Enjoying the Fall weather

Fall is beautiful here in the south. I love seeing all the leaves changing colors. It has been so long since I've enjoyed an east coast autumn. We decided to enjoy the last of the warm nights by going camping. We went with our friends the Hamblins and it was so much fun. We borrowed a friend's boat and went out to an island out in the Tennessee River. It was really nice to be out there by ourselves. It was fun cooking smores over the fire and enjoying the stars. Madsen asks to go again all the time.

The beautiful autumn leaves

Bryan cooking our yummy dinner

The morning after.
My little Pierson stayed nice and toasty warm all night

we miss you heiners

Between the wedding and family reunion we were able to visit our forever friends the Heiners who we had dearly missed, unfortunately sans Matt, in Provo right before they moved away. Madsen was so excited to see Max and Sambo again. It's amazing how much they remember. He immediately recognized our old apartment building and new exactly where we were. It was such a fun reunion for the little best friends. They hit it off as if they had never seperated. And the next set of best friends, Sam and Pierson, hit it off as well :)We had a fun two days with them and we were sad to say goodbye again. But we know that we'll always keep in touch and someday visit each other again. :)

Connie told me later that Sam came out of his room
the morning after we left and asked where the baby was. Cute Sambo :)

Best friends reunited

Pierson loved his Aunt Connie

We realized all of the boys had their converses on,
so we had to take a cute picture

Yes we are still alive :)

I know it has been monthS since I last posted. I will just say that this summer was a whirlwind for us. Wedding prep, traveling cross country TWICE, missionary homecoming, actual wedding and family reunion all in the space of two months. And then there was the settling back into our home after. I'm not even sure where to start. We were lucky to be able to visit all our family and friends back out west this summer and we had a blast. We went in June for a good friend's wedding and for me to go wedding dress shopping with Kristi. I'm so glad I was able to be there. I would have been extremely sad to miss it. We went boating with the Harmon fam and had lots of fun even though the water was pretty cold and we had Wyoming's reliable wind to join us. Madsen loved the "beach" as he called it. We came back home for the month of July and blessed Pierson and then went back out to Utah and Wyoming where the boys and I spent almost the entire month of August there. We welcomed Kyler back from his mission to South Carolina and then celebrated Kristi's wedding two days later. She was a beautiful bride and we're so happy for her and her husband Cameron. We had a family party for Madsen's birthday, nothing super elaborate. We followed the Harmon family tradition of a train cake and he loved it. He especially liked that I let him pick all the candy and that it was Thomas the train. I was glad he recognized who it was meant to be. I had planned for a more elaborate cake but ran out of time so I must say it looked good for being baked and decorated all in one day. We later enjoyed a fun Grigg family reunion and were able to spend time with all of Josh aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents on his mothers side. We felt that it was pretty important to be there as his Grandpa Grigg's health has been declining and we're not sure how many more opportunities we will have to spend time with him.

PS. Sorry this is such a long post but obviously there was a lot of catching up to do :)

Crazy Jacob who swam out to the deep where it was colder

Poor Madsen was confused as to where all the seashells were :)

Josh bet his dad a one way ticket to Chattanooga to get in the water

So obviously he's coming to visit soon enough :)

Madsen trying to get excited about the cold water

Classic nieces and nephews pic. Madsen running away and Isa crying :)

The cute couple

Madsen's Thomas train cake

My sweet Pierson.

As crazy as this sounds his hair looks short

to me in this picture compared to how long it is now.

He couldn't wait to eat that cake

Mmmm...delicious

Obviously he got quite a few Toy story toys. He was ecstatic.

And to top it all off Papa and Grandma got him a scooter!

He immediately went outside to test drive it :)