius to all our family!!

Mom's visit/ Trip to Palmyra

My mom came to town last weekend, and it was so great to have her here and for her to see where are now!  I miss my family a ton right now, so it was so great to see her! Thanks so much for coming mom!!

On Sunday, we went to Palmyra to visit all of the church history sights out there. Palmyra is only an hour away which is so great!  It was such a great experience! Click here for more information as to what happened in Palmyra.

Hill Cumorah: Statue of Moroni/ Where Moroni left the gold plates and where Joseph Smith got them 

Family photo

View from the top of Hill Cumorah

A view into the sacred grove

The Palmyra temple

Joseph Smith's log home-10 people lived in here!

Walking through the Sacred Grove

Beautiful!

Frame Home: I didn't know this, but right next to the log home where Joseph Smith grew up was this Frame Home.  Joseph's older brother Alvin, I think, started building this but died before it was finished.  Joseph's family finished it, moved in to it, but later had to move back to the log home.

Barn in front of the Frame Home

Chittenago Falls

It is amazing how many beautiful things there are around us!  There are a ton of waterfalls, so we went to one the other day. This is called Chittenago Falls which is only like 15 minutes away from us.  It is so beautiful!

This picture makes my heart melt

Doing what we do best: throwing rocks

Collecting rocks

"Look at that rock! Go get it!"

Our neck of the woods (Green Lakes)

I wanted to give people an idea of the area that we are in.  We absolutely love it!

There is a national park near by called Green Lakes that we have fallen in love with. We are training for another half marathon this summer, and it has a great running path around it. The water is also so beautiful!  There are two lakes that are right next to each other; Green Lake and Round Lake.  You can only swim in a small part of Green Lake because the water is really deep. It is almost 200 feet in some places.  It is ironic because when we lived in Seattle for that short time, there was a Greenlake right next to us as well.  Fate? I think so!

Getting ready to start our run.

This is how the path is pretty much the whole time.  I love it!
This picture doesn't even do it justice!  The first time we came here the water was a Caribbean blue

These Poor Kids

I am sure everyone has heard about the drama with John and Kate from "John and Kate Plus 8." I first saw it on a magazine and I was so hoping it wasn't true, but then yesterday I read in "People" magazine an interview with Kate.  You can tell that there is blame on both sides, but my biggest concern is their kids!! It is just so sad to me!:(

Deagan's favorite place...

Deagan likes our new apartment; especially the stairs.  He sits on these stairs for long periods of time and plays with his toys and watches TV.  It is so cute to watch.

From one end to the other!

Looking back on our drive now from Idaho to New York, it is crazy thinking how far we drove!  Here is a list of all the states we crossed on our way over:

Idaho: Highlight of this state-this is where our family started!  We were greatly blessed in this state!!

Utah: We got to spend a couple of days with Greg's brother and his wife Brittney! I also got to say goodbye to a dear friend of mine that I grew up with! Love you Dawn!

Wyoming: This is my home state!  I was thinking as we were driving on I-80 though that people don't know the side of Wyoming that I love.  Anyone who passes through Wyoming on that interstate only sees the ugly part of the state.  I promise Wyoming is very beautiful!

Nebraska: My mom and dad lived in Omaha while my dad was going to dental school.  This is where my family began!

Pennsylvania

New York!

When you mapquest this drive it says:

Estimated time: 33 hours 29 minutes

Estimated Distance: 2195.89 miles

That equals out to be too much time in the car!