4th of July

Early the Morning of the 4th we dropped Laexin off at the stake center to head to FSY in Wilmington NC.  He was excited and a little nervous I think, just because he didn't know anyone but we were hopeful he would have a good time.

We went to the Jones house on the lake for the ward breakfast, we weren't there long, we still weren't super familiar with most people and basically ate and left and ended the day watching some fireworks in the neighborhood - it was sprinkling a little so we mostly stayed inside.

The weekend after, the Birds had us over to the lake, it was a great time as always. We are so blessed they shard this with us! 

Laexin ended up having a fantastic time at FSY.  He said for the first 3 days he just wanted to come home - his roommates were nice he just didn't really have anyone to hang out with.  But by the 3rd day he got comfortable and had some amazing experiences and by the final night was texting me that he didn't want to come home - that he hadn't had that much fun in a long time!  Best thing for a Mom to hear!!

 

It's GREAT to be EIGHT!

This Boy is the perfect caboose to this crazy bunch - our final LINQ!  He's chill, fun, kind, sensative, loving, helpful and was so dang excited to turn 8!  It's a bit sad, especially for Mama when you leave all your friends and family and are clear across the country for big events like these but I was SO SO GRATEFUL that our ward family showed up BIG for us - Linq had around 50 people from the ward support him at his baptism, it helped us not feel so alone! Also, big thanks to Aunt Helinfield and Carly who flew in from FL to be here too! On top of all the excitement Laexin got to baptize him which was so special and amazing.  It was an all -around great weekend!

We just love this kid - can't believe we are already at the age where our 'baby' is hitting these final milestones, makes me kinda sad!

Corawinds

We got offered a couple of free tickets to Corawinds amuesment park - right on the border of the two Carolinas...of course we are all about the fun so we went and braved the heat and had a great time. We sweated to death but got lucky because the park wasn't very busy so we never had to wait too long in any of the lines.

 

The first two weeks!

We hit the ground running when we arrived here in SC.  Thanks to the Walters who we lived with and the Tolmans their neighbors we were informed about and invited to all things that were happening.  We had fun Blackberry picking at a members farm....

Spent lots of meals trying out yummy restaurants in our new 'neck of the woods'

The kids loved visiting Tolmans baby goats as much as possible

And house closing day finally came, we loved the company at the Walters apartment but were so happy to be in our house!

Then we had a water leak the first night...ended up having to have holes in our walls for almost a month - the sheetrockers had screwed right into the water pipe so it was causing drama.  Got it fixed and finally got the sheetrock replace after a month - back in business!

 

Last leg of the journey... South Carolina!

 Driving through TX felt like it took 10 days...but really it was just one, ha ha.  We were excited to finally come upon the popular Buckees and stopped for some food and a pit stop.  We weren't impressed with the food, but the kids did all get a souvenier to commemorate the experience :)

Finally made it to Louisianna, pulled into our hotel at 11 pm.  LeGrand went to check in ...Lytzi jumped out of the running Uhaul and LOCKED THE KEYS IN THE THING - ahhhh!  So we had to sit there and wait for a locksmith to come open the thing - then I decided to take the kids to the room while we waited...they made it to the room before we did and came running back saying it had roaches - - I walked in to see roaches running up the walls and was like, 'No Way are we staying here' Ha!  Luckily there were several hotels across the street and we were able to find a much nicer one with availability and get to bed around 1am!

Back on the road the next day, through the beautiful south...Mississippi, Stopped for some cajan food, Alabama and finally Georgia where we stopped for the night.

The next morning it was only about 30 minutes before we crossed the border into SOUTH CAROLINA, yay!  We were so happy!  We had a walk through out our house so we drove straight there.  Then onto the Awesome Walter home were we would live for a couple of weeks waiting for the day to move into our house.  We were SO SO Grateful they let us stay in their mother-in-law apartment, they were so kind, included us in all the things and kept tabs on us.  Also, the kids loved that the Tolmans were just next door with baby goats to play with and toads to hunt every night :)